Do you're nerves get to ya

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MobilMan

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Joined
Mar 30, 2008
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676
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Safford, Arizona, USA.
when you start your 1st high end pen? By cracky mine were. Jr. Emperor Rod/Gold with Malicite Tur Stone. First off you read all the posts on how hard it is to turn. Well, to me, it was very easy. About like turning a stabilized blank. Unless I got hold of one of the easier blanks. Turned/finished like a dream. Proud as an ol rooster in a hen house. Now the kit parts. Read over & over but to me there was something I didn't agree with about the directions so let it sit over night. Waited a couple hours next day, still nervous about the assembly. What the heck, let's do it. Follow directions exact. Now we get to the nib coupler & trim ring. It's gotta be pressed on til the ring bottoms out but aligning the pattern on the upper blank is darn hard. Ha, Ha that's where I change the assembly on my next two. I think it would {I know} be easier to assemble the longer/lower tube first. Get it done. Then clip next. Then screw the center Band Coupler on the nib and align the pattern and push the blank onto the center band enough to hold in place. Unscrew it & finish installing the center band. Altho the threads start in more than one place, it's still easier to line up the pattern installing the coupler last.
Do any of you that have made this pen feel the same about it?
Turned out to be a nice pen altho kinda heavy. Wish there was a kit that looks like it but not quite as bulky feeling.
 
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That is a heavy kit and the malachite is heavy, too. It can be nerve-racking to try something new - especially if it a commissioned job. Glad you got it done.

Installing the coupler last is a good idea - easier to make sure of the line-up. I like the Jr. Statesman for a good degree of decoration, but not too much.
 
When you try to align the coupler last, you will find the threads go farther into the pen than you expect, your alignment will be "off" by just enough to look WRONG!!!

DAMHIKT!!
 
MobilMan said:
that's where I change the assembly on my next two. I think it would {I know} be easier to assemble the longer/lower tube first. Get it done. Then clip next. Then screw the center Band Coupler on the nib and align the pattern and push the blank onto the center band enough to hold in place. Unscrew it & finish installing the center band. Altho the threads start in more than one place, it's still easier to line up the pattern installing the coupler last.
Click to expand...

Richard; The malachite TruStone is one of the best looking and easiest to turn of the Tru Stones. A large pen shows the Malachite off to it's best advantage.

Like you say, the instructions do not make grain matching easy. I install the coupler first, then thread on the center band assembly and press the cap onto the CB assembly. I use these instructions for any pen I want to grain match. These are for a Baron, but will work for any threaded pen.

3. Assembly:
This part is important if you wish to "grain match" the pen:

a. Press a COUPLER & TRIM RING into the end of the LONG BLANK where it will meet the CENTER BAND.

b. Slide the black CENTER BAND COUPLER into the plated CENTER BAND and install the BLACK TRIM RING and the PLATED TRIM RING on to the CENTER BAND assembly. Now screw the CENTER BAND and BLACK TRIM RING to the (lower blank) COUPLER & TRIM RING.

c. Grain match the pen blank ends and press the CENTER BAND and BLACK TRIM RING into the CAP (short upper pen blank).

d. Slide the CLIP onto the CAP and install into the appropriate end of the short (upper) pen blank.

e. Press the END CAP COUPLER into the END CAP.

f. Install the SPRING into the END CAP ASSEMBLY. To keep the spring in place use a needle nose pliers to expand the wide end of the spring and push it into the END CAP with the narrow end out. You can also put a drop of thick CA (superglue) into the END CAP before putting the spring in. Let the CA out gas for a day or two before capping the pen.

g. Screw the END CAP ASSEMBLY onto the appropriate end of the long pen blank

2. Rollerball pen: Insert the REFILL and screw in the ROLLERBALL NIB ASSEMBLY into the COUPLER.

3. Fountain pen: install the ink cartridge / pump into the back of the fountain nib and screw the assembly into the COUPLER.
 
Surprisingly no. First time I turned a rollerball pen (last week or two ago) I was chomping at the bit to get on it. I had a spare kit incase I messed anything up, so that may have helped.
 
Thanks Randy, Ed and all. Have no idea what HDYKT means but eventally Ed does. Question Ed. If the nib coupler & trim ring are already pressed into the long barrel & you screw the Center band coupler onto it about as tight as it should be, what changes the amount of threads & fit after finishing pressing it together? Don't quite get it. Thanks
 
MobilMan said:
Thanks Randy, Ed and all. Have no idea what HDYKT means but eventally Ed does. Question Ed. If the nib coupler & trim ring are already pressed into the long barrel & you screw the Center band coupler onto it about as tight as it should be, what changes the amount of threads & fit after finishing pressing it together? Don't quite get it. Thanks
Click to expand...


Richard, DAMHIKT - Don't Ask Me How I Know That

HDYKT - How Do You Know That

wiseacre - family site version of SmartA**!!!! :wink:
 
Richard,

You are correct. IF you assemble the PEN portion first, then do the centerband and cap, you will align correctly. I misread your "coupler" to mean the pieces on the PEN section. SORRY!!

One other piece of information that MAY help, however. The nibs all screw into the coupler in only ONE spot. BEFORE I assemble a Jr. Gent (or other such), I will orient a fountain pen nib so that the BEST part of the pattern on the pen is facing up when the nib is in the writing position. EVEN IF I am making a rollerball.

That way, I can "field convert" rollerballs to fountain pens, knowing when the prospective customer opens the pen and puts it in the "writing position", he will be looking at the best figure I can present.

Another FWIW (for what it is worth).
 
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