What is on your bench?

[es9]

I personally would replace the pellet cup, but I’m neurotic about stuff like that. 
 

You should chase both the threads on the barrel and the pump bushing. The easiest way to do the former is to make your own chaser out of a broken filler—just cut some grooves down the sides and you’re good to go. You can also use dental tools, but be careful not to damage anything. The pump threads can be cleaned with a brass wire brush. I would not think a piece of brass shim is good enough to get all the crud that might have accumulated. 
 

The best metaphor I’ve heard for how tightly to screw the pump in is that it’s like putting the lid on a jar of honey — you want it secure, but not tight. You can adjust little bits here or there to try to get things to line up well. Absolute perfection is not always attainable, at least for those of us who don’t have decades of experience—and that’s ok. 

[Ron Z]

Sometimes there's a bit of buildup right at the bottom of the threads and at the top of the ring.

 

The hard rubber replacement pellet cups that Dale sells are great, and I've used a lot of them.  But there are risks in getting the old ones off without damaging the plunger.  They don't always come off cleanly and sometimes break. If the pellet cup holds and the diaphragm doesn't come out when you tug on it,  you're OK.  Maybe round the shrarpish corners a bit, but not much.  Otherwise best to leave well enough alone.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

19 minutes ago, es9 said:

I personally would replace the pellet cup, but I’m neurotic about stuff like that. 

 

Eh, for me it's a cost-benefit analysis. I know with my luck and thick fingers (metaphorically anyways) if I try to get the old cup off I'll destroy the pump rod. This one's working and feels solid enough, don't fix what ain't broken yada yada yada. If I was more confident maybe I'd switch it out but I think that will quickly turn into a $30-$40 expense for a new pump altogether. I think it should outlast the diaphragm in any case, whoever repairs it next will probably need to replace the cup though.

 

By chaser, do you mean just using an old extra pump's threads kind of as a cleaning device? I don't have any extras but if I ever get a hold of a broken one I'll keep in mind that I should hold on to it for that purpose.

 

Edit:

  

2 minutes ago, Ron Z said:

Sometimes there's a bit of buildup right at the bottom of the threads and at the top of the ring.

 

The hard rubber replacement pellet cups that Dale sells are great, and I've used a lot of them.  But there are risks in getting the old ones off without damaging the plunger.  They don't always come off cleanly and sometimes break. If the pellet cup holds and the diaphragm doesn't come out when you tug on it,  you're OK.  Maybe round the shrarpish corners a bit, but not much.  Otherwise best to leave well enough alone.

 

Ah, you replied while I was typing the above out. Yeah, that's my reasoning. I'd rather not risk it for now. I don't have the best of luck with these things.

 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I am about to use this pen as a dart, I'm at wits' end and I am already short on wit. The nib is having flow issues, no idea why. I took the hood off again (little bit surprised the shellac I used on the threads didn't offer any resistance...) and pulled the nib and feed out of the collector to reset it. I didn't do this in the first place because it was relatively well aligned and clean.

 

After cleaning it out, went to fill it and the pump feels "weird." I can feel about halfway down some pressure and it takes a little extra force to bottom out the diaphragm and I can almost hear a small pop as if it's sticking to itself. It still fills fine but doesn't feel normal.

 

I think it might be time to call it quits with this pen. There's no part of this pen I have not had issues with (well, okay, disassembly was blissfully easy with this pen, that is the only good part).

[Ron Z]

Having a mental check list of things to check and fix is part of pen repair.  Sometimes you get off easy, but there are things that I inspect and test every time.  Sometimes lots of patience is needed too.  I'm  more likely to break a pen when I force things or expect it to come apart NOW! 

 

It could be that the diaphragm is too long - you need to shorten it.  A diaphragm that is too long as Parker describes it, "clucks."  Proper length diaphragm is one that unrolls completely without stretching when the pump is pressed all of the way down.   To make it easy I have marks cut on the edge of my bench drawer and bottom drawer of the tool box for standard lengths to cut a diaphragm (it's the same for all vacs), or snorkel sacs, or PFM/TD sacs etc. 

