I may have blundered.

[Mark9117]

Here's the thing: I sniped on a pen that I had some doubts about. I'm looking for a project pen and I have zero experience at this sort of thing. Everybody has to start somewhere, right?

So I wound up winning the pen and probably paying too much for it. Not a big deal, it was less than $50 USD. I can afford that even if I wind up destroying the pen.

I haven't received the pen yet and it may look better in person. Here is a link for reference.

http://ebay.com/itm/261843592679

If you look at it, you can see that the plunger cap does not sure down flush to the end of the barrel. The seller points that out very clearly. I'm thinking that a seal or other piece that is a little oversized has been installed somewhere in the plunger mechanism, something has come loose and settled against the end of the section, or something else that might be easily remedied through a basic teardown of the pen.

Again, zero experience with this.

Questions for the experts: am I way off base with these suppositions?

Is this a known issue with piston fillers that you've seen before?

Am I in way over my head on this thing?

Have I selected a really poor subject for my first attempt at fountain pen rescue?

And finally, can someone identify this thing? I'm guessing a late '30's Crest 1500 maybe?

Any help appreciated.

Mark

[mhosea]

Well, I wouldn't have paid that much, and even after restoring several dozen vintage pens, I still don't attempt Sheaffer plunger fillers. However, it looks restorable to me. I don't see why it wouldn't clean up pretty well. I wonder if the blind cap issue is just that the retaining collar for the blind cap is partially unscrewed.

At any rate, this is probably one to set aside until your skills catch up to it.

[Scrawler]

I can't help, but that will be a really nice pen when you have restored it.

[tandaina]

It will be a nice pen once restored... But those rod vacuum fillers are *not* for the faint of heart. When I was starting I was told to attempt *only* the tube variety and to send ones like this to Ron Zorn. Maybe someone has come up with an easier way to repair them since then. But it is not for the faint of heart at all. If this is your first restore put it away, but some lever fillers, then some pistons, some vacuumatics, etc before even thinking about it!

[mhosea]

BTW, I'm no expert, but the pen body looks to me like Sheaffer Crest Triumph. To me the cap doesn't look right.

[Mark9117]

I am in the process of watching a tutorial on this pen (Shaffer Vac-fil). It looks tedious once you get it disassembled.

Disassembly seems to be an exercise in warm water and patience culminating in a judicious application of elbow grease.

I could put it aside and collect some experience points before working on it. That would be the smart thing to do. It should be apparent by now that I'm not all that smart.

We'll take it slow and see how it goes. There are materials and tools to be purchased. I'm not in any real hurry.

Thanks for the guidance folks. I'll keep you posted one way or the other.

Mark

[kirchh]

Here's the thing: I sniped on a pen that I had some doubts about. I'm looking for a project pen and I have zero experience at this sort of thing. Everybody has to start somewhere, right?

So I wound up winning the pen and probably paying too much for it. Not a big deal, it was less than $50 USD. I can afford that even if I wind up destroying the pen.
Not sure what the relevance of the snipe is; you were the only bidder and got it for the starting price of $39.


And finally, can someone identify this thing? I'm guessing a late '30's Crest 1500 maybe?

No such thing as a "1500"; the numbers found below the maker's imprint on the barrel are just prices (in cents), not model numbers.

This pen was a decent latter-'40s Sentinel Deluxe before someone tore off the gold filled band at the bottom of the cap. Given that, you shouldn't feel at all bad about diving into a filler restoration and using it as a way to learn your way around these.

--Daniel