Repair Of Congress Bulb Filler Fountain Pen

[AndrewJ]

Hi

 

I'm about to embark on my first (very simple) fountain pen repair, and I've got a very simple question.

 

The pen in question is a Congress bulb filler (cheap to buy, but I rather like it). The bulb has previously been replaced with a sac that appears to be almost new so I'm leaving that bit alone.

 

The section and the barrel are a press or push fit. When I received it, it was leaking through the joint. My simple question is how should I seal it? Shellac, epoxy or something else? I'm not convinced that shellac will seal, and whilst I cannot see any reason to ever want to break the connection, epoxy seems rather irreversible.

 

Your thoughts please

 

Thanks

 

Andrew

 

 

[cordover]

Andrew,

I know this is months late, but a good fountain pen might last for a hundred years and more.

I have some that are 90 years old and work great.

Presume that it will have to be disassembled and fixed at some point.

There is a resin based sealer meant for the job you describe.

Shellac might do the job for a while, but it slowly reacts to water so in the long

run, it would not be best.

I have seen good luck with just silicone grease on pressure fit sections, if the fit is tight.

Tight is not necessarily water tight, but silicone repels water and it's why one uses it

for the threads of eyedropper pens.

 

Hope it helps.

[AndrewJ]

Thanks

 

I'll give silicone grease a go. It can't do any harm apart from give me inky fingers if it doesn't work!

[viclip]

A bulb filler should never leak through the joint between the section & the barrel, any more than a lever filler should leak there. Something is amiss namely ink is escaping from the sac. Using silicone grease or shellac at the joint may be an adequate stop-gap measure but the pen really should be repaired.

 

It seems to me that either the sac has a puncture in it or else the sac wasn't adequately sealed to the section nipple. The fix is to replace the sac in the former case, or to remove & properly reinstall the sac in the latter (I would use a brand new sac while at it).

 

A third possibility is that the section/nipple is cracked, a careful inspection under magnification should disclose this to be the case if so. Get back to us in that eventuality.

[AndrewJ]

Hi

 

Thanks for your input.

 

I can't spot a problem with the sac. I can't see any cracks in the barrel or in the section.

 

To help my understanding/ explanation, I've uploaded a photo of the disassembled pen - it's here

 

When I received the pen, it wasn't full of ink but there was ink in the push fit between the barrel and the section.

 

My understanding is that the bulb/sac sucks ink into the barrel and the barrel acts as a reservoir (and is semitransparent so that the ink level can be checked). Unless it is sealed, there is the probability that ink will leak through the push fit between the barrel and the section.

 

Am I misunderstanding things?

 

Thanks

[viclip]

Hi

 

Thanks for your input.

 

I can't spot a problem with the sac. I can't see any cracks in the barrel or in the section.

 

To help my understanding/ explanation, I've uploaded a photo of the disassembled pen - it's here

 

When I received the pen, it wasn't full of ink but there was ink in the push fit between the barrel and the section.

 

My understanding is that the bulb/sac sucks ink into the barrel and the barrel acts as a reservoir (and is semitransparent so that the ink level can be checked). Unless it is sealed, there is the probability that ink will leak through the push fit between the barrel and the section.

 

Am I misunderstanding things?

 

Thanks

 

This is a first for me, a barrel-reservoir pen with a push-in section rather than a screw-in section. I would expect the section/barrel joint to leak like a sieve unless sealant was used at the factory! Silicone grease works on eyedroppers with screw-in sections but your pen calls for something more robust. Probably the best sealant for the job is the thread sealant sold by moderator Ron Zorn, notwithstanding that your pen doesn't have section threads.

[AndrewJ]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I'm inclined to agree - something like a thread sealant. It is a fairly tight fit (not a force) and I seem to remember that thread sealants work best when the air is excluded - there is a word for the chemistry but I can't recall it.

 

Interestingly I would describe the joint a very clean. No adhesive or sealant appears to have ever been scraped off.

 

I'll give it a go - thanks.