Repair/refurbishment Of A 70's 149

[hari317]

This pen was waiting for me when I arrived home from work today evening. It was sent to me by a FPN friend who had rescued it from the wild. The pen had a few issues and I had the privileged job of working on the pen and keeping it if I liked it.

 

Salient features of the pen:

 

1. 
    
   
2. Old style cap with plastic screw.
   
3. Old style curved clip with filled button.
   
4. One piece barrel with hidden feeder case.
   
5. Solid ebonite feeder
   
6. Three tone 18C nib
   
7. Threaded in filler unit with plastic filling knob threads.
    
   

 

The piston knob was stuck open a few turns, it was making a horrible cracking noise even if slightly turned. I was loathe to force it to get it to open slightly more so that I could fit in the Fountainbel wrench for the filler. So I decided to finally implement the fruit fork filler wrench idea. I took a cheap thin fruit fork, bent away the middle prong and bent down the tips of the other two prongs with a parallel action plier. It worked well and the filler unit unscrewed out easily. With the filler out of the pen, I tried to operate the knob again and got the same sound, a little investigation revealed that the top of the connector threads were wrecked and also the top of the piston shaft was broken. I suspect the pen was dropped on the knob resulting in this damage. Fortunately the filler cone spindle was intact.

 

Filler parts-partially disassembled, not cleaned yet:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6917.jpg

 

Broken upper threads of connector:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6918.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6919.jpg

 

With some jugglery, I could unscrew the broken end of the piston shaft from the spindle. The MB piston shaft has threads only on the top 4mm portion.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6921.jpg

 

I had some spares at hand and tried to screw in the knob to a replacement connector to check the threads, but it would not engage. The reason it would not engage was that a part of the top of the broken connector still remained screwed inside the filler knob. It took me some time to realise this. I got those remains out in three pieces. You can see the broken connector with remains Vs a good connector:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6923.jpg

 

Broken piston shaft with remains Vs a good piston shaft:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6924.jpg

 

Fortunately, the broken connector was still servicable with enough threads left on it to keep the knob on properly, so I decided to retain that part. I had to replace the piston shaft however. The older, yellowing but working well, piston seal was retained. I adjusted the stroke of the filler, lubricated the parts and kept it ready on the fountainbel tool to be reinstalled.

 

The connector on this pen was a bit peculiar. It was actually a full length brass outer cover, inside which the plastic core was bonded with adhesive. I had never before seen this type. I think later MB changed to the in-situ molding of the plastic core with the brass sleeve, I have shown both the types below for reference:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6925.jpg

 

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6926.jpg

 

In the meanwhile, the barrel with the nib unit were soaking in a mug of plain water. The nib was out of alignment, I knocked the nib and feed out: Before cleaning:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6927.jpg

 

After Cleaning: What a superbly machined Ebonite feed

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6928.jpg

 

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6929.jpg

 

A digit 3 punched on the nib tail, any clues?

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6931.jpg

 

I refitted the nib and feed and adjusted the nib. Just before fitting in the filler unit to the barrel:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6932.jpg

 

With the fitting over, I dip tested the pen, and then filled the pen with water,, checked the filler operation and then soaked the filled water out using cotton towels to check the feeder operation. It passed very well. Filled the pen with my test ink: Camel Royal Blue:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6933.jpg

 

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6934.jpg

 

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/hari-b/Cory149/IMG_6935.jpg

 

It was an evening well spent working on my favorite model of pen and yes, I decided to keep the pen.

 

Cheers,

Hari

Edited April 10, 2012 by hari317

[georgeb]

Very nice. Please post more often.

[Wideguy]

Superb Haribhai !The nib looks fabulous - how is the writing experience ?What is the condition of the barrel and cap ?From here she looks...........

[pelman]

excellent stuff Hari. I wish I had your courage and more importantly and likely the aptitude. Congrats.

[Blade Runner]

Nice job, and thanks for sharing the project!

[Chrissy]

Hi Hari

 

Way to go!! What a great job you did. I was riveted while reading it.

 

I wish I could do a job like that.

