Disassembled my first Touchdown, and the screw attaching the TD tube to the blind cap was apparently just determined to escape to freedom. It made its second attempt by leaping into the carpet and I'm not having any luck turning it up... I'll keep trying, but where, if anywhere, can I get a replacement, just in case? (Because I think this will come up again if nothing else...)

Get hold of a fairly strong magnet and run it over the carpet in the general area where you dropped it. The screw is steel and should pop out of the carpet.

Nope, not finding it...

Alternatively, you could try vacuum cleaning the carpet, and then looking for the screw in the dust bag of the vacuum cleaner.

Tried that, too. Nada.

Small parts trying to escape by leaping from our hands then found miles from where dropped is the second unsolvable fountain pen mystery.

The first is where all the Vacumatic blind cap tassies disappear to.

Seriously, check your clothes - pockets, cuffs etc. If you were in a chair, check anywhere it could have landed (seat, legs, cross braces, wheels). Ditto for the desk or table you were at.

I once found a nib six feet from where I sat (some days later I might add). I think as I dropped it and tried to grab it, I must have jerked my foot and ended up kicking it.

Mostly, I think I need a human sized zip lock bag to do repairs in.

I hope you find the original, because I checked the one in my TD Craftsman, and it looks like kind of a weird size -- something like a #5-24 fillister head self-tapping screw, 1/4" long.

-- Brian

Not much to offer... BUT there is hope. I just read about a woman in Florida who lost a nose stud water skiing and her boyfriend found it when filleting a fish he caught in that area three days later!

Do you have a fish tank?

If all else fails and you can't find it, email me your snail address and I'll mail one to you. I just checked and I happen to have a spare - left over from all those Sheaffer TD Imperials I've played with.

Thanks to everybody who's helped and offered replacement screws! I have a Grainger branch in town and I plan to take an example in and see if they can match it.

Meantime I did find a serviceable replacement at my local Do It Best---a #4 sheet metal screw seems to have a similar diameter and threads; I got one with a round phillips head. Since they sell them open stock and I'd brought in my pen pieces, I was able to try them and I found one that would go all the way to the bottom of the TD tube, but some would and some wouldn't, so be aware of that. Also the shortest they had was 3/8" and it was pointed, so I had to cut it off with a Dremel tool. And of course I was careful to be gentle putting it in; if you force it the screw doesn't have to be right I'm sure, but I wouldn't want to do that to my blind cap!

(The employees at that store are very friendly and usually helpful, but I keep doing weird stuff with fountain pens and drop spindles and they just don't know what I'm talking about... ^_^;; )