Parker 50 Falcon. Can I Glue The Nib/section Back Together?

January 30, 2015

I bought a Falcon Flighter. Looks to be in good shape, but when I rinsed it out, then started to reattach the barrel, the inside parts of the nib/section pulled out of the metal body. Nothing looks damaged? It looks like it was held by adhesive. Can I just apply fresh epoxy then reassemble?

Pictures follow. I showed all parts and reassembly just to show what they look like. I added red arrows to point to what looks like the old adhesive.

Parts (converter is used to hold the ring in position.

from top

from bottom

Reassembled (dry, no adhesive.) I have another Falcon Flighter with a different nib size that I can compare. Look the same.

Separate observation:

The clip on the cap on the unglued one has no individual feather marks, the feathers and clip are longer than my other pen.

Unglued left, other pen right.

January 30, 2015

Parker did glue some pieces together. If there are not threads, gluing would be the only option.

This may be excess information for you, but some reading it may not have done something like this before... a "teachable moment" if you will.

I would clean well, rinse well, avoid touching the feed, dry well and clean the mating surfaces off with alcohol, allow to dry. It wouldn't hurt to scuff the mating surfaces like inside the nib and the back end of the connector/collector with a scratch pad. Make sure that everything lines up properly, test fit first. IIRC the feed is keyed to fit in one position on the nib.

Put the epoxy on the end where the glue was before, not in the nib/section so that the excess glue is pushed OUT when you fit the pieces together, not into the section. Clean up completely before the epoxy sets. Check instructions for set time. I think that this stuff is 20 minutes.

Use a quality epoxy. One of the best is PC Superepoxy. I've found it's bond to be better than the typical Devcon epoxy. If you want to accelerate the cure rate, put it over a heater vent (ours are on the floor) or where the temperature is maintained at 100F - 120F. In general, cure times are at 70F, so the warmer (within reason) the repair area, the faster the reaction and therefore the speed with which it cures to full strength. Check their data sheet for specific information.

Make sure that you remove all of the excess

January 30, 2015

Thanks. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something.

Other details provided as you suggest for future reference:

No threads anywhere.

The adhesive appears to be only where I put the arrows. Nowhere near the tip.

Consistent with this is that, when assembled the feed is captured firmly between the collector and the metal nib, so adhesive at the rear of the collector should be sufficient to hold everything..

The feed is keyed to the collector.

The collector is not keyed to the metal nib/body. The curved shape of top of feed and inside of nib do limit rotation, but they must be aligned by eye.

The ring slides on from the front.

The ring is not keyed to the collector.

There are two bumps on opposite sides of the collector that the ring will slide up over, but not beyond. The bumps stop the ring from going further back. visible in pictures.

The ring has three outward bumps that grip the cap from the inside. visible in picture but not so obvious as on the collector.

I'm choosing to align the ring so that none of the three ring bumps (which are depressions on the inside) aligns with a collector bump. That's how my other pen is assembled.

When assembled the metal nib/body does not touch the ring. A ridge on the collector stops it just short of the ring. Ridge visible in picture,

January 30, 2015

Just in case it's useful, I have a Parker 50 Flighter just like this where the connector/collector has come loose from the nib/section, and I haven't glued it back and it's been working fine. I just have to be careful when screwing the barrel on as if I tighten it too much then it will twist the connector, but as long as I do it slowly keeping a good hold around the trim ring and not tightening the barrel too much, then nothing gets twisted and the barrel stays where it should and everything works. Maybe an option for some.

January 30, 2015

I suppose that Parker might have used shellac. You could try that, and if it doesn't hold clean it off with alcohol and then epoxy. I would be nervous about not having it secured though. Murphy is alive and well, and as active as ever.

January 30, 2015

Can I just add a word of warning here? I once sold a steel coloured Parker Falcon and the buyer advised me the metal shell had come off inside the cap, so he returned it to me. It had indeed, and all I had were the feed parts

This was many years ago, when I had no clues about how to dissemble pens, but that shell would just not come out of that cap no matter what I did. I tried everything I could think of at the time, but it wouldn't budge. In the end I threw the whole lot in the bin.

So please be very careful of putting the cap onto a shell that isn't glued onto the feed. Otherwise you may need to take the clip band off the top of the clip to get the shell out of the cap and it isn't easy

Edited January 30, 2015 by Chrissy

January 30, 2015

I had the same problem with the same pen. After adjusting the barrel into the section & feed unit, the barrel itself forced the section out of the feed because the original glue failed. I didn't think in epoxy or superglue, as both cannot be undone. I used shellac, putting it only near the threads to avoid clogging. It dried for *three days*, just to be sure. Then the pen worked great until it was sold to someone else. Please do not adjust the barrel too tight to prevent the same problem again.

By the way, all of my 50s (I have 4) have plain clips, no feathers on them.

Edited January 30, 2015 by icardoth

January 31, 2015

I had the same problem with the same pen. After adjusting the barrel into the section & feed unit, the barrel itself forced the section out of the feed because the original glue failed. I didn't think in epoxy or superglue, as both cannot be undone. I used shellac, putting it only near the threads to avoid clogging. It dried for *three days*, just to be sure. Then the pen worked great until it was sold to someone else. Please do not adjust the barrel too tight to prevent the same problem again.

By the way, all of my 50s (I have 4) have plain clips, no feathers on them.

On mine the same thing happened. As I tightened the barrel, it forced the metal nib off and started to turn the collector+feed inside it.

I never got as far as the cap.

I don't think the original assembly was intended to be undone, as least not outside a repair shop.

However epoxy will soften at a surprisingly low temperature. 120-150 F for many. Not to a liquid; just soft enough to deform and let parts release under persistent pressure. So you can "unglue" as long as the other materials can handle the heat.

Edited January 31, 2015 by gregglee

February 2, 2015

I studied the parts a bit more and decided to go ahead. I didn't try to remove all old adhesive from collector because it seemed tight, but roughened it and bare plastic with 400 grit sandpaper. I also roughened inside of metal with same sandpaper. In this case most of the remaining adhesive came off.

Below is a new picture of the collector (actually same picture, new markup.) Picture is before my rough-up.

The "Raised Ridge" goes all the way around and is the largest diameter on the collector that fits inside the metal. I found old adhesive ahead and behind it. It appears that the ridge is the seal point to keep ink in front of it. Looks like adhesive was applied ahead of the ridge and when the collector was pushed into the metal, the adhesive is washed back over the ridge to seal, with excess spilled to rear of ridge.

So that's how I did it. Applied adhesive was several times as high as ridge, but none washed all the way to the back and out next to the gold ring. Just to be sure I wiped around the ring with isopropyl alcohol, the recommended cleanup solvent, then blew dry with squeeze bulb. I used 5 minute working time epoxy, with able-to-handle-time of 20 minutes. I didn't check quite that quickly, but now solid. I will wait until tomorrow to ink test.

(Yes, I should wait to report until after testing, but I was posting another question here anyway, and I am distracting myself from this morning's dental work.)

Edited February 2, 2015 by gregglee