Wing Sung 601 cap dissasembly and swapping

[WJM]

The Wing Sung 601A is available with golden trims and a choice of patterned, golden caps. I really like these caps but I don't care for the Triumph-style nib on a pen that is for all intents and purposes a Parker 51 remake. Since they released that I waited for standard hooded nib 601 to be available with these caps. Unfortunately, it isn't. So I figured I could frankenpen one for myself by harvesting parts from 601A. 

 

Here are the two pens aside: Wing Sung 601 and Wing Sung 601A with a "Diamond" patterned golden cap. The 601A is slightly longer. 

 

 

The caps and blind caps are fully interchangeable. There is, however, a problem. The golden cap fits hooded 601 well enough to use it, but it stops about 2 mm higher than the standard cap making the pen longer. Longer even than the 601 flighter, which is already longer than the standard 601. On the other hand, the standard 601 cap fits 601A identically as its own, golden cap.

 

From above: WS 601 flighter, WS 601 with 601A cap, WS 601A with 601 cap.

 

 

The difference isn't huge, but does somewhat distort proportions of the pen, so I wanted to eliminate it. Looking inside both caps, it turns out their insides are a bit different. The 601 inner cap is thicker and shorter than 601A cap - which is likely the cause of the difference in lenght after capping the pen. Also, 601 inner cap has a cut at the end which allows to unscrew it with a flat screwdriver. 601A cap lacks this, but there is a hexagonal shape at the end and it can be unscrewed with a hex key. 

 

 

Dissasebling the caps is easy. Putting them back together is more troublesome. The old eraser (rubber) trick that works with Parker 51, comes in handy to avoid the clip rotating around. 

 

The transplant ended in a success. After swapping the inner caps the difference in lenght dissapeared. At the same time, the 601A can be capped with the shorter, 601 inner cap equally well, so I wonder what was even the reason for making them different. Perhaps the longer 601A inner cap is suited to the 601A section to better prevent if from drying out?

 

Here is 601 with the golden cap (after the operation) and another, burgundy double jeweled 601.

 

 

I also swapped the clutch ring, blind cap and even the filling mechanism. Now I have a 601 complete with golden trims. The nib remains the exeption (it's a silver colored Jinhao 911 nib). Theoretically I could swap it for a golden Wing Sung nib, but since this nib just works well and I don't think it does any harm to the pen's aesthetics, I probably won't bother.

 

 

The Wing Sung 601A "Triumph" nib also survived the operation, now equipped with silver trimmed parts:

 

 

[Paganini]

I did a similar thing a while back, but your post has more detail and better pictures. Nice job! 

 

(I was coming at it from the other direction; I had a 601A I didn't particularly like, so I thought I'd try to convert it into a regular hooded 601 from spare parts. I found that the 601 cap, with it's different insert, did not seal very well on the 601A.)

[Mech-for-i]

Wing Sung ( Shanghai JL ) themselves specifically state the cap for the 3 versions of nibs are tailored for those particular and would not interchange

[IJKWS]

15 hours ago, Mech-for-i said:

Wing Sung ( Shanghai JL ) themselves specifically state the cap for the 3 versions of nibs are tailored for those particular and would not interchange

Yes u r right

Mr.Zhang have told me that too.

[WJM]

The 601A "Triumph" section is a little thinner than standard 601 hooded nib section, so I assume the plastic insert of 601A's cap was tailored for that to ensure proper sealing. Apart from these inserts both caps seem identical (on the technical side). 

 

Anyway, even the unmodified 601A cap can be used on 601. The 601 caps securely with 601A cap, the only thing being the difference in length. Before I swapped the plastic inserts I used the 601 with an unmodified 601a cap for a day and didn't notice any practical problems.

[Paganini]

10 hours ago, WJM said:

Anyway, even the unmodified 601A cap can be used on 601. The 601 caps securely with 601A cap, the only thing being the difference in length. Before I swapped the plastic inserts I used the 601 with an unmodified 601a cap for a day and didn't notice any practical problems.

 

My experience was different; my 601 nib dried out when it was wearing the 601A cap - which is what prompted me to take them apart in the first place.