Cross Contour Ballpoint

[GUY83]

Hi

I've got a Cross Contour Ballpoint and what is probably a very basic question.

I want to change the refill. I can loosen the refill but it just doesn't want to come out regardless of how much I unscrew it.

Is there some trick to this? The Cross instrutions don't seem to refer specifically to the contour.

My concern is that the refill or cap are faulty in some way. The refill seemed to be very tight to begin with so I'm wondering if it was overtightened.

Any insights appreciated.

Thanks

Guy

[Mike 59]

Hi , As far as I know, the ballpoint refills from Cross are all the same fit, and to change one, you pull the top half of the pen straight up, then the plastic top part of the refill is visible.

It has two complete turns of thread, so if yours is just turning around and not unthreading, it's possible the plastic thread has 'stripped'.

So if you hold the plastic grip part of the refill, unthread and pull the refill away from the pen body at the same time, it should come apart.

These pens are mostly made of good quality metals and you are not likely to do any damage by trying to get the refill out.

When fitting the new one, it's just two turns clockwise, then just a very light pinch of the last turn to stop it becoming loose as you write.

( I use a Classic Century with black refill and a Calais with blue refill, daily, and I find them to be excellent pens.)

Edited May 11, 2012 by Mike 59

[GUY83]

Hi , As far as I know, the ballpoint refills from Cross are all the same fit, and to change one, you pull the top half of the pen straight up, then the plastic top part of the refill is visible.

It has two complete turns of thread, so if yours is just turning around and not unthreading, it's possible the plastic thread has 'stripped'.

So if you hold the plastic grip part of the refill, unthread and pull the refill away from the pen body at the same time, it should come apart.

These pens are mostly made of good quality metals and you are not likely to do any damage by trying to get the refill out.

When fitting the new one, it's just two turns clockwise, then just a very light pinch of the last turn to stop it becoming loose as you write.

( I use a Classic Century with black refill and a Calais with blue refill, daily, and I find them to be excellent pens.)

 

Thanks Mike for the response. I actually solved the problem myself this afternoon. I have a Century II and had a look at how that words. There's also another Cross pen in our house, make and origins unknown, bearing the logo of the BERU coompany - a spark plug manufacturer. Don't know how this ended up with us but I had a look at it too and it has the same assembly as my Century II. From looking at these I realised that the problem, as you'll see from the image, is that when I untwisted the cap of the Contour, the inner barrel (let's call it that) comes away with the cap whereas it should stay attached to the main barrel. I thought first that this was just a different design and this was how the Contour was supposed to work, but this afternoon I had a go at removing the inner barrel from the cap and it slid out fairly easily (second photo). I'm sure this would have been spotted if I had just uploaded a photo with my initial post or done a better job of explaining the problem. (Yes I spent a lot of time, twisting the end of the refill as it appears in the top shot, wondering why it wouldn't unscrew.)

This seems to me to be a serious enough fault with the product to return it to have it repaired or replaced. ( A second problem that I didn't go into yesterday was the fact that the tip did not seem to fully extend when the barrel was twisted).

Thanks again for taking the time to respond,

Guy

 

Edited May 11, 2012 by GUY83

[Mike 59]

Hi, Well you have found a different problem to the one I thought of, can't say I've ever seen that happen to any of mine.

I had to buy both of my ballpoints without trying them, from a non-pen shop, but I was surprised about their weight and

quality. Looks as if you could or still can send it in for repair, the 'Cross' people on this forum often write about

how the service department always do good work, and quickly return pens, although the customer pays postage.

If you have your paperwork in the box, the return details are there, if not the info is on Cross's website also.

If it was mine I would try to sort it out myself, if it's just an assembly fault, and not more serious.

* If you use blue ink, you might try the Cross type refills made for W.H.Smith, they are a darker shade of blue and

very high quality, I think. I posted a comparison photo a week or so ago on this board. (See 'Cross Century - loose mechanism')

Edited May 11, 2012 by Mike 59

[GUY83]

thanks for the tip. I'll follow that up

[gemgemhk]

Hi , As far as I know, the ballpoint refills from Cross are all the same fit, and to change one, you pull the top half of the pen straight up, then the plastic top part of the refill is visible.

It has two complete turns of thread, so if yours is just turning around and not unthreading, it's possible the plastic thread has 'stripped'.

