Problem with the Dayacom Jr. Statesman rollerball pen kit

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Amihai

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Hi,
I have a problem with the Jr. statesman rollerball pen kit from Dayacom (the postable version).
The spring and the Schmidt 5888 refill don't quite fit in together. I have to push the refill very hard into the spring and then tighten the end of the pen very hard, something that I suppose shouldn't happen.
I tried to cut the upper part of the spring, without much success. Springs are apparently very hard to cut!
I also tried to assemble the pen the opposite way without success as well.
What can I do to solve this issue? Thanks!
 

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Amihai

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Looks like you have the spring upside down. I'm pretty sure it is not supposed to slip over the refill.
Tried that already. It won't go the opposite way. the spring is to wide on the opposite end.
 

magpens

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@Amihai

Just as Mr Vic said, the spring does NOT go AROUND the refill.

The spring fits internally BETWEEN the end of the refill and the INTERNAL END of the metal finial cap.

It does look as though you have the wrong spring. . I have made many of the Jr Statesman RB and that spring does not look right.

I cannot find an instruction sheet specifically for the Jr Statesman RB.

Here is instruction sheet for the Baron RB . . . the concepts are the same . . . have a look at the shape of the spring (in last diagram)

 
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Amihai

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@Amihai

Just as Mr Vic said, the spring does NOT go AROUND the refill.

The spring fits internally BETWEEN the end of the refill and the INTERNAL END of the metal finial cap.

It does look as though you have the wrong spring. . I have made many of the Jr Statesman RB and that spring does not look right.

I cannot find an instruction sheet specifically for the Jr Statesman RB.

Here is instruction sheet for the Baron RB . . . the concepts are the same . . . have a look at the shape of the spring (in last diagram)

Yea, they probably gave me the wrong springs.
Who should I contact? The kits are made by Dayacom but Exotic Blanks repackaged them.
Or should I try to just cut them a little with jewelry cutters?
 

magpens

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Yea, they probably gave me the wrong springs.
Who should I contact? The kits are made by Dayacom but Exotic Blanks repackaged them.
Or should I try to just cut them a little with jewelry cutters?

@Amihai
No don't cut the spring. . That won't do any good. . If you have a spring from a Parker ballpoint, you could try cutting that to about half or a little longer. . I know it is not the right spring, but that should give you APPROXIMATELY the right length. . Cutting might not even work because the spring should be a different shape for the RB . . . a spring that is wider at the top end where it rests on the finial inside, and then tapers down to a size which is a little smaller than the refill diameter.

Contact ExoticBlanks and ask for a replacement spring. . The owner's name is Ed Brown and he is VERY good to set things right.
He is also VERY knowledgeable, having been a pen-turner himself for many years.

He will know exactly what you are talking about, especially if he can see a picture of your unaltered spring.
 

magpens

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The spring that you show in your picture above appears to be about the right length but not the right shape.
If you take it off the refill (as shown in the pic) it could work as it is, but I can't really tell for sure.

But make sure it goes BETWEEN the end of the refill and the metal finial cap INNER end surface. . It might just work like that.

There might be a little alteration in shape that you can do . . but be very careful in doing it.

The alteration I am thinking of is to twist one end a little narrower (to contact the end of the refill), and expand the other end a little bigger to contact the inner surface of the finial end. Making the upper end bigger will give it a little more stability when it becomes compressed by your assembling the refill-to-spring-to-finial-end. . Otherwise there might be a tendency for the spring to "buckle" and refuse to co-operate.
 

Amihai

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@Amihai
No don't cut the spring. . That won't do any good. . If you have a spring from a Parker ballpoint, you could try cutting that to about half or a little longer. . I know it is not the right spring, but that should give you APPROXIMATELY the right length. . Cutting might not even work because the spring should be a different shape for the RB . . . a spring that is wider at the top end where it rests on the finial inside, and then tapers down to a size which is a little smaller than the refill diameter.

Contact ExoticBlanks and ask for a replacement spring. . The owner's name is Ed Brown and he is VERY good to set things right.
He is also VERY knowledgeable, having been a pen-turner himself for many years.

