Re: Gold Bond restoration
full marks for your patience and perseverance - well done. At least your 'new' section is a push fit, and you didn't have to cut a thread, but assume from seeing the section in your chuck there must have been some fine tuning to get the fit just right?
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PaulS
full marks for your patience and perseverance - well done. At least your 'new' section is a push fit, and you didn't have to cut a thread, but assume from seeing the section in your chuck there must have been some fine tuning to get the fit just right?
Thank you for the encouragement, Paul.
You are correct. In all, I took about .5 mm from the part of the section that fits on the barrel. That is about 3 passes through the lathe because we're talking about tiny cuts, I err on the side of taking too little because I can always use sanding paper, but I can't add back the hard-rubber if I took too much out.
Interestingly, even though my lathe is already small (A Taig), for this kind of operation I do wish I have a jeweler's (watchmaker) lathe which is easier to operate in tiny increments :)
Re: Gold Bond restoration
I can imagine the care needed for that sort of glove type fit - couple of thou. too much and it's going to be loose.
I now have one of those small Austrian Emco Unimat SL lathes - I think you guys call them DB 200 - really quite small - and I'm hoping to turn the odd section. So have been putting together a few extras to help and have ordered a 36 tpi thread master plus follower, as not all sections are a push fit. Also have some BHR blanks coming soon, and then if and when I get good enough, will try and make one of those clear barrel ends for my Wat. 100 year pen.
Assume your pen is celluloid - it looks to have that depth of shine. Does you tool post carriage not advance on fairly fine threaded increments?
Re: Gold Bond restoration
The Unimat DB 200 is exactly what I was talking about. So we're on the same page :)
My tool post carriage can do sub-millimeter movements, but I imagine on a lathe that is designed primarily for that, the placement of controls would be a bit more precise.
Most American vintage pens I encounter have push-fit sections (except for some Parker Duofold), the few screw-in sections I've seen are from European and British pens.
Yes, the Gold Bond is celluloid.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Two years later, here I am with another tale of restoration featuring... another Gold Bond :)
I guess my obsession with Gold Bond has become quite ridiculous, I just love those knurled ends. And this one is a very pretty woodgrain ebonite (or at least I think it's ebonite since I smell a faint sulphur if I rub the barrel/cap). The yellow finials are celluloid though.
I got this pen knowing that there is at least one problem, but little that I know when I got it, that the section was "cemented" to the barrel (no amount of heat or immersion would loosen the section). How? I suspect the type of ink that was used last in the pen. The ink may leaked out of the old ink sac and formed a bond between the section and the barrel. I've seen this happening to a Wahl before.
Examine this photo:
https://jubilee-live.flickr.com/6553...192524cf_z.jpg
That was the barrel, in my lathe, I drilled out the section which was already marred because the previous owner probably lost their patience and try to take the section out using a (non rubberized) plier, resulting in gashes. Amazingly I was able to rescue both the nib and the feed by working slowly on the lathe to thin out the messed up section, until I can take the feed out to safety.
Then I use two sizes of drill from smaller to bigger to take out the section. This photo literally was taken seconds after the section finally "squirmed" itself out of the barrel without a single crack on the barrel lip (yes, I sighed a breath of relief...).
Notice the white residue on the section, it was inside the barrel also (a long scraping session ensued) that was the stuff that bonded the section to the barrel. And yes, the feed was full of this gunk also, that's why I suspect the type of ink used.
After taking the section out without harming the barrel, I was able to find a suitable replacement from my collection of sections.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...561e661c_c.jpg
Voila!
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Thank you. :thank_you2: I loved reading all about it. :) Great job. :hail:
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Nicely done! Looks like the pen was in the hands of a very skilled surgeon.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
penwash
...the section finally "squirmed" itself out of the barrel without a single crack on the barrel lip....
Wow! Congrats on applying lots of skill, care and patience on these old beauties.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Thank you all for the kind comments.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
penwash
Thank you all for the kind comments.
Please could we see the section on the Stonite Woodgrain pattern pen?
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
Quote:
Originally Posted by
penwash
Thank you all for the kind comments.
Please could we see the section on the Stonite Woodgrain pattern pen?
Of course. Here's the original nib with a new section and feed (the original feed is now in my collection as a spare).
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4a49315d_c.jpg
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Nice pen and nice job done on the delicate work! Those yellow knurled end pieces really make a pen stand out in a crowd.
Not sure where the sulfur smell was coming from, but "Stonite" was National Pen Product's (maker of your pen) name for celluloid.
Good stuff.
Bob
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Seattleite
Nice pen and nice job done on the delicate work! Those yellow knurled end pieces really make a pen stand out in a crowd.
Not sure where the sulfur smell was coming from, but "Stonite" was National Pen Product's (maker of your pen) name for celluloid.
Good stuff.
Bob
Hi Bob, thanks for the info on the Stonite branding of celluloid. It's possible that the sulfur smell comes from something else that day. I guess one way we can make sure is to run rough sandpaper on that barrel and see if it smells "minty" instead of sulphur.
But there's no way that I'll do that to one of my favorite pens :)
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Aaaand, another woodgrain ebonite Gold Bond.
This one is similar to the one I posted above, but with a different cool Art Deco style clip.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fc55da2a_z.jpg
On this one I do have to swap the nib with an Eversharp because the one that came with the pen was not an original Gold Bond, and it was poorly fitted.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Swapping nibs into inappropriate pens takes me back to when I first started collecting. I was on some evangelical mission to preserve every pen that I touched for the benefit of future humanity. I would buy Wearevers, Gold Bonds, Black and Whites and far too many examples of some peculiar pen with a curved barrel, they all had damaged nibs which I would try and heal or replace with a nib from some other pen, usually Chinese, that I had previousky wrecked and mistakenly thought that I should keep the parts, just in case they might come in handy.
I fooled myself into believing that this was the pen repair equivalent of fitting an LS7 into a Ford Fleetline.
Re: Gold Bond restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fermata
Swapping nibs into inappropriate pens takes me back to when I first started collecting. I was on some evangelical mission to preserve every pen that I touched for the benefit of future humanity. I would buy Wearevers, Gold Bonds, Black and Whites and far too many examples of some peculiar pen with a curved barrel, they all had damaged nibs which I would try and heal or replace with a nib from some other pen, usually Chinese, that I had previousky wrecked and mistakenly thought that I should keep the parts, just in case they might come in handy.
I fooled myself into believing that this was the pen repair equivalent of fitting an LS7 into a Ford Fleetline.
In my case, I always try to upgrade the pen that I'm rescuing with a better nib than the one on the pen when it reached me.
Almost in all cases, I replace steel nibs with 14K gold ones, and because I am a flex nib nut, I also ended up gravitating towards them :)
Re: Gold Bond restoration
And my obsession with Gold Bond pens deepen.
My latest Gold Bond, the one in the middle:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9954e032_c.jpg
I haven't put a new sac in it yet, but I already know that the nib is flexy and crispy. Joy!