1st Gen Vacumatic Clip

[fountainpenkid]

Hi,

The clip assembly of my Vacumatic Standard popped out randomly in my bag. I tried at first to shellac it back in, but it did not hold. Any ideas? Is it repairable?
The pics:

DSCF0452.JPGDSCF0453.JPGDSCF0454.JPG

Thanks!

[Chrissy]

I would suggest that it needs a stronger adhesive than shellac to hold that part on. Especially if you use the clip to clip the pen into your pocket.

In the Marshall and Oldfield Pen Repair book the Parker Vac on page 66 doesn't have the same clip assembly, so sadly, I can't advise you what Marshall and Oldfield suggest.

I hope someone comes along who can give you more info than me.

[fountainpenkid]

I would suggest that it needs a stronger adhesive than shellac to hold that part on. Especially if you use the clip to clip the pen into your pocket.

In the Marshall and Oldfield Pen Repair book the Parker Vac on page 66 doesn't have the same clip assembly, so sadly, I can't advise you what Marshall and Oldfield suggest.

I hope someone comes along who can give you more info than me.

Thanks for the advice. My concern with using something stronger is that that quality always seems to come with permanence. The main problem was the clip's inward bend, which fought against my pressure as I tried to glue the clip back in.

[mhosea]

I have never done it, but I think to fix this you are going to need to disassemble the cap entirely. Unscrew the jewel with something fairly sticky. I use pieces of unused butyl bicycle inner tubes, but there are better things. It's not rocket science. You just need to unscrew something that doesn't have any slots or anything to grab onto. Once you have the jewel off, the right size flat-head screwdriver will remove the brass screw that captures the clip from the top by threading into the top of the inner cap (which has broken off). You're going to want to remove the inner cap from the barrel (I assume this is not as challenging with a Vacumatic as it is with a Parker "51") and re-fuse the broken-off part to it. Exactly which adhesive to use, I don't know. I figure it's either going to be epoxy or solvent welding, assuming the inner cap is a celluloid part. The part is not seen, so you don't have to worry too much about being neat, except to protect the threads that you need to use when you put it all back together.

[fountainpenkid]

I have never done it, but I think to fix this you are going to need to disassemble the cap entirely. Unscrew the jewel with something fairly sticky. I use pieces of unused butyl bicycle tires, but there are better things. It's not rocket science. You just need to unscrew something that doesn't have any slots or anything to grab onto. Once you have the jewel off, the right size flat-head screwdriver will remove the brass screw that captures the clip from the top by threading into the top of the inner cap (which has broken off). You're going to want to remove the inner cap from the barrel (I assume this is not as challenging with a Vacumatic as it is with a Parker "51") and re-fuse the broken-off part to it. Exactly which adhesive to use, I don't know. I figure it's either going to be epoxy or solvent welding, assuming the inner cap is a celluloid part. The part is not seen, so you don't have to worry too much about being neat, except to protect the threads that you need to use when you put it all back together.

Thank you for clarifying what is actually wrong with the pen; I didn't even realize there was breakage. I'll try what you said and report back!

[fountainpenkid]

So...
The jewel and the brass assembly came out very easily with the inner tube! Then I used acetone to fuse the broken inner cap part back in. All was well, until I began screwing in the brass jewel holder with a screwdriver, and the downward force pushed the whole inner cap assembly into the barrel, meaning the upper part I had just glued was now stuck on a slant inside. Trying to get it repositioned, I pushed upward from inside the cap with a screwdriver, and with a little bit of force, the whole kitten kaboodle (entire inner cap) came out. This is where I find it most interesting: the inner cap is made of 3 separate pieces of celluloid! There is the main tube, which the nib fits into, the cap to the main tube, and the clip assembly ring. From the way it looks, these were all separate pieces, meaning there actually WAS no breakage in the first place, which explains why the damage was so clean-cut and looked glued.
DSCF0455.JPG

[mhosea]

I read somewhere that solvent welding takes at least 24 hours to form a good bond, but weeks or months to reach full strength. Hopefully Farmboy will come along and offer some sage advice.

[gweddig]

I read somewhere that solvent welding takes at least 24 hours to form a good bond, but weeks or months to reach full strength. Hopefully Farmboy will come along and offer some sage advice.

This is my understanding and practice as well.

--greg (amateur somethinger)

[Chrissy]

I used an alternative product that Ron Zorn recommended on FPN for solvent welding plastics together. In the UK from ScrewFix it's called FloPlast.

The solvent in it is methylene chloride and it's definitely a stronger weld if you leave it for at least 480 hours.

I used it to solvent weld a crack in a Waterman Phileas grip. After a couple of weeks I replaced the nib and feed and it held perfectly. If you don't spread it about too much, it's easy to make good the plastic surface with a piece of micromesh

[fountainpenkid]

O.k So I'll re bind everything and then wait a week before attaching the clip. Thanks so much everyone for all the great advice!

[fountainpenkid]

Ah....what an interesting adventure this has been! In retrospect, I'm glad it happened, as I have learned a good deal about cap construction and celluloid repair in the process of fixing it.
At first I did what I said I would do in my last post--bind the whole inner cap assembly together with acetone, and let it dry for 2 or three days. This turned out to be a very silly mistake, as the girth of the clip assembly ring is too wide to be pushed up through the bottom of the cap. So I took a Spyderco and carefully severed the parts, which came apart with surprisingly clean (the acetone binding didn't work as profoundly as I had thought). I then proceeded to install the main part of inner cap (the nib holding tube and its lid) by pushing it up through the bottom of the cap, setting it with acetone. I then assembled the clip to the clip assembly ring (as shown in the second picture of the first post), and welded the bottom of the ring to the inner cap with acetone, squeezing with my fingers until somewhat dry. The result? I'd give it an almost: the nib carrying part of the inner cap was seated too far down in the cap at first, so that the nib didn't fit, so I had to press the nib further into the section, a good thing actually as it was set too far out in the first place. The clip ring isn't completely flush against the cap top (there is a hairline gap), but I couldn't seem to get it to be otherwise.
Undoubtedly, it is now, more than before, a user grade vacumatic...but that gives me all the more peace of mind to use it!

[fountainpenkid]

The final product:DSCF0520.JPG