Cleaning A Newly Purchased P51?

[Invictus Maneo]

Hi Everyone,

 

About one month ago I purchased my first Parker 51 from a member here on FPN. I was rather ambivalent about the pen at first but I had heard that every collection should have at least one P 51 so I took the plunge and got one. To make a long story short, I absolutely LOVE the pen! I am now hopelessly addicted to P51's and want to add more to my collection! The pen I bought here was already broken down, cleaned and was ready to write when I got it.

Over the past week I have purchased two additional P51's off the Bay (probably not the smartest move considering my novice state) and they seemed like a good deal. I have not yet received either pen in the post but I am anticipating having to do some cleaning and set up once they arrive.

I have immersed myself in learning here and on other sites about cleaning P51's prior to use. Bruce's "sticky" in this section has been most useful as well as Richard Binder's extraordinary knowledge.

My question is: when I receive these pens I have an ultrasonic cleaner. Should I immediately start to clean them or should I attempt to see if they fill and write first? If I did use the ultrasonic do I need to take apart the pen to do an adequate job or could I just put the nib,section and sac, not taken apart, in the cleaner? I have never taken a P51 apart and although it doesn't sound too difficult I would rather avoid it if possible. My track record with things like that usually end up with problems, either broken parts, difficult reassembly, etc. In other words, Murphy's Law usually applies to me.

I really want to learn to work on my pens but I'd rather not use P51's for my education in doing so. Jinhao's or the like are more to my comfort level when learning. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

[pajaro]

Why not just try flushing the pens and inking them to see how they write before tearing them down?

 

Every time you disassemble anything there is the chance of doing some inadvertent damage. Also there is wear and tear on the threads, etc. If the breather tube is not broken and rattling around insdide the sac, I would just enjoy the pen. To read some posts, one would think almost every breather tube will be broken, requiring some disassembly and a replacement of the breather tube. I have handled over two hundred 51s and have found one broken breather tube. I think of the "must take the pen apart" school of thought as newbie hysteria.

Edited June 2, 2016 by pajaro

[utopic]

I second pajaro. I did get one with a broken breather tube which I did have to disassemble but all others were fine.

 

Try it - if it works 'out of the box' most likely it's fine.

[Invictus Maneo]

Thanks for your replies! I should add that both pens are aerometrics and I just received the first one today. I ran it through the US, not taking anything apart and was careful only to put the section up to the clutch ring in a 1:10 solution of ammonia and distilled water. Ran it for about 10 minutes and now am soaking it in H20 and flushing it occasionally. Not much ink came out, none that I could see in the US.

I'm going to take your advice and just do this soak for a few more hours and then fill it and see how it writes! As a side note, I couldn't believe how nice it looks in person! Teal blue with a Lusterloy cap. I can barely see even micro scratches on it and I paid $41 for it. If it writes as good as it looks I'll be one happy guy! I'll try and post some pictures after I get it up and running!

Edited June 2, 2016 by Invictus Maneo

[mitto]

Why not just try flushing the pens and inking them to see how they write before tearing them down?

 

Every time you disassemble anything there is the chance of doing some inadvertent damage. Also there is wear and tear on the threads, etc. If the breather tube is not broken and rattling around insdide the sac, I would just enjoy the pen. To read some posts, one would think almost every breather tube will be broken, requiring some disassembly and a replacement of the breather tube. I have handled over two hundred 51s and have found one broken breather tube. I think of the "must take the pen apart" school of thought as newbie hysteria.

I would say the sterling breather tubes on the early 51s are more likely to be found broken and in some cases detriorated into pieces and, hence, rattling around inside the sac.

 

I have found more than a dozen among my 70-80 51s with broken sterling tubes. I agree that in most cases good soaking and thorough cleaning would make an aero 51 ready to write and write flawlessly.

[Florida Blue]

I would just flush it with tap water.

 

I've had a few 51s with breather tubes that were corroded (looked like Swiss cheese) rather than broken, and as motto wrote, they were the earlier 51 Aeros with the sterling breather tubes.

[Ceelo]

It depends on how much experience you have with disassembly. If you are planning on keeping it for a while, I recommended US cleaning the collector and replacing the sac/breather tube if they require it. It's nice to see the ink level with a nice and clear sac.

[Erik Dalton]

When I get a used P 51, I soak it upright in distilled water in my Ultrasonic bath at least overnight. In the morning I squeeze the sac flushing the pen still in upright position. Making sure the nib is resting on the plastic basket and not the stainless steel liner.

Once any old inks is softened up I add a 1:10 solution of ammonia and water with two drops of Dawn for good luck. Fill the pen with the cleaning solution turn the ultrasonic bath on and let it go. Mid way through the cycle I flush the pen drawing the cleaning solution I and out. Sometimes it takes two cycles, rarely more, the sac, collector and nib come out nice and clean. Flush well with water let stand overnight, ink and test in the morning.

My US bath has a basket with wire handles. I just took some waxed sail twine and ran it back and forth a bunch of times. The pens are held nicely upright through the cleaning and soakings.

That's what I came up with. Hope it helps.

[ac12]

In my limited experience, I found that the USC will not clean the collector. I cleaned a couple of pens with the USC (many cycles) then I had to remove the hood. The collector was still clogged with ink.

 

I will use the USC to clean as much dry ink as I can.

Then I will cycle water (or an ammonia solution) thru the pen many times, until the water comes out clear.

Then I fill the pen with water, then place it nib down in a narrow glass, fill with water to just below the clutch ring.

Then let it soak overnight (or about 8 hours). Every so often press the pressure bar to eject water from the pen and suck in water.

This soaking will slowly dissolve the dried ink that is not in the flushing path, like in the collector.

Positioning the pen nib down, will cause the heavier ink to drift down out of the pen.

