How to keep our capped pens closed

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Texatdurango

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The purpose of this post is to share something I have dont that I feel is noteworthy, NOT to start a debate over which kit is best or which is the worst or who has experienced this problem or who hasn't.

A known issue with several types of capped pens is that they often come loose in the pocket or in the case of fountain pens, they come loose then whatever fabric comes in contact with the nib changes color! :)

A commanly accepted "fix" was to use an 0-ring but after spending several months trying to find just the right o-rings to fit the caps I use, I finally gave up searching and looked at an alternative solution. I also thought the o-rings made the pens look cheesy and cheap!

My solution was a bead of silicone that won't fall out, is barely noticable if noticable at all and works better than an o-ring, in my opinion.

What I did was to get a tube of black silicone adhesive sealant and run a thin bead all the way around the inside of the cap (look closely at the photo below) and letting it completely cure for at least 24 hours before mating the lower pen together. After running the bead around I got a cotton swab and cleaned any "squish out" from the inside of the barrel. Then with a moistened (saliva) finger lightly ran the finger around the bead to give it a smooth appearance. Finally I removed any "squish out" from the outside of the cap.

I like the results so far, the seals give me just the right amount of "grip". What you see below are my guinee pigs. The Emperor on the right is my daily carry around pen and was the first to be done last week and so far is working GREAT. The others are on my desk but not used constantly but so far all are closing snugly with no signs of the seals flatenning out.

So..... if you are tired of your caps unscrewing themselves, grab a tube of silicone and give it a try!

Not that it matters but from left to right are a Jr Gent, Baron, Jr Gent, Full size Gent and an Emperor.

oringcollection.jpg
 
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That is a very nifty idea you have there. The last few jr gent type kits I've purchase where actually very tight on the threads..maybe a bit too tight. I had to wrench pretty hard to get it closed all the way. But..for the most part, I've experienced your issue and refused to use an o-ring because it looks rediculous. who wants to have an o ring in their hand? Your solution is something that, or something silmilar to what should be done straight from the factory. Well done!
 
Great tip!

George, that solved a problem I've been working on for a year DUH!!!! Thanks will be trying that on my personal F/P and if it works and I don't see a reason why not I've only got a few hundred more to do.:redface::redface::redface:
 
Nice fix, I like the idea, very clean looking, I never used the O rings because of the tacky look to it. Have you noticed the difference when Dayacom switched to "square threads" vs their old threads? Do the square threads hold better?
 
PenWorks said:
Nice fix, I like the idea, very clean looking, I never used the O rings because of the tacky look to it. Have you noticed the difference when Dayacom switched to "square threads" vs their old threads? Do the square threads hold better?
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To be honest, I wasn't aware of the change. The emperor in the photo was purchased and assembled a year ago and I just compared the threads to a few emperors I purchased last month and didn't see any difference so can't address that issue.
 
Thanks for the great suggestion, George. My FP has been driving me crazy lately with the cap coming loose, especially on days when I don't have a shirt pocket and carry it in the pocket of my slacks.
 
Stevej72 said:
Thanks for the great suggestion, George. My FP has been driving me crazy lately with the cap coming loose, especially on days when I don't have a shirt pocket and carry it in the pocket of my slacks.
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I think you will be pleased with the results. Speaking of carrying a pen around your pants pocket..... This is the best friend your pen will ever have! When I leave the house, usually in shorts or bluejeans, this baby goes with me, and has for almost a year now and with a rub of a clean cloth can be placed next to any shiny new pen and hold it's own!

They really keep a pen looking new and of course the side benefit of people noticing when you pull it out of your pocket to use the pen, usually making a comment like "Wow, what a nice pen" to which you just have to reply as you hand it to them to examine "Oh this ole thing... I make these!" :)


penpouch.jpg
 
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Very cool idea, George. I appreciate your "sharing the wealth" on this.
I going to start working on higher end pens and will definitely use your idea to stop the problem before it starts.

Thanks,
Nancy
 
I just had a discussion about this with a friend and something was brought up so I wanted to clarify.

In "REAL LIFE" the silicone isn't even noticable unless one is looking for it. When I took the above photo I had the tent lights on and the camera flash as well so we could see "inside" the cap.

Under normal lighting with the cap in hand you don't even notice the ring as it blends in with the black plastic threads.