 

I also use a needle and syringe to power flush all breather tubes on Vacs, and snorkel tubes.  Nothing more frustrating than having completed a repair, and then having to open it up again because the breather tube or snorkel tube is clogged, and the pen doesn't fill at all or fill right.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I think the length should be okay. I measured it and it was maybe a hair over 27mm which falls towards the end of the acceptable range I can find online. I am worried that when I took it out yesterday to reseat the filler I got some dirt on the "inside" (well, outside of the sac, but it becomes the inside when it is inverted) and that is causing problems. It definitely sounds like a "cluck" though...

 

The breather tube is fine, everything looks completely clean yet it starts to write pretty dry after only a paragraph or so. It is like the feed isn't able to supply ink fast enough to account for my writing. The collector is also fine - as an experiment I left the pen uncapped for literally nearly 15 minutes while I went to do something else and it wrote without issues when I got back, no hard starts (really impressive, by the way. Parker's collector "technology" really was revolutionary - I don't think most modern pens could do this). I have been writing with at this point on and off for over an hour without capping it even once.

 

Maybe I am just expecting too much? Some pens just don't gel with me and this might be one of them.

 

Edit: I went to clean it out and after a few cycles of pumping with soapy water it stopped clucking. I feel like I am going crazy... pretty soon I'll be the one clucking.

[Ron Z]

One think that is easy to overlook is that sometimes bits of diaphragm or sac get stuck to the barrel wall.  I think that you said that wasn't the case here, but I also check for that.

 

I would pull the pump again and cut maybe a 16th of an inch off the end. Shortening the diaphragm a bit often stops the clucking. Sometimes a little bit like that makes the difference.  The resistance is likely the diaphram binding as in unrolls.  I put talc on the outside of the diaphragm before I roll it back over the cone.  That keeps the diaphragm from sticking to itself.    Don't use silicone grease, just pure talc.  Some have used silicone grease, and it causes problems down the road.

[es9]

Did you check to make sure the tiny rubber rod is still installed in the back of the collector? 
 

 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Yeah, it's there. Had no idea those were a thing until the last one of these I restored and I looked it up.

[FarmBoy]

4 minutes ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

Yeah, it's there. Had no idea those were a thing until the last one of these I restored and I looked it up.

Maybe it is upside down. 
 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Alright, I tried another one today, this one came out mostly... okay?

 

 

I am mostly proud of this one. It was filthy and had a completely dried up diaphragm but I took my time and I think I did an okay job with this one. The biggest issue I had with this one was getting the filler unit out, the threads were extremely tight. And alarmingly, after I got it out it took a small strip of the threads off...

 

I also cut the diaphragm too short but I had bought an extra so I recut it. The new one is almost exactly 26.5mm on the dot which I think is close to perfect. Fills pretty well, I got about five or six pumps in and got a completely full fill with water (haven't tried inking it yet). This pen has really nice transparency so I can actually see how much is in there.

 

[VacNut]

From experience on cracking the thin walls of the threaded vac barrels, use dry heat on the barrel end just in case when unscrewing the nut. It doesn’t hurt the barrel and will help to loosen the nut. 
Sometimes the filler is adhered to the barrel or the celluloid shrinks around the nut, so it will be nearly impossible to remove. Seek help at that point.

For 51 barrels I tape the end before I remove the nut after applying dry heat. Just another precaution.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Yup, I used heat. I've restored two of the celluloid vacs and more of the Parker 51s and in my experience the Parker 51 units are easier to take out (but have other problems, don't like the plastic fillers). I wonder if it is because celluloid can shrink over time and acrylic doesn't really. That would certainly explain with the units on the celluloid pens are tighter.

