I managed to work loose several parts that are usually glued together. It helps that the glue was old, I guess. Think this is about as far as you can take the thing apart without damage since the rest of the inner mechanism is crimped together.
8 Likes
Where on the reservoir is that date code? My guess that is July 1987.
3 Likes
It’s about 2/3 of the way down, closer to the clutch assembly.
I interpret the date code as you do. The meaning of the two dots I’m less sure about. I have some with one, two, or three dots:
8804 .
8201 .
8705 ..
8307 ...
8307 ..
8201 .
8109 ..
8109 ..
8801 ..
8807 ..
Best guess, those are week numbers. 0-3? 1-4?
2 Likes
I examined my pencils.
PSD5 - 8307 . .
PWP15 - 8006 . . .
Do you see any differences in the 81 & 88 pencils?
2 Likes
Are all of these PSD5s or are some PWP15s?
The only notable difference is the grip. On the earlier pencils, the grip is rougher, with higher and sharper points on the bumps. On the later ones, the bumps are flattened out. I prefer the older grip, which changed in 1983 it seems.
Aside from that, they appear completely unchanged. They are all PSD5; I don’t have any PWP15 so far.
3 Likes
Other than the dots after the date codes, There are two things which are different here: The date code is aligned along the reservoir rather than across it, and the numbers are stamped rather than printed. Are there others that are in this orientation or is this specific to the PSD5?
1 Like
Dang, this makes me wanna keep my pwp…
1 Like
Yes, the PWP15 being made for a smaller market is much harder to find, as well as being 50-100% more expensive than the PSD5.
1 Like
This combination was unique to the PSD5/PWP15 as far as I know. The remaining pencils in Pentel’s current liineup today with steel reservoirs—the PG5 and Kerry (P1035), are there any others?—are stamped with a 2-digit date code, but they are across the tube rather than along it. And the digits in the inked date codes in the 80s that were printed along the tube were rotated horizontally, not vertically. Possibly the PSD5 was the first of Pentel’s models with a stamped date code, and the only one in that era?
Another point is that this a unique date code to Pentel. All others are either yymmdd or 0A format.
I wonder if these were outsourced?
2 Likes
I would believe that they are out sourced. If you take away the clip I don’t see anything that I would say is obviously Pentel parts.
2 Likes
Thank you for this, Noah. I don’t know how I missed it when you first posted. This is terrific!
I have a few spare parts that were provided to me by Pentel a few years back and I’d considered the front section a completely fused unit. I didn’t realize that it’s possible to disassemble it further. How much glue did they use? Did you warm it up first before the attempt? And does the brass piece press-fit or screw in to the grip section? I looked inside mine and it appears deeply inset.
2 Likes
Sorry it took me so long to reply; I’ve been offline for a bit.
The inner brass piece is press-fit and glued into the outer barrel, but usually they didn’t use very much glue. The real mess is in the threads of the that piece and the outer cone. If you can work that loose, you can get the inner part out with some gentle tapping.
I’ve been lucky that the glue has gotten old and weak in some of the specimens in my collection, so I just needed to apply some torque using rubber grips. With other models (e.g. various ohto pro-mecha models) I have successfully separated threaded+glued pieces by applying a butane torch for a few moments and then dunking it into cold water so that the rapid compression of the metal cracks the glue. It may take a few tries. In one case I had to just burn the glue out—lots of toxic fumes, use ventilation. Unfortunately, that much heat can affect the finish in some cases and I didn’t want to take chances with the PSD5 nose, which is chrome plated brass, so I didn’t go that far. I’ve also tried soaking things in acetone but it pretty much never penetrates threaded parts.
1 Like
No worries. Thanks for getting back to me, Noah. Good to know about your tips on separation of the PSD5 front section parts. If I ever get around to trying it I’ll post my results here.