So now you have the whole story! :biggrin:
 
The new Jr Statesmens I recieved after the first of the year, had square threads on them. It was my understanding Dayacom was going to switch ALL screw type caps to square threads. It seems to have a more positive close at the very end. I have not carried one around though to test it.
 
PenWorks said:
The new Jr Statesmens I recieved after the first of the year, had square threads on them. It was my understanding Dayacom was going to switch ALL screw type caps to square threads. It seems to have a more positive close at the very end. I have not carried one around though to test it.
Click to expand...
I got several new kits recently but didn't pay any attention to them, guess I'll have to go look closely at them.
 
Great idea!

Was there any particular type of sealant you used, like quick drying etc!

Ive noticed all of the threads on the jr gents are square, well on the ones ive ordered in the last 4 months from CSUSA?
 
PenWorks said:
The new Jr Statesmens I recieved after the first of the year, had square threads on them. It was my understanding Dayacom was going to switch ALL screw type caps to square threads. It seems to have a more positive close at the very end. I have not carried one around though to test it.
Click to expand...

I had not noticed the square threads, however a recent Jr. Gent had a "positive close" at the very end that I really appreciated. I had given up on the Baron. I still have half a dozen or so. I hate the O-ring solution. I will try the Silicone solution for them though.
 
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What a creative solution. I had a similar problem with the Sierra, that would keep coming unscrewed during normal use when simply trying to retract the nib. I didn't end up using silicone, rather 2part epoxy to put a small bead on the back of the male threads that hold on to the twist mechanism to give the same type of 'grabbing' effect. I'll have to try silicone though, might be a little easier to work with.
 
Additional idea -

I've used the black silicone for years to seal up molds for concrete countertops. I use brand name (GE or equal) full silicone caulk. Latex or blends would not be good.

One of the tricks that I've learned is to use masking tape or something similar to reduce the smeared sealant and make the cleanup easier. Basic idea is to mask off the balance of your workpiece and only leave the area to be sealed exposed. Trust me, this works better than smear and wipe methods - this stuff is really gooey.

I think this could be applied to the outside/barrel of the pen easily. Inside the tube may not be as critical, but another approach might be to make a plug to fit in the pen barrel, sizing it to keep the goo where you want it.

This is a great idea and solution to pen caps coming off. Thanks for the idea.
 
Thats a good idea, and if the silicone caulk is applied before assembly, one has access from both ends of the threaded part for the clean-up. What kind of silicone caulk do you use, please let us know brand and where to get it. I never liked the idea with the o-rings, looks just crappy and I never sold pens with the rings because of the looks.
 
I don't know if the brand makes a lot of difference or not but I grabbed a tube of Permatex Black Silicone adhesive sealant.

Oddly enough I was at the local Ace hardware where I was promised the correct o-rings had finally arrived. They hadn't but that is where I decided to try the silicone.

I figure that one 8oz tube is good for about 6,324 pens, so I'm set for a while! :)
 
Excellent tip , I haven't made any of those style pens yet and had a hard time figuring out what you did . I'll be honest , at first I was just skimming over what you wrote ,and just looking at the pictures . Your fix looks very professional , like it was meant to be . I'm guessing there's some type of gap in that space .
 
George great fix for a pesky problem. I do have a question tho. When you do this to a pen with pronounced grain that alignment is noticable does it "stop" the cap just short of alignment? Or is it so little at it's not noticable? I've got a pen or two that when capped the grain goes just a fraction past being aligned...you may have solved two problems...lol
 
JerryS said:
Excellent tip , I haven't made any of those style pens yet and had a hard time figuring out what you did . I'll be honest , at first I was just skimming over what you wrote ,and just looking at the pictures . Your fix looks very professional , like it was meant to be . I'm guessing there's some type of gap in that space .
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Jerry, You are correct, there is a space between the edge of the cap and the inner barrel where the threads actually start. This is the area where you have metal to metal contact when the pen halves are mated. Since the metal to metal contact provides no gripping effect the pens unscrew easily.

I filled that gap with silicone and now you have metal to silicone to metal which gives you a gripping seal.

I took another photo to show the before and after look.
 