 

On one Parker 51 (the one I didn't restore because I couldn't get the hood off) the filler unscrewed just with my fingers when I was fiddling with it, I didn't even have a vac wrench at that point. But again, not really a big sample size for me so maybe I've just been lucky with the Parker 51s and unlucky with the Vacumatics.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Every day I repair pens I find something new to be annoyed by. I got an Esterbrook with a 9xxx series nib recently. Horribly mangled tip and I couldn't get it straight in the assembly. Knocked it out with some effort since Esterbrook crimped the 9XXX nib units.

 

I got the nib mostly straight, then came the struggle of getting it back into the nib unit since it is crimped. It is not fun. Very much not fun. I finally got it in without destroying the nib, the feed, or the assembly which was a minor miracle. But guess what, the nib is now a little misaligned again... I feel like I'm going in circles.

 

Why did they crimp these...

[Ron Z]

It's just a matter of learning what issues you may encounter, learning what to look for and how to work with/correct the issues you will encounter.  There isn't an experienced pen mechanic on the planet that hasn't had the same learning curve.  Eventually you develop a database of information to draw on.  Patience is your friend.  Impatience kills pens.

 

Esterbrook did that to keep the nib and feed from shifting while screwing the nib unit into and out of the pen.  They can be a pain.

 

Before you knock the nib and feed out of an Esterbrook nib housing, run it through an ultrasonic.  The warm it so soften the plastic.  Screw the nib unit into a loose section to knock the nib and feed out, and then remove the housing.  Sometimes you can warm it and wiggle the nib out, and then rotate the feed to get the notch in the feed past the crimp in the housing.  Warmed this can push the crimp back out.  You can push it down again once nib and feed are set.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I knocked it out with a spare section, it actually didn't take that much to get it out. Getting it back in was the difficult part.

 

I am a little surprised at how "tolerant" these nib units are. The back "tab" (where the nib narrows) was pretty significantly rusted. The feed had solid caked on bits that looked like rust mixed with old ink. Like solid enough I had to scrape it off with something mildly sharp.

 

Yet it wrote perfectly fine (other than the nib's tipping being uneven), perfect flow, even a little wetter than average. I guess it's due to the design of the feed? This is one of the later tip dip style ones that uses a channel running through the center of the feed rather than on top and it's pretty interesting. I think most other pens would not write with this level of rust and muck. Makes me wonder about the other seemingly "clean" nib units I have...

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Oh I am not having a good day. I figured I would replace the nib with a Venus nib unit because I have a bunch of NOS I got a while back. Wouldn't work. I looked at it and it has glue residue all over the feed. It looks almost like super glue. Looked at some of the others in my stash, all the same. I don't understand. Maybe this was a cost cutting measure by Venus when it got really bad to glue together their nib units to prevent disassembly? I smashed one of them into pieces as a stress relief exercise but I realize now I should have probably have saved the nib.

 

 

The front of the nib unit on the bottom was covered in it too, almost like the feed was intentionally glued into the housing. Why???? I have like 10 more of these I was saving for a rainy day (i.e., an Esterbrook with a bum nib I could swap out) but it turns out I have junk instead. I guess I could harvest the nibs and throw out the feeds and housings...

[FarmBoy]

Many see problems, but a few see a challenge. 

[VacNut]

11 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

Many see problems, but a few see a challenge. 

I will make sure to send you a challenge with the next batch of pens

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I don't mind some challenge but I draw the line at parts that are glued together...

 

If anyone's waiting with bated breath for an update on the Esterbrook, after a few more hours working on it, I got the original nib to a point where it writes okay. Won't win any contests for smoothest writer of the year but it isn't scratchy anymore.

 

I have to say the more Esterbrooks I handle, the more impressed I am with them. I think they "perfected" the lever-filler, no exaggeration. I really like the design of their j-bars, they're super springy on the back but the front feels reinforced and lies flat against the sac, gets a great fill even with the relatively short #16 that fits in these. I wish someone made modern reproductions of these for replacements for other pens... I don't like the standard new ones, way too stiff.