Glue and corrosion

[mke]

I have pens where a few parts are glued together with epoxy glue. In all these pens did the converters corrode - during a few months only.

Pens which do not contain glue, do not show corrosion. 

 

example of the corrosion - see photo

 

only acrylics => no corrosion

only ebonite => no corrosion

ebonite+glue => corrosion

 

What do you think? Is this a known problem?

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

But where exactly in the pens in question was the epoxy glue applied? Is the/any site at which the epoxy glue was applied able to ‘breathe’ into the cavity of the pen barrel that houses the converter?

 

I cannot imagine epoxy glue applied only somewhere on the cap would lead to that phenomenon. In fact, I'd find it questionable whether epoxy glue applied to threads between a previously removable screw-in end finial and the end of the barrel would cause it, assuming no glue is displaced by the screw-in action such that there is some remnant of it being exposed inside the barrel cavity.

 

And that's without going into the specifics of exactly which type/brand of epoxy glue.

[mke]

The glue was applied to connect some parts of the barrel.

[Addertooth]

After the glue has cured, you may need to do a few hours of very low temperature bake-in to allow the glue/epoxy to outgas any remaining fractional components.  Then flush/clean the pen parts.   As well all know, if you can smell it afterward, it is putting "chemicals" in the air.  Not all chemicals are benign. 

 

The temperature of the bake-in will be driven by how heat tolerant your pen body materials are. 

 

The issue you ran into may be why so many early pen manufacturers used Shellac to bind parts together.