26 replies to this topic

[brando090]

I went to clean the barrel of a german piston filler, and while taking out the twist mechanism, the material cracked, in about 3 places. Can this be saved?

While doing a bit of research i discovered this pen is very rare, hence the nib brand was usually for dip pens.

[BrianMcQueen]

Sorry about the bad break, Brandon. It takes some time to get a good handle on how much heat to use when taking apart pens. I have unfortunately broken a couple barrels myself using not enough heat, and shrunk another couple by using too much. Your cracks can probably be fixed by a talented repairman, but it may not be worth the price. They will remain rather visible since it is a clear barrel, and may not hold up to the stresses exerted on that part of your pen.

[brando090]

Thanks Brain,

That was what i was considering, is if it's going to repeat itself when the piston pressure is being screwed in and out. The barrel is red, and blue/green/clean at the end, so i think it may be a multi-colored barrel.

[Dennis Lively]

You can do this repair yourself. It's easier than you may think.

You will need 100% acetone. Available at any beauty supply shop. A small fine tipped Natural hair brush. Synthetic fibers will melt/shrivel in the acetone. Sewing needle, sheet brass. loupe, wooden dowel/stick to mix the celluloid/acetone. Glass beaker/shot glass to hold the mix. Buffing boards & pen polish. One of these is a must have as well.

With a fine sewing needle, open the crack a tiny bit, just enough to wick acetone into the crevice. Do this quickly on all 3. Insert the filler unit and apply the strap wrench to the end of the barrel. You may want to wrap a thin flexible piece of sheet brass to prevent the strap wrench from marring the surface. Let it sit for a week at a minimum to get a solid start on the curing process.

When it's ready, remove everything. With a loupe look at the surface of the welds, are there voids/tiny canyons? Most likely there will be some. If so, find some donor material and break it into tiny granules. A teaspoons worth should do fine. Add a small splash of acetone to break it down to a tacky goo. Apply a very thin layer along the weld and allow to dry/cure. Buff/sand the extra material down to the barrel surface, repeat as needed to fill the voids. Hit the whole pen with a light buff and a good polish & it should be good to go.

[brando090]

Thank you Dennis,

I cant thank you enough for your helpful post, but the pen is needing repairs as it, so fixing the barrel before going into repair, and the barrel not being totally clean, is not something i want to tack on as of right now. Ill most likely pay for the repairs with a price of the piston being fixed and the silver overlay being properly glued on.

[FarmBoy]

Before you start the weld make sure the area is completely cleaned.

[brando090]

Before you start the weld make sure the area is completely cleaned.

I tried cleaning it, and blue ink came out, that's why i dont think the barrel is clear (blue ink, red ink window section, back piston part/ multi-color). And i dont know how to clean it better than soap and a little soap and Q-tips.

[BrianMcQueen]

Before you start the weld make sure the area is completely cleaned.

I tried cleaning it, and blue ink came out, that's why i dont think the barrel is clear (blue ink, red ink window section, back piston part/ multi-color). And i dont know how to clean it better than soap and a little soap and Q-tips.

Brandon, this is one of the reasons I suggest you get a good repair manual. Marshall and Oldfield's Pen Repair book has a lot of good tips for a beginning restorer. I think you'll find the information very valuable to you. I will go ahead and give you a little heads up on cleaning, though. A solution of one or two parts ammonia to 10 parts water makes a great soaking fluid for plastic pens (not hard rubber or casein pens) and is great at breaking up ink. Make sure the ammonia is just the plain old cheap stuff, not scented or sudsy. You can buy some test tube brushes and clean the barrel rather effectively using this combination. I would highly suggest getting a good repair book, though.

One note on attempting to repair cracks yourself: You have to be extremely careful with that acetone. You only need to use a very small drop. If you accidentally get any acetone anywhere on the pen, it will scar it. I practiced crack repair on a couple junker pens, and must have gone through 10 attempted crack repairs before I did one that was halfway acceptable. I would recommend you pick up some junky, broken pens to practice on if you ever want to try repairing cracks.

