Sierra click refills??

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MikeInMo

MikeInMo

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Messages
169
Location
Springfield, MO, USA.
I have read several threads about the Sierra click and can't really figure out what I want to know.

I want to make a set of sierra clicks with dyed blanks and matching ink colors - black, blue, red and green. Other colors (purple, orange, etc) would be cool too, but I actually use the first four colors at work almost daily so I want to start there. I would prefer to use a rollerball refill instead of the parker ballpoint that comes with the kit. However, I am not well versed in refill types/brands/models to know what I need to get to do this and don't really feel like randomly buying stuff I won't use. I am not even sure if I described what I want to do correctly.

Can someone who can discern what I am trying to do tell me what I need to get? Brand names, models numbers, and even where to get them would all be appreciated. If someone just wants to give a brief primer on refill types, that would be appreciated too. Thanks.
 
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Pilot G-2 refills come in those four colors plus a few others. These are gel refills which are kind of a cross between ballpoint and rollerball. They are available at most office supply stores, Wal-Mart, and online. They will fit the Sierra click using the metal spacer, just like for the Parker-style refill.
 
Pilot G-2 refills don't fit. That is what I was originally planning. I have a click sierra that I made a few months ago that I tried this with since the G-2's are what we have all over the office.

The G-2 refill is slightly shorter than the parker with the spacer and longer than the parker without the spacer, and the "shoulder" (may not be the right word) is closer to the tip than the parker and has a double step. This shorter tip doesn't allow the click mechanism to fully depress when you push the button (I tried).

It looks like cross rollerballs might work, but I am not sure and can't find the colors I want to get. It looks like only blue and black are available.
 
Well, if someone would take a look into the instruction that can be found on AZ website, regarding the refills the following will clarify this:
"Please Note: Your pen kit is supplied with a Parker style refill. However, this pen also accepts the high quality Uniballâ"¢ #65873 refill. This Uniballâ"¢ refill can be purchased at a local office supply store if you prefer it to the Parker style. The chrome extension is not used with the Uniballâ"¢ #65873 refill."
 
Originally posted by DCBluesman

Pilot G-2 refills come in those four colors plus a few others. These are gel refills which are kind of a cross between ballpoint and rollerball. They are available at most office supply stores, Wal-Mart, and online. They will fit the Sierra click using the metal spacer, just like for the Parker-style refill.
Click to expand...

Lou is just triyng to confuse you even more!! Both the G2 and the uni-ball refills are longer than the Parker refil and neither requires the use of the chrome extension.
 
Originally posted by MikeInMo

Pilot G-2 refills don't fit. That is what I was originally planning. I have a click sierra that I made a few months ago that I tried this with since the G-2's are what we have all over the office.

The G-2 refill is slightly shorter than the parker with the spacer and longer than the parker without the spacer, and the "shoulder" (may not be the right word) is closer to the tip than the parker and has a double step. This shorter tip doesn't allow the click mechanism to fully depress when you push the button (I tried).

It looks like cross rollerballs might work, but I am not sure and can't find the colors I want to get. It looks like only blue and black are available.
Click to expand...

Mike: I think your analysis is essentially correct; but the problem is not the short tip so much as it the fact that the G2 refill is a little longer from the click end of the refill to the shoulder. One might just be tempted to shave a few hundredths off the end of the refill; but then the tip would not extend quite so far when fixed in the extended position.

I think there is a possibility the problem could be solved in a fashion similar to the method Mudder used to convert the twist Sierra to accept the Schmidt pencil mechanism. I measured a G2 refill and a uni-ball cartridge and the G2 is about 0.07" longer from shoulder to end. NOTE: The uni-ball refill I have has been trimmed a little to fit in a different kit so the "0.07" figure may not be exactly correct. If one was to drill out the tip of the Sierra using a 1/4" bit or a 17/64" bit to an additional depth of approximately 0.07" you might be able to create enough clearance for the click mechanism to function properly.

If I had a cheap (gold or chrome) Sierra, I'd try the conversion myself; but all I have in stock are the more expensive ones so I'm not inclined to use one of those.