He will know exactly what you are talking about, especially if he can see a picture of your unaltered spring.
Thanks.
Do you have maybe a picture of the correct spring for the Jr. Statesman pen kit? So I can send both pictured. Can't find one on the internet.
 

magpens

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Thanks.
Do you have maybe a picture of the correct spring for the Jr. Statesman pen kit? So I can send both pictured. Can't find one on the internet.
@Amihai

I gave you a link to the Baron RB in a post above . . . they show the correct spring in the 3rd picture of that instruction sheet. .
Have a look and let me know if you can see it.

Unfortunately I could not find any instruction sheets for the Jr Statesman RB that show the spring. . .
The instruction sheets that I found for the Jr Statesman are designed to do double-purpose for the RB and Fountain pen but the spring is not actually shown.
 

magpens

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I have to get to bed as it is nearly midnight here. . . I will wait about 10 minutes more for you to reply, please.

I am pretty sure that Ed Brown will know exactly what the spring should look like.
 

magpens

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I was just looking on the .... www . PennStateInd . com .... website. . They have a lot of rollerballs.

If you look at the springs for several of their kits, you will see that the actual shape is not that critical.

You could probably make up something that works from the parts you already have, or a common Parker style refill as I mentioned above.

The Penn State rollerball that is closest to your Jr Statesman would be the Jr Majestic, or even the full-size Majestic.

But I would look at several of their rollerball kits to convince yourself that the spring shape is not that critical.
Don't worry too much about the spring lengths that they show . .
For length go by the spring that you already have because it is about the right length, as far as I can tell.

You can always stretch a spring a little bit if it is too short . . . . . so that it does the job.

Good-night !! . . and good luck !!
 

jttheclockman

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As everyone has said the spring never goes over the refill. The small end needs to fit against the top of the refill and the larger end goes in the cap. It needs to fit in just right so it bottoms out.
 

Amanap

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I have Jr Statesman postable and non postable kits I received last week and all the springs are glued in already. I snapped a few pictures so you can see what my new kits look like.
 

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jrista

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You have the correct spring. It needs to be inserted, fat end first. Because this takes some technique, I created a video demonstrating the procedure. YouTube has it as "unlisted", so you can see it if you follow this link:
Thanks for the video, Ed!

I actually like the design here. I've lost numerous springs when changing refills on some pens, where the spring is not permanently set into the pen. With these kits, it looks like the spring is designed to be permanently set into the pen, so you can't lose it when replacing refills.
 

magpens

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Thanks Mal,
I could add an intro and make it public, did not think anyone would really want to see it.

@ed4copies

From my point of view, Ed, your "how-to" DOES FILL A USEFUL PURPOSE ! . . I don't think it even needs an intro, quite frankly !
Maybe just a real catchy title.

If you can help even ONE person, as you already have, it is worthwhile, IMHO.

Thing is, though, I don't know what the market status of the Jr Statesman is. . That's the kit that prompted the thread in which you posted.
Is it a product at the end of its life ? . . I could not find it listed on the Dayacom site.

I know your video applies to more kits than just the Jr Statesman.

But none of the existing vendor "Instruction Sheets" even show the spring involved.
In fact, they purport to deal with both the Fountain Pen AND the Rollerball but they don't work very well for the RB, IMO !
So there is a BIGGER problem than just teaching people how to insert the spring that's not even shown in the available instructions.

The only instruction sheet that I found that shows that spring is the instructions for the Baron .
AGAIN, that is a double-purpose instruction sheet for both the FP and RB which does a POOR JOB for the RB.

Part of the confusion is that the spring design has changed over the years. . The shape of spring is now a little different than it was.

But if Dayacom is in process of discontinuing the Jr Statesman, then the whole subject is "up in the air".
 

KenB259

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@ed4copies

From my point of view, Ed, your "how-to" DOES FILL A USEFUL PURPOSE ! . . I don't think it even needs an intro, quite frankly !
Maybe just a real catchy title.

