What is on your bench?

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

4 hours ago, Ron Z said:

...except in a sealed space.  The spring would rust first.  It is possible to pull ink in around the point holder gasket if you pull back on the TD tube with the nib immersed in ink or water because the TD tube creates a vacuum when pulled back.

 

I don't see what the issue is.  Pull  the TD tube back and unscrew the section and see if there's liquid in the barrel.

 

re. corrosion on a gold 51 nib.  Not likely to be corrosion, but I have seen a nasty mineral buildup under the hood on a number of occasions.

 

I didn't pull the tube back when it was in the water, just thought maybe some water might have gotten into the seam while I was soaking it. But you're totally right, should have just opened it for peace of mind. I opened it just now and it looks fine, completely dry.

 

About the 51 nib, I don't know, it looked very strange. The tipping was really brittle and snapped off when I tried to fiddle with it a little bit. It was definitely inked with something weird.

 

Sorry all for being a little more neurotic than usual, having some family and work troubles and it is unfortunately spilling over into my hobbies (and my comments on here).

[VacNut]

Something different. A bunch of pens arrived these past weeks and I am getting caught up. You may need to zoom in to see the details, but which pen/pencil would be uncommon?

[bsenn]

That second from the right Parker pencil looks interesting.

[VacNut]

46 minutes ago, bsenn said:

That second from the right Parker pencil looks interesting.

You have a good eye.

[VacNut]

But there are others of interest 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I got around to restoring this little Signet Jr. set:

 

 

It's very cute, came in its original box. The engraving pattern is a little different from any others I've seen too, kind of unique.

 

I had to knock out the nib/feed because the feed was very off-center. It was a pain getting it back into proper position, need to heatset it. I have a grand total of two Signet pens (well, the other is a "Superite" but they have the same nib and I'm pretty sure they were made by the same company) and both had really wonky set feeds.

 

I couldn't quite line up the lever with the nib, I had to twist the section in to secure it, I guess the threads on the metal body made an impression on the rubber on the section.

 

Overall a pretty cool pen, it has a nice flexible nib. A little too small for practical use though; I had to put a #13 sac in this one and honestly I think a #12 might have been a better choice.

[John T]

I was given a Morrison "The Patriot" in olive drab. It was very dirty and of course the filling system is not working (yet), still in the process of slowly but carefully disassembling it. Waiting on the kit to fix the filling system. It looks like it will clean up nicely. 

[Ron Z]

Those are such a joy.  NOT!   The filler is a bear to get off of the filler because they're shellaced on, and the clear part wants to warp before it comes off.

 

This is what often happens.  No hope in saving this, and it was too stained and ugly to try.

 

This was the new one fit to the original section when done.  I made a new cylinder out of acrylic, and may have made a new plunger.  New seals etc of course. The knob is original

 

[John T]

41 minutes ago, Ron Z said:

Those are such a joy.  NOT!   The filler is a bear to get off of the filler because they're shellaced on, and the clear part wants to warp before it comes off.

 

This is what often happens.  No hope in saving this, and it was too stained and ugly to try.

 

This was the new one fit to the original section when done.  I made a new cylinder out of acrylic, and may have made a new plunger.  New seals etc of course. The knob is original

 

I am going to wait on the repair kit to arrive before I get to trying to remove it and it may turn into another great learning experience lol. I will post again when and if I get it all back together and working. Richard Binder has a great section in his books about how to repair and the history of these pens.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Ugh, the aforementioned Parker 51 is driving me crazy. I was cleaning it out and I noticed ink leeching through the hood joint when I put a wet tissue next to it. Obvious guess would be a crack. I took the hood off and shone a light through it (the Parker 51 lucite appears to be slightly translucent when shining a bright light through it) and I do not see any cracks.

 

The other thing I can think of, I applied a low to moderate amount of shellac to seal it but I had to take the hood off a few times to align it properly so it's possible the shellac did not set properly to seal the pen. I reapplied a slightly more generous amount of shellac and this time I didn't fiddle with it too much.

 

It may also be cracked under the the clutch ring, not the hood, but I honestly don't know how that would happen. I didn't check before resealing the hood and I really don't want to open it again so I am going to assume this is not the problem.

