Zebra F-301 conversion Fisher Space Pen

B

Bob6794

Joined
Apr 21, 2013
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Just got done doing my trial on converting a Zebra F-301 to accept the Fisher Space Pen cartridge. It's no secret if you look online the big issue is drilling out the tip but no where did I find what drill bit size they used. I started with a 3/32 and then moved up to a 7/64 size drill bit and only have a little bit of wobble which is on par with a normal F-301 at the tip while using a medium cartridge I stole from my Fisher Stowaway for this trial. And I think I might be able to narrow that margin even more if I refined my technique instead of experimenting like I did.

The metal is quite soft so you can hand drill it for the most part, and I mean hold the tip of the pen in your hand and the drill bit in your other hand and with a bit of patience do it all by hand. Or you can secure the bit in the drill and then manually rotate the tip of the pen around the drill bit so you have more control over widening the hole and it's quite a bit easier this way. When I tried using the drill the way it's meant to be used it had the habit of grabbing the tip and digging in and just rotating it in my hand as I couldn't hold onto it tight enough.

Beyond this it seems that I may have to shorten the spring to get it to work properly I imagine which I didn't get around to doing and will hold off on till I get my dedicated Fisher refill for this. Figure I write this up real quick in hopes that it might help someone else latter down the line who loves the F-301 and wants to do a conversion to try to save them a little bit of trouble.
 
If you get a chance, post a tutorial on how to do this (with pictures, preferably) - the F301 is my favorite pen to use, would love to convert it to a fisher refill.
 
As strange as it sounds it was nothing complicated, just inserting the drill bits into the tip of the pen after disassembling it and drilling it out. Seemed like having the bit secured in the drill and hand turning the tip was the best way to keep things steady. I found putting the bit in so it enters and exits the same way as the pen cartridge worked best for keeping it steady. I was expecting to run into a lot more difficulties but it was actually quite painless.

It's hard to click the pen open and close due to the spring which should be easily remedied once I cut the spring though I find out more on that when I finally order the Fisher refill and do that to verify. I probably get back to this thread when I get that done to chime in how that goes.

Added:
I got bored and decided to rip apart my Stowaway again and experiment. Turns out I was right all you need to do is cut down the spring on the zebra to get the clicker to work properly. Just cut a a very small amount at a time as a small amount makes a huge different.

So now it works flawlessly, now to rip it apart again and put the fisher cartridge back in the Stowaway and order the replacement cartridge for this pen and play the waiting game.
 
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Haven't done a 301 yet but I've done a few 701's in a few different configurations. I'd like to see your pen when done!


-X
 
701 on top (modified for all stainless construction and space pen refill.)
301 pencil on bottom. Pen has metal nose cone, everything else is the same.


20140725_095843_zps7jtbxqpb.jpg



-Xander
 
Just got in my Fisher refill, Fine earlier today and I modded another pen to try to refine the process. It seems that the refills are different width, very slightly the stock PR4 (med) is thicker than the PR4F (fine) by a hair. Going up to the 7/64 tip size will probably give you the least amount of issues and provide very little wobble (as much as stock).

But I wanted to make the most OCD of us proud and used the 3/32 and then pushed the nose cone against the drill and manually spun it to widen it up little by little to get it just barely wide enough to accept the fine refill, won't even take the medium refill. I am not even sure if I can wedge a strand of hair between the refill and the pen itself, quite nice that there is almost 0 wobble. Not that it makes really any difference but if you're going to mod something mind as well go OCD on it and do it right :D. And yes I really did find the 1/64in a large enough difference to warrant me going that extra step to get something in between that, only took me 20-30min to do this to the OCD level too.

I try to post pic's within the next day or two, I have them on my phone I just need to upload them and post them up. Just been very busy.
 
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