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What Are The Dos And Don'ts Of The Parker Vacumatic?


Venemo

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Thanks Ruth! Being new, I had to look up what a Sumgai is, but Ill take it as a compliment ;) . I wish I had a before picture - I cant tell you how covered in crud/oxidation the metal was. It looked like silver flatware thats hasnt been polished in decades. It wasnt until a Google search that I realized it could actually be gold underneath - such was its far gone state.

 

Question: how is the cap jewel removed? The clip is somewhat free to rotate on the cap, so thinking I might remove the cap jewel, clean and retighten. It appears to screw down, but I cant figure how to get a good grip on it...

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Question: how is the cap jewel removed? The clip is somewhat free to rotate on the cap, so thinking I might remove the cap jewel, clean and retighten. It appears to screw down, but I cant figure how to get a good grip on it...

 

That's something I don't have an answer for. Hopefully one of the repair people will weigh in.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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The jewel is screwed into a retention screw that secures the clip. But if the clip is free and it rotates then the jewel and retention screw would most probably come out together if you try to unscrew the jewel.

 

Use dry heat and then pressing the jewel gently and rotating the cap anti-clockwise on some non-slip sticky pad or a rubber eraser would help loosen the jewel. I personally use a thick sticky tape that electritions use for insulating electic cable joints on water pumps that remain deep inside underground water. In most cases the jewel, if not shallaced, would loosen and then one can unscrew it with the help of one's fingrrs.

 

Watching this youtube video may be helpful.

 

Edited by mitto

Khan M. Ilyas

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Question: how is the cap jewel removed? The clip is somewhat free to rotate on the cap, so thinking I might remove the cap jewel, clean and retighten. It appears to screw down, but I cant figure how to get a good grip on it...

 

This thread (despite its name) has several pieces of advice to deal with the jewel:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/156429-securing-parker-clip-screws-and-jewels/

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Thanks for the many suggestions! I probably should have left well enough alone, as Ive now discovered that a little too much indirect heat can melt your cap jewel. :(. Its now more of a cap blob. At least the brass retainer is still there to hold the clip on! On to ebay to find a new jewel (or cap)....

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  • 2 weeks later...

I measured the ink capacity of my Vacumatic Debutante. I emptied the pen completely. I put 4ml water into a sample vial, filled the pen fully, and then read how much water was left in the vial. Conclusion: the Debutante can hold approximately 1.2ml of ink, which is about equivalent to the content of 2 short international cartridges.

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Hmmm...I wonder what my Vacumatic Major holds....

 

Probably more, it's a larger pen. How much more, though, I dunno. And I haven't used my Silver Pearl Major in a while (I got seduced by the look of the 1st and 2nd Generation Vacs).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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  • 1 month later...

PS...what are the jewels made out of? Bakelite or some such thing?

Celluloid. In the early pens, the jewels were made from the same stock as the barrel, cap, blind cap and section. as manufacture continued down the years, the section, the jewels and even the blind cap were made from black celluloid instead.

 

Clips that rotate round the top of the cap, with the jewel still firmly in place, are extremely common - I suspect slight shrinkage of the celluloid.

Edited by Methersgate
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A well known British repairer, whom I won't name but whom many will know, tells me that he no longer accepts Oversize and Maxima Vacumatics for repair, as the celluloid in Vacs sometimes delaminates, and he finds this is particularly prone to happening with Oversizes and Maximas.

 

I thought I should pass this on in this thread.

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