Can't Get Twsbi Classic Piston Knob Flush With Barrel ...

February 11, 2018

Hello, wonderful community ...

I've got ink- and silicon-grease stained fingers (all good), and a problem.

Having reassembled my TWSBI Classic (making and correcting some of the usual errors outlined in Brian Goulet's life-saving video on disassembly / reassembly of the thing) ... I did a fairly creditable job ... but can't get the piston knob / endcap flush with the body of the pen. There's a little gap I can't seem to close - either by using the wrench, or titrating the threading. This gap is just a bit smaller than the thickness of the TWSBI wrench.

The piston knob is 'locked tight' (turned clockwise to its resting point). No looseness there. The piston itself seemed to be in its optimal position before reinsertion: just a bit of wiggle space between it and its housing. The piston knob did come off several times, and I had to first seat it on the threaded housing, then reinsert the piston ...reseating it properly, for all I can tell. The ink capacity (using Brian's 'toothpick method') seems about right. A tad over half a toothpick.

TWSBI reassembly seems a *very* fiddly operation....Anyone have a solution? I'm wondering whether this means (and it may) that the thing will also start leaking into the cap (another complaint I've heard about this fetching and affordable little pen). I'll also look at 'leaking into cap' posts to see if there's a solution there.

Thanks in advance!

February 12, 2018

... for anyone interested, I may have resolved my own issue; the funny (not!) thing about this pen is that it seems to 'overthread' even when ... you've meticulously tried to get everything right (a la Brian Goulet's video - start at around 16:35). Over and over, it seems that despite leaving a proper tad of space between the piston head and the housing ... I overthreaded the thing.

If you give a certain kind of person a mechanical item, a nice little wrench, and a bit of silicone grease, that person will take the item apart. However - perhaps it's best not to take apart this pen! Especially in light of TWSBI's hit-or-miss reputation. If it ain't broke ... don't fix it!