Rant On EDC Click Pen

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Mortalis

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
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730
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Bardstown, Ky
Begin Rant,

So, I just made 2 EDC click pens for the two PT persons and one thing I'm not a fan of with these pens.
I do not like the little stub you have to apply to the end of the Parker refill. I know this has probably been brought up a lot and even though you can buy packs of those little stub replacements it just speaks to me of lazy engineering.
I have 4 more of these kits that I bought and now I'm unsure if I will use them because of this seeming flaw in the design. I would have much rather purchased Sierra Click pens or some other kit that doesnt require a special add on for the refills or any other part of the kit to work properly.

End Rant.

Thanks for stopping by.
 
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Mortalis said:
Begin Rant,

So, I just made 2 EDC click pens for the two PT persons and one thing I'm not a fan of with these pens.
I do not like the little stub you have to apply to the end of the Parker refill. I know this has probably been brought up a lot and even though you can buy packs of those little stub replacements it just speaks to me of lazy engineering.
I have 4 more of these kits that I bought and now I'm unsure if I will use them because of this seeming flaw in the design. I would have much rather purchased Sierra Click pens or some other kit that doesnt require a special add on for the refills or any other part of the kit to work properly.

End Rant.

Thanks for stopping by.
Click to expand...
I might actually be able to speak to this a little bit as I have started designing my own click pens using Schmidt mechanisms similar to the one used in the EDC pens...

It basically comes down to the limitations of the parts they are using. If you want a pen to end up a certain length, it cannot be any shorter than the ink refill plus the click mechanism/plunger assembly. Since they are using the SKM-88, there is nothing they can do about the plunger/button length (or any other aspect of the mechanism for that matter). That combo probably limits them to 5 inches. The refill extender adds another 1/2" to get them to their target pen length.

When I made this pen, I had to do a lot more planning than I bargained for in terms of the proportions and ultimate length of the pen. Since I was using the SKM-192 (no pre-installed button/plunger), I could make my plunger as long as I wanted to avoid using a refill extension inside the pen. The mechanism and plunger all get fit inside that upper portion of the pen. After taking those photos, I cheated a little bit and super glued a small dot of plastic to the bottom of the mechanism to extend the refill 0.5mm for a better extension/look.

My pen ended up being about 5.5", just like the EDC and I was able to avoid the extender, but only because I used the more design-flexible SKM-192. It takes a lot more work and design to arrive at a similar goal without the extender. The SKM-88 is probably too tempting to use as a pre-finished part instead. Just a thought. Not sure if that's the official reason though.
 
Mortalis said:
Begin Rant,

So, I just made 2 EDC click pens for the two PT persons and one thing I'm not a fan of with these pens.
I do not like the little stub you have to apply to the end of the Parker refill. I know this has probably been brought up a lot and even though you can buy packs of those little stub replacements it just speaks to me of lazy engineering.
I have 4 more of these kits that I bought and now I'm unsure if I will use them because of this seeming flaw in the design. I would have much rather purchased Sierra Click pens or some other kit that doesnt require a special add on for the refills or any other part of the kit to work properly.

End Rant.

Thanks for stopping by.
Click to expand...
I agree with the plunger. I still like the kit because of the tube length and thickness for casting. Since someone mentioned the length of the plunger could we just cut the tube off the same length of the plunger and have a working pen?
 
Kenny Durrant said:
I agree with the plunger. I still like the kit because of the tube length and thickness for casting. Since someone mentioned the length of the plunger could we just cut the tube off the same length of the plunger and have a working pen?
Click to expand...
You mean shorten the tube by the length of the extender you don't want to use? Sure, that should work.
 
So, if I deconstruct the pens I have and shorten the blank by the length amount of the end nib the pen would work without the nib?
 
Mortalis said:
So, if I deconstruct the pens I have and shorten the blank by the length amount of the end nib the pen would work without the nib?
Click to expand...

It's normal to call the part that comes closest to the paper (with the hole that the refill pushes through) "the nib", I'm not sure if you changed the discussion from the original question which was "can I leave out the refill extender?"

The geometry is straightforward - if you lengthen the refill and lengthen the barrel by the same amount, the pen continues to work. Same in reverse - if you remove the refill extender that PennState designed into the kit, and shorten the barrel by the same amount, the pen continues to work.
 
Mortalis said:
I like this idea better. I would not need to deconstruct the pens. Since I bought the upgrade ink refills that came with the protector cap I just need to apply that protector cap as you did and done.
Thanks for the idea.
Click to expand...
All credit goes to Gregf. It's an easy solution to make work, and I have confidence the modification won't fall off the click mechanismm
 
I modified the EDC pen by shorting the brass sleeve by the length of the refill extender and the pen works just fine without the extender, and to me is fine as to the final size of the pen.

Bobby
Louisiana
 

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