Replacement tubes

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KenB259

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I recently bought some 12.5 mm replacement tubes,the ones that are about 10 inches long and you cut to size. The first ones I bought from PSI, and they are slightly too big, I can push the pen components in with just my fingers. I bought another batch from a different vendor, with the same result. I am thinking I may be able to apply some thin CA to the inside of the tube,to make them usable. Also, before you ask, Yes I am sure the pen hardware is for 12.5 mm tubing. Does this sound like a viable solution? Has anyone ran into this situation, and if so, did you come up with a fix?
PS, I did think about locktite, but that really is just for threads, isn't it?



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jttheclockman

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Not worth the effort in my opinion. May come back to bite you. Could you give us the name of the kit. Measure the kit tube and compare to the 10" ones. Many kits use their own sized tubes and that is why I stick with buying extra tubes right from the place I bought the kit. I have bought the long tubes but have yet to use them. Need to be careful of this if doing segmented or special pens.
 

jttheclockman

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If this is the case with all the kits you have I would contact the vendor and if bought at PSI the chart does say 10.5mm and 12.5mm Does the 10mm work?? They may have a bad batch or something wrong with the kit. Need to zero in on what is the problem better.
 

ed4copies

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Again we need to realize that 10.5 and 12.5 is the size of the DRILL BIT!!!

The tubes are NOT that size and not ALL 10.5 and 12.5 holes are used for the SAME SIZE tubes.
JT is correct, use tubes made for the kit. If there are no replacement tubes, realize you are taking a crapshoot!!

By the way, the outside diameter may be EXACTLY the same as the one you want and the wall thickness may be different.. When designing pens, the OD, ID and wall thickness are ALL allowed to change to accommodate the pen design---there is no such thing as "standard" in the industry. IF you are lucky, there MAY be standard for one manufacturer, i.e ALL junior series from Dayacom appear to be the same diameter tubes, although their length varies to some degree.
 

ed4copies

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Which means they probably used a different manufacturer and they did not stay consistent. PSI is sourcing some of their products from India--I don't know if kits are involved, but whatever the cause you are probably correct that the kit tubes are NOT standard.
 

jttheclockman

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10 .5 mm works fine as does the 12.5 ones that are included with the kit. The only 12.5 mm ones I found were the long ones.


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Well I just checked Ed's site too and it seems there is no replacement tubes for that kit. You may have to do the glue thing but I would use epoxy and not CA. CA is too brittle for gluing in my opinion. Good luck. But I would contact PSI before doing any altering and see if they would send some replacement tubes. Hey they are not always bad to deal with. Can not hurt. This may alert them also to the problem which they may not be aware of.
 

Fred Bruche

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As it happens a friend came to my shop to make a Cameron pen last weekend. She forgot the bushings (that is fine we did TBC) but I was trying out some I have around and noticed that the cap tube for the Cameron is too small to fit the Jr Gent bushings. Yet both are drilled using a 12.5mm bit.
 

1080Wayne

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Sounds like the original tube has a thicker wall than the long length one .

Red Locktite or epoxy will work if PSI have no replacements , but be sure to spread it as evenly as possible around the female surface . Clean excess out from the inside immediately after , so it doesn`t interfere with the refill . I would also give it a day to cure before doing the final assembly . Loctite is simpler than mixing up a very small batch of epoxy , and should be fine if it takes a little bit of effort to push the inserts in . If they fall in , epoxy is probably better .
 

KenB259

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Thanks for all the replies. I just reached out to PSI. If nothing comes from it I'll probably try a little glue in there. I do think though epoxy might be better I think it would be too thick. Literally only talking about a thousandth or two to make a good fit.


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Curly

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Some people that have used CA to glue parts together didn't wait and put the pen together. The sealed environment caused the plating inside to corrode. So if you do use the CA wait a couple days for it to completely off gas.

Locktite comes in multiple formulations. Some is for thread locking, some for holding bushings and bearings et cetera. The red thread locker has the strongest hold (meant for bolts) and will hold our pen parts if the gap isn't excessive. Blue thread locker holds but is easier to disassemble (meant for screws and small bolts). There is a purple for small screws. The bushing/bearing variant will hold even when there are gaps of several thousands of an inch gap. You'd have to look up the companies products to learn about the rest and get more detailed informations on all the different products. If you use Locktite to assemble your pens it won't corrode the platings.
 

KenB259

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Update, I just got an email from PSI, and they are sending me three sets of tubes for the Cameron pen kit. Pretty good customer service.
 

jttheclockman

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Update, I just got an email from PSI, and they are sending me three sets of tubes for the Cameron pen kit. Pretty good customer service.
Told you. They are not always difficult to deal with. Did they say they know of this problem or are they looking into it??
 

KenB259

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Told you. They are not always difficult to deal with. Did they say they know of this problem or are they looking into it??
They didn't say whether or not they were aware of a problem. You would think though, any pen kit should have replacement tubes available. I always buy spare tubes, in this case though, as you know, they weren't available. I'm sure the ones I bought will find a use, hoping so anyways.
 

jttheclockman

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They didn't say whether or not they were aware of a problem. You would think though, any pen kit should have replacement tubes available. I always buy spare tubes, in this case though, as you know, they weren't available. I'm sure the ones I bought will find a use, hoping so anyways.
I agree but think Ed explained it well with these manufacturers. I bet they have no idea there was a difference. Maybe where they bought from at first the long tubes worked. But you will find this to be the case with other kits and as Ed said buyer beware. Best to buy separate tubes if available. I always buy extra tubes even if i do not need them. Never know and it is not that expensive. Good luck.
 

Edgar

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The Cameron is a fairly recent kit, so perhaps they just haven't added spare tubes for that kit to their catalog yet. I'm glad to hear that they were able to help you out.

If you have the IAP Bushing & Tubes App, one way to find out if there are other kits with the same size tubes, or perhaps at least close enough or slightly longer is to use its search feature. For example, if you enter the exact dimesions of "12.5 1.83" into the search field, you will find that there are no exact equivalents in the app database. But if you enter "12.5 1.8" you will find quite a few that are close. The Tycoon has a 1.81" tube, several have 1.86" tubes and quite a few have 1.88", 1.89", or 1.9" tubes. The longer tubes could easily be shortened on a disk sander if necessary. Whether the IDs are all the same though is another story.
 

KenB259

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The Cameron is a fairly recent kit, so perhaps they just haven't added spare tubes for that kit to their catalog yet. I'm glad to hear that they were able to help you out.

If you have the IAP Bushing & Tubes App, one way to find out if there are other kits with the same size tubes, or perhaps at least close enough or slightly longer is to use its search feature. For example, if you enter the exact dimesions of "12.5 1.83" into the search field, you will find that there are no exact equivalents in the app database. But if you enter "12.5 1.8" you will find quite a few that are close. The Tycoon has a 1.81" tube, several have 1.86" tubes and quite a few have 1.88", 1.89", or 1.9" tubes. The longer tubes could easily be shortened on a disk sander if necessary. Whether the IDs are all the same though is another story.

I have the app [emoji846]


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Update, I just got an email from PSI, and they are sending me three sets of tubes for the Cameron pen kit. Pretty good customer service.

Unlike some vendors I've had great success with PSI, even when I didn't buy the kit through PSI and it was a PSI kit supplied by another vendor. I'm glad you had a pleasant experience.
 
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