I won an auction on eBay for an older Staedtler 775 but the shipping felt a bit high so I also picked up a Tikky Special he had for super cheap ($3). Although listed as “working”, when you knock it the lead falls out. Thinking it might be that ring, I swapped the tip with a known working one and it works fine.
Until I find a replacement tip I thought I might be able to transplant one from another pencil of similar size.
Does anyone know of a (super cheap) pencil that I could use to extract the ring?
This isn’t my pencil or picture. User @ncc2 had posted this some time ago on Reddit.
I used it here to help describe what I am looking for.
(does anyone have a Special w/ broken internals or a mangled body that they would want to sell?)
Thanks - all my PD345s are working so I’m going to keep looking for another donor/victim. It sounds like most if not all pencils have a ring like this in one form or another. The ones on the Special seem to be pressed in, but others just have it sitting in there like in the image I posted.
I’d like to find one that is easily accessible but for those that are pressed in, what is the best way to get these out of the tip?
I think they’re all pretty much pressed in but come out after sitting a while. A lot of my older Clics come out like your picture and I’ll use a sewing pin which is just big enough to keep the retainer on the end and then get it started back into the tip. Once it’s in there a little, turn the pin around and use the flat end to press it all the way in.