There is certainly the possibility that this conversion won't work.
If the metal in the tip is extremely thin, it is possible you will drill through the tip and ruin it. I much prefer the G2 refill to either the Parker of the uni-ball so is very attractive to me; but I'm going to wait until I can experiment on a $6 Sierra rather than on $15 Sierra unless you beat me to it.
 
Hey Mike:

I just had an idea about how you could figure out, approximately, how much too long the G2 body is. Take a kit with a G2 refill installed and unscrew the "cap" five or six times. Then operate the mechanism and see if it works. If it still doesn't cycle, unscrew the cap another turn and try again. Keep doing that until the mechanism will cycle. The numbers of turns times the TPI of the thread will give us the additional distance we need for clearance. If you unscrew the cap say six turns and the click mechanism functions correctly, screw the cap in one turn at a time until the mechanism will no longer cycle and that will be the extra clearance needed.
 
Randy - Thanks for the suggestions. You are exactly right about the refill portion of the G2 being longer creating the problem. I didn't follow through in my description of the refill differences to that conslusion, but that it the dimensional issue for the click mechanism. Even with the correct length refill, the shorter tip would not extend fully. I am not nuts about drilling the pen kit itself for the reasons you described. However, just for fun I just tried unscrewing the pen tip a few times to check the length difference. There is a definite point the click mechanism stops working. The clear plastic potion of the refill tube could be trimmed and the extension for the Parker could be used if the tip was longer. The tip can be barely extended far enough to write, but it's not really what I want to do.


I probably should have been clearer in my original post. The uniball refill doesn't seem to come in the colors I am looking for either. Otherwise I would have purchased the refill recommended in the instructions provided with the kit and available on the AZ website. Blue and black are all I can find with for uniball refills. Yes, there is a red pen, but I can't find refills for it.

I guess what I am after are any alternate refills that fit the basic dimensions of either named refill that come in the colors I am looking for. I would prefer not to use ballpoint. If necessary, I am willing to modfiy the refills since they will be for my use and not for giveaway/sale.
 
OK, Mike. There are probably lots of alternatives which will show their ugly faces if we think about this for a while.

First point is it would seem you will be restricted to the Parker or the G2 refill if you want at least black, red, green and blue. I looked on the Internet and did not find a green color in the uni-ball line. Both the Parker and the G2 have green and a couple of additional less common colors. I don't recall seeing a true rollerball refill in other than black, blue and maybe red.

Here a couple of ideas that come immediately to mind. Maybe one of them will appeal to you or maybe one of then will trigger a alternative path to another solution.

If you are locked into a click mechanism, first thing you might try is buying a Gatsby kit from PSI. Maybe the tip is drilled differently and will accommodate the G2 refill or maybe the click mechanism is just enough different from the Sierra that the G2 refill will work? At least two problems with this idea, though. The Gatsby is designed to accept the Parker refill so it will be too short for the G2 refill. Sooooo.....you will either have to lengthen the pen barrel or cut off the G2 refill. Another option might be to use the G2 mini refill. This is a new product and I do not have one in hand. They are probably in the same length neighborhood as the Parker refill so you might want to experiment with them.

Now, if you can live with a twist mechanism, you could use the Sierra twist pen. Since the twist mechanism has a lot less "travel" than the click mechanism, the problem of that G2 shoulder hanging up in the tip should not be an issue; but again you are looking at a pen designed for the Parker refill so the G2 will be too long unless the G2 mini will work or unless you cut off the "regular" G2 refill to the length of the Parker.

And finally, I am curious about what you found out about how far you has to unscrew the barrel of your pen before the click mechanism started to work correctly. From the measurements I made on one of my Sierra clickers, I'm guessing you have to unscrew the barrel 2-1/2 to 3 turns before the clicker will fully cycle???

P.S. You should still give som consideration to drilling out a tip. You could get a chrome Sierra click to experiment with on for $6.50 which isn't to bad, especially if it proves to work.
 
Thanks Reed. I just scanned their refill "lesson" page and will look into it further. I think this may be what I was looking for to get more options.

