I just knocked my Montagrappa Extra off my desk When I picked it up, I found that the threaded section of the cap is still on the pen body, but the rest of the cap is snapped off above the silver trim.

The break is very clean, and the broken pieces mate together very nicely. Do you think that this can safely be repaired with cyanoacrylate (super glue), or do you think it needs professional help?

Thanks!

Distraught Steve

celluloid can be welded with acetone, but the job would best be left to a pro, imo. drying is slow, so you would want to use a jig to hold the pieces for days while the weld sets and unless judiciously applied, the acetone can permanently mar the surface finish of your pen. i would avoid ca on this type of repair altogether.

Thanks for the info on acetone. I have a pretty complete workshop at home, so clamping the cap together properly for a long term cure would not be a problem.

Do you have any details about surface prep or suggested curing temperature / duration?

Cheers,

Steve

so long as you haven't touched the break, thereby transfering oils to the plastic, i think you should be good to go. no need to rough up the surfaces as you will literally be melting them. i bring the pieces close together and touch the tip of a bodkin dipped in acetone to the break from the inside - capillarity should do the trick, then push the pieces together. i've never concerned myself with ambient conditions on this sort of job as it is a process of evaporation/outgassing, rather than 'curing' or polimerization. local advisors recommend 2-3 days for a decent weld, but curing will take much longer. good ventilation would also be advised.
i am sure that the pros have other ways of doing this, but the method has worked for me the few times i tried it.

I feel like I just got done watching surgery performed.

Dr.- Acetone
Nurnse- Acetone


Dr.- Clamp
Nurse- Clamp

Dr.-Sponge me.
Nurse- Sponging.

Dr.- Close it up. I think we are done here.
Nurse- Good job Doctor.

Dr.- Tell the patient it can take the brace/cast off in a few days and not to do and more high dives!

lmao -
actually, i'm rather sloppy. i hang with guys who actually hang damp rags in their shop to collect the dust that's floating around to keep it out of their work!

Me too, unfortunately. one of my friends, a serious photographer, built a darkroom in his basement with positive pressure ventilation - feeding of slightly overpressure filtered air to the darkroom to eliminate dust spec's on his prints...

Nice prints BTW.

Heh... he worked with large format cameras - his contacts were blow ups to me - the negatives were 8x10. Of course portability of the camera was an issue occasionally...

Regards,

Gerry

PS: No, I don't know how many megapixels that works out to. Quite a bit more than is available today I would suspect.

I followed Wayne’s advice, and applied a small amount of acetone to the mating surfaces, and clamped it up for ~50 hours. Cap seems good as new with no visible evidence of the break. It helps that the break was aligned with the top edge of the silver trim. This helps disguise any break lines, but I can’t even find any evidence of the break under 5x mag.

Thanks for the help

more than welcome - glad it worked out so well!