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Reducing Nib Dry-Out With Rubbery Sealant?


dumaresq

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I'm trying to improve the cap airtightness on a couple of my pens, and thought to address the gap between the inner cap and the section, which I imagine exists to some extent in most pens.

 

I know some Platinums have a springloaded inner cap to ensure a snug fit against the section ("Slip and Seal"), and I've heard reports of its superior performance against dry-out.

 

My crazy idea is to pipe a thin ring of silicone sealant (or other soft-setting substance) around the rim of the inner cap, just bulky enough to squish up against the section when capped.

 

post-139694-0-79258600-1570878043_thumb.jpg

 

I'm hoping that this creates a much better seal, and keeps the nib from drying out for longer.

 

Has anyone tried something like this before??

 

(If it's relevant, the pen I want to try this on is a Moonman M6, which has a wooden cap; but I also have a couple others with metal and plastic caps that could do with better airtightness.

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For crying out loud. Just use your pen more often.

I ride a recumbent, I play go, I use Macintosh so of course I use a fountain pen.

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For crying out loud. Just use your pen more often.

Just change your lifestyle to accomodate an inanimate object instead of improving the inanimate object to function better? If everyone thought like that fountain pens would never have been invented, we would still be carving on stone tablets or something.

 

Besides, for some of us tinkering is fun. There's no need to cry out loud if someone else is interested in doing a bit of experimentation.

 

I wonder how many people see us using fountain pens and say "For crying out loud, just use a ballpoint!"?

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I honestly don't think the sealant is a good idea. A fat enough o-ring around the base of the nib might do the job.

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For crying out loud. Just use your pen more often.

 

 

What a wrongheaded suggestion that is! When the cap doesn't seal effectively, and the ink is allowed to evaporate when the pen is capped and unused, it's not a matter of racing against time to find enough use for the ink before it's all lost to the atmosphere. Out of the box, my Moonman M6 was already so ineffectively at preventing ink from evaporating while capped, that the colour of the lines the nib put down was noticeably darker between uses, even when I test-wrote with it every other day; so losing a full converter fill's worth of ink within two weeks is not the only problem, when some of us here as keen fountain pen users select the nibs, inks and papers we use carefully to get particular writing outcomes, and not leave the width, shape and colour of what appears on the page to chance.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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Dumaresq,

Interesting possibility. I hope the sealant doesn’t flake off. Maybe a trial on an inexpensive test pen?

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Sorry for the silly question, but does the cap snap, or screw? If it screws, then a bit of silicone grease on the threads might help. If it snaps, then an o ring might do it. I haven't had one of these and don't know how they're made.

It looks like a nice pen!

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but does the cap snap, or screw?

The Moonman M6 has a screw cap.

 

If it screws, then a bit of silicone grease on the threads might help.

At least on mine, the threads aren't what compromised the effectiveness of the cap.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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A shot glass with a bit of water.....I use a German rubber sponge filled postal stamp licker, you can find something similar on Ebay.

 

I often have 17 pens inked so many are dry from lack of use.....dip and go.

 

I find you sealant idea, wrong.

 

Had it been a working solution, I'd read many posts on it over the last decade. Haven't.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Had it been a working solution, I'd read many posts on it over the last decade. Haven't.

 

 

I disagree with your logic.

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I think this is a problem worth solving. I've had great pens that I ultimately stopped using because they suffered from this, meaning they hard-started, wrote darker than expected, left smudgy overconcentrated ink, or even dried out altogether in just a couple of weeks.

 

Generally I find that the problem is a gap around the clip or the end of the cap — blow in to the wide end of the cap and see if air is coming out. I've had some luck fixing leaks around the clip by injecting some silicone grease under the clip hinge.

 

If the problem is lack of sealing at the threads or snap closure, I'm not sure what would work. The sealant idea proposed by the original poster I think would degrade very quickly due to torque and abrasion, as well as being difficult to insert in the first place. If it wasn't precisely enough applied, it might wick ink away from the feed or even misalign the nib on capping. And once in there, it would be relatively difficult to clean and remove.

