Materials questions

[Daddyman]

First question: like a twit, I've lost my precious 0.193mm brass wire. It was from Eileen's so I'm not sure where to get any more. Any thoughts?

Second question: does anyone have any good ideas for how to get more out of fibre-glass brush refills? The photo shows how much wastage there is on these refills - almost half of each one is unusable (new refill shown for comparison), which is annoying when they're not far off a pound each for the best Ersatzpinsel (£18 for 24). (Please don't introduce thread drift by mentioning better/cheaper refills - that's not my point here.)

The problem is that the pencil holds the refills in a ferrule, and that ferrule limits how far the refills can be wound out. I've tried shortening the ferrule (see photo) but the problem is that this affects the stiffness of the refills, which seems to depend on the refills being held tightly (and it's their stiffness that makes the Ersatzpinsels so effective); once the ferrule is filed down, that tightness is lost as it opens the hole from the presumably critical 4.43mm to 5.11mm, due to the taper inside the ferrule. The refills will then no longer remove solder. (Again, please no thread drift on other ways of removing solder.)

So how do I/you get my/your money's worth with these refills? I've heard of the method of soaking the refills in diluted PVA, which if it stiffens them, might allow them to be used with only the innards of the pencil, and no ferrule. However, I got very poor results with the PVA: it was like rubbing the model with a bit of wood. Perhaps I did something wrong. What I'd prefer is a method for holding the refill tight while letting it be wound out further. I'm sure others have encountered the same wastage as I'm getting.

Incidentally, an extra couple of mm can be had by pushing the fibres deeper into the aluminium ferrule (not to be confused with the ferrule mentioned above) that they are held within and then smearing superglue into the (aluminium) ferrule.

20231112_104110.jpg

[Paul Cram]

I have not had the problem. I find that I can still use the stub after removing from the holder.

[Jeremy Good]

Cambrian Modelrail are stocking the former Eileen’s selection of wires.

Jeremy

[Daddyman]

I have not had the problem. I find that I can still use the stub after removing from the holder.

Interesting, Paul. Do you know what make your pen is? Could you possible vernier the length of the ferrule? I suspect I have a pencil with a particularly long ferrule. Like you, I used to use the stubs, but these days I can't get the refills to wear that far down.

Cambrian Modelrail are stocking the former Eileen’s selection of wires. Jeremy

Yes, thanks, I had some from them recently. But they're only stocking the straight wire, so nothing below 0.31.

[Jol Wilkinson]

An internet search turns up;

https://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/brass.html

They list 0.2mm brass wire and also 36SWG (0.193mm).

A search for 36 SWG brass wire turns up a number of suppliers, including eBay.

[David B]

Look for 'beading wire'. I found this at 0.2mm:
https://www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk/p/12373/wires-thonging/mw/020mm-non-tarnish-brass-wire

[BryanJohnson]

The 'non-tarnish' aspect of the beading wire may mean that it has a varnish-like coating which makes it useless for soldering to.
I bought some thin wire from a jewellery supplier which was available in 4 different coatings comprising 3 different colours and 'none'. The true definition of the 'none' which I bought was really 'clear'. Caveat emptor.
Bryan

[Daddyman]

Thanks, all. That's an important warning, Bryan, thanks. Jol - there's nothing on whether it's hard or soft, and the ebay stuff all seems to be hard (Eileen's says "SOFT" on the packet).

I think this one best fits the bill as it says it's soft and "raw":
https://uk.vicedeal.com/products/0-5mm- ... Q4MDI5OTQz
EDIT: this is a no-no: turns out it's one of these companies that pretends to be in the UK, but is actually in HK. The say they work with UK partners but the package came from HK - and was wrong! I ordered 0.2mm, they sent 1.2mm. And then there's no way to complain: you can only fill in a contact form, which I did, but it was ignored. AVOID!

[Winander]

10m should keep you going for a couple of weeks. Does it matter if it's hard, can't it be annealed?

[Will L]

Second question: does anyone have any good ideas for how to get more out of fibre-glass brush refills?

I recognise the problem. I just put a blob of bluetack in the bit in the pencil that hold the refill so it sits that bit further forward with just the very base of the refill in the holder. I admit my used ones weren't quite as bad as yours but since if added the bluetack they now look like Paul's.

[Daddyman]

10m should keep you going for a couple of weeks.

Does it matter if it's hard, can't it be annealed?

More faff!

