I think I broke the section on a snorkel I was working on, but I'm not sure if it's rescuable or not.

It's not cracked in the usual cracked-section way; there's an interior ring that the point holder gasket sits against, and that cracked and came out.

Here's a picture -- left is the broken one with the pieces in question; on the right is the section from a different snorkel; you can see the inside diameter is smaller where the ring is still in place.



Is there any fix for this, or am I looking at a new section? I suspect it might hold the gasket in place anyway when it's all assembled... but if not, that would be bad.

More generally, I suspect I may have put too much pressure on this part when I assembled the section and the nib assembly, with a new point holder gasket (one of the ones Tryphon sells; they seem just a little on the large side). I also noticed that when the entire pen was assembled, the snorkel tube didn't seem to want to retract quite all the way into the feed. When partly disassembled, the snorkel tube/sac protector assembly didn't seem to quite seat all the way forward in the section, though it was close (close enough that I wasn't sure it wasn't right).

Is it possible that these gaskets are just a hair too big sometimes, or is this probably a red herring?

Thanks!

Ummm..... you're looking for a new section. Fortunately they aren't too expensive. Nor are they hard to find.

You can solvent weld it with acteone or preferably Testor's liquid plastic cement. You will have to get the parts to fit perfectly though....

I find Giovanni's "point seals" a bit large too, it takes too much torque to seat them sometimes. They are really fat o-rings, not an identical replacement. I have one pen that I simply could not use one on, it pushed the feed out from the nib holder!

If the seal fits well, though, they work great.

Peter

Your breakage is one of the reasons I use the original spec. pointholder gaskets from Martin Ferguson--martinspens51.com--- They fit perfectly and avoid the use of possibly excessive force to seat them---just a little nudge with a dowel gets them in and seated well. The other is that the originals (and these) are not simply a donut but a thick/thin/thick gasket that has a bit of "give" when the snorkel tube slides in and out as Sheaffer designed them. A very satisfied user of same. No financial connection.

I completely agree with Fred's viewpoint, equally a satisfied user of Martin's copies of the original point holder gaskets.
Their radial & axial pre-tension is much lower, guaranteeing a fluent movement of the snorkel pipe.

Chud...PM sent. I have a section that I'll send to you.

Thanks!!