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Sheaffer Craftsman/Touchdown repair question


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#1 Crofton

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Posted 14 August 2014 - 11:50 PM

 I just put a repaired a Sheaffer Craftsman with touchdown filling mechanism.  I put in a new sac, knocked out the nib and cleaned the feed. Once it was all back together I tried filling it with water.  With the nib fully submerged, including part of the section, when I depressed the plunger I noticed that bubbles came out of the space right where the nib/feed meet the section.  Is this normal?  I noticed in Marshall and Oldfields book (2nd ed., page 104) that there is a seal between the feed and the connector.  I did not notice one when I knocked out the nib.  Could the seal be missing?  and if so where can i get a new one?

 

thanks in advance for any help.

Kevin



#2 Richard

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Posted 15 August 2014 - 12:58 AM

Bubbles at the point where the feed enters the section are normal; if there were none, I'd be worried.

 

I don't know of any sort of seal near the feed. The following image shows what should be inside the pen. (This isn't a Craftsman; the Craftsman has no separate metal thread ring.)

 

touchdown.jpg

 

The Touchdown tube is secured to the blind cap with a self-tapping screw that encloses a seal. What is the "connector" you mention?


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#3 Hugh

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Posted 15 August 2014 - 04:33 AM

No seal, the snorkel has on in there called a "point gasket". Generally it's better not to knock out the feed on these open nib TDs because the "tail" on the nib is fairly short and sometimes hard to get a tight fit when refitting. I believe these where heat set in place by Sheaffer and not really designed to be removed ( sure to be corrected if that is wrong).

 

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#4 Indy-Pen-Dance

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Posted 15 August 2014 - 04:36 AM

Richard is correct of course that you will see bubbles where the feed enters the section when pushing down the tube to fill.  If your pen is not leaking at the section where the feed enters it you should be fine.  If it does leak there, it is possible that in resetting the nib and feed you did not get the nib in the same location it was originally in.  Many times the nib has created an indention where it has sat for so many years.  If it was not put back in the exact same location it can leak.  This can be easily remedied by removing the nib and feed and looking in the section to determine where the nib was originally positioned.  If your section is hard rubber you can also heat it so that it reforms to its original shape.  The latter should be done with great care as you can easily burn/melt the section with the amount of heat required to do this.


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#5 Ron Z

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Posted 15 August 2014 - 02:06 PM

No seal, the snorkel has on in there called a "point gasket". Generally it's better not to knock out the feed on these open nib TDs because the "tail" on the nib is fairly short and sometimes hard to get a tight fit when refitting. I believe these where heat set in place by Sheaffer and not really designed to be removed ( sure to be corrected if that is wrong).
 
Regards
Hugh


They can be knocked out of the collar like a regular nib and feed, but there is risk that they will be loose when reinserted. Because the collar is so short, there isn't much of an area to grip so it has to be really tight to hold. I have a stock of the collars that I'm hanging onto because I run into cases where the nib drifts around on top of the feed, and replacing the collar is the only real way to secure it. It is a tight fit, and like most NOS sections, you need to heat the section a bit to get the nib and feed to fit in properly

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#6 Crofton

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Posted 15 August 2014 - 11:05 PM

Thanks for all the feedback!  Seems like I might be worried a bit too much.  A couple of specific replies...

 

Richard - I think i confused my pen with the one on page 104 of M & Os book.  That pen has a conical nib - my pen is more like the one in your picture - so I think the section on my pen is all one piece from where the nib and feed go in on one end and the sac is attached at the other.

 

Inky-PenDance - Thanks for the tip about the indentation - i think i got in it correctly, but will check it if it leaks.

 

Hugh and Ron - I only knocked out the nib cause it was clogged up with some kind of sticky old ink residue.

 

I will let everyone know how it works out.

 

Kevin

 



#7 Crofton

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Posted 23 August 2014 - 07:07 PM

Just wanted to say thanks again for all the help.  The pen is back together, full of ink, not leaking (yea), and writing VERY well.  In fact the  #33 nib is very smooth, somewhere between fine and medium, not to wet, not to dry.  I'm using it as one of my two daily pens.

 

K






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