What is on your bench?

[gweimer1]

2 hours ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

I put the new diaphragm into the Parker 51 vac from a few posts ago. Predictably I can't get the blind cap flush with the body, but this seems like a consistent problem for me and I give up. With the horrendous state of the filler threads I am thankful it screws in at all.

 

In terms of filling, I just did a test fill with water and it feels good. I think this one might be the best one I've done yet. I'd rather it fill really well than look perfect anyway. Going to leave the shellac on the hood to dry for a few hours and will give it a quick once over with Simichrome and I should be done. Well, almost done, need a new jewel for it.

 

Did you check to be sure that all the old residue was gone from the barrel when the pump seats?   Chase out the threads?  I find that I have to keep gently turning the pump in just a little bit more, when there's room to do so, in order to get the blind cap lined up.    I'm with you....I have frequent issues trying to get the stupid things to line up properly.  I currently have one nice pen that I won't sell because the blind cap is just too far off the mark.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

6 minutes ago, gweimer1 said:

 

Did you check to be sure that all the old residue was gone from the barrel when the pump seats?   Chase out the threads?  I find that I have to keep gently turning the pump in just a little bit more, when there's room to do so, in order to get the blind cap lined up.    I'm with you....I have frequent issues trying to get the stupid things to line up properly.  I currently have one nice pen that I won't sell because the blind cap is just too far off the mark.

 

Yup, I have that tool that Dale sells for pushing out the pump that has a scraper on the other end. I've found that it helps (my first few vacs I did without it, and it was tougher to get the diaphragm to seat well) but it doesn't fix the issue. The threads are as clean as I could get them but I think I need a strong solvent or a stronger brush to really get them perfect.

 

I'm not too fussed about it, I seem to remember that it wasn't flush when I got it either so in any case I didn't make it worse. But this is really the most annoying part of restoring vacs for me. Disassembling them is tough sometimes (this one was a bear of a pen in particular) and getting the pellet out sucks sometimes but getting the damn blindcap right is the worst. 

[tmenyc]

give the end of the barrel some heat. With your Vac wrench, turn the threaded unit in (think clock here) ten minutes, no more. Remove the wrench, test fit the blind cap. Repeat the process in these small increments until it not only closes but aligns perfectly with the barrel. Near the end, you may have to use an even smaller increment. don't forget the heat. If, even with the heat, the turning just stops, don't force it. Try a bit more heat. If that doesn't help, you're probably done (although thread chasing usually helps. It's always possible that the blind cap was not original to that pen. 

 

Tim 

[FarmBoy]

Clean out the threads and don’t tighten the jamb nut so tight. Then just push the blind cap into alignment. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

This is all really good advice, thanks guys. That being said, I'm going to leave it alone. I know myself well, and I know that if I start tinkering with it until it is perfect I will end up breaking it. I'm a perfectionist with very little patience, which is a very bad combination of personality traits, especially when it comes to pen repair. 

 

I figure it works well and it looks pretty close, and at the end of the day this is a "reversible" change. If someone gets this pen after me, whether as a gift or whatever else, they can always unscrew it and try their hand at fixing the alignment if it bothers them.

 

I need to stop buying pens for a bit. I have a lot of pens pending restoration that I need parts or sacs for. Also no more vacumatics for a while, this last one was a struggle.

[VacNut]

Sometimes a technician will place the end cap on a lathe to adjust the diameter of the cap, if it is not aligned with the barrel, but this is not recommended and uncommon. One test you can try is to see if the end cap can be aligned with the barrel without the threaded nut. If it can be aligned , then it is the threads and not the end cap.

[Ron Z]

The other is to warm the barrel and blind cap, and then push the side of the blind cap that hangs over the end of the barrel.

[FarmBoy]

1 hour ago, VacNut said:

Sometimes a technician will place the end cap on a lathe to adjust the diameter of the cap, if it is not aligned with the barrel, but this is not recommended and uncommon. One test you can try is to see if the end cap can be aligned with the barrel without the threaded nut. If it can be aligned , then it is the threads and not the end cap.

I’m thankful some ‘technicians’ don’t have a lathe. 

[VacNut]

1 hour ago, FarmBoy said:

I’m thankful some ‘technicians’ don’t have a lathe. 

Sad to say, I was offered this option several times

[VacNut]

2 hours ago, Ron Z said:

The other is to warm the barrel and blind cap, and then push the side of the blind cap that hangs over the end of the barrel.

Ron,

This is a new technique to me. How does one keep the “extra” material from bulging elsewhere? Does the diameter enlarge slightly overall so that it is not noticeable? 
How warm is warm? 

[Ron Z]

You are shifting the filler a bit, pushing it a bit to one side or another.  Press over the filler threads next to the joint, not at the end of the blind cap.   I think that David Nishimura and Todd E. have talked about it too.  But I find that sometimes you have to futz with how much the filler is screwed into the barrel.  The wall thickness of the diaphragm is not always the same, and that can create problems.  An amateur may not clean all of the old diaphragm off of the seat, and that can create problems too.