Further - I stand corrected somewhat on the uniball front. I stopped by a Staples on my way home from work (somewhat out of my way but I had this on my mind). The refill colors are limited like I mentioned before, but they had a uniball 8 pen assortment pack with one each of 8 different ink colors. From the best I could tell in the store, they looked like the same thing so I bought them. When I got home I compared them to a parker with the extension from a kit I have, and it looked good. I don't have any completed sierra clicks at home right now to verify. I will hopefully have something in the next few days.

I think the G2 is a dead issue which is unfortunate since they are so readily available to me, and I know I like how they write. Even if the tube length was modified, the tip length would still require drilling, if possible, to get a reasonable extension. With other options, that is not necessary. Randy - I don't remember the twist count. It was more sensitive than a 1/2 turn though.

Out of personal preference, I like click pens, and I like the weight and feel of the sierra. With the uniballs I found and the Colorado Pen options, I think I am set.
 
Not to hijack this thread but I have a question about the parker refills. I noticed that the refill that came with pen kit accepts the chrome extension all the way in. But I like Parker gel so I bought some name brand ones. I noticed that the chrome extension does not go all the way in the refill and causes the pen tip to stick out slightly when closed (not-clicked) and way to far out when open (clicked). I'm wondering if I can either trim some off the chrome extension or drill a longer hole in the end of the refill? I think I will try it and let you all know what I came up with.:D
 
Originally posted by MikeInMo

.....I just scanned their refill "lesson" page and will look into it further.....

.....I stopped by a Staples on my way home from work (somewhat out of my way but I had this on my mind). The refill colors are limited like I mentioned before, but they had a uniball 8 pen assortment pack with one each of 8 different ink colors.....
Click to expand...

I looked over that "lesson" section and it was very interesting. I did find one comment that is a little out of date. While as a general rule it is true that a click pen will be a ballpoint or a gel, there are some recently developed slow drying rollerball cartridges that can stay open for a year(according to the ads) and still be viable. Those refills will work in a click pen and would not require a screw or a snap cap.

Mike: That 8 pack of colored uni-ball pens is not familiar to me. Could you post a picture of a refill and note the product number so I can search it on the Internet? Thanks.
 
Parker Gel refills will fit and they come in blue, black, and red. They are everywhere. I use the gel refill in most of my pens since I don't care much for ball point ink.
cindy
 
Originally posted by nava1uni

Parker Gel refills will fit and they come in blue, black, and red. They are everywhere. I use the gel refill in most of my pens since I don't care much for ball point ink.
cindy
Click to expand...
Cindy, have you actually tried the Parker Gel refill with the metal tip?

I'll add this about the Parker GEL refills. I have several in front of me and they are all the same, the cavity at the end of the refill is roughly .100†deep and the turned down tip on the metal spacer is roughly .185" long so only about half of the tip goes into the Gel refill.

I don't know if this will make the refill stick out too far when closed or not, and I'll never know because I already trimmed my tube down to 1.88" and made a short version of the kit and will do so on all the click kits I have.

I'll not make another full size click pen since it's not worth the aggravation of selling a pen to someone along with a list of what will or will not work and expecting them to keep up with a couple metal spacers when using a longer refill. This whole spacer idea was an ill conceived plan.
 
Originally posted by Texatdurango

.....I'll add this about the Parker GEL refills. I have several in front of me and they are all the same, the cavity at the end of the refill is roughly .100†deep and the turned down tip on the metal spacer is roughly .185" long so only about half of the tip goes into the Gel refill.....I don't know if this will make the refill stick out too far when closed or not.....
Click to expand...

It definitely will. That is why I started the other thread on this very subject. I sent BB an email on this problem over the weekend. It will be interesting to see what he has to say after the holiday.
 
Originally posted by pentex

George, I agree totally. I only make the shortened pen and it works well. I wonder why the extension and longer tube was made anyway.
Click to expand...

I assume it is because a lot of people like the longer uni-ball type refill.
 
Originally posted by MikeInMo

Randy - The uniball product number is 40110. Before I saw it in the store, I hadn't seen it on the internet, but I was looking for refills.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mike. That is almost as cheap as I can purchase 2-pack refills for at Wal-Mart and you don't have the color selection!!
 
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