Hey! I tend toward softer leads and they’ve started slipping with harder strokes. I assumed some graphite had become lodged in the jaw’s grooves, but after a semi successful attempt to clean it out, I’m not sure it has any.
Is there any way to tighten it’s grip?
Unlike drop clutch designs, I believe the Rapid Pro is an incremental advance design? If this was a drop clutch, I would (theoretically) unscrew the clutch and MAYBE adding a drop of solder to the outside of each jaw to increase their thickness. Followed by filing or sanding down the solder to thin it down to the desired effect.
As far as I can tell the clutch isn’t unscrewable. I like the weight and feel of this pencil, but for them to call it “Pro” and fill it with plastic is a little insulting. Or they know their market and that artists rarely manage to keep anything for more than a year without dropping it into the ether.
I found the time to fix it, it’s easy in theory, but keeping the clutch jaws open when you can’t remove it from the assembly is taxing and required all manner of skullduggery with a vise and a piece of wire. However, my repair was simply dabbing a tiny dot of epoxy inside just one of the 3 jaws and smearing it with a pin. 24 hours later it’s good to go again, but I really am not impressed with rOtrings build quality, even though it does have the best feel of any knockable 2mm pencil. I would happily pay a little more for a fully brass mechanism.