Hello everyone:

I have lately been hit by a dangerous infatuation for Sheaffer pens on eBay, and I may just have received my punishment in the form of a pen that clearly has led a somewhat strange life.
It is a metal vest pen that, as I discovered in cleaning the feed, was originally used as a fountain pen with black ink, then became clogged and was subsequently used as a dip pen with bright green ink. But now clean water goes through the feed both ways, so I believe that is solved.

My problem is that, presumably in between the two stages of the pen's life, someone has broken off almost a quarter of the nipple in a clumsy attempt to remove the sac (I got the pen without a sac, except for the part still shellac-ed onto the nipple).
I can provide a picture if that could be useful, but I suspect the problem is rather self-evident.
How can I put on a new sac now?

One fact that makes me a little hopeful is that the nipple broke opposite the feed channel, which therefore is not exposed.
But does that allow me to shellac a new sac on three-quarters of a nipple?
If not, is there any way I can reconstruct the missing part?

Thank you very much for your advice,

Giacomo

Hi..

I was with you until you mentioned:

"One fact that makes me a little hopeful is that the nipple broke opposite the feed channel, which therefore is not exposed."

When you put the sac over the nipple none of the nipple is exposed on the outside and inside it would be exposed to ink in the sac. In any case, if as much as you are indicating has been chipped away it could cause leakage. A picture would be immensely helpful. Im trying to think of which pens have a sac that are metal and vest pens made by Sheaffer. The only one that comes to mind immediately is the Tuckaway, which I believe is a touchdown filler and you didn't mention the complexities of getting to the sac that a touchdown filler would involve. So a pic of the pen itself for that reason would be nice too for curiousity sake.

Frank Dubiel's "da book" describes a couple of ways of dealing with broken nipples from replacing them to reparing them. Ultimately, it sounds like it will be a job for a pro. If the chip is small enough, you might be able to mold a piece back in with some dental resin (maybe?).

But not seeing the actual chip it's hard for anyone to say IMHO.

the right fix would be machine a new nipple on a lathe, and machining the section so the replacement nipple can be affixed. This IS a job for a pro. Richard Binder, Ron Z, etc.

Thanks for your replies. Alas, I surely don't like the conclusion, but I was expecting it.
Anyway, here come the pictures.

The pen itself looks older than a Tuckaway, and despite my ignorance I take the Sheaffer's 2 Self Filler nib to be an indication of age itself. Obviously it is a lever filler, and the lever works perfectly.

Although all the section is black, and I am far from a good photographer, the broken part should be clearly visible.

Also, concerning my remark on the feed channel, I obviously could not explain myself clearly.
The feed is a cylinder that emerges all the way trhough the grip and that is wrapped by the nipple.
The feed channel is a groove on the side of the cylinder, so it is a channel only thanks to the nipple that provides one "side" of it.

Since that part is intact, I was wondering if I could just shellac the sac to the feed, rather than to the nipple, in the part where the latter is broken.
In terms of avoiding a leak, this would seem to work---maybe by putting a little more shellac on the broken quarter.
My fear was mostly that this could lead to even greater damage to the nipple in the future, since I cannot reasonably expect my sac to be eternal either.

Again, your advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Giacomo

that's definitely a beyond- do it yourself repair if you're not mechanically inclined and own a lathe and some plastics/HR round stock. The minute that any excess of shellac touches the feed you can kiss your ink flow goodbye, and you have absolutely no sac nipple on the missing part. The "first step" in diameter is where the sac's supposed to seal. The next "step" is where the section is friction set on the barrel. One easy fix if you own a lathe would be turning down the section/barrel "nipple" shorter so you can gain say 3/32" of nipple for your sac to seal (great risk of reducing the section to dust if your cutting tool is not sharpened to cut soft materials without catch, and you'll need a mandrel for centering the section on the chuck since grabbing the section from the about 1/8" cilindrical part is NOT the best adviceable solution, it's very risky even for an experienced machinist)

Since you probably got a bargain kind of a deal on this pen, I'd call this an investment and ship out to a pro repariman.

That's my 2 cents worth of advice.

Thanks for your continued interest in my problem

I am definitely not going to do anything on a lathe myself, and in fact I would prefer an alternative that does not involve cutting a still intact part of the section away.
However, I wonder if my picture may be somewhat misleading, and I hope I can appeal again to your patience.

The first step is 5mm long, but it is not a hollow tube with the feed at the bottom.
There was a tube 5mm long and 0.5mm thick with an inside diameter of 5mm and an outside diameter of 6mm, which I call the "nipple".
Completely filling this tube, except for 1mm at the mouth, is a cylinder 4mm long and 5mm across.
The feed channel is a notch cut in this inner cylinder, which forms three sides of it, with the outer tube (or nipple) being the fourth.