[Ron Z]

I'm sorry, but Dennis is dead wrong.

Granted, acetone does melt celluloid and can allow it to fuse together, but the solvent weld is not quite as strong as it should be. Acetone can cause the celluloid to bubble, and the bubbles can be nearly impossible to get rid of. I abandoned acetone several years ago because of the problems that you encounter, and the difficulty in getting satisfactory results.

Acetone reacts, and evaporates quite quickly. Other solvents are a bit slower and are believed to penetrate the celluloid better, providing a strong repair. MEK, while quite toxic, is better than acetone. You have to have a Federal EIN (meaning that you are a real, registered business) to buy the best solvent for celluloid repair. I use it, and end up with strong repairs that are usually invisible. It's also advantageous to add material to the crack so that you don't have to depend on just the material on the two sides of the crack fusing. Done right, it is possible to have repairs that are as strong or stronger than the surrounding material. Done wrong, and you can have an ugly mess.

Plastic repair is more of an art than a science. I've spent the better part of 8 years developing my plastic repair skills. If the pen really is quite rare, then I suggest that you send it to someone who has the necessary skills rather than try to do this yourself.

Above all, DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE TO GLUE THE CRACKS. Once you contaminate the surfaces, a strong solvent weld can not be guaranteed.

[brando090]

Before you start the weld make sure the area is completely cleaned.

I tried cleaning it, and blue ink came out, that's why i dont think the barrel is clear (blue ink, red ink window section, back piston part/ multi-color). And i dont know how to clean it better than soap and a little soap and Q-tips.

Brandon, this is one of the reasons I suggest you get a good repair manual. Marshall and Oldfield's Pen Repair book has a lot of good tips for a beginning restorer. I think you'll find the information very valuable to you. I will go ahead and give you a little heads up on cleaning, though. A solution of one or two parts ammonia to 10 parts water makes a great soaking fluid for plastic pens (not hard rubber or casein pens) and is great at breaking up ink. Make sure the ammonia is just the plain old cheap stuff, not scented or sudsy. You can buy some test tube brushes and clean the barrel rather effectively using this combination. I would highly suggest getting a good repair book, though.

One note on attempting to repair cracks yourself: You have to be extremely careful with that acetone. You only need to use a very small drop. If you accidentally get any acetone anywhere on the pen, it will scar it. I practiced crack repair on a couple junker pens, and must have gone through 10 attempted crack repairs before I did one that was halfway acceptable. I would recommend you pick up some junky, broken pens to practice on if you ever want to try repairing cracks.

Thank you very much, ill follow through with what you've said.

[brando090]

I'm sorry, but Dennis is dead wrong.

Granted, acetone does melt celluloid and can allow it to fuse together, but the solvent weld is not quite as strong as it should be. Acetone can cause the celluloid to bubble, and the bubbles can be nearly impossible to get rid of. I abandoned acetone several years ago because of the problems that you encounter, and the difficulty in getting satisfactory results.

Acetone reacts, and evaporates quite quickly. Other solvents are a bit slower and are believed to penetrate the celluloid better, providing a strong repair. MEK, while quite toxic, is better than acetone. You have to have a Federal EIN (meaning that you are a real, registered business) to buy the best solvent for celluloid repair. I use it, and end up with strong repairs that are usually invisible. It's also advantageous to add material to the crack so that you don't have to depend on just the material on the two sides of the crack fusing. Done right, it is possible to have repairs that are as strong or stronger than the surrounding material. Done wrong, and you can have an ugly mess.

Plastic repair is more of an art than a science. I've spent the better part of 8 years developing my plastic repair skills. If the pen really is quite rare, then I suggest that you send it to someone who has the necessary skills rather than try to do this yourself.

Above all, DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE TO GLUE THE CRACKS. Once you contaminate the surfaces, a strong solvent weld can not be guaranteed.