 

One needs to be VERY careful tightening a filler into the barrel.  I use a water based "personal lubricant" on the outside of the diaphragm over the cone so that it slides into place easier.   But over tightening to try to get things to line up can lead to barrel bulge or cracks in the barrel.  Parker's repair manual says to tighten with "firm pressure," but no torque spec.   I tighten them so that they are snug,but not tight.  I try not to change fillers if I can avoid it because that also can cause a misalignment of barrel and blind cap.  Sometimes perfectly aligned is not possible. 

[FarmBoy]

If the barrel and blind cap left Parker together and no one has taken to the joint with sand paper.  It will line up no problem.  Just clean the threads and don't tighten it so much that it can't shift.

[Nethermark]

I normally make a mark on the filler unit and the barrel when taking a Vac apart to make sure I can put it back together aligned. The times I haven’t done that, I found it very hard to align it such that the blind cap is flush with the barrel, even when I have scraped out the barrel completely. I also have the suspicion that current diaphragms are thicker that the ones Parker used originally, which complicates things

[VacNut]

I know it isn’t necessary, but I apply a (very) small amount of silicon grease on the filler threads to allow easy removal in the future.

I apply the grease on my fingertip and run my fingertip around the threads of the nut in a circular motion. (You really don’t need much grease).

 

I don’t reinstall a diaphragm so there is little chance of over-tightening the filler.

 

I am careful to keep the grease on the threads of the nut.

There are just too many vacs to use, so there is no benefit to installing the diaphragm.

 

The water-based lubricant may be a better option.

[Ron Z]

David Nishmura suggested silicone grease a number of years ago, and I use it as well.  It can help to protect the threads and prevent corrosion.  Just be aware that it also makes it a bit easier to over tighten if you aren't careful, but the gains outweigh the risks. 

 

You do need to clean off the threads and get the corrosion and bits of celluloid out of them.  A brass wire wheel on a Dremel will clean them out with minimal damage to the aluminum bushing.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Well, this is a new one. I took a chance on a small Japanese pen on eBay, metal body but it looked nice. The description said it "leaked sometimes" but it sold for so cheap I thought I would take a risk.

 

Finally got it today, and could barely get it open. Turns out it "leaked" because the moron (excuse my French) eyedroppered the pen. It isn't airtight and on top of that, it's entirely brass. The entire back of the pen is corroded. On top of that, he shipped it like 1/4 full of ink. Common sense is not so common...

[GlenV]

Since I was able to remove the clutch I used the opportunity to finish up this vac 51, that had previously had an aerometric  cap instead of the original here due to a inner cap problem. I used this fancy tool for the filler unit removal and the heated pin method for the pellet which came out nearly intact. If anyone wants to know how that works, spent awhile removing all the rubber around the pellet with a needle, was pliable enough for that still, and with the end of a candle heated pin poked into the pellet and cooled a bit can work out the attached pellet by lowering the pin against the cup edge. Probably most of you are familiar with this method sometimes is surprisingly easy ( if fails can still dremel or drill it out) 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I got a new pen and I am a little confused by it. It's an Arnold, feels rather decent for an Arnold (which IMO are the cheapest feeling pens I have ever tried, they make Wearevers look like Sheaffers). The problem is, it has no lever or any other filling mechanism I can make out.

 

 

Do I just stick a sac in it and call it a day? I know that after Parker released the aerometric 51, a lot of companies scrambled to make their own "squeeze fillers" but most of them have some sort of metal cage, this one has nothing. And there doesn't appear to be any clearance for one, so I doubt it is missing. The nib is completely clean and there were no traces of ink anywhere in the cap, section, or body so I think it might have been NOS. But no remnants of a sac either!

 

I also included a picture of the threads because I thought it was funny. This pen is so cheaply made, they didn't even drill out the inside threads, instead it's a thin celluloid insert. I am guessing they wanted the celluloid sheets of the body as thin as possible to make it for as little as they could. And it was too thin at that point to drill threads out?

 

Still, it's a very pretty pen and I'd like to get it working as it was "designed."

 

[tmenyc]

Assuming there is no blind cap that we can't see, with that threaded barrel and the absence of any metal in the barrel, you've got yourself an eyedropper! When you fill it be sure to screw the section on over the open ink barrel and let a few drops drip down as you screw it in. That will equalize pressure. 

 

Tim

 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

9 minutes ago, tmenyc said:

Assuming there is no blind cap that we can't see, with that threaded barrel and the absence of any metal in the barrel, you've got yourself an eyedropper! When you fill it be sure to screw the section on over the open ink barrel and let a few drops drip down as you screw it in. That will equalize pressure. 

 

Tim

 

 

I thought about this but it is not airtight.  It's one of those cheap pens where the bottom of the pen is a black "jewel" (kinda like the Wearever "Deluxe") that is solvent welded or maybe just pressed in. When I was cleaning it out with water I let it sit for a bit and it very slowly leaked out from the bottom.

 

I'm guessing this was another cost-cutting measure since the entire pen is just a wrapped sheet of celluloid. What easier way to put an "end" on it then just plug it up? It's a shame no higher quality manufacturer used this pattern because it's actually really pretty.

 

It kind of feels like this was a "seconds" pen that the factory made when they realized they didn't have any levers left so they just didn't cut the slot out and shoved some threads in instead. I've seen examples of this pen online that look exactly the same but with a cheapo lever typical for the brand. I think they made these in button-filler too.