Hello,

I have 4-5 vacumatic on the way. I am wondering how ones cleans them. If I understand, they are cellulose so we have to avoid soaking them. (no ultrasonic cleaner for me yet... maybe next month)

Should I rince with cold 1/10 amonia water and use a barrel brush.

Also, how does ambering proceeds? Is it the reaction of the barrel with the water in ink? Is there a way to clarify a pen?

How do you mark the pen to be able to realign the blind cap when taking the pump out?

If the pen is working should I restore anyway, to reset it's lifespan?


Repair procedures as I understand:

1- Open blind cap, put vac wrench on the pump, mark alignment, heat the tool slowly... Turn tool to remove pump. (if sac is petrified and stuck to barrel, wait until section is off to push it or knock it out.

2- Remove section. heat section slowly with heat gun, if I recall it's threaded so you turn right or left?

3- Remove anything stuck in the barrel, without scorring the section. Any tips for this. I have a set of dental pick.

4- Use dremel with ultrasmall burr on the pump pellet to destroy the old pellet.

5- how do we trim a sac. What lenght? flip sac and insert the new pellet on the pump

6- put sac cement on the pump lower lip, and put sac over it. when dry verify mechanism

7- check breather tube and replace as needed, check nib and feed. May remove with knock out block if work or soaking of the feed would be beneficiary. Or do you do this to every pen to ensurethe everything is in clean and will work perfectly?

8- put section sealant rescrew section.

9- Reinstalling the pump, put soapy water on sac so it stays straight, do you reheat the vac wrench with the pump in it before rescrewing? Rescrew until alignment is same as before. If it wasn't align before... well either it stays not align or proceed by trial and error.

10- test with water to see if it there are leaks.

Clean, wax and shine exterior of the pen

Thanks

Rather too much of what you describe is incorrect. There are complete instructions for replacing a Vac diaphragm on my site.

OK, Vacs are celluloid, not cellulose small but important difference Anyhow, they can be soaked for a couple of days in cold water with no ill effects. Once the filler and section are removed, a test tube brush is your best friend. Ambering is from the off gassing of suplhur compounds in the latex rubber of the diaphragm and cannot be reversed.
Fitting the filler and blind cap is not really done with marking but you are on somewhat the right track. Can't give away all the secrets. Your steps are pretty close, although there are some extra steps in there which you don't need.
1. Heat the vac barrel not the tool, be careful not to melt the barrel or the filler (if plastic) then attach the block and remove the filler. If it does not move at first, let cool, reheat and try again.
2. Remove section as you have described. Unscrew as normal, they are right hand threads. Left loosy, righty tighty.
3. Chop stick my friend, chop stick. I use dental picks only on the areas which will not be visible if scratched, like the filler seat. One can use a dental pick which has been rounded and smoothed off, and push against anything stuck as long as you are careful not to let the tool run away when the diaphragm lets go. Small scratches can be polished out with the right tools and alot of patience if you make a mistake.
4. Yup.
5. 1 1/8" from tip of pellet trim the diaphragm. Hold the tip of the pellet end at the 1 1/8" mark on a ruler, trim what is sticking up above the 0 on the ruler. Coat the outside of the diaphragm with pure talc. Flip that little sucker inside out and insert the pellet with a pellet tool into the pellet cup on the filler. Heat gently the pellet cup beforehand if it is plastic to prevent shattering it.
6. Nope. Not required.
7. Soak, try to force water through the section from the breather tube end with a bulb(cut down nasal aspirator from drugstore). If it flows alright, leave it alone. Pull the breather tube and make sure it is not blocked. If you really need to, knock the nib and clean it out. Make sure to get the alignment of the feed and nib in the same spot rotationally in the section or it will be a real bear to get back in and may seep ink.
8. Not yet.
9. No soapy water, might get into the fold of the diaphragm and bung up the talc. Just hold the threaded collar, push down on the filler rod, to extend the diaphragm. Place it in the back of the barrel and let it snap into place with spring pressure. Tighten the filler threaded collar with the block, and when it is fully seated remove the block. Check blind cap alignment, tighten an 1/8 turn if need be until it all lines up. Should be pretty close. Use the laminations in the barrel and blind cap as a visual guide. If the blind cap is original to the pen, it was made from the same rod stock as the barrel and will match at some rotational orientation.
10. Now that you have the filler done, look into the bore of the barrel from the section end. Make sure that the diaphragm is not wrinkled and that you can see the pellet nicely. Try the plunger a few times to make sure that it will work without binding.
11. If diaphragm is good, insert section dry and check clearance between breather tube and diaphragm when diaphragm is fully extended. If no clearance, remove section, push tube in or trim it. Reinstall with section sealant.
12. polish pen and enjoy.
Cheers,
Sean

Or just follow Richards instructions, it's where I learned how to do it.

Cheers,
Sean

Thank you, very helpfull indeed. Can't wait to try! Thanks for all the tips.

Geez, Da Book doesn't seem that good when reading the information obtained by my questions on this forum.

I really like the last part on Richards site, with the tongue in barrel test!

I'll have to print part of this forum to make my own manual...