Now that the outer tube is broken, the first step is 5mm long for 270 degrees, and only 4mm for the remaining 90 degrees where the break is. I hope that the new picture manages to show this better.
My original idea was to use the inner cylinder as a support for the sac, much as you were suggesting to use a turned-down portion of the "second step".
If I put shellac on its side for 2-3mm, there are still 1-2mm of clean rubber (?) before the top of the cylinder, on which the feed channel opens, opposite the broken part of the outer tube
Is there a risk that shellac would find a way to percolate across the cylinder and reach the feed channel anyway?

Thanks again,

Giacomo

P.S. Admittedly if I send this pen to a professional, the repair will cost more than the price I paid for the pen.
Whether that means I had a bargain I cannot say, because I shamefully have to confess I don't know what the market value is.

Im not an expert on Sheaffer, but that appears to be a nice vintage fine. Restored she will be awesome. I would agree with jicaino, that is beyond do it yourself. The second set of pictures is a little more telling and you "might" be able to fix 'er with a couple of modifications, but they would not be easy, they would be risky and would require equipment/parts.

I would suggest sending it to one of the repair folks as mentioned. It would seem to be an investment.

How about finding a nice repair person with a replacement section?
I bet you could find something that fits for a lot less hassle than running a repair on a lathe.

If that was a customer's pen, I wouldn't bother on using the original section if the client agrees with making a new one. Modern acrylic blanks are far more stable and resistent than aged HR. A new section would cost you (edited) at my shop, but then again, I'm far away down WAY down south in Argentina. Probably I would charge the same amount of money for repairing the original section. Don't jump on my back with custom orders because shipping and measurements (even if taken by an experienced machinist) wouldn't be a practical thing to do. Your pen is valuable and you got a bargain. You can try and see how your sac fails miserably or have it properly restored. As far as for pricing goes, (edit edit)

Also, resetting a nib/feed into a section dramatically affects the behavior of the nib.

I removed all the pricing references because A) there's absolutely no point about comparing prices between different countries and etc, and I thought about it 10 seconds and decided that's unethical to set a market value for a repair that's complex and will require years of training, proper gear and tender loving care. Can you put a price on that? I don't want to put a price tag on this kind of stuff.

expect to pay more than you paid for the pen, that much I'll tell you, but expect to have it perfectly restored and performing like a charm.

You can fix this but it might take several different attempts. First don't cut or break anything off as that only makes the problem worse. Gluing a sac to the feed (Cylinder inside the nipple) won't work as you won't get a tight seal and ink can work back from the inside of the section. You have a broken nipple that the rubber sac glues to. Second the part inside the nipple is the feed. You need to repair the nipple by getting rid of the hole caused by the break so you can get an air tight seal when you glue on the sac.

I've done the following but it's not guaranteed: Since the groove in the feed for ink is on the opposite side of the break gravity works in your favor. Fill the break with two part epoxy and make sure the epoxy wraps completely around the nipple. Keep the break down and the epoxy won't get in the ink channel. Don't worry about the gap between the feed and the nipple as I'll bet the feed is tight inside the section which is what counts. After the epoxy dries you might have to smooth it down a bit before glueing the sac on. The problem is that most epoxy won't stick to the nipple, it can be messy, and this takes a bit of practice.

Second method is to glue a sleeve on the nipple such as a soda straw, a piece of plastic cut from a barrel of a cheap ballpoint pen. The problem is of course finding one that fits and again a glue that holds. I usually use shellac as that will help seal at the bottom of the break.

A third method is to use heat shrink tubing, cut a piece, slide it on the nipple, heat it a bit with a hair dryer. I usallly use a thin coat of shellac under the tubing. Then I would shellac at the end of the tubing where it meets the section because: Anyway you do it the problem is getting a tight seal at the base of the broken portion so ink doesn't leak.

What ever you do don't creat a buildup on the nipple larger than the next part of the section or the section won't slide back in the barrel.

You mileage may vary with any of these repairs, I've been doing this a long time and can't say all of my tricks work or worked, especially the first time. LOL! Good Luck. Message me if you have questions.

Thanks again to you all for your replies.
I really appreciate the kind interest of experienced forum participants.

Unfortunately, I also realize that I have indeed received my eBay punishment and that putting this pen in working order is beyond my ability.
I would have been comfortable filling the cavity with 1mm of shellac, which is not only fairly basic, but also demonstrably safe on hard rubber and essentially reversible. But the consensus is that shellac would not suffice to provide a seal beneath the sac, so this is not going to work.
I must admit I am also intrigued by the possibility of repairing the cavity with dental resin; but it is probably not a good idea for me to try, because I am not a dentist and I have no practice with the stuff --- and after all teeth are not very similar to hard rubber, so it's unclear if it would be a good fit even in the hands of a dentist.

So it seems I'll have to check with professionals what they can do and at what cost.
In the end, I am afraid the total cost of the pen will be more than I am comfortable carrying in my vest pocket on a daily basis; but maybe jicaino is right that the repair still makes sense in that I can resell the pen afterwards and break even.
Far from equally fun, but admittedly a small cost for my eBay naivete.

Best,

Giacomo