You sold me defective kits, My Click Pens won't work!  

    There some of you go again, you are trimming your blanks until you see shiny brass and when you do this with your click pen kits, guess what...That's right, your kit has become "a defective pen kit".   That little piece of paper we put in with  our Gel Click Pen Kits says not to trim into the brass, but some of you know better and disregard the warning because when you learned to turn the Slimline you were told to trim the ends until you see shiny brass. This has worked so far so why change?

     When you trim four ends and each end has 1/64" of brass removed, you now will have a finished pen that is too short for the click mechanism to actuate and/or the tip will not retract all the way in and sticks out. Tube length on a click pen is critical. As soon as you describe this problem to me when you call I know exactly what you have done. There is no fix as far as I know. If any of you have any suggestions then I am all ears and will gladly pass the information on to the next customer who calls with this complaint in the next few days.

     The best practice to get into with all kits is to stop trimming into the brass tube. With a tiny bit of patience and attention to detail you can trim your tubes without getting into the brass. There are many kits on the market sold by every vendor out there that will be a complete expensive debacle if you trim into the brass and make the blanks too short. With the exception of Slimline and European style twist kits, most are not very forgiving.

     Another recurring complaint is that your expensive pen blank is blowing out as the drill bit passes through the bottom of the blank when drilling the hole through it. Even though you have a piece of sacrificial wood underneath, the "defective wood" blank still happens to crack.

     Solution...Don't drill through the bottom. Only drill your blank deep enough to accommodate the tube and then take the blank to the bandsaw and cut the bottom off. Like magic you now have a blank with the hole all the way through and it is not broken. I have been drilling blanks like this for over ten years and have not broken a single blank ever since using this method, not one.

     If you need a specific color of Adirondack Alcohol Ink or Pearl-Ex not listed on our site, please let us know so we can include it on our next order from our supplier. We have minimum purchase requirements so it may be a few weeks before we can accommodate your request.

     The new Electro-Geek pen blanks are here. We have them available for the Cigar and Monet/Gatsby/Sierra Pen kits. Compare our price with any of our competitors and  you will see that the savings are substantial. We have green to start with and will expand the color selection on future orders, depending on customer requests. Our next order will probably not be until sometime in December. The introductory price of the Electro-Geek Blank for the Cigar Pen Kit is $15.99. The Monet/Gatsby/Sierra blanks are $9.99 each. This price is for the blank only and does not include the kit. If you add the prices together, you will see that we are still far more reasonable. The blanks are already made to size and are ready to turn and polish. Be sure to check the length of your Monet/Gatsby/Sierra kit requirements by comparing tube lengths. You may need to trim a little off the ends to make it the right length. 

     When turning a blank with raised material on the tube, such as the Electro-Geek blank, be sure not to turn the blank too thin. Doing so will expose the encased item or material and will ruin your blank. I have done it myself in the past and it is very disappointing.

     Uncle Tim has brought us some very nice bottle stopper blanks made from polyester resin. They have shreaded dollars in the top with a nice shiny gloss black base. These are going to be popular and are currently in limited supply. Be sure to check out all of the other Uncle Tim blanks, they are real beauties when they are finished. Check his page often to see the new color combinations he comes up with.

    We are now offering The Stick Fast CA Glue in the larger 4.06-oz. and just got a case of the Aerosol Activator in the 12.5-oz size.   For those of you that like CA finishes this is great! 

     We have some more great new Acrylic Acetate pen blank colors coming and will be getting our out of stock colors back.  

    We also have an order coming from a tool manufacturer in China for some six inch digital calipers. Hopefully after we pay the import duty on them we can sell them at a competitive price and still make a little profit.  They will have the large LED display that even I can see  and will show measurements in both metric and standard. They come in a hard plastic case with a soft foam insert to keep the tool safely stored. I use my digital caliper for pen making more often than I realize. I have a $175.00 Starrett that went on the fritz and I also have a $24.00 Harbor Freight Special that keeps going and going like the pink bunny on TV, go figure.  

     The Stainless Steel Hose Braid and Carbon Fiber blanks will be here  in early August.   They seem to have more holidays than you can shake a stick at in Taiwan. The next blanks in our sights are the Mother of Pearl blanks but that may have to wait for busier days to pay for.   

    Tracey is working on a New Inlay we were hoping to have ready for the Newsletter but she's not pleased with a couple spots on it so it will be another day or two before it's on the site.   Make sure you check our sight.  You'll love it!