So if you hold the plastic grip part of the refill, unthread and pull the refill away from the pen body at the same time, it should come apart.

These pens are mostly made of good quality metals and you are not likely to do any damage by trying to get the refill out.

When fitting the new one, it's just two turns clockwise, then just a very light pinch of the last turn to stop it becoming loose as you write.

( I use a Classic Century with black refill and a Calais with blue refill, daily, and I find them to be excellent pens.)

 

Thanks Mike for the response. I actually solved the problem myself this afternoon. I have a Century II and had a look at how that words. There's also another Cross pen in our house, make and origins unknown, bearing the logo of the BERU coompany - a spark plug manufacturer. Don't know how this ended up with us but I had a look at it too and it has the same assembly as my Century II. From looking at these I realised that the problem, as you'll see from the image, is that when I untwisted the cap of the Contour, the inner barrel (let's call it that) comes away with the cap whereas it should stay attached to the main barrel. I thought first that this was just a different design and this was how the Contour was supposed to work, but this afternoon I had a go at removing the inner barrel from the cap and it slid out fairly easily (second photo). I'm sure this would have been spotted if I had just uploaded a photo with my initial post or done a better job of explaining the problem. (Yes I spent a lot of time, twisting the end of the refill as it appears in the top shot, wondering why it wouldn't unscrew.)

This seems to me to be a serious enough fault with the product to return it to have it repaired or replaced. ( A second problem that I didn't go into yesterday was the fact that the tip did not seem to fully extend when the barrel was twisted).

Thanks again for taking the time to respond,

Guy

 

yes, lots of CROSS ball pens of various models (non -USA origin, i.e. out sourcing to other countries) got this problem > when you rotate the upper half of the pen in order to get the refill tip back into the pen, the whole refill twisting mechanism just got loosened from the lower barrel of the pen. This will happen even you dont use the pen but have kept it for years, dont know why, it seems some kind of glue inside just dried up and cant hold anymore. That's what I have observed in the past ten years, the CROSS service is expensive.

[gemgemhk]

Hi , As far as I know, the ballpoint refills from Cross are all the same fit, and to change one, you pull the top half of the pen straight up, then the plastic top part of the refill is visible.

It has two complete turns of thread, so if yours is just turning around and not unthreading, it's possible the plastic thread has 'stripped'.

So if you hold the plastic grip part of the refill, unthread and pull the refill away from the pen body at the same time, it should come apart.

These pens are mostly made of good quality metals and you are not likely to do any damage by trying to get the refill out.

When fitting the new one, it's just two turns clockwise, then just a very light pinch of the last turn to stop it becoming loose as you write.

( I use a Classic Century with black refill and a Calais with blue refill, daily, and I find them to be excellent pens.)

 

Thanks Mike for the response. I actually solved the problem myself this afternoon. I have a Century II and had a look at how that words. There's also another Cross pen in our house, make and origins unknown, bearing the logo of the BERU coompany - a spark plug manufacturer. Don't know how this ended up with us but I had a look at it too and it has the same assembly as my Century II. From looking at these I realised that the problem, as you'll see from the image, is that when I untwisted the cap of the Contour, the inner barrel (let's call it that) comes away with the cap whereas it should stay attached to the main barrel. I thought first that this was just a different design and this was how the Contour was supposed to work, but this afternoon I had a go at removing the inner barrel from the cap and it slid out fairly easily (second photo). I'm sure this would have been spotted if I had just uploaded a photo with my initial post or done a better job of explaining the problem. (Yes I spent a lot of time, twisting the end of the refill as it appears in the top shot, wondering why it wouldn't unscrew.)

This seems to me to be a serious enough fault with the product to return it to have it repaired or replaced. ( A second problem that I didn't go into yesterday was the fact that the tip did not seem to fully extend when the barrel was twisted).

Thanks again for taking the time to respond,

Guy

 

yes, lots of CROSS ball pens of various models (non -USA origin, i.e. out sourcing to other countries) got this problem > when you rotate the upper half of the pen in order to get the refill tip back into the pen, the whole refill twisting mechanism just got loosened from the lower barrel of the pen. This will happen even you dont use the pen but have kept it for years, dont know why, it seems some kind of glue inside just dried up and cant hold anymore. That's what I have observed in the past ten years, the CROSS service is expensive.