I recognise the problem. I just put a blob of bluetack in the bit in the pencil that hold the refill so it sits that bit further forward with just the very base of the refill in the holder. I admit my used ones weren't quite as bad as yours but since if added the bluetack they now look like Paul's.

Good idea - or maybe a hard disk of something so it doesn't yield? But I'll try bluetack first before inventing problems.

[Paul Cram]

I have not had the problem. I find that I can still use the stub after removing from the holder.

Interesting, Paul. Do you know what make your pen is? Could you possible vernier the length of the ferrule? I suspect I have a pencil with a particularly long ferrule. Like you, I used to use the stubs, but these days I can't get the refills to wear that far down.

Cambrian Modelrail are stocking the former Eileen’s selection of wires. Jeremy

Yes, thanks, I had some from them recently. But they're only stocking the straight wire, so nothing below 0.31.

The ferrule is 9.03mm. I don't know the make. I picked it up at a stand at one of the exhibitions. The refills I bought came in a plastic box but rgere are no markings on it.

[Daddyman]

The ferrule is 9.03mm. I don't know the make. I picked it up at a stand at one of the exhibitions. The refills I bought came in a plastic box but rgere are no markings on it.

Really? Mine is 17.57!

Thanks for the help!

[Enigma]

Will the ferrules fit into a large pin chuck or similar?

[Daddyman]

Will the ferrules fit into a large pin chuck or similar?

You mean the ferrule on the refill? Good idea, and I've done that when the 2mm refills were slipping inside the clutch pencil. But no, they these bigger refills won't fit in any pin chucks I have.

I think the problem is that the black innards of the pen is fouling the inside of the red body of the pen, so the innards can't be twisted out far enough.

I also wonder if I've got a dodgy batch of refills. They seem quite soft. Maybe they're - wait for it - ersatz Ersatzpinsels.

[Lindsay G]

I've bought these scratch brushes from several sources but have never experienced any of them leaving so much of the refill unused, they've always been worn down to just a short length as one in a previous image. You can get a set of 3 for as little as £3.99 (incl P&P) on ebay so it's hardly worth the effort of resorting to surgery on a rogue item.

Once the refills are worn down, I fit them into a large pin vice (from a set of 3 or 4 from Squires) to use them right down to the ferrule.

Lindsay

[Daddyman]

I've bought these scratch brushes from several sources but have never experienced any of them leaving so much of the refill unused, they've always been worn down to just a short length as one in a previous image. You can get a set of 3 for as little as £3.99 (incl P&P) on ebay so it's hardly worth the effort of resorting to surgery on a rogue item.

Once the refills are worn down, I fit them into a large pin vice (from a set of 3 or 4 from Squires) to use them right down to the ferrule.

Lindsay

Thanks. Ironically, this is quite an expensive one, as I find on the cheap ones the red body tends to split where the ferrule goes in.
Pin voce is a good tip, thanks.

[John Bateson]

I tend to throw the refills away rather than use them until the bitter end. By the time they get worn down, I used to get so many splnters I was glad to get rid of them, they had served their purpose, albeit apparently with some reluctance.
So these days I use left over Covid rubber gloves to reduce the time finding all the rampant splinters and then just grab a new one from the non-erzatz erzatzErsatzpinsels.
John

[stephenfreeman]

As far as wire is concerned Albion Alloys do brass and nickel silver in 0.10mm and 0.20mm and bigger if you wish, I don't normally have a use for anything under 0.20mm as it has little mechanical strength. I usually buy from Chronos but of course there are other suppliers. Big advantage for me is that it is supplied straight.

To make the glass fibre refills last longer, you could try inpregnating them with PVA or wrapping in masking tape. I found that the PVA certainly makes them last longer but less effective. Tape method works better when they are too short to fit in the pencil body.

[Daddyman]

non-erzatz erzatzErsatzpinsels

As far as wire is concerned Albion Alloys do brass and nickel silver in 0.10mm and 0.20mm and bigger if you wish, I don't normally have a use for anything under 0.20mm as it has little mechanical strength. I usually buy from Chronos but of course there are other suppliers. Big advantage for me is that it is supplied straight.

To make the glass fibre refills last longer, you could try inpregnating them with PVA or wrapping in masking tape. I found that the PVA certainly makes them last longer but less effective. Tape method works better when they are too short to fit in the pencil body.

Thanks. I went for the wire from Vicedeal in the end.
I have high hopes for the new propelling pencil I've got from ebay, which will hopefully let the refill extend further than my current one.