Tube slightly out-of-round?

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bliorg

bliorg

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Joined
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NW Philly, PA
Hi, all -

Prepped a blank for a Gatsby a few days ago. Trimmed this morning, had trouble getting the adapter sleeve in the tube but it went. Cannot get the bushing in that end, though. On inspection it looks like the tube is slightly out-of-round. I tried to tweak it gently with a conical diamond hone, which helped, but the bushing still won't go in and I don't want to be too aggressive. The tube is epoxied.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Scott
 
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If the inside of the tube is clear of any adhesive, then you can try using a transfer punch and push it through. If that does not work then a tapered round punch would do the same thing. I would be worried about flaring the end though. The components may need to be glued in using some locktite. If epoxied was used it should be flexible enough plus the tubes are light weight material so they bend easily. No guarantees the blank survives but what other choice do you have. Good luck.
 
Thanks, guys. There was a little epoxy in the tube, which I tried to extricate without boogering up the brass too badly. Might still have been a tiny bit there. I don't chamfer tubes, and that's why I pretty quickly abandoned the diamond hone.

The bushing was close but still not going in. In the end, I gently tapped it a bit with a hammer, and in it went. Life lesson there somewhere, I'm sure…
 
Do you put anything in the ends of the tubes when you glue them in? This really helps reduce the epoxy in the tube issue.

I have used dental wax and Play-Doh. Both work well and minimize clean up.

Even with this, there can be a small amount in there. I use a hobby knife with a #11 blade to clean up any remaining small amounts.
 
I suggest you work the bushing in and out until it goes in smoothly.

You are going to be inserting the components that are round--if you have to force them, your likelihood of cracking the blank goes up astronomically. (You are very likely to crack your blank).

Spin the bushing inside the blank, using a vice grip if necessary.
 
d_bondi said:
Do you put anything in the ends of the tubes when you glue them in? This really helps reduce the epoxy in the tube issue.

I have used dental wax and Play-Doh. Both work well and minimize clean up.

Even with this, there can be a small amount in there. I use a hobby knife with a #11 blade to clean up any remaining small amounts.
Click to expand...
I do not do that, but I'm, like, 8 pens in right now, so know essentially nothing. I will definitely give this a go on the next pen, thanks!
 
ed4copies said:
I suggest you work the bushing in and out until it goes in smoothly.

You are going to be inserting the components that are round--if you have to force them, your likelihood of cracking the blank goes up astronomically. (You are very likely to crack your blank).

Spin the bushing inside the blank, using a vice grip if necessary.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Ed - never considered cracking the blank. After the bushing went in, I moved it around until it rotated with a little effort. Moved smoothly. Pen is done now, no cracks.
 
There are all kinds of materials you can use to plug the ends of the tubes before gluing. I use the dental wax. I think the last I bought was from Amazon, but PSI and others sell it. It sometimes leaves residue, but it cleans out easily. One thing that helps is after assembling, clean the epoxy out of the ends before it sets. Really helps later in the process. Another thing I didn't know and found out on here is that denatured alcohol will clean epoxy off almost everything if it is not set. I have been using epoxy for more than 40 years and I never knew that. I felt dumb when I saw it on here.
A quick search of this website will get lots of answers and opinions. It is a great resource. Many ways to do things and many opinions, just have to try a few things and do what works for you.

Mike
 
I found square ended dental probes ideal for removing traces of epoxy in tubes. Also bunging the ends before insertion helps ( someone on here uses potato for this ) .

You can make a really good home made scraping probe by cutting squarely across a small section brass or steel tube , leaving the burr on the end and using that to scrape the epoxy off . This allows you to " push out " the epoxy in shavings whilst not damaging the brass.

Use a bright light down the tube and look for any epoxy inside
 
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