[Brian C]

Don't forget, Hari, I'v got that 70's 146 for you to make right! You should start charging for your services. I'll pay.

[georges zaslavsky]

congrats on the nice repair and great pen too

[stevlight]

Great work.

 

 

Where do you get your spare parts?

[KrazyIvan]

Very nice Hari!

[phentrek]

Ta Da! Great work! It's good to see more MB restoration artists!

[JLS1]

Great job Hari...thanks for sharing this!

[Dr. Eriko]

Hello Hari.

Congrats for that excelent job !!!!

Do you think to do this with pens do not belong to you? Maybe one pen of mine? If you decide to charge for your services, please let me know.

By the way, today I began to use Chelpark Royal Blue , Chelpark Crimson Violet, and Camlin Permanent Black, and those inks area really incredible, very good stuff you can get from India.

Congratulations again Hari.

Regards.

Dr Eriko.

[hari317]

I thank all of you for your kind comments and encouragement. Due to MB's basic sound engineering and thoughtful simple design, it becomes easy to work on the pens, lesser operator skill is involved.

 

The nib looks fabulous - how is the writing experience ?What is the condition of the barrel and cap ?From here she looks...........

 

It is a superb writer, I have adjusted it wet, the barrel and cap are in fair condition, still looks very gracefully aged I would say, but it is not Adampristine.

 

 

Where do you get your spare parts?

 

A few years of buying parts pens on ebay. I don't have much parts actually.

 

Hello Hari.

Congrats for that excelent job !!!!

Do you think to do this with pens do not belong to you? Maybe one pen of mine? If you decide to charge for your services, please let me know.

By the way, today I began to use Chelpark Royal Blue , Chelpark Crimson Violet, and Camlin Permanent Black, and those inks area really incredible, very good stuff you can get from India.

Congratulations again Hari.

Regards.

Dr Eriko.

 

Thanks Dr. Eriko. I doubt I will ever be working on pens for a fee. anyway it will not be cost effective for the customer after the shipping to and fro and parts. I don't have a big cachet of parts and as of now I am not in a position to rebuild my own parts from scratch. I suggest the services of Maxpens or Tom W. in Germany, they are the true experts.

 

I am really glad that India made inks are now reaching a wider global audience. In India, the cost of a bottle of good ink is insignificant as compared to the price of a good pen and the inks are robust since age old, time tested traditional preservatives are still used in the inks.

 

Regards,

Hari

[Sidestreaker]

That's a great restoration and education for the rest of us. Thanks for posting and sharing! :thumbup:

[pavoni]

Another superb educational post from the fabulous Hari. Essential reading.

 

Pavoni.

[Barry Gabay]

Congratulations, Hari, on your superb work and beautiful new pen! You are truly a maestro! Your photos and text provide a valuable and very educational lesson. Thank you. Best wishes, Barry

Edited April 11, 2012 by Barry Gabay

[Wideguy]

Hari is the true McGyver of the MB 149 !That precision fork tool is pure genius !

Edited April 11, 2012 by Wideguy

[fountainbel]

Splendid repair Hari, my sincere congratulations for an excellent job !

Francis

[hari317]

Congratulations, Hari, on your superb work and beautiful new pen! You are truly a maestro! Your photos and text provide a valuable and very educational lesson. Thank you. Best wishes, Barry

 

 

Hari is the true McGyver of the MB 149 !That precision fork tool is pure genius !

 

 

Splendid repair Hari, my sincere congratulations for an excellent job !

Francis

 

Thank you so much Barry, Adam and Francis.

 

To the 149 and MB newcomers, Barry Gabay is the person who wrote the authoritative article on the 149 and its evolution, he has been generous to allow free sharing of the article and it can be downloaded from the pinned topic on the top of the forum.

 

Francis aka Fountainbel is my Guru esp. in the repair matters and I have benefitted tremendously by the online and offline discussions with him. He makes some wonderful stuff, including some MB repair tools, one of which can be seen in this thread. He is also the inventor and holds the patent for the novel "Fountainbel" bulk ink filler system.

 

Lucky to be on FPN where even the bigs of the pen world share information and knowledge so freely.

 

Regards,

Hari