Conway Stewart Churchill Pressure bar cutting into new sacs help needed.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Looking at the pictures (late, late late- why am I here so infrequently?), and from the pure academic place of having not had the pen or even model in hand, I'd say the best course is to haul out the original pressure bar and replace it with a short replacement. The ones I get have the secondary presser mentioned above already attached, so the only bodging required is making sure of the length... unless the pressure bar is connected to the barrel in an unusually firm way, like the early Sheaffers were.

Actually, that's the second best course; before that, I'd contact C-S and see what they say. This may be something under the same sort of policy as an automotive recall, something so embarrassing to have floating around they'll fix it even if you're not the original owner. The worst that can happen is they quote a vast amount to put it right and you say "no".

[Paul-H]

Thanks for that, I will look into it.

CS have refused to accept that there is an issue so will do nothing about it and for some reason known only to them are quite happy to accept any bad publicity associated with this pen. And a few minutes spent on Google show its not an isolated problem with this pen, there are quite a few owners complaining about it on various collecting forums that have pen sections. Which is a shame because apart from that its such a lovely pen, apart from the fact that it eats ink sacs that is .

Paul

[Daisy]

Hi Paul, sorry I'm late to the party, but it occurred to me that even though Richard Binder is no longer repairing pens himself, he might be more than happy to tell you himself what his modification was. I'm pretty sure his site has contact information -- email, maybe even a phone number -- and it's not like you haven't tried everything else! If you email him, you could simply point him to this thread and ask him for his thoughts; he might well answer. He seems pretty generous with his knowledge. No guarantees, though, obviously. But it's worth a shot. And if he replies, you could post it here for others in the same sore dilemma as yourself.

What a shame about this design flaw; like you I hate to see an otherwise great pen go to waste. Good luck to you!

[HughC]

Clearly a very bad design, fancy CS being so rude and dismissive of the problem.....opps...sorry .....I see it was you ,Paul, not CS that was in the wrong ...thanks to "Ghost Plane" for pointing out such gems as 1. "You got a personal response from the busy international rep of a pen company who may not have had time to read the whole thing", fancy overlooking who moderates and spruiks CS product in the FPN CS forum at every given chance as well as having obvious lead topics planted posted so she can. 2. "you may have found, as other people have, a low or no cost repair in return for letting the company have a look at the pen" overlooking you'd already been told to "go away" with this from the "busy international rep" with "pen is void of warranty because the pen was not sent to the factory or to an authorized service location". But the real gem is last " it is counterproductive to the international pen community to behave badly when a representative is responding with legitimate questions and offers of assistance", did I miss the any real offer to help? Does "Ghost Plane" now claim to speak for the "international pen community"? Talk about logic defying ego running rampant over reality. Fact is we're talking about a very minor pen company with a poor financial past and a reputation for poor quality control that sells expensive pens. CS should fix the pen, it's as simple as that or at least provide a pressure bar that works at minimal cost given it seems to have been a problem with a number of pens....probably all with that setup. Making absurd claims about being "void of warranty" when it's a design fault says a lot about the company, not offering any real solution says even more. Compare this to Dyson, we bought a column fan+heater and some 18 months later they contacted us and offered to replace it with a new model (the new one worked a lot better so some people must have complained about the original models performance), we accepted of course. That item has now been recalled, Dyson sent us a new box ( actually 3 boxes ???) with postage paid to return the item. That's true customer service.

I think Ernest may have offered the logical option to solve the problem btw.

Regards
Hugh

[Paul-H]

Hi all

Its been a few months since the new sac was fitted and to be honest I have not used the pen that much so today after only its second filling I thought I would pull the section to see how the new sac is doing.

And as can be seen already it is showing signs of damage

[Jon Szanto]

You are aware of the flawed design. Were you expecting a different result?

[Paul-H]

Nope, but there are those who don't accept the design is flawed so thought they might like to see it in action

[Flounder]

What arrangement did you go with in the end Paul? It would be useful to know what hasn't worked this time, for future reference.

[Paul-H]

In the end I had to go back to standard so no real surprise how quickly its been damaged I suppose. I did try it with the end of the J-Bar trapped by the section as shown in the picture and although it did work it needed so much force that I feared for the safety of the flimsy lever and pivot pin.

I have a new J-Bar on order from Woodbin which might help as his is a two part item so it should apply a more even pressure and if I fit a shorter one it won't be so close to the nipple either.

I will post back with the results once done.

I understand that Conway Stewart did modify the Churchill after this fault became known to them, but cannot get a reply from them regarding mine, even though its out of warrantee so I would have been expecting to pay for the modification myself.

Not after having it done for free even though they should have done as its their design fault after all.

Paul

[Flounder]

Sounds good, hopefully that should help a lot.

[SteveE]

I'll be watching here to see what they do. I, too, have a very early lever-fill Churchill that has been back numerous times for sac replacements, and I would have it modified if they have a fix to offer (even at a modest cost to me).

[Paul-H]

Good luck getting them to respond to the problem, I have tried to contact them via their e.mail system and never had a single reply from them.

