How Not To Repair Parker 61

[honza]

Few weeks ago, I won an EBay auction for my second Parker 61 capillary. On receiving the pen, I proceeded with a normal P61 "as many days as it takes" flushing program. However, after a week or so, when removing the flushing bulb from the filler, the filler unit separated from the section. And inside the filler I found this:

 

 

Clearly some previous owner wanted to "fix" (or refill???) the pen, using pliers with enough force to remove the filler tube without uncrimping it. That's why there were plier marks on the filler unit! And when trying to get out the foil, he torn the part which was glued to the feed. Finally, he must have also removed the felt from the filler, for there was none when I disassembled it. I have to say I was not much pleased.

 

But then, when disassembling the pen further, I got lucky The pen looks otherwise pristine, and I had no troubles unscrewing the hood! As you can see below, it looks almost new and has a very nice arrow. Selling it separately would, together with the nib and cap (which also look great) more than recoup the price I paid.

 

 

Now I cannot decide how to proceed. I guess selling the parts separately would get me enough money to buy a new, working Parker 61 - that would be the easy and straightforward option. But I still wonder whether I could somehow fix this pen instead of selling it for parts. Getting a new filler is of course a possibility, but that would cost me almost as much as I originally paid for the pen. I wonder if there is some more cost-effective solution to make the pen work? Any ideas?

[Mr. JW]

Is it too late to open a complaint with Ebay? Maybe you could get some amount of reimbursement from the seller and put that toward the purchase of new parts/restoration?

[mhosea]

There's an article somewhere on FPN (written by user RichardAndTracy?) where they converted a capillary feed 61 to squeeze filler. As I recall, it involved making a custom piece on a lathe. This would be a lot more trouble than a simple working 61 is worth, but as a hobbyist thing to do, it's probably a fun project, if you have the equipment and skills for it. BTW, I have a 61 in similar condition, different issues, but same non-working result. I think if you spend much time with 61's, you're bound to have one eventually. You might sell just the nib and cap, keeping the other parts for yourself.

[Ernst Bitterman]

There's also a connector collar here to help with some of the lathe action, but it doesn't address the matter of rigging a cartridge-piercer nor give an exact length to cut the long feed stem to lie inside that needed part, which I would imagine is needed.

 

...and I remember that article, too. I may take a moment to try to turn it up.

 

Edit: Ah-hah!!

Edited March 17, 2015 by Ernst Bitterman

[krishnanramani]

Buddy if I were in your place I would have given d same to a professional person who can restore this with good rate. If it's too expensive I would hav sold d parts in eBay to buy another pen as I m not attached to this. If we hav used for a while we may somehow feel it's one among me to hav a second thought on selling.

[honza]

Thanks for all the comments. I posted this more as a warning what some people can do to pens, and also as an illustration what the capillary filler unit looks like inside.

 

As for the repair options, as I said, I can probably sell the hood for almost the price I paid for the whole pen On the other hand, I always like fixing pens. Being an owner of the Marshall and Oldfield's excellent Pen Repair book I know of the possibility of converting the pen to a c/c version, but this just seems to me as a butchery I did not know about Richard's conversion, that was new to me (and thanks for pointing that out). If not I'll probably wait and watch out for some P61 with a cracked hood and no arrow to do a transplant

 

PS if buying a P61, watch out for plier marks on the filler (on EBay there is no shortage of P61s with such a damage )

[Venemo]

I'm possibly too late to this conversation, but I think I can give you an explanation. Possibly the previous owner (or one of the previous owners) mistook the capillary filler for a cartridge that is somehow stuck. So they tried to pull it out.

 

Same thing almost happened to my own Parker 61 but fortunately the seller was smart enough not to bother too much after it didn't come out at his first attempt. He was quite surprised when I told him about the capillary filling mechanism.

[Aysedasi]

Sorry to open an old thread, but does anyone know where I can get my hands on a connector for a capillary filling P61? (NB I don't want to convert it to C/C).

[hari317]

Sorry to open an old thread, but does anyone know where I can get my hands on a connector for a capillary filling P61? (NB I don't want to convert it to C/C).

Scroll down at the following link.

 

http://www.dayneswritesite.com/parts-nibs-boxes-contact.html

 

HTH

[Aysedasi]

Spot on Hari - many thanks. Stupid me too, I've been on that site plenty of times in the past!