Also posted in the spider pen problem but I'd thought I'd post it here. (Just a very short to the point review )

I just got mine today. I felt scared opening it because of all these stories but mine is working flawlessly. I've been practicing on and off since 2:40 floating dollar bills. I love this thing! I'm careful with it but I don't see why I need to be. I ordered an extra spool along with extra batteries. I like the strength of the thread. I had to cut some thread off because it got tangled (my fault) but there is still a lot of thread left. I'm happy with my purchase I'm going to use it today for my 22 year old brothers' birthday today If anyone got any questions just ask.

Be carefull with the pocket clip. Mine broke off and it was a pain to repair. Other then that it has worked great!

Blindside785,

I am glad you started a fresh thread on the Spider pen. I just want to say that I love mine! It looks amazing as it looks exactly like a run of the mill pen! The motor is really quiet, fast and smooth! I have used it for all the effects that I normally do, but I can think of so many other things I want to try. After my first pen that didn't work, I now have a quality one! Just make sure you unscrew it a little so the battery doesn't drain. It can drain so fast!

Marc

I have to say...when it works it's great! When it doesn't, then watch out. Someone has got to be able to take the shortcomings here and come up with the ultimate motorized thread reel pen.

I like mine I'm thinking of posting it for sale here the reason I am gonna do that is because I have found that as of right NOW I'm not interested in floating things lol

but mine worked GREAT and I love the thing I would reccomend it to someone who is interested in this kind of thing

I have used mine ever since the IBM convention in Reno 1 1/2 years ago, and I love mine too. I bought extra batteries and thread spools, but have not yet needed them. Great item. I agree with you-all

May be I am the lucky one. I got 2 and both is flawless. I think the best part of it is that it always give steady tension that is just right. This is something the reel pen not doing as well.

But I hate its look. Usually I hide it inside my jacket just like the reel instead of using it to write.

Since I have 2, one is in the drawer for 2 yrs now. But its still workiing fine and the battery is alright. Still I think I am better unscrew it a bit to save the battery's life.

I love the spider pen although the pocket clip protector breaks off real easily. Be careful....I always unscrew the lid from the battery so it will not drain the battery when I'm not using it. The thread is pretty tough for invisible thread and not tood bad to fix when the thread does break.

I also had the plastic pocket clip break off from mine, but I shot Yigal an email and he sent me one free of charge. As far as finding the thread on the spool I recommend giving it a couple sharp blows as Mesika recommends or rolling the wax into a thin hot dog shape and brushing it on the sides of the spool (this will cause the loose end of the thread to cling to the wax).

I bought one and had issues. I don't think the quality is all that. I have some friends that have all had problems with theirs. I took good care and still had issues. I am glad to hear that folks on here are having such good luck.

I bought a spider pen last year. I used it several times with limited results. The quality is really lacking. The top keeps falling off, the clip broke, and the thread kept breaking no matter how careful I was, not to mention the battery life wasen't all that good. I threw it in the drawer and ordered me a thread boss from sorcery. Now that's a great ITR! I like it so much I ordered a spare...

My Spider Pen has languished in a drawer for some time now. Sadly, I felt the quality wasn't good enough. It was very difficult, kept having problems due to the cheap materials used. My feeling is that the IDEA is superb, but Yigal has tried to keep it too cheap. My suggestion is that he develops a "New and improved" Spider Pen which would cost more, but be more robust. Surely, this item should retail at over $100, and it should be QUALITY!
(BTW, can anything actually BE "New and improved"?)

Hmmm...after writing that last post, I got my Spider pen out of the drawer. It still works fine, and I realised that maybe I was being a bit unfair. The main problem for me is the thread breaks very easily. No doubt this is because I'm not very experienced with invisible thread. I noticed that Yigal offers a reel of much stronger thread if required. Perhaps this is all I have to do. It is a remarkably easy ITR to use, though I still maintain that it could have been better made.

The thread it came with shouldn't break so easily after you have practiced and learned the tension of the IT. Remember that the IT usually breaks between the external anchor point and whatever is attached between that point and the mid point. From the reel itself to the mid point you have all the slack in the world so it will not be breaking from there.

Yeah, but once it snaps its a pain to find the end of the thread again

Blow on the spool. Of course it breaks easliy IT's TINY thread your using.

It's the easiest ITR to fix and the EASIEST to find the loose end on the spool. Sucking for the loose end on the regular ITR's is a pain, especially when using Kevlar. I use both though, they both have their purposes but I use both basically to have one running from the waist up and the pen for running from the chest down. Some effects works better from the chest down hookup and some are better with the waist up hookup.