Tibalde Iride Filling Mechanism

[rogerb]

Just a bit of info for anyone else lucky enough to own one of these beautiful pens which may need repairing(I actually have FP/MP set).

 

I have always had trouble with filling the FP using the piston filler, so had been taking-out the nib and using a hypo needle! (Not too onerous, as it holds SO much ink!). I thought I just wasn't operating it correctly!

 

However, Oxonian got his hands on it and said that the filler was faulty ... wasn't just my incompetence .... and he suggested that just maybe Tibalde themselves would repair it. (I have to admit to some pessimism!)

Anyway, I asked the lovely Susanna, at pens.it, for advice, and she very helpfully discovered from Montegrappa, (who have, apparently swallowed-up Tibalde), that I could get it fixed by their representatives in Spain (Univex SL, in Barcelona).

 

So far, I have exchanged emails with Univex (with the kind assistance of Ondina in getting the right Spanish 'form of wording'!), and they have said words to the effect "Send it and we'll fix it". So far so good

The pen is being returned to Spain next week, so willthen be on its way to Barcelona ... watch this space!

 

Thanks to all my helpers so far ... fingers crossed for me please

 

 

[rogerb]

Well, this is nearly the final chapter of this sad saga.

The Iride duly went to Barcelona... they couldn't fix such an 'old pen', so they sent it to Italy, where I got the same story

Currently, I hope it is back in the UK, with repair maestro Dr Laurence Oldfield, who has promised to do his best for me....if he cannot fix it, I shall give-up, and revert to syringe-filling ... or, more probably, just not using it at all.

It is certainly my most-travelled pen!

[rogerb]

Well the Tibaldi is mended at last ...Laurence has worked wonders. He had to make a tool to take it apart and then make a new piston , etc, etc!!

 

It was interesting to hear that the piston had disintegrated as a result, apparently, of the ink.

The pen has had only relatively few fills (it has spent most of its life travelling ) ....one of the first was with FPN's own brew (made by Noodlers) Tulipe Noire, and since then always a Diamine red-brown mix. I cannot imagine that the Diamine was at fault, but have to conclude that the Iride is rather a fragile flower.

 

If anyone ever needs to do such a repair, please contact me, As I may still have the special toolsand Laurence's notes/drawings/ photos of how it was done!

 

I haven't had a chance to try it but am sure that Laurence has done a wondrous job It is a pity that he doesn't have the time to do repairs these days (except when he sees something he thinks might be an interesting challenge) This was certainly one such ... it took him a LOOONG time!

[lcoldfield]

This beautiful Tibaldi Iride pen is not mentioned in ‘Pen Repair’ so I will describe it here in case anyone else has one and is wondering how it works.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pensales/_wp_generated/wpa469aa5d_0a_06.jpg

 

 

The filling mechanism is by the ‘Vacumatic’ principle. Instead of a rubber diaphragm, the pen uses a piston/cylinder arrangement to vary the pressure in the barrel, rather like the Dunn pen. If modern grade O-rings had been available when the Parker Vac was designed, they may well have not used diaphragms. The Iride has a much longer breather tube than is possible with diaphragm pens so the ink capacity is correspondingly greater. The pen holds 3.0 ml of ink (compare Parker 51 Vac with 1.2 ml) and fills in about 7 cycles of the pump.

The blind cap is attached to the piston and is threaded into the barrel end to a depth of about 5mm. The top of the cylinder is therefore has to be buried inside the barrel and cannot be unscrewed without the aid of a special tool with fingers long enough to reach the slots. The cylinder houses an O-ring half way along its length to prevent ink leakage. The problem with this particular pen was that ink had degraded the cylinder and it had cracked and gone friable. It had also changed colour from black to grey which initially made me think that the cylinder was in two parts made from different materials. The piston O-ring holder had also broken along the groove, so that the ring was not held in position.

The dimensions of the old components were measured (engineering sketches available if anyone is interested) and new components made from Acetal (engineering nylon). I hope this material will be more resistant to ink attack than the original material (probably celluloid).

 

The pictures below show that this pen is a quality item with an excellent filling system and an enormous ink capacity.

 

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pensales/_wp_generated/wp35ed1ab6_0a_06.jpg

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pensales/_wp_generated/wp8933352e_0a_06.jpg

 

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pensales/_wp_generated/wp4843a9ea_0a_06.jpg

[rogerb]

Thanks, Laurence, for such a detailed explanation, plus excellent pictures, as well, of course, as your work to make this lovely pen functional.

[BamaPen]

SNIP...It was interesting to hear that the piston had disintegrated as a result, apparently, of the ink.

The pen has had only relatively few fills (it has spent most of its life travelling ) ....one of the first was with FPN's own brew (made by Noodlers) Tulipe Noire, and since then always a Diamine red-brown mix. I cannot imagine that the Diamine was at fault, but have to conclude that the Iride is rather a fragile flower. SNIP

I don't mean to turn this thread into an ink-bashing, but it does seem that the modern more highly saturated inks, particularly those with high red content, are pretty hard on pens. I used FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown exclusively in a pen that I had resacked myself just prior to using the ink. In less than two years that sac was a gooey mess. No, I did not flush it at all during that time, just kept refilling. So, perhaps a word to the wise is that flushing frequently is a very good idea.

 

John

[Freddy]

Appreciate your detailed instruction..and photographs

on this repair.

 

Thank you.

 

Fred

 

[Freddy]

Folks..please excuse the double post.

 

Fred

 

Edited July 15, 2014 by Freddy

[fountainbel]

Nice Job Laurence !

I've also already repaired a few of these beautiful pens , in fact in the same way you did.

But I've used hard rubber for making the replacement bushing.

This really is the is the weak element in these nice fillers..;

Francis

[lcoldfield]

Francis, I have just discovered your previous post on these pens and the idea of disposing of the separate cylinder in favour of filling directly in the barrel. I wonder why Tibaldi did not do it like that - maybe because of production/assembly/test reasons? I guess it is easier to produce the filler units separately and test them before fitting to the pen.

I am not sure of the material used in the original cylinder (not hard rubber), but it had certainly been badly affected by ink and had changed colour as well as being degraded in the part that had been in contact with ink.

Laurence

[rogerb]

I cannot believe that it is nearly FOUR YEARS since Laurence repaired my Iride!

Sadly the eventual outcome has not been a happy one.

Because the end cap and the 'piston rod' are both threaded the same way, unscrewing the cap to release the plunger also unscrews the connection with the piston

I have discussed this with Laurence and he said this appears to be a design fault and the only fix he could suggest would be to Superglue the joint(I hope i am quoting him fairly accurately!) He offered to do this and suggested i hand the FP over at the next London Pen Show.

However, I could not attend that, and as a result of all the to-ing and fro-ing and the wear it had experienced in the process, i had rather fallen out of love with the pen and it has just sat in the cabinet since then .......................

 

until a few days ago, when i received a PM from a gentleman who lives near Chicago and also has an Iride set. His has never been inked and he wants to pre-empt if possible, problems with the filling mechanism, and with the rather fragile celluloid.

He has discovered a company in Brescia, Italy, who are advertising a replacement filling mechanism kit, in stainless steel, at a very reasonable price(€43). He has mailed the company, Lazzaronipenne.net, for more info, with the thought that he might buy it in reserve, in anticipation of filler problems.

 

After all this time I am reluctant to risk throwing good money after bad, but passing-on the name of the Brescia company in case any Iride owner faces the same problems I have had!

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried Lazzaroni's repair kit.and how successful it has been.