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mick said:
George great fix for a pesky problem. I do have a question tho. When you do this to a pen with pronounced grain that alignment is noticable does it "stop" the cap just short of alignment? Or is it so little at it's not noticable? I've got a pen or two that when capped the grain goes just a fraction past being aligned...you may have solved two problems...lol
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Mike, The addition of the sealant does change the alignment of the cap when screwed on. It's not much but when crafting a pen I would do the silicone first, let it set for 24 hours then align the upper and lower body then press the parts together.

For those pens that are a bit "over aligned" already, you are correct, this might solve the problem.
 
Texatdurango said:
Mike, The addition of the sealant does change the alignment of the cap when screwed on. It's not much but when crafting a pen I would do the silicone first, let it set for 24 hours then align the upper and lower body then press the parts together.

For those pens that are a bit "over aligned" already, you are correct, this might solve the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks George, I'm going to try it on one today. I made a Jr Statesman from a really figured piece of Mesquite and despite very careful "eyeballing' a very distinct area of grain is off just a lil. This may fix that and yeah that was my thoughts to do the silicone first ...then assemble
Thanks again, Mike
 
I've never used these kit before but I just was wondering why would they continue to sell them if this is a common issue? That is great that there is a solution, but in theory.... you shouldn't have to deal with a problem like that.
 
That's what I was going to try once I move to capped pens. Of course I don't think I would have thought to clean it up and make it look pretty.
 
The way you did it looks professionally done. The way I would have done it would have looked like I shot the silicone out of a cannon across the room and just let it dry. I don't quite have the eye for details and can get quite lazy. So I would have had to shave off any excess rubber AFTER it dried rather than cleaning it up ahead of time. Reason I know is I've had to use silicone to repair a few engines since people were always cheap and didn't want to replace parts.
 
Great idea,thank you.
The silicone can be messy to clean up,it seems to want to stick to everything.
Is it best to clean up while the silicone is still wet or could you wait until it is dry.

Terry
 
Maybe I'm just lucky but I find that it's about a two minute job. With the nozzle cut a hair wider than the upper and lower metal surfaces, the bead is applied in one swoop then running a cotton swab around the inside grabs 100% of the residue then again on the outside. If you wait for it to dry you will find it a lot harder to remove.
 
I got an email this morning asking about what color silicone I used, black or clear. I hadn't really thought of using clear since the black looks like it belongs, being adjacent to the black delrin threads.

Has anyone tried this using clear silicone, if so is it hard to see or do you think it looks better?

And while I'm posting this, it's been over a month now so as an update to those wanting me to keep them informed. Using a 10x loup I can see no wear whatsoever on the emperor I carry everyday or on any of the Jr Gents I have in my desk carosel. So far so good!
 
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Could you kindly, please, repost the pictures for those of us who are visual learners? :biggrin:

Texatdurango said:
The purpose of this post is to share something I have dont that I feel is noteworthy, NOT to start a debate over which kit is best or which is the worst or who has experienced this problem or who hasn't.

A known issue with several types of capped pens is that they often come loose in the pocket or in the case of fountain pens, they come loose then whatever fabric comes in contact with the nib changes color! :)

A commanly accepted "fix" was to use an 0-ring but after spending several months trying to find just the right o-rings to fit the caps I use, I finally gave up searching and looked at an alternative solution. I also thought the o-rings made the pens look cheesy and cheap!

My solution was a bead of silicone that won't fall out, is barely noticable if noticable at all and works better than an o-ring, in my opinion.

What I did was to get a tube of black silicone adhesive sealant and run a thin bead all the way around the inside of the cap (look closely at the photo below) and letting it completely cure for at least 24 hours before mating the lower pen together. After running the bead around I got a cotton swab and cleaned any "squish out" from the inside of the barrel. Then with a moistened (saliva) finger lightly ran the finger around the bead to give it a smooth appearance. Finally I removed any "squish out" from the outside of the cap.

I like the results so far, the seals give me just the right amount of "grip". What you see below are my guinee pigs. The Emperor on the right is my daily carry around pen and was the first to be done last week and so far is working GREAT. The others are on my desk but not used constantly but so far all are closing snugly with no signs of the seals flatenning out.

So..... if you are tired of your caps unscrewing themselves, grab a tube of silicone and give it a try!

Not that it matters but from left to right are a Jr Gent, Baron, Jr Gent, Full size Gent and an Emperor.

oringcollection.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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