I recently purchased a '48 english made 51 fine point Vacumatic off of ebay. I have tried it out with Noodler's bulletproof black ink. It is a very dry writer. Different angles, etc.. it can skip and fade all together. This happens after the pen has been filled. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

Good question for the Repair Forum.

Basic answer... unless you do some pen restoration work (the basics can be learned), probably needs to go to restorer. Is the feed/collector crudded up with old ink? Is the nib/feed assemblyt too tight? Etc.

regards

d

Have you flushed the pen out completely....
Generally what you are seeing is the result of a pen that has not been completely cleaned... therefore there is dried ink in the converter, feed and nib and it causes the pen to skip and write dry...
Empty the pen and flush it out well with cool clear water.... keep flushing until the water runs clear.... then put the pen nib down wrapped in some paper towel... this will wick the remaining water out of the collector.
When you first fill the pen flush it with the ink to fill the collector... usually about 10-12 squeezes of the press bar.... making sure to stop about 5 seconds between squeezes...
Then squeeze a drop or two out of the nib and wipe down the hood and you should be good to go

I will give this a try. I was looking for something simple to try first. Thanks!!

I just realized you said it was a vac filler.... my directions are for an aero filler.....
Vac fillers are much harder to flush out than a vac filler....
In the case of a vac filler, I would suggest complete disassembly of the hood, collector, feed and nib and ultrasonic cleaning.... the aero system I mentioned won't work...

I gave the pen a good flush, but it did not help the issue. However, I switched ink from Noodler's black to Legal Lapis. This seems to do the trick and the pen writes well. I guess then pen will prefer the wetter inks until I send it out for some work. I can live with this. Thanks all for your help.

A "51" that has had a fill of Superchrome ink dry out in it will take quite a while to write well, as the residue won't dissolve readily. If Legal Lapis works for you, buy all means use the pen, it may improve quite a bit on it's own.

However, all the "51"s I've used Noodler's black in are almost too wet -- likely there is a substantial amount of petrified ink in there fouling the collector and feed. Some of that stuff will only come off in a sonicating bath followed by gently scraping with a piece of old photographic film. Once clean, a "51" should write very smoothly and on the wet side. Some have been adjusted to write dry, but in my experience a stingy "51" needs the nib slit cleaned.

Enjoy the pen!

Peter