Search the Community

I've finally gotten around to trying to repair some cracked sections that I have on fountain pens that I'd like to be able to use again. I was told that what I need to do is a solvent weld of the plastic. My problem is that I might have bought the wrong stuff. One pen is a Waterman Phileas with a broad nib that I liked. The section suddenly developed a hairline crack in it some years ago when I was using it in my rotation. The section is black plastic. I don't know which kind of plastic it is. The other is a "Harley Davidson" fountain pen that I think is a Waterman Kultur fountain pen with the motorcycle company branding. It also has a black, plastic section. I'm not sure that it's the same plastic as the Phileas section is made of. On this one I know why the section is cracked. I'd had the idea to really, really clean it before putting another ink in it years ago, and so I decided that I'd pull the nib and feed. I'd figured out that I could pull a nib and feed out of a fountain pen maybe a year or so before that, and I figured I could always just do it. Well, this pen's nib and feed were pretty tightly held by the section. So when I went to use that "Harley Davidson" fountain pen I found it leaking all over my hand and I traced the leak to the crack in the section. This crack is, I think, a little bit wider than a hairline. So it was suggested here on FPN that I get some solvent and weld the section cracks shut. MEK aka methyl ethyl ketone aka Butanone was suggested as the solvent. A hobby Web site was suggested as the place to get it. I finally got the solvent from that hobby Web site, but it turns out to be methylene chloride aka DCM aka Dichloromethane. So did I really get the wrong stuff, or is the methylene chloride probably going to work? Another question relates to applying the solvent. The bottle has this relatively huge brush in the cap. I see that applicators for this stuff are sold at that hobby Web site but I'm wondering if the eye-end of a sewing needle might be good enough as an applicator? Any advice on this? Thanks for any help.