What is on your bench?

[Le Vieux]

?

[Le Vieux]

 That is all right!

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

4 hours ago, Le Vieux said:

Montblanc no. 333 1/2, broken in half. The break was not clean, having cracks extending in several places. A minute (very small) chip was missing from the break line. This repair took some 20 days, on and off. Main thing is that a vintage pen was salvaged, and the client was happy.

 

Amazing work. 

[VacNut]

4 hours ago, Le Vieux said:

Montblanc no. 333 1/2, broken in half. The break was not clean, having cracks extending in several places. A minute (very small) chip was missing from the break line. This repair took some 20 days, on and off. Main thing is that a vintage pen was salvaged, and the client was happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The outcome:

 

 

Can you tell us the barrel material? Is it celluloid? I would be curious to know how to weld a celluloid barrel with multiple fractures. The restored bench looks wonderful.

[Le Vieux]

Nothing unheard of, just a mixture of MEK and celluloid grinded to (almost) powder. And yes, the barrel is celluloid.  Main concern is to weld the two pieces in one go, anything else (the odd missing chip or shard, refill the gaps that show up eventually) can be done once the main weld has cured. The other pain is to make certain the two pieces are properly aligned, on both axis.  

 

Anyhow, nothing major, can be done with a bit of exercise and practice. Hope this helps!

[ralfstc]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:22 AM, Le Vieux said:

Anyhow, nothing major, can be done with a bit of exercise and practice.

 

Makes it sound a lot easier than it is! Fantastic work!

 

Ralf

[es9]

On 9/19/2022 at 11:22 AM, Le Vieux said:

just a mixture of MEK and celluloid grinded to (almost) powder

So many questions! Was it the same material? Is there a particular consistency you shot for? Did you run into any problems with air bubbles? 

[Le Vieux]

The material I have used is not from the same pen, it came from broken pieces of same general era celluloid pens. The consistency of the mix: I usually go for the honey-type of thickness, when I need to weld. I have noticed that the thicker the mix, the air bubbles tend to be less, even unnoticeable. I spread the mix in a very thin film on a warm marble plate and collect from there to work with. The downside of this is that one has to use the mix quickly, otherwise it will become unusable. A bit of dry run (understand the crack, see the parts fit and how) would not go amiss. As they say "get to know your foe, you'll better him if you know him well".

 

If working on the surface of the pen, the layer of mix is set upon the pen in a similar manner, a very thin layer upon thin layer. If working on welding two parts together, it has to be done in one go. This way, I have noticed there are almost no air bubbles. As I am not a professional repair guy, I cannot elaborate on the cause, only on the effect of it. 

 

True, it takes a while to do this, but then again, one must exercise patience in this hobby, it is said.

[es9]

I believe this is a Sheaffer Statesman. It’s one of the later vacuum-filler models with the removable ink chamber.

 

This version of the filling system is really straightforward to restore—so long as the celluloid ink chamber hasn’t shrunk too much. Rather than drilling out the packing unit from the inside, however, I tried something different. I cut the celluloid disc off at the very back with a hobby knife. With some careful cutting around the back, it came right off along the seam where it was sealed on. I then installed the viton o-ring and—to make sure it was all snug—included one of the original rubber o-rings. I solvent welded the disc back on. Easy! 

Getting at the plunger washer was another story. On this particular model, the nib was friction fit into a sleeve/bushing that then fits into the section. To replace the washer, both the nib and that sleeve/bushing had to come out. And while they came out without too much difficulty, the sleeve/bushing was covered in tiny stress fractures. (I suspect it’s made out of acrylic, but I’m not sure.) As soon as I tried to reinstall the nib, those cracks started opening and a chunk of the sleeve/bushing cracked right off. 
 

I couldn’t find a suitable replacement in my parts box, so it was off to the lathe to try to make one. I wanted to use a material that would flex a bit and I thought a broken Parker 21 connector might work. After all, the nib and feed of that pen are jammed in there and it holds just fine. Sure enough, it worked like a charm! 
 

