A little lateral thought...

[DickBrowne]

A few weeks ago, whilst idly fiddling with a Parker 51 in my study, the clip suddenly went loose. Closer examination showed that the jewel thread had sheared, leaving only around 2 threads still attached. Disaster!

p51-1.jpg

Actually, the pen was a real cheapy from a pen show, I had no emotional bond with it but, you know... Pens, right? I hate anything being broken.

I spent a while looking for replacement jewels, but they were almost half what I'd paid for the pen. I considered buying some old broken Parkers for spares but, having sufficiently matured to recognise my own nature, I resisted, knowing that a broken pen would have been more than I could have tolerated and I know I would have ended up spending far more than I'd paid for the spares-pens fixing the darned things.

Given that I hate anything being broken (who am I kidding? I love broken stuff, it's a challenge!) I set my mind to finding a cost-effective repair. Bear in mind that this was a real cheapy, there's a split in the barrel (which doesn't affect performance at all) and it has plenty of what we in the watch-trade call "wabi" - good old fashioned wear and tear. It's scratched, it's bitten, the cap is brassing all over the place and has dents-a-plenty. It's no looker.

But, still, it had no clip, it was non-functioning (in a way) because of this and I couldn't let it go.

I tried a variety of increasingly-strong adhesives to re-attach the broken portion of thread back onto the broken stub, but no dice. It didn't want to play ball; every time I put even the smallest amount of torque through it, the stub would shear again.

This afternoon I had a little bit of time free so I fired-up the lathe and set about making a solution to the problem. I figured there was enough space in the top of the clip that I could get a very small machine screw, small enough to screw into the brass insert in the cap, but with enough of a head on it that it would hold the clip. I figured I could make the top of the machine screw domed and attractive enough to replace the jewel, or flatten it and leave enough gap that I could use one of my increasingly strong adhesives to attach it for purely aesthetic reasons.

I made several versions of my screw but, in one way or another, they each failed to fix the problem. Too high, too narrow, just plain unattractive.

As I was flattening the top of version 5 of the screw, I had a revelation!

I removed the threaded brass insert from the cap:

p51-2.jpg

I then screwed the insert back in, sandwiching the clip between it and the cap - this held the clip sufficiently tightly

p51-3.jpg

Finally, I used the few remaining threads on the jewel to screw it back into the brass insert - because the clip was no longer in the way, there was sufficient thread for the jewel to also be held securely.

p51-4.jpg

Maybe it isn't the most "honest" repair - the correct thing to do would have been to replace the jewel itself, but given the price and condition of the pen, I was loathe to throw more money at the problem than I absolutely had to and, besides, I do love a challenge.

I reckon that the re-use of all the original parts must count for something on the purity scale, and the little, slightly scruffy Parker lives to write another day!

[alexwi]

This is just awesome. Of course it has merit. Not only because it looks perfect, but because you probably invented a new technique to deal with this problem (well, to me at least, as I know nothing about the 51 other than that it's probably the most popular pen ever made).

It was quite fortunate that there's enough clearance inside the cap so that it doesn't matter whether you put the brass insert above or under the clip's ring.

I have the same problem with broken things (sometimes I even "fix" things that ain't really broken, and sometimes really trying to fix something ends, disastrously, of course, becoming a learning experience - I recently ruined the finish on an Elysee section).

I hope that God never sees fit that I get a lathe. That'll be the end of me.

alex

[DickBrowne]

Having a lathe isn't the issue. Using the lathe, that's the problem, but even that's fine if you know what you're doing, or take the time to learn.


I really must take the time to learn

[Chrissy]

I've never even seen a lathe, but I envy anyone who can use one.

I think I have some adhesive that would work, but only if you wanted it to be permanent.....

[Farmboy]

For what it is worth, you put the assembly back together the correct way. The clip is held in place with the brass retaining screw and the jewel does not hold the clip in place.

[DickBrowne]

For what it is worth, you put the assembly back together the correct way. The clip is held in place with the brass retaining screw and the jewel does not hold the clip in place.

Now that’s interesting - the clip was held in place by the jewel when I bought the pen, it would appear that it had been taken apart at some point and reassembled in the wrong order, which may explain why it failed in the first place.

Thank you for the information

[Chrissy]

For what it is worth, you put the assembly back together the correct way. The clip is held in place with the brass retaining screw and the jewel does not hold the clip in place.

Of course! I re-read this thread and was thinking that myself.