Rick,

I do plan on having the whole pen overhauled at some point, which i would ask for the minor cracks to be repaired. Ill be sure to make sure they dont sure hot glue or acetone, unless they have many hundreds of pens under their belt with good results. For future readers, ill be attaching images of what the whole pen looks like. This nib i cant find mich info on it being a fountain pen nib, as most of this brand were for dip pens.

[Rick Krantz]

probably cheaper and better to have someone simply turn a new barrel. you got a pretty good pattern there....

I don't think that this breakage can totally be blamed on your repair technique, it appears that barrel looks quite brittle.

[brando090]

probably cheaper and better to have someone simply turn a new barrel. you got a pretty good pattern there....

I don't think that this breakage can totally be blamed on your repair technique, it appears that barrel looks quite brittle.

Thanks,

I didn't even take that into consideration when repairing the pen, and that may be cheaper than repairing the crack, as well at being stronger in the long run, but it will take away from the value.

[George]

probably cheaper and better to have someone simply turn a new barrel. you got a pretty good pattern there....

I don't think that this breakage can totally be blamed on your repair technique, it appears that barrel looks quite brittle.

Thanks,

I didn't even take that into consideration when repairing the pen, and that may be cheaper than repairing the crack, as well at being stronger in the long run, but it will take away from the value.

I don't think there is any value to be taken away if you make a new barrel.

Regards,
George

[brando090]

probably cheaper and better to have someone simply turn a new barrel. you got a pretty good pattern there....

I don't think that this breakage can totally be blamed on your repair technique, it appears that barrel looks quite brittle.

Thanks,

I didn't even take that into consideration when repairing the pen, and that may be cheaper than repairing the crack, as well at being stronger in the long run, but it will take away from the value.

I don't think there is any value to be taken away if you make a new barrel.

Regards,
George

That's good, ill be sure to try the ammonia to water mixture to be sure what color the barrel is, and have it turned.

[Rick Krantz]

likely green, but I could be wrong.

find a competent machinist

don't mess up the broken barrel, it is your best friend to ensure that pen will once again exist.

Rick

[brando090]

likely green, but I could be wrong.

find a competent machinist

don't mess up the broken barrel, it is your best friend to ensure that pen will once again exist.

Rick

I will, and ill be sure to keep the original barrel for resale.

[BrianMcQueen]

Brandon,

I think the reason you can't find any information about that nib being manufactured for a fountain pen is because it looks like it is a dip nib that's been reshaped to fit in the fountain pen.

[david i]

I don't think there is any value to be taken away if you make a new barrel.

Regards,
George

That's good, ill be sure to try the ammonia to water mixture to be sure what color the barrel is, and have it turned.

You might be misreading George's remark

-d

[Rick Krantz]

I don't think there is any value to be taken away if you make a new barrel.

Regards,
George

That's good, ill be sure to try the ammonia to water mixture to be sure what color the barrel is, and have it turned.

You might be misreading George's remark

-d

looking at this pen, I guess I now have some additional questions... what make is this pen, and what makes it rare and valuable?

I mean, it just looks like a no name german (perhaps) sterling (and maybe not fine silver) overlay.

I believe they are not at all uncommon, and only saw the second series of pictures after I reexplored this thread.

Figuring around $100 for a barrel turned maybe more, maybe less, I don't know if the pen actually warrants the $$$ spent, especially if you wanna resell, unless I am missing something this might only be worth $200-250 at best, it looks to be dinged up fairly well, and it is missing the nib, the nib pictured is obviously not original to the pen.

Either way, puting the money in, you know where you are at. I am not sure what you paid to get the pen, but without having a manufacture to go on, I have seen many a similar pen over the years, and I just don't see this as being rare and valuable.

Just trying to help out.

If you like the pen, and plan to keep it, have a barrel turned. If you plan to sell it, I might offer that you cut your losses.