Which is why I am going down the repair it myself route, which I should not have to do with a £500 plus pen.

I am quite happy to pay to have my pen factory upgraded to the latest filling mechanism, I just cannot get a single reply from CS.

This obviously will now be my last CS pen from the new owners and sadly because of its faults I am stuck with it as it's quite worthless as a pen as it stands so I cannot pass the fault on to some other poor unsuspecting owner. It will also be worthless if I do get the woodbin J-Bar to work as it will no longer be original.

Paul

[scrivelry]

Good luck getting them to respond to the problem, I have tried to contact them via their e.mail system and never had a single reply from them.

Which is why I am going down the repair it myself route, which I should not have to do with a £500 plus pen.

I am quite happy to pay to have my pen factory upgraded to the latest filling mechanism, I just cannot get a single reply from CS.

This obviously will now be my last CS pen from the new owners and sadly because of its faults I am stuck with it as it's quite worthless as a pen as it stands so I cannot pass the fault on to some other poor unsuspecting owner. It will also be worthless if I do get the woodbin J-Bar to work as it will no longer be original.

Paul

Well, it would at least be less worthless. That is, you are clearly an honest person who is not going to sell it as original or pretend it ever worked properly, so any money sunk into it will be staying there. However, if at least you manage to get it to take up enough ink to write with you will be able to write with it. That seems like a huge improvement to me.

I agree this is ridiculous for any pen, but really inexcusable in a pen that cost so much.

[Bogon07]

Over on FPN, Mary Burke posted new contact information for CS.

While I love volunteering on FPN, as it allows me to assist the customers I adore, there is someone directly assigned at the factory with that responsibility and contacting her is MUCH faster and more efficient. Her name is Kayleigh Care, her contact info is Tel: 01752 776776 Email: kayleighcare@conwaystewart.co.uk and her global time zone is 8AM to 4PM GMT. With her 11 years of experience at Conway Stewart, I feel certain you will come to love her as we do, and you will find having a contact right there at the factory far more efficient than my long-distance efforts from Seattle, which is 8 hours, an ocean, and a continent away from the Conway Stewart factory.

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...ion/?p=3014048

[Paul-H]

Hi all

The new J-Bar arrived from Oddbin this morning and and was quickly fitted.

Although the basic function of both the original and the Oddbin turned out to be the same 2 part construction, where the Oddbin one scores higher is that when the lever is in the closed position the J-Bar is held flush against the barrel, unlike the Conway Stewart version which is held away from the barrel by about 2mm which was enough to jab the end of the J-Bar into the sac as can be seen in the above photograph.

I suspect all the problems will now be solved by the Oddbin part but will post back in a few months with an update. and thanks for recommending their part to solve this problem.

Shame Conway Stewart couldn't be bothered in helping me resolve this issue but glad it looks to be now sorted for only £3 as well.

Paul

[Danimal16]

Paul,

How did this work out? Also, what size j-bar did you install?

Sincerely,

DanB

[D Armstrong]

I thought I would weigh in a year later, as I have just spent an hour banging my head on one of these with the same issue.

The j-bar is a single-piece one, and is indeed as Paul's diagram shows. The flaw is both in it's design, and in the fact that they chose the cheapest option, saving probably pennies on each bar.

The fix is fairly drastic, and not for the faint of heart or the novice:

1) The old j-bar is epoxied in place in the end of the pen. To replace it, you must carefully drill out the plug from the inside, then discard the old j-bar.

2) get the shortest of the two-piece j-bars (54 mm), as seen here at woodbin.ca:

If you have properly removed the epoxy plug from inside, this j-bar should be the right size, and the right distance from the nipple to reduce the stretching and wear on the sac. And you won't need to re-glue the j-bar in place, as that was just silly in the first place.

I have three Churchills on the bench right now, all with filling issues. Because, of course, there is no longer anywhere to officially send an $800 CS pen when it fails after a couple of years of service.

What's the old adage about proof and pudding?

[tandaina]

And so the penny wise, pound foolish adage (on their part)

[Mags]

I thought I would weigh in a year later, as I have just spent an hour banging my head on one of these with the same issue.

The j-bar is a single-piece one, and is indeed as Paul's diagram shows. The flaw is both in it's design, and in the fact that they chose the cheapest option, saving probably pennies on each bar.

The fix is fairly drastic, and not for the faint of heart or the novice:

1) The old j-bar is epoxied in place in the end of the pen. To replace it, you must carefully drill out the plug from the inside, then discard the old j-bar.

2) get the shortest of the two-piece j-bars (54 mm), as seen here at woodbin.ca:

If you have properly removed the epoxy plug from inside, this j-bar should be the right size, and the right distance from the nipple to reduce the stretching and wear on the sac. And you won't need to re-glue the j-bar in place, as that was just silly in the first place.

I have three Churchills on the bench right now, all with filling issues. Because, of course, there is no longer anywhere to officially send an $800 CS pen when it fails after a couple of years of service.

What's the old adage about proof and pudding?

Dear David,

I have one so when it fails.....you are my guy.