Replica feeds

[Chris Hall]

Here's another controversial one for creating replica feeds.For those brave souls who dismantle sections.The difficulty with this is you have to have got the nib and feed out already.Afraid of breaking the feed when reinserting?Make a replica.For the purists no it won't be original  but you will have a replacement without paying gazillions.I use  a fast setting 2 part silicone moulding agent called Pinky sil.Mix up the sil in a small container deep enough to hold the length of the feed.Insert the feed.The agent is viscous enough to hold the feed in the position you want.setting time is around 15 mins.Extract the feed.Mix up 2 part epoxy and tint according to taste.I use an epoxy that hardens to a glass type hardness.Sets overnight .Extract and you have a perfect replica of your feed.The Pinky sil will reproduce perfectly any contours or indentations in the object you insert.I await condemnation.

[Addertooth]

I do it the old-fashioned way.  I have some hard rubber stock in various colors.  A lathe and a mill are in the garage.  The dimensions of the taper are important, and critical.

 

Hard rubber is well known to have the correct "wicking" characteristics for a great feed.   Almost all other plastics require a very special texturing technique applied to the surface to get

similar results as hard rubber.  

 

I have killed more sections where the sac attaches, and the wall is very thin.  I have had to make more sections than feeds by a wide margin.  

[FarmBoy]

I don’t think I’ve ever broken a feed during a repair but I only find it necessary to remove a small percentage of feeds. 
 

I’ll probably break the next half dozen. 

[eckiethump]

4 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

 I only find it necessary to remove a small percentage of feeds.

 

I was quite surprised at that ? as a standard part of the service procedure, I remove the feed and nib to clean the channels and  the back of the nib fully.

et

[VacNut]

On 2/11/2022 at 2:54 AM, eckiethump said:

I was quite surprised at that ? as a standard part of the service procedure, I remove the feed and nib to clean the channels and  the back of the nib fully.

et

I have experimented with vac sections. I have soaked the sections in a cleaning solution, and then knocked out the feed to test whether or not it was worthwhile to remove the feed. Most of the time multiple soaks in the solution, with a final rinse in water was sufficient to return the nib to working order. Setting the section upright with the nib touching a wad of paper towels helps to wick out the residual ink. That said, there is no comparison to taking the section apart and cleaning the individual parts to remove all vestiges of ink,, but I always worry about setting the nib and filler back into the section. I starting using the tape trick of marking the nib location, before I knock out the feed but there are no guarantees.

Vac Sections are celluloid, so soaking is not an issue. I would not suggest soaking a BHR section.