Search the Community

I have a 1948 Parker 51 Vacumatic that I have recently restored to perfect condition (including super smooth NOS fine nib), except for one persisting flaw: It writes very well and smoothly, but when passing over any kind of paper at a particular speed, I hear a rather loud and incredibly annoying resonance that has a low pitch and sounds more like a rattling/scraping noise. I took everything apart, used hot water to set the feed tightly against the nib (I thought that would be the problem), straightened the breather tube so it wouldn't rattle against the side of the barrel and used cyanoacrylate ('super') glue on its outside surface to change the mass (and ∴ Resonant frequency), used a little bit of rubber wedged between the breather tube and collector to make sure it wouldn't resonate there, made sure nothing was loose or shaking. Put together and sealed the clutch-ring and hood. And . . . it still rattles. -It's not the filler mechanism that makes the sound. It doesn't sound anything like a singing nib, and doesn't atomise any ink, puts down a really smooth sharp fine line, but I'm not ruling out the possibility . . . The noise drives me mad and spoils an otherwise ideal (for me/IMO) pen. I am at wit's end as to what the problem could be; the only thing I can think of is a resonating nib or the breather tube, by some miracle is rattling. My only other conclusion is that it is a design flaw, but my Hero 110 (every day knock-about pen) is 100% solid and quiet (but it does have a rubber/silicon sac, not solid barrel where breather tube is). So, has anyone else encountered this problem, is it a part of all Vacumatic 51s? Any solutions?