Targa leaking inlaid nib: a newbie's journey LOADS OF ATTACHMENTS

August 25, 2009

Just before the summer resits, I bought a Sheaffer Targa from eBay, for my 'all-fountain pen' exams, which I posted about over the last fortnight or so. Unfortunately, during these the Targa proceded to leak ink all over my writing hand, courtesy of a majorly leaking inlaid nib. When I say majorly leaking - I could create a perfect diamond pattern on my pinkie by pressing it against the inlay.

The following photos represent my first real attempt at fountain pen 'repair' (I put repair in quote marks, because the pen wrote fine with no skipping or anything). Info on this problem is a little thin on the ground, I followed the advice given in this Pentrace article to use Captain Tolley's crack cure and work from the inside on the nib section. This one is pretty good too! Thanks Pendoctor.

So we begin 3 days ago!

Stage 1: Flushing all the ink out of the nib

First I soaked the nib unit in warm water for a few hours to start off getting rid of the ink still in it. So far, so good! On to the next pic!

This Targa came with a squeeze converter. This is supposed to be a bonus for flushing, and later on seperating the nib unit.

Frankly I don't have much patient when it comes to flushing, so I got a big syringe from an inkjet printer refill kit, put it where the converter usually goes - a suprisingly perfect fit - and wrapped a lot of plumber's seal tape around the join. Now we can flush like crazy beasts!

How's this for ink capacity? I was almost tempted to make this a permanent arrangement. Flushing had to be thorough, I didn't want any ink left to interfere with the sealant later on.

This is a photo taken after the flushing and drying process. Notice that despite my efforts, there was still a little ink coming from the inlay onto my pinky. Just my luck; I kept going till there was nothing showing.

Stage 2: Disassembly

I started off the disassembly with some trepidation. I don't have any section grips or spark plug grips. I thought I would jerry-rig something out of a pair of adjustable pliers and rubber so there's be no scratching. In the end, I didn't even need those, thanks to the age of the pen and the warm water used earlier.

Here we are with the cap and barrel off. Baby steps eh? Rome wasn't built in a day.

Thanks to the Pendoctor's article, I knew where to twist to seperate the nib section. It's here at the cap ring... But will it come apart, refuse to budge, or crack? I've never done this to a pen but have had some very tricky experience with corroded brake caliper bleed valves.

Astoundingly, these came apart using finger pressure. You can hardly see shellac in this photo, it had turned to dust!

Safely unscrewed, I thumbed the feed out of the nib. It didn't take much pressure and wasn't glued in or anything. I was very glad to notice it fits in a squared off recess, so there's no danger of misalignment upon refitting. Thanks Mr. Sheaffer.

This photo shows the gubbens inside the nib: the feed, a rubber gasket , and the plastic thing that the converter or cartridge attaches to. I was immediately suspicious of that last one! Lets zoom in.

As we can see, the plastic thing that the converter attaches to is covered in keyed areas and recessed areas. A flashback to taking my laptop apart says making use of these keys and recesses is not optional :-) It sits in the nib with the topmost part of the diagonal slash in its tube in line with the nib, as in the diagram in the previous photo.

Here are all the bits in a Targa, in an exploded view, to make sure nothing goes missing.

Phew! I dodged a bullet with the seperation I think. The hard part is next, using the sealant.

I had a nice cup of Calmomile before attempting the main job, as you can see. I have no idea why some photos came out great and some not so great.

Stage 3: Sealing

This shot shows a curious close up of the nib without the feed, gasket &c. Notice that curious blue area? Surely no ink could have been left behind, after all that flushing? Even the feed was bone dry. A cautious probing with a wooden toothpick revealed this to be some sort of cellophane layer, sandwitched between the steel nib and the plastic housing. This was damaged on one side but its not clear to me how this could possibly have happened. You can also see that the inlay is covered by plastic a short distance in from the tines. My goal was to see how good this stuff really was. I only applied sealant to this area, not the outside of the nib unit you can see as you write. Anyway, on we go. Time to look at Captain Tulley's famous Creeping Crack Cure.

I did some research on this stuff after reading the Pendoctor's article. Apparently its great for boats and leaking Volvo windshields. These are pretty challenging areas so I've got faith it will do the job in the more sedentary role of pen leaks! This photo represents me trying to be clever and working out how much comes out of the bottle in one drop. After all the nib is pretty small and I didn't want to soak the thing in sealant. The camera was on multi shot for this pic, not a single one showed a droplet in mid air between the bottle and the page. I used more sealant up doing this than during the repair! It comes out of the bottle in big fat drops that aren't really suited to this kind of work at all.

With this in mind, I started searching for something to plug up the hole before the tines seperate, in case sealant got between them and ruined the pen forever. I thought about using a blob of blu-tack first. Then I thought, I can just imagine all the veterans howling in indignation. "BLUTACK! You should NEVER use blutack on a nib. It will transmogrify the tines! Only EVER use CYAN tack, available from blah blah". In the end I cut a tiny piece of rubber and put it in the hole. I expect a piece of pencil eraser would be fine too.

This photo shows a top view of the rubber bung in the hole before the tines (is there a special name for this hole?)

