What is on your bench?

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Well, the mark is usually plier marks on the section in my experience.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I have successfully put in a new sac, lightly polished with Micro-Gloss (and a touch of Simichrome for the cap bands) and reassembled the pen without the pen falling apart on me, I guess I can consider that a success. I'm too scared to look at the cracks to see if they got any bigger.

 

Did anyone make a version of the black and pearl that was more durable? Getting a nice Sheaffer in that material is one of my "grails" but I am starting to think it's not a worthwhile goal because that celluloid always goes bad without fail. If not crystallized, it almost always develops hairline cracks.

 

The Wahl Eversharp version of the celluloid seems to be even more prone to issues. I know Waterman used it for some Patrician and Lady Patrician pens but they seem rather uncommon so I don't know if theirs was more hardy.

[Nightjar]

Well I attempted the brass repair of the broken barrel on the Dickinson Shendish. It actually didn't turn out too bad as a first attempt: section goes into barrel smoothly, and now doesn't wobble when writing; cap still screws on fine; and if you don't examine it too closely it looks okay (in its bad-imitation-of-kintsugi sort of way). The attachment (mini-pegs from the brass, plus Loctite 480) seems to be holding for cautious use, though it's definitely not very robust.

 

If you look close, there's a massive gap (up to a mm) between brass and BHR in some areas, and that means not only shoddy aesthetics but also much weaker attachment. I should do it again, using first piece as template-to-be-corrected, but it's 5 or 6 hours work to make the piece!

 

One peg visible at front, two lateral pegs at back, to grooves filed in the BHR. I cut the pegs as part of a single shape from the 1.5mm sheet: it may make more sense to solder them on afterwards, that way much easier to shape the curve and its edge precisely, and then precisely align pegs to grooves.

 

I guess (?) lost wax casting would be a good approach for this sort of thing. Though not suggesting that would be cost-effective!

 

 

[VacNut]

From bits and bobs…

Unlike other vacuum-type fillers, you can prepare the Vacumatic fillers for simple replacement ahead of time. Add the diaphragm and it can be easily screwed into the barrel. Genius Parker Engineering. 

 

The aluminum Speedline Fillers are getting more difficult to source as the thin aluminum sleeve corrode. 
 

There are modern replacements, but I am not sure they fit as well as the original.

 

Once in awhile, I comes across a Vac Maxima that uses a Speedline Fillers with an Oversize Collar, which throws a wrench into the (almost) interchangeable parts.

[Nightjar]

This is another request for advice. I posted photos of this pen on the US Pens forum to see if anyone could ID it... not entirely clear, perhaps it's a pre-Permapoint Eberhard Faber. But whatever it is...

 

... I can't work out how to fix it. I can't separate section from barrel (despite persistent efforts, with heat): I guess it was either made that way (???) or it has been very firmly glued in place with superglue or similar.

 

Even if I were able to remove section, I wonder if it's missing a part: feed doesn't appear to have any sort of nipple to go into, and I can't see how that could work for a lever+window pen. There's something in there (below the asterisk) but that may well be just semi-gooey sac residue. Otherwise (accessed from top with feed removed) it just seems like bare barrel walls plus lever+bar.

 

Photo shows parts in their approximate relative positions.

 

Maybe I'm being stupid and missing something obvious. Can anyone suggest anything? I wish you guys lived down the road!

 

[Ron Z]

The stuff half way down the barrel likely is the dead sac.  You often find the sac turned to goo and stuck to the pressure bar.  Gentle persistence is how you get the section out, getting a little more aggressive as you go.

 

A suggestion - keep the nib and feed in the section while you remove it from the barrel.  The nib, or at least the feed, supports the section, keeping it from getting crushed by the section pliers or whatever you use to grip it.  At least put the section back in.

[VacNut]

I have been using a hair dryer, but you should consider getting a heat gun that can be temperature set, if you intend on working on pens. It really takes the guess work out on the use of dry heat.

[Ron Z]

The other thing about a heat gun (or embossing gun, which is what I and most pros use) is that the heat is focused - about 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter, so you can focus on where the heat needs to go.  I have a Steinel temperature controlled heat gun and don't use it.  Actually, I have no idea where it is.   I've worn out a number of the embossing guns.

 

Time to bring this article out again....

[lionelc]

embossing gun for me too - have a bosch variable temp one that i stopped using, found i was relying too much on the temperature setting and not checking up on the pen

[Nightjar]

Thank you @Ron Z @VacNut all very good advice. The sac had dried out a bit since I last poked, eventually got it all out, lever mechanism seems fine. Still no luck with removing section, will keep trying. (And still don't understand how this can work without a nipple... but anyway, that's moot until I can get the section removed from barrel.) Thanks again!

[Paul-in-SF]

1 hour ago, Nightjar said:

And still don't understand how this can work without a nipple...

 

I'm probably missing something, but normally the sac nipple would be on the section, not on the feed. Assuming the section is removable, that is.

