Columbus Extra 140...anyone Restored One?

[tmenyc]

I have received a Columbus Extra 140 that looks wonderful on the outside -- at first glance indistinguishable from my gold-cap/shiny black barrel/partially hooded nib Waterman Taperite since both happen to be on my desk in front of me at the moment...

 

The trouble is that the Columbus needs to be completely reworked internally and I have no idea what the piston mechanism was that was in there. If anyone has knowledge/experience with restoring these please let me know? Or, if anyone has a parts pen I'll gladly take it off your hands...

 

Many thanks,

 

Tim

[praxim]

Hello Tim, over a year after your query.

 

How did you go?

 

I have a Columbus Extra 138 I bought for repair, so now I too am searching for information. I have observed these things so far:

• ​The piston mechanism is of the Aurora / Omas type, in that the piston cap does not move longitudinally from the barrel like a Pelikan or MB when turned.
• It is unlike an Aurora (for example) in that the piston when pushed down the barrel with section removed, stops, so the mechanism can not be rotated further to release the piston out the front.
• There is no pin in the piston cap seating the cap to the rod, unlike an Omas.
• There are two very small holes on opposite sides, as if for a pin, yet the piston travels normally when the cap is rotated so it appears no pin is needed for that.

Inverting the last couple of points, it seems to me that a pin needs to be inserted to lock and remove the mechanism, although whether the thread will prove to be clockwise or counter-clockwise (for those not solely in the digital age) I have no idea. That is something I would prefer to know rather than to seek by experiment, for obvious reasons. Meanwhile, initial attempts have not enabled me to find an internal through-hole with which to line up the cap holes, part of the problem being that those holes are only about 0.5 mm and were clogged with dust, so the internal hold probably is too (no light path).

 

Is there anyone who can shed light on disassembly of these pens?

[tmenyc]

What has happened? Zilch, nada, nichts, rien...it waits its turn, patiently. Maybe not so patiently, I haven't asked.

Actually, some months ago, I got a 140 that was its opposite, in the hope of netting one from two. This one is in fine condition but missing a nib and needing to be corked.

Now that I see your post I'm far better armed than I was before! I'll put it at the head of the queue and see if it has the strength to deal with the protests of everyone who has been moving their way up.

 

Thanks for resurrecting this.

 

Tim

Edited June 25, 2018 by tmenyc

[praxim]

Glad to see it is still an option.

 

If yours needs re-corking then on what I have seen so far, you will face the same issues. If I discover more at my next attempt I will post it here. At the moment I am planning to draw the ways it is likely to work, so how it would be constructed, to see how it might then come apart.

 

My suggestion that a rod needs to be inserted now makes little sense to me in terms of how the mechanism would work in the first place. I am wondering about two options. One is a dual-pin tool, like a radial version of a Montblanc piston key, to insert in the holes and twist. The other is that there is in fact a pin inside, not exposed at the outer holes but starting about half to one millimetre in from them. The fact the holes are so small makes it difficult. I have already snapped the tip off a half millimetre tool I was using. I sometimes have wild ideas about drilling or reaming out the holes.....

[tmenyc]

Suffice to say that learning what doesn't work is as profitable as learning the successes...keep it up! I hope to be right behind you.

 

Tim

[praxim]

OK, firstly I can correct this comment in #2:

 

• There is no pin in the piston cap seating the cap to the rod

There was indeed a pin within the cap. I found it after reaming crud out of the "0.5 mm" hole to find it was around 0.8 mm, and a suitable drift from the staking set punched out the wire within. A short bit of wire from a paper clip would probably serve for this. When I replace it I will probably use something longer.

 

Once that was out the cap pulled off, showing this:

Note the hole in the end of the rod. Cosmetic? It is too small to fit a screwdriver down there.

 

By winding in the piston you can drop it out of sight into the barrel, showing this gland which is quite likely cork. It does not remove easily, not without a high likelihood of destroying it unless I can find a way to clutch at the base of it all around.

 

Next problem is that the piston still will not come out of the front end of the barrel. There appears to be an obstruction to the mechanism behind the piston seal. This means returning to the cork gland end at the top. Some probing of that hole at the top of the piston rod will occur first.

Edited June 27, 2018 by praxim

[tmenyc]

That's reassuring. There had to be a pin in there -- as you certainly know, the mechanism has to come out of the north end or the south end, and it has to attach to the knob. Those little pins were a brilliant solution. I use suture wire most of the time, although usually I immediately pull out a pice of masking tape, write PIN on it, and fold it over the pin to not lose it, and thus re-use what's there.

 

Thanks, keep up the good work! Happy to have you blaze the trail.

 

Tim

[praxim]

Thanks, keep up the good work! Happy to have you blaze the trail.

 

 

My caution over removing the cork gland, otherwise the obvious thing to do, is that I am none too sure how readily I could make a new one where its ID is 4.0 mm with walls only 0.75 mm thick*. The nearest o-ring I could find (plus massive import cost) was 4.1 x 0.8 mm. If I can get the gland out intact, that will be best. Thoughts on alternatives for replacement or for construction also welcome.

 

* Cutting a 4 mm core is easy. The problem is a mandrel which will hold that in place as the walls become thin. End compressive force will probably distort the cork. A centre screw will leave a non-smooth fit. A close-fit cylinder core is still likely to allow thin cork to spin on the mandrel in the later stages of abrading. Alternatively, trying to cut the 4 mm centre when the outside is already down to 5.5 mm cross section has the same problems from the other logical end, or a centreing problem

[praxim]

 

Somewhat accidentally, I discovered there is another bit that screws out at the top, containing the gland. The (dis)assembly and piston are shown. The rod where the piston fits (left of picture) has a screw thread so I can screw+shellac a cork seal to that, or retain O-rings with a nylon nut.

[tmenyc]

P,

VERY reassuring: that retaining nut arrangement looks just like what's in the Tower Superior I recently reassembled. Probably unrelated: Towers were Swedish, a sub-brand of Soennecken, and I don't know of a relationship between them and Columbus, but the retainer and the piston mechanixm look the same.

 

Should be do-able from here, right?

 

Tim

[praxim]

Yes, I had thought to comment there is no real cause for further update, as the rest looks pretty routine. It is finding out exactly how a new pen was assembled that is the issue. The basic elements are common but the details can vary quite a bit, not helped by disguises of age.

 

My Columbus should be up and running before too long, give or take the fact it is end of financial year in this country so I will be immersed in that for a while, I trust we will now see your 140 in "What pen are you using today" before long as well.

[tmenyc]

Yes, it's fiscal year-end for me as well, but we've pretty much wrapped it up. Looking forward to your post!

Tim