If you can help even ONE person, as you already have, it is worthwhile, IMHO.

Thing is, though, I don't know what the market status of the Jr Statesman is. . That's the kit that prompted the thread in which you posted.
Is it a product at the end of its life ? . . I could not find it listed on the Dayacom site.

I know your video applies to more kits than just the Jr Statesman.

But none of the existing vendor "Instruction Sheets" even show the spring involved.
In fact, they purport to deal with both the Fountain Pen AND the Rollerball but they don't work very well for the RB, IMO !
So there is a BIGGER problem than just teaching people how to insert the spring that's not even shown in the available instructions.

The only instruction sheet that I found that shows that spring is the instructions for the Baron .
AGAIN, that is a double-purpose instruction sheet for both the FP and RB which does a POOR JOB for the RB.

Part of the confusion is that the spring design has changed over the years. . The shape of spring is now a little different than it was.

But if Dayacom is in process of discontinuing the Jr Statesman, then the whole subject is "up in the air".
They don't show the spring, but if you look at the bottom of the instructions, where it shows the ink reservoir, it mentions the spring.
 

magpens

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They don't show the spring, but if you look at the bottom of the instructions, where it shows the ink reservoir, it mentions the spring.

Yes, I know that, Ken . . . but when the insertion of the spring becomes an almost "specialist" task it deserves more than a mention, IMO.
The instruction sheet is inadequate in most cases for the Dayacom-sourced kits and Dayacom does not provide any instructions that I see.
Some of the Dayacom kits of the type we are talking about come with the spring already installed . . . just looking at a Venus kit that I have.

For some of those kits, it seems to me that the design of the spring has changed over the years. . I never gave it much thought previously.
But what was once a no-brainer to install the spring, it has become a tricky process, as this thread shows. . Ed's video deals with that very well.

Generally, I am not a fan of most PSI kits, but PSI DOES deserve credit for their (usually) very good instruction sheets.

*****

And I am very interested in whether Dayacom is discontinuing some of its kits, like the Jr Statesman, the main topic of this thread.
My concern arises because I don't see the Jr Statesman on the Dayacom website anymore ...... www . Dayacom . com . tw

If anybody has any info on that issue, I would be delighted to hear about it. . Maybe I have not looked hard enough . . search yields nothing.

I think that the Jr Statesman is an outstandingly attractive kit, and, though expensive, it would be highly disappointing if it disappeared.

The Venus kit is another outstandingly attractive kit, but the number of "zeroes" that show up in a search for it might indicate that the availability of that kit is also in question.
 

jrista

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Yes, I know that, Ken . . . but when the insertion of the spring becomes an almost "specialist" task it deserves more than a mention, IMO.
The instruction sheet is inadequate in most cases for the Dayacom-sourced kits and Dayacom does not provide any instructions that I see.
Some of the Dayacom kits of the type we are talking about come with the spring already installed . . . just looking at a Venus kit that I have.

For some of those kits, it seems to me that the design of the spring has changed over the years. . I never gave it much thought previously.
But what was once a no-brainer to install the spring, it has become a tricky process, as this thread shows. . Ed's video deals with that very well.

Generally, I am not a fan of most PSI kits, but PSI DOES deserve credit for their (usually) very good instruction sheets.

*****

And I am very interested in whether Dayacom is discontinuing some of its kits, like the Jr Statesman, the main topic of this thread.
My concern arises because I don't see the Jr Statesman on the Dayacom website anymore ...... www . Dayacom . com . tw

If anybody has any info on that issue, I would be delighted to hear about it. . Maybe I have not looked hard enough . . search yields nothing.

I think that the Jr Statesman is an outstandingly attractive kit, and, though expensive, it would be highly disappointing if it disappeared.

The Venus kit is another outstandingly attractive kit, but the number of "zeroes" that show up in a search for it might indicate that the availability of that kit is also in question.
That is very interesting... I just picked up a few of my first Jr. Statesmans. They are beautiful pens. Would be really sad if they were discontinued.
 
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