Here is a badly lit picture of the rubber bung viewed from below. I had the perfect thing to light this, a tiny bulb wired up to a 9 volt battery I use to inspect my car's horrible rear drum brakes. It would have fit perfectly in the nib, but I couldn't find it :embarrassed_smile:

Here's a shot that hardly shows what's going on! Just after the first application of Tulleys, which was extremely difficult. I used a damp cloth immediately after to soak up spills, as per the instructions. Its a half hour between coats.

After 30 minutes it was time for the second coat. During this break I was racking by brains trying to think up a better method of application. It hit me all of a sudden, like a slap to the face from a Scary Mary on a Saturday night in a Sautchiehall Street bar.

Introducing I method I call the 'Flounder Floss'. I wrapped a length of thread around my fingers, and dripped a little sealant on the thread. Now it was easy to be very, very precise about introducing a tiny amount of sealant to the very edge where the nib meets the plastic, keeping the thread taut between the fingers. This shot was pretty tricky to take!

This close up shows how a little sealant applied to the edge finds its way to the rest of the nib/plastic lip. It sets clear, by the way.

Another photo of how the Flounder Floss results in a very neat application. I really am quite frightfully clever. (ducks punches)

I did about 6 applications, 1 every half hour. Then you wait 24 hours, and start again. I did this over the course of 3 days, it's quite labour intensive.

For the very centre of the where the nib meets the housing, I started getting paranoid about whether enough sealant was reaching it. I used a bent paperclip to apply to this area, as a big enough droplet wouldn't adhere to a needle. To be honest though, i think I was going overboard at this stage.

I occasionally stuck this earbud (q- tip, language fans) in the rear of the nib housing and gave it a swirl, in case the sealant ran unexpectedly too far down and messed up the space for putting the feed back in. I dont think this would have acutally happened but you never know!

This photo shows the penultimate coat today. I have no idea why I took it beyond the fact I was getting used to taking photos of everything I did :roflmho:

This is an okay shot of how the sealant finds its way from the outside edge in. You can just see the rubber bung protecting the tines from clumsiness.

So after all that, I put the pen back together. I forgot about taking the rubber bung out for a while and couldn't understand why the feed didn't want to go in Doh!

So, duly reassembled, here's the Targa on my desk for a change, instead of in bits in a drawer, where it's been since my exams finished. I tried it upon reassembly and no leaks, but of course the real test will be over a week or so of use. If I've not bored you enough by now, stay posted!

Baed on tonight's use though, I'm very encouraged, because it was leaking on my fingers as soon as I picked it up before. I'm also really happy that this is an 'invisible' repair, there's no uunsightly stuff to apply to the outside of the nib you see every day. This has given me the confidence to finally tackle my Hero849 that's leaking too!

THANKS:

Pendoctor

Fotoresizer

Captain Tulley

NO THANKS:

Board attachment system!

Edited August 25, 2009 by Flounder

August 25, 2009

Thanks for posting. You did a great job: with the repair and with the narrative of the process. If my precious Targa (same that you have) ever breaks down, I'll be sure to check this thread for advice. ... :hmm1: That is if you won't mind fixing it for me.

-O

Edited August 25, 2009 by ofpwriter

August 25, 2009

I'm on my third section for my Targa. They are indeed fragile, but the gold nibs are so good.

Nice repair job man

Thanks

August 26, 2009

Now that you've been so careful - use the Captain Tolley's on the TOP side of the nib where it joins the plastic. It will wick in under the nib and seal there so that the ink that is already under the nib won't come out. Don't worry, it won't wick into the feed or into the slit of the nib if you're careful to keep it away from the slit. Clean up is with denatured alcohol.

The 0 ring can usually be reused, but it doesn't hurt to replace them. Sheaffer used a heat sensitive adhesive, not shellac, to hold the nib assembly together. A rosin based thread sealant works well to secure the metal coupler in the section when you put one back together.

August 26, 2009

Wow, nice thread. I should bookmark this, I just bought a vintage 1970s Imperial (same nib, but Touchdown filled instead of cartridge); there's a possibility this issue might come up in the future. Good job taking lots of photos. The blurry ones are probably due to a disagreement between you and the camera on how/where to focus -- it happens...

August 26, 2009

Awesome step-by-step repair thread, Flounder!

Oh, and the "the hole before the tines" that you asked about is called the breather hole (or vent hole).

Thanks also to Pen Doctor (a/k/a Richard Binder) and Ron Zorn of Main St Pens for the tips!

I am hoping I won't have to use all of your helpful advice on my Imperial-nibbed Sheaffers, but it's good stuff to know.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Maja

August 28, 2009

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys, and for the real name for the bung hole :-) Ron, thanks for the tips - I'd like to give it a full week of use before deciding on any more tinkering though, especially as results so far have been so encouraging. One thing's for sure though - there's no lack of sealant for doing the top of the inlay, the bottle is still pretty much full!

As for that old chestnut, the Pendoctor/mild mannered millionaire philanthropist Richard Binder myth... Sure I've heard the rumours, and they've never been seen together at the same time, but come on...

Edited August 28, 2009 by Flounder

August 29, 2009

For what it's worth, all of my original Pentrace Pen Doctor articles are now also on my site, some of them heavily revised as times have changed. I've also added a couple new ones and will continue the series from time to time.

February 13, 2012

Oh dear, to Issy and all, the photos are missing because they were attachments rather than links, which were deleted when I cleared out my full-up FPN upload cache. The whole shebang is backed up here, with the pictures on photobucket.

Flounder

Edited February 13, 2012 by Flounder