Anthony

ukfountainpens.com

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The sealant idea proposed by the original poster I think would degrade very quickly due to torque and abrasion, as well as being difficult to insert in the first place.

 

 

Nothing that cannot be accomplished with a disposable plastic syringe fitted with a 30mm-or-longer 16-gauge blunt needle and filled with the sort of silicone sealant used in plumbing, I assume. The O-ring idea — sitting on the edge of the opening of the inner cap, I assume — also has merit, but then glue will need to be applied to prevent the O-ring from falling out of the cap, yet if the glue dries and hardens it may diminish the effectiveness of the solution.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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Is the inner cap cracked?

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I have used some five-minute-set epoxy on a few Parker Sonnets where the inner cap was apparently cracked during manufacture with good results, solving a drying out issue that made the pens almost useless. I don't think I would do that on a pen that didn't have such a drying out issue where the pen would dry out within the hour or so.

 

Bo Bo Olson's solution has merit, and I have used it with several other pens.

Edited by pajaro

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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This has been a problem since fountain pens were invented. We forget that the patent battles and competition in the fountain pen industry was at one time as aggressive as the computer/phone industry is today. Given the whacky things that made their way in to production, only to be abandoned, I'm sure that someone along the way tried a soft setting sealint like RTV. It's not like they don't know that the materials are available.

 

I suspect that the problem is not where the section meets the inner cap, but elsewhere. The end of the section already seals tightly against the edge of the inner cap because of the pressure from tightening the cap so that it doesn't come off. I would look to see if there are other possible routes for air to get in.

 

There are many inner caps in modern pens that are poorly sealed, if at all. There are many ways that air can get into the inner cap. Some pen manufacturers don't have a closed inner cap, but just a tube to hold the clip in place, and to limit the travel of the pen as the cap is screwed on so that the nib doesn't get bent - the top is wide open. The modern Conklin Glider with just a tube for an inner cap is an example.

 

Another pen, that came through the shop a few months ago, had an inner cap so open that I could breathe through the cap. The pen would dry out in a da. The spring loaded clip on the cap reached inside, and the top was not sealed at all. I used a closed inner cap from a Sheaffer to fix it.

 

The modern Parker Duofold was another example of poor thinking. Parker drilled the vent hole and hid it under the clip, but put it up above the edge of the inner cap instead of below it, so the pen dries out. Seal that hole and drill another farther down below the edge of the inner cap, and the problem is solved.

 

Based on experience, it's going to be difficult to get a good, even seal down inside the cap, and you're likely to make a heck mess putting it in, and a heck of a time getting the silicone out again if you find that it doesn't work well, if at all. An 0-ring would be a better idea. Keep in mind though that it will make the cap sit higher on the pen when closed so the threads will not engage as much, or maybe not at all.

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About hole on the cap.

Faintly remember an old post about how a pen maker (Parker?) actually put a hole to the cap to avoid vacuum generated when uncapping from sucking the ink out and cause splatters.

 

Myth or is it debunked ?

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About hole on the cap.

Faintly remember an old post about how a pen maker (Parker?) actually put a hole to the cap to avoid vacuum generated when uncapping from sucking the ink out and cause splatters.

 

Myth or is it debunked ?

 

Lots of pen manufacturers did that, and still do. But the vent holes are all below the edge of the inner cap, or are supposed to be (see note above about some of the modern Duofolds). Many of the caps have a way for air to travel around the outside of the inner cap to prevent the vacuum when the cap is pulled off. The Sonnet has this, the 51 does, and others do as well, while leaving the inner cap itself air tight.

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Some silly US law said the cap had to have enough holes or a big enough hole in it that small children would still be able to breath a bit when they swallowed a fountain pen cap....

 

I'd read a number of posts about that.

It's so stupid, I don't think it's a myth. It sounds something like a ball point using law maker would do.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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