New Style OMAS Paragon Piston Repair

[chemguyethan]

Hi everyone,

So I got a stellar deal on a used OMAS "New Style" Paragon in black with HT trim. The seller isn't specifically a pen guy, I think, so he may never have really tested the pen, maybe dipped it. Aesthetically it's in pristine condition (I'm sure you can guess where this is going). I saw there was some dried ink on the feed so I went to go try and flush the pen. Put the nib/feed under warm water, turned the knob until I felt a little resistance, then turned it back down. No water came out. No air came out, nada. Tried it again but thought maybe I didn't turn the knob enough. Just kept turning and turning and turning until the knob came off and the black sleeve the fits around the piston rod came out with it...yikes.

I can see that the pen has been neglected a bit, it's had ink dried in it at some point. The piston will move up and down if I grab it with some little tiny alligator forceps I have, but it's very, very stiff... I have an OMAS Ogiva that's piston filled that's also stiff, but not like this.

My current diagnosis is that either due to dried ink in the barrel or insufficient grease, the piston is seizing up and the sleeve that goes around it skips rather than moving it up and down. That is, assuming it's made to skip like that. The sleeve has a small amount of threading on the bottom part and then the piston rod is square with two sides opposite each other being threaded and the two other sides smooth. This I think allows the sleeve to skip over the piston rod if is seizes like this to prevent the plastic from breaking. Or at least that's what I'm hoping...

My question then is multi-part:
1) I have removed the nib and feed, but does the metal section unscrew from the barrel so that it can be thoroughly cleaned and I can remove the piston? I don't want to break it off... Or is there a surefire way to remove old crusty ink?
2) If this can't be removed, how would you suggest to grease the piston after I've cleaned all the ink out? My thought was put a little grease on the end of a plastic pipette to apply it as far back in the barrel as possible then move the piston up and down until the action is smooth. After that try to put everything together and see if it works now.

Well anyway, any thoughts on this would be great. I don't really want to pay a bunch of money (though again I did get a great deal on the pen) and wait ~6 months or more for repair and I of course don't want to break anything... This all seems like something I can do myself considering nearly everything has already been taken apart.

Thanks in advance,
Ethan

[Chrissy]

I have successfully unscrewed my sections off of both of my Omas Paragon type pens. It helps it you have an ultra sonic cleaner, but even if you don't you should soak it in warm water for a few minutes. Not overnight though as the celluloid material might swell.

Then you need something quite grippy. I have some rubber mat pieces from Andersons Pens I think. Assuming you're right handed you should hold the pen in your right hand, and the section with the grippy rubber on it in your left hand and turn the section clockwise with your left hand and the barrel anti-clockwise with your right hand. I hold mine horizontally and I'm facing the wall. I turn the section towards the wall with my left hand, and the barrel towards me with my right hand.

The section shouldn't be that hard to unscrew.

Once you have the section unscrewed then you can keep turning the piston cone and it will come out of the barrel with the wavy rod permanently attached to the top cone. Then you need to get a pencil and push out the piston from the bottom end of the barrel (not from the top as I first tried to do!) where the screw threads are.

Then you can clean everything up, including the remains of some black stuff on the section threads, put a tiny amount of silicone grease on the piston, the wavy rod, and the section threads and assemble it all back together. :)

I have to add a disclaimer here that I'm just a hobbyist, and I've safely done this with my own two modern Omas Paragon type pens. But I can't accept any responsibility for any damage that occurs to your pen if you try this yourself. :)

These instructions are for a modern Omas Paragon. The old style Paragons are completely different and there is a You tube video explaining removal of those pistons. 'Omas piston disassembly'

[chemguyethan]

Thank you for the reply, Chrissy.

I suspected it must come apart since they're two different materials but I was having a hard time finding any confirmation that someone else had successfully removed the metal section from the barrel.

So hopefully with that off I can get this pen into working condition again! I didn't buy it for a dip pen... haha

I had come across that video for the old style paragons and then was disappointed one didn't exist for the new ones.

I might try to document my process just so it's out there for anyone else looking to tune up a new Paragon.

Thanks again.

[Chrissy]

At this point I will just add that my Omas pens don't have metal grips. However, you're right, they surely must come apart as they are different materials. :)

Warming that metal section might improve your chances of removing it.

[chemguyethan]

Just posted a new thread here (http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/16324-Disassembly-OMAS-New-Style-Paragon) showing my progress...

[Chrissy]

It looks to be a much more difficult repair than the standard Paragon types that don't have metal grips or tops.