After a little bit of final sanding, it fit just right. I installed a new plunger washer and shellacked the new/sleeve in. I am happy to report that the pen works well!
 

(Yes, I know the nib is not right for the pen. You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want. In this case, I had to adjust the feed tail so it’s just long enough to displace the plunger nut.)
 

[Le Vieux]

Not the simplest repair, this sac change and overhaul of the Lady Patricia from Waterman's. Everything is so minute and one needs Tinkerbell's fingers. But as they say: the sooner you get to it...

 

 

[Le Vieux]

Refit the lever, together with its cassette, in this beautiful Waterman's no. 52 "Cardinal". The entire thing was completely gone, luckily no damage to the pen itself. The existence of a donor pen helped the matter tremendously . The welding of a small part of it and tinkering coaxed the darn thing to go inside and behave. All's well.

 

 

 

 

[VacNut]

23 hours ago, Le Vieux said:

Not the simplest repair, this sac change and overhaul of the Lady Patricia from Waterman's. Everything is so minute and one needs Tinkerbell's fingers. But as they say: the sooner you get to it...

 

 

May I ask, in general what is the quality of the Waterman pen during this era? I do not collect waterman’s of this era based on the understanding that the quality of the celluloid and furniture were in decline. I would value your opinion.

[FarmBoy]

Inkview and Ladies are quite good pens. 

[GlenV]

This Wahl was purchased with missing tipping on the L tine, I thought I would try to solder a tine from another nib then work down to shape, My only attempt at retip although I’ve been soldering nibs for awhile. It’s a bit scratchy but otherwise works pretty well!

could be cleaned up a bit more and plating to be done on the pen but fun that it can be used with the original nib.

 

 

[VacNut]

22 hours ago, GlenV said:

This Wahl was purchased with missing tipping on the L tine, I thought I would try to solder a tine from another nib then work down to shape, My only attempt at retip although I’ve been soldering nibs for awhile. It’s a bit scratchy but otherwise works pretty well!

could be cleaned up a bit more and plating to be done on the pen but fun that it can be used with the original nib.

 

 

I am completely new to nib repair. May I ask how you solder on a new L-tine on such a delicate end? I do not see much of a repair from the top. Is the repair visible from the other side of the nib? Do you have jewelry making experience? 

[GlenV]

It has been a learning curve and some damaged nibs along the way, that I regret and like taking apart some pens it can be a sad experience sometimes.  I didn’t know how to protect the thinner parts of the nib but getting better at that. Using brass sheet,  like the picture I saw a while ago here,  to protect the good tine and bent it a bit for room to clamp the added tine. Most of the original is still there if I choose to have Greg Muniscan or one with similar skills to do a nicer job than me but it’s fun.  Using enough “flux” helps and protects the rest of the nib and “easy “ solder, I started with no experience but if you have a special nib in fact this one could qualify, it’s not one to practice on. This is my first attempt to solder a tip on and it is very hard to get the length perfect which is why this one is scratchy.  I actually did solder from the back and “scarfed” to use a wood term, and made the tine intentionally longer toward the vent hole so I could clamp the part on, so the visible scratches are from working that part back down by filing. I bought quite a few cracked nibs because it’s much cheaper usually but I don’t know how to engrave. If you start with shank cracks for practice it’s easy to melt the thin end of the shank so I protect with a brass tube that rests on this part. I watched YouTube gold soldering videos a lot also.

[eckiethump]

A wonderful piece of work , not easy at all to do.

On 10/14/2022 at 3:59 PM, GlenV said:

 

 

 

[GlenV]

Thank you! It took quite a bit of practice, I'm not really acquiring pens presently for the most part, working to fix up those that I have

[eckiethump]

Quite an interesting bunch of pens here for the one customer.

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

2 hours ago, eckiethump said:

Quite an interesting bunch of pens here for the one customer.

 

Some nice stuff there!

Someone’s gonna be happy when they get them all back, fixed up and working