What's the best glue for cracked barrel repair? Superglue? Sac Shellac? Testors modeling glue?
Cracked Barrel repair question
- Thread starter nortac
- Start date
Just e-mail TWSBI for a replacement.
... oh, sorry, what brand pen are you talking about?
... oh, sorry, what brand pen are you talking about?
Nothing usually works, I'm afraid. This is the hardest part of pen repair, opening the pen up without damage.
It happens, though, even to the best of us.
It happens, though, even to the best of us.
- Thread starter
- #4
Well I'm not the one who cracked it, it's an old wearever that was part of a lot of four pens, three of which were good, one really nice Esterbrook worth the price of the bunch, so I'm not out anything really, just practicing fixing up an old pen.
Is that the pen you're needing a nib for?
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't blaming anyone, just lamenting all the pens I've broken.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't blaming anyone, just lamenting all the pens I've broken.
A Wearever? Duct tape oughta work! 
- Thread starter
- #7
Is that the pen you're needing a nib for?
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't blaming anyone, just lamenting all the pens I've broken.
Yes, that's the pen.
- Thread starter
- #8
- Thread starter
- #9
Well superglue didn't work. The barrel looks like the former owner had tried to use shellac to glue the section into place and stabilize the crack. That obviously didn't work. SWMBO has a UV activated plastic fingernail treatment. Ordered some UV activated plastic weld solution and will use her UV light. It may seem over kill to fix a cheap pen, but I'm treating this as a learning project. Make my mistakes on a cheap pen, maybe learn something I can later use on a better pen.
Let us know how the UV glue works please.
- Thread starter
- #11
Will do, plastic weld liquid is inbound, hopefully be here in a few days.
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- #12
Finally got around to using the UV activated plastic weld....IT WORKED! This is the product: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QU5M4VW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I used the UV light from SWMBO's gel nail kit. I tried to take pictures with both my iphone and crappy Canon digital camera, but the macro function could not focus onto the hairline crack in the Wearevers barrel. Once the plastic weld cured, there was a raised ridge that I carefully sanded down with a very fine gunsmiths file, an emory board would do,further smoothed with some micro polishing cloth and finished up with a rag wheel on the Dremel. Now to fit it with a new nib.
I used the UV light from SWMBO's gel nail kit. I tried to take pictures with both my iphone and crappy Canon digital camera, but the macro function could not focus onto the hairline crack in the Wearevers barrel. Once the plastic weld cured, there was a raised ridge that I carefully sanded down with a very fine gunsmiths file, an emory board would do,further smoothed with some micro polishing cloth and finished up with a rag wheel on the Dremel. Now to fit it with a new nib.
The term used at Fountain Pen Network is "solvent weld." The pro's who dispense their advice there advise against any kind of glue. Different pen materials call for different solvent products. You can search their Repair forum for more.
- Thread starter
- #14
Thanks for the added info. Although the method I used is not a solvent weld, it is not a glue either.
Interesting. Going to have to keep that stuff in mind if I ever need to tackle a crack on a "user-grade" pen.
I must have been reading these threads too much, because I actually laughed out loud when I read this.
- Thread starter
- #17
Ordered a Knox K26 nib to see if it will fit the Wearever.
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- #18
Knox K 26 replacement fine nib arrived today and fit the feed like a glove. The repair of the Wearever is now complete and writes in a very satisfactory manner.
Hopefully that pen works well for a while, given all the effort you put into it.
I think that the satisfaction of bringing a pen back from the dead can be its own reward, even if it doesn't turn out to be a great writer. I've got a few mediocre pens that I'm pretty proud of, just because I was able to get them working again.