 

It also doesn't make sense to me because the pen did not leak while it was inked and I tested it for about a week. Is it possible the shellac softened while I soaked the pen overnight in cold water to clean it out? I did not soak it up to the joint but I suppose it could have traveled up to the threads on the inside via capillary action. Anyone have any ideas?

 

While I had it open I also tried to play around with the feed/collector. I swapped in the collector that came with this nib but the feed and nib still sit a little too deep. My impression is that shouldn't be possible since the collector has a natural stop for the nib. Just a weird pen...

 

[VacNut]

Any chance the ink from the hood is left over from filling the pen? The ink flow is within the section. The hood is really decorative, so there should be any ink within the hood, unless the section is broken.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Possibly. I am not getting any remnants of ink now after reassembling. Now the hood is very slightly misaligned, I had it perfect before... I am going to leave it alone. If I take it apart I'll probably break something else, I can't keep disassembling this.

[VacNut]

An aerometric is pretty bullet proof. I always mark with tape the hood/nib alignment with the barrel before I take off the hood. Makes the nib alignment easier

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I do something similar but it always trips me up because the hood will thread on tighter when you put some kind of sealant on the threads, whether it's silicone grease (I know this isn't recommended but I do it for some of my personal pens to make them easier to disassemble), rosin, or shellac.

 

So the problem I usually have is that I line it up perfectly without any sealant, then when I put the sealant on I have to fiddle with it again. I need to start aligning it so that the nib is a little bit further without sealant so that when I seal it, it lines up completely. Need to account for the fact that the sealant will act as a lubricant for the threads.

[FarmBoy]

Or stop tightening the hood sooner. 
 

And remember to clear the collector when you fill a 51. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

2 minutes ago, FarmBoy said:

Or stop tightening the hood sooner. 
 

And remember to clear the collector when you fill a 51. 

 

What do you mean by clear the collector? 

[Ron Z]

1 hour ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

What do you mean by clear the collector? 

 

After the last squeeze of the pressure bar, or press of the pump, pull the pen out of the ink, and then release.  This clears excess ink out of the collector and breather tube.  Skip that step and the pen may tend to flood.

 

re. rosin or shellac.  Most pen mechanics use shellac to discourage tampering with the alignment of hood and nib.  I've had some NOS 51s in my hands though (dust from machining in still in the barrel) that apparently had a rosin based sealant on the section threads.  In either case, you only need to tighten a hood a bit and let whatever sealant you used do the work of holding it in place.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

13 minutes ago, Ron Z said:

 

After the last squeeze of the pressure bar, or press of the pump, pull the pen out of the ink, and then release.  This clears excess ink out of the collector and breather tube.  Skip that step and the pen may tend to flood.

 

re. rosin or shellac.  Most pen mechanics use shellac to discourage tampering with the alignment of hood and nib.  I've had some NOS 51s in my hands though (dust from machining in still in the barrel) that apparently had a rosin based sealant on the section threads.  In either case, you only need to tighten a hood a bit and let whatever sealant you used do the work of holding it in place.

 

Ah yeah, I remembered to do that this time after reinking the pen. I forgot the first time and I had a little bit of burping at the start, remembered then that you need to do this.

[es9]

Here’s a fun one I stumbled on a while back—it came in a lot with some other pens. A Waltham golden web! Not a particularly nice pen, but kind of neat. I assume Waltham just bought spare celluloid from whoever made the golden web stuff. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

This Parker 51 is driving me crazy! I just noticed I can nudge the nib a little bit side to side when I noticed the hood and nib were more off center than before. I take it that this is not normal? I set the nib and feed as far as I could and they are already too deep compared to other Parker 51s I have.

 

I really do not know what is wrong with this pen. The parts simply do not fit together the way they should and it does not make sense because it is a very standard post war Parker 51 vac. I don't know if the feed/collector got worn down over time or there were manufacturing defects in the factory but something is just off, and it's not just me.

 

I am antsy about this pen because I was going to trade it at a pen meet and I didn't want to give away a pen that was not properly restored.  I guess it writes fine, fills well, and has no cracks so it should be okay. I even got the blind cap alignment absolutely perfect for once. Hopefully whoever it goes to is less neurotic than I am.