I recently bought a Parker '61' capillary filler at a yard sale, brought it home, spent several hours cleaning the old ink out and refilling it, and it still skips quite often. Also, after a few lines of use, the ink starts to get thin. This can be remedied by uscrewing the barrel and giving the pen a gentle shake. Simply unscrewing it doesn't do anything, and simply shaking it doesn't do anything. It is a two part process. I noticed that the barrel has a very small crack in it. Should this have anything to do with it not writing properly?

The barrel also has a name engraved in it, so I was looking at a replacement barrel. I found a flighter barrel NOS on eBay, but the guy says it will not fit a capillary filler. Is this true?

-Robert

The thinning of the ink is an indication that the flow is not good. I get the same effect on mine when it's nearly run out.
I suspect the collector and feed are still clogged with dried ink. I suggest you keep on flushing it out, but if that doesn't work, you may have to dismantle the pen. Take a look at http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=39324 to get an idea of the innards & method of dismantling.
The crack in the barrel will not affect the flow, but you may have to do something about it soon. It will only get worse - and when it does the pen will become unusable. I have tried to make a new P61 barrel myself - and it worked, but I eventually had to give up on the pen for other reasons.

Regards

Richard.

Thanks. Does anyone know if the flighter barrel will fit a capillary 61?

I have been told that the English flighter-style barrel and cap will only fit an English c/c section. I think that one that's been offered on eBay for some time is of that type. Different threads, I believe.

When my regular barrel cracked on another 61, I got the replacement from A. Kullock in Argentina. It was perfect NOS grey plastic with gold trim. Fit perfectly and matched color perfectly. It was not inexpensive, $35 shipped, I believe, and it took about a month to get to Iowa. But it was a 100% perfect match.

I got the English flighter as my daily use 51 because I didn't want any more plastic problems...

Now if I could just get the darn little hood arrow to stay stuck on!

thanks. I will look into getting a replacement barrel elsewhere.

the arrow on the hood bit. Never had a repair stay on although I did read (somewhere) that there was a heat method. I just replaced the hood - there is nothing worse than a 61 with the arrow out.
With respect to the Argentinian 61, I didin't know they actually made a proper 61 barrel. The pens they used to market as 61s were actually 51s with two dots in the hood and a jewel on the back of the 51 barrel (and a 61 cap). I have one and its a nice pen. Couldn't tell you what it looks like under the hood...........

The capilliary & c/c barrels have different thread sizes, and the thread on the c/c version is a triple start compared to the single start of the capilliary version.

There is an additional problem. The c/c barrel doesn't have an inner cap to close off the top of the capilliary reservoir - and you'll get excessive ink flow if it doesn't.

All-in-all a c/c barrel on a capilliary version doesn't work.

Regards

Richard.

What is the best way to go about fixing the crack in the barrel? It is a very small crack that is hard to see, but it is already starting to branch and i want to catch it before it destroys the barrel.

I've heard some people say that using MEK to solvent weld the crack worked.

Well, it didn't for me. Neither did adhesives.
Possibly one of the best people to ask here is RonZ. Maybe he'll be able to suggest a viable solution.

After trying most things I could think of, I ended up making a new barrel for my c/c P61. That worked well enough until I realised the hood was porus, and I ended up filing the nib and putting it in a P51.

Regards

Richard.

Cool pens and the capillary filler system, when functioning, is sublimely practical. But the 61 lost the plastic lottery, so to speak, and it's one reason I've decided to stick to 51s and 75s... I've said before that when it was made who knew that the lucite used for the "51" which was a new and modern material at the time, would hold up over the years, any more than they knew that the 61 plastic, again a top end product, would prove to be so fickle and, dare I say it, fragile... I do like the looks and styling of the 61, however. Maybe if I can find a flighter one day...