Hi Everyone!


Want to share my latest repair with you all!

I had a little fun today with my latest Apollo acquisition. I obtained from Apollo his Sigmun Orione. A blue jewel in my opinion! And yes, Mr. Binder’s site said it write when he said that the colors look as though you could swim in them! It is gorgeous! No photo I’ve seen has it done justice. Well, anyhow, I inked the pen last night and began to see an ink leak coming while I was writing. At first I thought I had lots of ink from filling it, I dried the nib and continue to write again. Another leak! I thought it might have been the converter not seated properly; I adjusted the converter and began to write again. I had a leak again. I took another converter to it, continued to write. Another leak! I took a light to the nib and nothing! I managed to take the nib and housing out of the pen, I was going to put an extra nib I have here, but the threads were not the same at all! As, I had the housing and nib out, I noticed one hairline crack on the side of the nib, great! I took my light and eyepiece on it and found a second crack line behind it! I got kind of depressed, and thought about ways to repair or to replace the housing. I took a drive to the local RadioShack and bought some epoxy. I took the nib and feed out, very carefully as to not disturb anything when I saw the nib and feed separated! Well, I put those two away and cleaned out the outer housing, I mixed the epoxy and applied very thing coat on both cracks. While the nib and feed were out, the cracks were almost unnoticeable. After about 8 hours later, I took the housing and the quick setting epoxy was cured. I took a little cork and fitted to the opposite end of the housing unit. I shook it and no water was visible, I applied a bit of air pressure to the housing with the cork on and I had not water leaks from the side. I think that took care of that!

Now, to reset the nib on the feed! The feed had at the end a notch that matched the top of the nib. It is heart shaped and the fit perfectly, the tines were not aligning correctly! I thought about quitting but I took a little coffee and smoke break and went back at it! I inserted the nib and feed into the housing but not all the way in! I was able to maneuver the nib left and right till I had the proper tine alignment! I prayed and inked the pen again! WOW! No leaks and it writes just as well as it did yesterday!

What a learning experience! The Pen Gods were on my side today! Now, I just need to figure how to pull inner caps and perfect the removal and installation of fill-levers and I guess I would be able to repair most pens I buy! What ever I have no clue on, will still go to the pros! Which, I found out- I am not one of them; yet at least!