 

For some pen, I have had to do this soaking process for days.

The worse were pens with dried red or purple ink. Those took about 2 or 3 weeks of soaking to get the ink out of the pen.

 

Unless you REALLY REALLY have to, I do NOT recommend taking most any pen apart just to clean it. The danger is that you may break the pen, trying to take the pen apart.

Edited June 3, 2016 by ac12

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

In addition to the excellent advice offered by other Members, kindly consider the use of a 'cleansing ink'.

 

They won't render the Pliglass sac transparent, but they will make friends with the ink path.

 

@ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/251595-best-ink-to-use-in-between-high-maintenance-inks-something-lubricating/

 

Bye,

S1

[Erik Dalton]

Ac12.. I've never had one that bad. Have done about ten the way I've described. The ones that had to be disassembled had spotless collectors. Even the ply glass sacs clear up quite a bit. Guess I've been lucky.

[Invictus Maneo]

Thanks for all of your great suggestions and tips! I got lucky with the first pen in that it was already pretty clean and didn't require too much soaking. I'll have to wait and see how I fare with the other. I've inked the Teal Blue pen with iroshizuku Ku-Jaku (seemed to be an appropriate color) and it writes great! A bit more feedback than my Mk III nib but I rather like that. Definitely not scratchy. I should have the next one, Midnight Blue with a gold cap, within a week. This one looked a little rougher in the pictures than the Teal one so I may have more work to do with this one. Thanks again for all your help! You folks are GREAT!

[kapanak]

Let me be the voice against the others here and show you a case where even 3 weeks of flushing did not help and the pen had to be dissembled.

 

I got a Parker 51 Aero, an early model, that had not been used since it's first testing at the shop. It was my grandfather's doctorate graduation gift from somebody. The ink had crusted up in the sac to the point that it was fully solid. I flushed it with water, 1/10 ammonia, and dish washing detergent for three weeks, and also had it in the ultrasonic cleaner multiple times each of those weeks.

 

At the end, the sac was clean (the ink appeared red/purple), but the pen would not suck up even water, let alone ink, and did not write. I decided to disassemble the pen, and the photos below is what I found.

 

http://i.imgur.com/wzt099I.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/3mrUpmN.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/YS93pe7.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/v0IbJOR.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/RZH54Rl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/f9Pcec5.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/MnWof0x.jpg

 

As you can see, no amount of flushing would have gotten that much crusted ink crud out. Disassembly and a full cleaning is the only way to go in certain situations where the suggestions above fail.

[Flounder]

kapanak, what's that circular whatsit on your connector? I've only ever seen one, on an o ring style connector I bought as a spare. I thought it was a spot weld or something - it opened up as a crack as soon as I put in a collector!

 

[kapanak]

kapanak, what's that circular whatsit on your connector? I've only ever seen one, on an o ring style connector I bought as a spare. I thought it was a spot weld or something - it opened up as a crack as soon as I put in a collector!

 

51 connector.jpg

 

It is not a spot weld, but until you pointed it out, I had not paid attention to it before. I looked in my parts box, and three other push-filler/o-ring section connectors that are awaiting assembly also have that spot, the exact size and shape in the same place.

 

If I had to guess, and I could be wrong, that is an injection molding cutoff/transfer point, and part of the mold.

[ac12]

 

Ac12.. I've never had one that bad. Have done about ten the way I've described. The ones that had to be disassembled had spotless collectors. Even the ply glass sacs clear up quite a bit. Guess I've been lucky.

 

 

You have been LUCKY, or I have been UNlucky.

Oh what color ink? It was the RED and PURPLE ink that took me the longest to clean. Black and blue cleaned out relatively easy.

 

The other bad one to clean is a 51-vac. That was until I made the decision to change the diaphram on every Vac I get, at which time it is easy to physically clean the inside of the barrel. And YUK, 40+ year old dried ink is much easier to physically clean than to try to dissolve out.

 

I have rarely gotten a stained aero sac to clear up. Even when I had the hood off and the collector and feed out of the pen, so that I could physically wipe the inside of the sac with a Q-tip soaked with 10% ammonia solution. The ink stain is into the sac material.

[FarmBoy]

I'm no longer a fan of using ammonia to clean pens unless the nib is removed. We can debate if necessary but I'll bring along a pretty strong team.

 

Kapanak your pen is missing a breather tube. Out of curiosity why did you remove the sac from the connector? And yes, a mold pin caused the mark.

Edited June 4, 2016 by FarmBoy

[kapanak]

I'm no longer a fan of using ammonia to clean pens unless the nib is removed. We can debate if necessary but I'll bring along a pretty strong team.

 

Kapanak your pen is missing a breather tube. Out of curiosity why did you remove the sac from the connector? And yes, a mold pin caused the mark.

The breather tube was so crusted, no amount of soaking cleared it. So I just took it off and left it in water and detergent to see if it will clear. Will use a replacement when reassembling.

 

The sac had so much crusted ink inside, it was unbelievable to my eyes. The sac connecting to the nipple was soft and weak and came off during disassembly. The nipple was fine.

 

I'm STILL cleaning this pen, some of this ink simply will not come off. Any ideas?

[Invictus Maneo]

Kapanak,

That is a seriously clogged collector. I can easily see what you mean in that no amount of flushing or US baths would remove all that ink. I wish I had suggestions for as to getting it clean but obviously I'm new to fountain pens and downright clueless as to maintenance.

I do appreciate your photo's in that they clearly show the make-up of the collector, nib and section. I never realized that the P51 nib was that large. The hood sure does cover the majority of the nib.

Thank you for taking the time to post. I'll be interested to see what the experts have to say regarding cleaning.

[Erik Dalton]

Farmboy, why the aversion to diluted ammonia solution for tough cleaning?