I’ve recently discovered the almost-refill-sized Coleto eraser component and ever since I’ve been trying to include it in my favourite multipens. After all, the point of a multipen is to be carried alone, if you need several accessories you’re probably better off with a pen case and individual implements.
I reported my first success with the tab-selector Jetstream Prime 2&1 here. Now I have managed to adapt it to some rotation-selector multipens: the Jetstream Prime 3&1, Zebra Sharbo X LT3 and Tombow Zoom L104.
The Zoom was quite easy, I had already taken it apart and it is almost identical to the Metaphys Locus multipen (which has an eraser) so I was confident the mod would work. The Jetstream Prime 3&1 is very similar and went smoothly too.
All you need for those is some steel tubing (OD 2 mm ID 1.8 mm) to make a carrier for the eraser component. Once the pen is taken apart, just transfer the top guide of a refill holder to the tube, add a drop of glue if you think that friction will be insufficient to keep them attached and cut to length using the pencil component as a guide (the “neck” of the pencil should line up with the tip of the metal in the eraser part). Depending on the kind of glue used, both mods should be fully reversible unless you break a part in the process.
The Sharbo was a whole other story… It took a lot of work for a result that is frankly less than fully satisfying. It works but it’s nowhere near as smooth as the original. And the mod isn’t reversible. I’m glad I’ve done it once but I am never ever modding a Sharbo X ever again. Ever.
I’d like to try this mod on gravity/pendulum selector multipens but I have never taken one apart and honestly I don’t even know where to start. If one of you has done it and could give me advice it would be greatly appreciated.
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DM me your address and I’ll send you my Staedtler multi pen that is a pendulum mechanism.
I’m not tedious enough to do any of this myself but I’ll give you this doner to practice on
As long as the usps doesn’t thieve this like they did to something I sent to @Thomas then we may make it through this without getting “Zeta’d”
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Thanks for the generous offer 
but I already have a junk Ohto (and a malfunctioning Pilot 2+1) to practice on. My problem is that I literally do not know where to begin. I can see no obvious place to push, pull, unscrew, separate… Hence my request. If someone has found the way to open a pendulum-based multipen, please let me know.
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Maybe I’ll break it open and see…
The pendulum is usually encased in its own compartment though
I’m pretty sure, if it’s anything like the Geha, you just have to pull on the refill and it pops out
Then you can add whatever you wish to add
I’m not familiar with the process very deeply but that would be my quick guess
Unfortunately in most multipens the refill holder isn’t deep enough to accomodate the eraser, hence the need to replace the original holder with a custom one.
Usually they are crimped or press-fit. I’ve read about one japanese one that was glued, so heating could be one attempt. I have never seen a glued one myself.
I’m not familiar with the eraser refills. You said they need “depth”, so I assume you mean length by that. The pendulum mechanism as a whole takes up more space and you likely won’t be able to take it apart in the way you did to the Shabo.
As you see in the picture below, most button pushers have their refill tube connected (as one part or soldered) to a slimmer rod which widens opposite to the tube, and constrains a spring. An eraser refill wouldn’t fit inside the spring, so there is little need to disassemble.
You can fix the button in its pressed position, clamp the extended refill tube in a vice and saw or solder it off. Sawing of course only works if the refill tube extends far enough outside of the upper pencil body. In this case, disassembling would of course help.
Then there is still the question remaining whether the eraser part is short enough to fit inside the assembled pen body and extend properly.
I can only speak for a dozen european pens, Japanese pens are too hard to find. So maybe my comment is worthless for dealing with the japanese ones…Hope you find out!
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Thanks for the information. Those holders (tube + rod) look very similar to what I have encountered in tab-actuated multipens. Depending on the diameter of the spring, it may be possible to replace them with a slim tube that accepts an eraser.
My problem is accessing them (and obviously putting them back once done). How did you reach them, did you just grab and pull? Is this reversible?
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The image is from a disassembled japanese pen (Pilot), which I assume was glued (but not sure). It looks like the part that held the holders/pins allowed them to be slid in from the sides, meaning removing the outer pen body enabled you to take out the pins by sliding them outwards. In the image below you see some residue on the threaded part, which is the lower end stop for all other parts that make up the mechanism. I’d try heating it up and pulling and see if it slides out. It should be possible to assemble this one again with new glue.
But that can be very different for your pen, again all the ones I have destructively opened myself would be impossible to mod like you want.
(Also offtopic; I don’t know why there is a second spring in the pusher, there shouldn’t be need for it. Does anyone know?)
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Probably to keep the pusher extended when the pen is knocked, instead of having it moving freely.
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You’re right, what is unusual with this one is that the pendulum piece is separated from the pusher.
In ALL pushers I know of, the pendulum is part of the pusher piece.
So this Pilot pushes the pendulum part down, acted upon by the conical spring, and it stays pressed. But the pusher travels back up again by the smaller spring, and never remains in pushed position, assumingly.
That’s a behaviour you’d usually (almost) exclusively see from cap-pushers, like the MB Pix-O-Mat, which use a very different locking mechanism though, but their “pusher”, the cap, travels back up too. Cool. ᶦ ᵗʰᶦⁿᵏ ᶦ ⁿᵉᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ˢᵗᵃʳᵗ ˢᵉᵃʳᶜʰᶦⁿᵍ ᵐᵃʳᵏᵉᵗᵖˡᵃᶜᵉˢ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉˢᵉ..
A new member in the rotator family: the Zebra Surari Sharbo. As slim multipens go, I much prefer the styling of the Tombow Zoom L104 but there are many small internal details in the Surari Sharbo that make it a pleasure to work with.
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