Non-snapping snap-on caps

[amk]

I have a couple of pens with snap-on caps that don't really snap any more. There's no spring in them, and they just sit there unhappily till you pick the pen up and the cap falls off. Both are metal pens (Chinese?) with inner plastic caps, and I'm presuming it's that inner cap that is supposed to do the job.

The fountain pen repair books seem to have been written for vintage collectors and don't go into much (if any) detail on this style of cap. So I'd be interested to know what people think is the best way of trying to make these two otherwise quite nice pens into usable writing instruments.

[katherine]

I think there's usually a small plastic bump somewhere that "snaps" over a rim (don't have on one hand to look at though) -- I'm guessing that has worn off.

I've done this to a lens hood that used to turn and "snap" in from too much boredom fiddling. :/

[Flounder]

I do think of snap cap designs that rely on elasticity of a plastic inner cap as essentially cheap, disposable user pens with limited collectibility. If you look at Parker service manuals after the these came out - for example after the Parker 25 - they just say 'replace the inner cap whenever the pen comes in for service'. Meh. Some people have reported success building a worn liner's tension back up with a wrap of tape.

[scrivelry]

I have a very pretty pen I tried to repair with tape. Based on my own experience, you have to be careful not to overdo it. I overdid, and can't quite get the inner cap all the way back in where it belongs. Neither does it seem like it will be really polite about coming back out, and if I decide to bother it will probably entail pliers, and cuss words, and possibly additional damage to the finger I so brilliantly poked a hole in with a crochet hook yesterday - and not a tiny crochet hook, either.

The crochet hook hole is an honorable pen wound - I was making up a fountain pen friendly insert for a traveler's style journal and... oops! I suppose whatever I managed with a pliers and a cap would be as well. Maybe I should do it now, while the tetanus shot is still nice and fresh... ;-)

Anyway, short form - try one layer of plastic packing tape. If it does not seem robust enough, look very carefully at the innercap and see if there is a place to reinforce the reinforcement that will not make it too fat. You have my blessing to use this as an excuse to go to Harbor Freight and pick up a nice cheap electronic thinger to measure inner and outer diameters with. Not that my approval makes any difference, but I might as well enable before the hand blows up with cellulitis and I am too busy worrying about it to help anyone... :-)

[ac12]

Steven Brown has a YouTube on this problem.

Summary:
- Unscrew the finiel (sp?) from the cap
- Push out the inner cap
- The cap likely has a crack from the front up past the detent that holds the cap onto the section.
- Wrap ONE layer of electrical tape around the inner cap where the detent to hold onto the section is. I found on my pens that 2 layers is too thick to get the inner cap back into the cap.
- Push the inner cap into the cap, with the aid of a wooden dowel or chopstick.
- Screw the finiel back onto the cap.
- Test for fit.

[amk]

Thanks guys, I'm going to have a go and will report back

Poor ole Scrivelry! Too many piercings, too little anaesthetic... I'm glad you can still manage a keyboard. Dangerous hobby, this!

[scrivelry]

Eh, well, as a bonus I am now also protected against Pertussis and Whooping cough.

Normally I am not a highly pierced person. This was special... ;-/

[bfoutch]

I have repaired a plastic sleeve using a combination of Steven Brown's method and this one showing my preferred method of removing the sleeve: jinhao-broken-cap-fix/

I also super glued the break prior to wrapping with electrical tape.

This was done on a 450. Other Jinhao models may require different sized hex wrenches to remove the sleeve.