The Parker Vacumatic Major that I won on ebay arrived this morning. It's quite a bit smaller than I imagined it would be, especially compared to my Parker 100.

There is a major problem with it though. Despite it being described as "fully serviced and the vacuum is excellent" it does not write. The filler draws ink and I can see that the ink is in there but still the pen will not write. Even if I put the nib onto a tissue ink does not come out. Any ideas as to what might be wrong and how to fix it? I think I'll stick to new pens in future.

Lee

No expert, but I would try squeezing a little ink out of the nib to see if that will encourage it.... I've found that worked with a couple of old pens that had not been used for a long, long while.

could be an overtight nib-feed assembly or gunk up in the feed. Sometimes repeated cold water flush (if you lack an ultrasound) can help, or the nib will need to be adjusted/reset.

If you cannot do this yourself, give Ron Zorn, Richard Binder, Joel Hamilton or one of the other good repair guys a call and they can do a pro adjustment for you.

Ron now is moderating the repairs board here; that mite be good place to ask about this.

regards

david
http://www.vacumania.com

To answer your question - it could be a clogged feed, could be a couple of other things too.

Because ink is drawn in through the breather tube, it's possible that the pen would fill but not write. A soak of the nib in a glass of water with a cap full of ammonia may help. If it doesn't, run a piece of 0.002" shim stock through the slit to remove anything in the slit. Sometimes folks buff or polish the nib, and then don't clean off the waxy residue from the compound. That could keep ink from flowing if it stuff got into the slit of the nib. Wiping off the nib with a paper towel dampened with alcohol might help.

If THAT doesn't do it, then the nib and feed need to be knocked out and cleaned. If you aren't comforatable doing that, don't have a knock out block and section sealant, you might want want to send it in to someone for repair.

Thank you for the replies everyone. How long should I soak the nib/section for? When you say ammonia is that the same as household bleach or do I have to get it from somewhere special?

Regards,

Lee

Ammonia and bleach are two different things...
I am not sure how it is in the UK, but you can purchase household ammonia in just about any supermarket in the US

I soaked the nib/section in a glass of detergent and water for a couple of hours and rinsed it under the tap. Then I wiped the nib with a paper towel and alcohol. If I give the pen a shake so a couple of drops of ink come out it will then write but will stop again after a couple of sentances. Does this narrow down what the problem may be?

Lee

Sounds like the nib and feed are going to have to come out for a good cleaning and/or realignment. The fact that you get it to write a bit when you shake some ink out and then it stops sounds like the nib and feed either need a good cleaning, something that should have been done when the pen was restored, or the nib and feed need to be realigned properly...

NO! They are not, and should NEVER be used togehter! The combination of bleach and ammonia produces a toxic gas.

A soak over night may be necessary to get it clean if you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner.

By the way, as Tom mentioned, if there is a gap between the nib and feed, or if the nib and feed are out of alignment you'll need to take care of that before the pen will write properly.

FWIW, I do quite a few vac repairs. Kind of specialized in that for some reason

Thanks for all the advice guys. It seems all it needed was a good soak.The pen now writes with a fine line, I never knew what size nib it was before I bought it.

Lee