Adjusting The Nib On A Parker "51"

[ek-hornbeck]

I have a Parker 51 that is being recalcitrant -- it's almost a great pen,
and I was wondering if anyone could advise me on it.

The pen is an aerometric 51, with a functional clutch ring (that is, not one
of the late-model pens where the cap clutch bears directly on the barrel).

When I got the pen, I disassembled it and cleaned it. The connector is
sealed to the hood/section with an o-ring, not with shellac, so this was
not difficult.

Here is the problem that I am having. If I remove the hood/section, the pen
writes like a champ -- that is, with the collector, feed and nib naked and
exposed to the air. I examine the nib with a loupe, and I see nice separation
between the tines -- a little slit of daylight, definitely there, but not
too wide.

Then I screw the hood/section onto the connector. The pen begins to write
dry, the line lightens, and then the ink flow eventually stops. When I examine
the tines under a loupe, they seem to be pushed together, so it's no surprise
that the ink is not flowing.

I have been told that the hood does affect the tines, and that adjusting
a 51 can be tricky because of this.

So I took two pieces of brass shim and ran them between the tines. I did this
with the hood on, so I wasn't able to spread the tines too far back into the
nib. I left the shims in place for a few days (with the pen sealed in a baggie
to keep the ink from drying out). When I removed the shims, the pen once
again wrote like a champ -- laid down a lovely, wet line. But over the next 24
hours, things reverted to their former, constipated state.

I've gone around this loop a couple of times, now. The pen writes fine with
the hood off. With the hood on, it dries up. If I spread the tines with shim,
it writes well... for a while, then dries up.

What's really annoying is that this pen is great. It's lovely. It feels good
in my hand. When it writes, it writes very well. I'm close. But it is not
useable.

Can someone advise me on how to adjust the thing to get it to perform?

E.K.

[Flounder]

From your investigations, it sounds like the tip of the hood itself is preventing the capilary exchange of ink & air, and needs to be adjusted - not the gap between the tines.

 

From here, evaluate the nib's tine gap and bring them back to where the flow was optimal with the hood off. Then have a look at the discussion in this thread to adjust the hood tip.

[gweimer1]

I love this place! I've had two Parker 51 demi pens (one vac, one aero) that just don't want to write. I've gone over them, and haven't found anything that sticks out obviously. I'm going to take a stab at this to see if it improves things.

 

Here's a question - I putzed around with the aero pen this morning, and just couldn't get the pen to write. I replaced the gold nib with a NOS octanium one, and it looks like I'm in business. Sooooo...it was either the nib (and I went over it a few times to see what might be out of whack), or the relationship between that nib and the hood. Would any variance in the nib thickness correct the gap and improve the inkflow? I have to think so. I'll work on the vac pen today and see what I can learn there.

 

This place is a gold mine of info and resources.

[Ron Z]

Before you reassemble a 51, check the gap of the slit with a piece of shim stock. A 0.001" piece should be a loose fit, 0.002" a little bit snug.

 

Gary - see me at Ohio.

[ek-hornbeck]

From your investigations, it sounds like the tip of the hood itself is preventing the capilary exchange of ink & air, and needs to be adjusted - not the gap between the tines.

 

From here, evaluate the nib's tine gap and bring them back to where the flow was optimal with the hood off. Then have a look at the discussion in this thread to adjust the hood tip.

 

Flounder, you are The Man. You perfectly diagnosed my problem.

 

I managed to get a brass shim wedged between the hood and the nib -- which was not easy, clear evidence that the hood was too tight down on the nib. In fact, I had to unscrew the hood about 45 degrees, put the shim on top of the now-exposed nib, then screw the hood back into place.

 

Then I dipped the end of the pen into boiling water for a few minutes. I feel much less worried about using hot water than a heat gun -- it gives me a very strong upper bound on the temperature. (I thought this up on my own, but a little browsing around has shown me that this is a standard technique, one in particular that wizards recommend to non-wizards like myself. Boiling water can have some dangers with some materials, but in the main, most agree that it's hard to light your pen on fire or melt it into slag with hot water.) (Though if it could be done, I feel sure that I would be the man who could do it.)

 

After the pen cooled, I removed the shim. The difference was very clear: I could visually detect that the hood was no longer pressing down on the nib.

 

And the pen now writes like a champ. Great line, smooth flow, feels good, never skips, no hard starts. It just works. Whoa, I love 51's now. What an awesome pen!

 

I held off replying to this thread for a few weeks to see if my version of your recommended fix was stable. It is.

 

Flounder, Ron: Thank you very much for your help.

 

E. K.

[the_gasman]

I have a 51 that mimicked the behaviour of yours exactly: hood off – perfect writing; hood on – reluctant flow.

 

I also think that it was Flounder that came to my rescue. I seem to remember that I used an old photographic negative, rather than a brass shim, between the hood and the nib, but the principle was the same.

 

Cheers,

David.

[the_gasman]

PS: No wonder this thread struck a chord – the link in Flounder's post was to the thread in which I expressed my frustration with the dryness of the hooded 51, and his successful remedy. I have, however, mis-remembered how I interpreted his advice: I pushed the tip of a heated hood onto the desk – no photographic film in sight!

 

David.