 

9 hours ago, Nightjar said:

feed doesn't appear to have any sort of nipple to go into, and I can't see how that could work for a lever+window pen.

 

I'm not seeing an ink window on your pen from those photos. Is it a visualated section? 

 

I'm interested because I'm having a related issue with a Webster pen with a twist filler, and an ink window in what I will call the section, although I can't see where it would separate from the barrel and I'm afraid to try it. I posted about this in the Repairs forum, 

 

Anyway, I want to wish you luck with your section removal, I sure hope it wasn't permanently glued. 

[Paul-in-SF]

Here's a closeup of the related part of my Webster pen. 

 

[VacNut]

That may not be a clear section. It may be the celluloid starting to fade.

There are pens with sacks and a clear ink window. It was more for looks than for function or they may have been transitional pens whereby the smaller mfr was using up lever filler barrels.

[Paul-in-SF]

51 minutes ago, VacNut said:

That may not be a clear section. It may be the celluloid starting to fade.

 

It's harder to see in the photo, but the line between translucent and opaque is a straight line; I can see it clearly when I remove the nib and feed. edited to revise this: there are two distinct parts of the section area; one is evenly translucent; the other is unevenly mottled between translucent and opaque. I don't know why. There is a physical line between them, as if they were glued together. 

 

That being said, if this is a pen with a sac and an ink window, is it your opinion that there must be a section that is removable, that includes a sac nipple? I ask because it seems I should be able to see something of that structure when I remove the nib and feed and put a tiny light on a wire inside the section, but I can't see any structure like that. The wall of the barrel under that window seems (emphasis on "seems") fairly thin, and not thick enough to be a double-walled structure of a section inside a barrel. That is what has held me up so far on trying to remove that part of the pen from the barrel -- that, and the fact that the filler is working very well, so I don't need to do anything with it. I just want to know how it works. 

[tmenyc]

Back to the heat source ... I use the bright pink one from Michaels, usually around $20 before the coupon of the day. It's generally good for around a year, so I always have a spare ready to go. Mine is perma-mounted off the corner of my bench facing straight up so I just flip the switch and hold the pen above it. 

Tim

[Nightjar]

@Paul-in-SF the photo of your Webster is VERY interesting, because that's pretty much how my pen looks, and you likewise can't see how to remove section from barrel. @VacNutnoted that the window may be ornamental or using-up-stock, i.e. not designed to fill. @Paul-in-SF yes agreed nipple normally part of section, but my internal section/barrel walls seem continuous and bare all the way down. And my pen somehow needs a sac.

 

[VacNut]

3 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

 

It's harder to see in the photo, but the line between translucent and opaque is a straight line; I can see it clearly when I remove the nib and feed. edited to revise this: there are two distinct parts of the section area; one is evenly translucent; the other is unevenly mottled between translucent and opaque. I don't know why. There is a physical line between them, as if they were glued together. 

 

That being said, if this is a pen with a sac and an ink window, is it your opinion that there must be a section that is removable, that includes a sac nipple? I ask because it seems I should be able to see something of that structure when I remove the nib and feed and put a tiny light on a wire inside the section, but I can't see any structure like that. The wall of the barrel under that window seems (emphasis on "seems") fairly thin, and not thick enough to be a double-walled structure of a section inside a barrel. That is what has held me up so far on trying to remove that part of the pen from the barrel -- that, and the fact that the filler is working very well, so I don't need to do anything with it. I just want to know how it works. 

Sorry, I referenced the wrong photo. I thought the photo was from the Faber Pen.

[Nightjar]

@Paul-in-SF wrote "it seems I should be able to see something of that [nipple-bearing] structure when I remove the nib and feed and put a tiny light on a wire inside the section, but I can't see any structure like that. The wall of the barrel under that window seems (emphasis on "seems") fairly thin, and not thick enough to be a double-walled structure of a section inside a barrel. That is what has held me up so far on trying to remove that part of the pen from the barrel -- that, and the fact that the filler is working very well"

 

That's an EXACT description of my situation too, except that mine doesn't currently fill and definitely needs a sac.

 

[Meanwhile, looking for a tiny light on a wire, that'd be handy!]

[Ron Z]

Quote

 

You aren't likely to see the sac nipple looking down the center of the section.  The section and sac nipple are most often turned from one piece, and the inside is pretty much a straight bore from the outside edge of the section to the back end of the sac nipple.  If the sac was hardened and broke off at the sac nipple, you might not feel it with a probe either because the sac fills the small gap between the nipple and the barrel wall.  That bit of sac can be quite hard even if the rest of the sac was soft or crumbled.

 

Celluloid sections are also usually one piece.  If there is black it is often a coating on the inside or outside of the section.   Sheaffer certainly did this.  If you sand it off, it's clear underneath the black.  I think that Parker did as well. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Can confirm, on a lot of my Sheaffer pens with the visualated sections, the black paint starts to wear off and sometimes you get an "extended" ink window. Not as useful as you would think since the "nib units"/bushings that Sheaffer uses blocks visibility anyways.