Sierra pen tubes

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

polarbear1

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
196
Location
Redding, Ca, USA.
I know woodturningz as well as other suppliers I presume, have the long brass tubes for the 7 MM & 10 MM pens. I think they are 8 inches or so and you can cut them to the length you need. Does anyone sell the longer tubes for the sierra pens?
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
I used to do that with the flat top fountain pens to make "extended length" pens. A word of caution, where the tubes meet up is VERY fragile. I had a customer drop a pen on carpet and it broke. At first I thought he had to be joking. But when it arrived I realized what had happened. Where the two tubes meet there is a natural weakness. Then pen broke cleanly right at that point. I put some glue on the inside hoping to create a bond between the two pieces of tubing, but I'm not sure how it turned out. I haven't heard back from him, so I'm hoping that that means it worked. But you might want to consider that potential problem before selling one. I still don't have a good solution.
 
Both Bear Tooth Woods and Az Sil were still selling spare tubes for the Sierra last time I ordered. I have spares if you are in a bind. I have not seen a ready source for long tubes with similar internal diameters, but have not been looking. Note that a Cigar (aka 10mm) tube fits inside a sierra tube with only a few thousands play. If you use two pieces of Sierra tube, look to use a piece of cigar tube epoxied at the splice leaving enough free space at both ends to mount the fittings. The cigar tube and epoxy will reinforce the gap with the thin section of the pen. There is always hassle cleaning up the glue smears at the ends.

Let us know what works for you --

If you want longer tubes, try smallparts.com or similar for tubes with the same ID. The outside diamter need not be a perfect match.
 
If you try cutting the tube to make your Sierra longer, you're going to need to experiment with cut placement and seperation distance. I cut one in half and placed the two pieces ½" apart and couldn't get the tube to work with the mechanism. That length didn't feel comfortable to hold, anyway.

My various attempts at repair messed up the kit so badly I threw most of it away. I was too frustrated to think of slicing the top lengthwise with a Dremel to see if I could figure out where it went wrong. Trash was picked up yesterday.

I haven't tried another one yet.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom