Restoration of a Parker Vacumatic

[Brian Anderson]

Nice pictorial. A couple of extra observations:

1) I always mark the threads on the filling unit so I can line up the blind cap again properly. use an exacto or razor blade and make a light mark on the filler to line up with the imprint on the barrel. You don't have to do this, but it sure helps if you have a perfect blind cap fit to begin with. Otherwise you have to keep tightening and loosening to find the spot where the blind cap isn't too far off. Yes, you could just buff it or micro-me**** flush, but then you might get an oddly looking barrel end. If you mark it and remember the seating depth of the filler, you can sometimes get lucky and get it right the first time, which can save a lot of agony and time!

2) Wet the diaphragm before inserting in the barrel, and make sure the barrel seat is clean of old sac and debris. You can just use water or saliva (I stick it in my mouth) or you can use a tiny bit of silicone (don't use talc here), but sometimes it is difficult to slide the filling unit with diaphragm into the barrel and it can get caught up on itself without a little help.

3) hot pin method is good, I may try that. I use a dremel with a small drill bit to get out the old pellet.

Cheers!
Bria

 

[YouCollectMe]

Great tutorial. Makes me think twice about the price of a fountain pen restoration, considered high by some of my clients.
I deal with Vintage Soviet Fountain Pens mostly. They are not as complicated as Parkers, but there are some tricky parts too.
I wonder what are you using to clean clips and trims, especially brass ones?
Regards!

 

[oc_in_fw]

Great tutorial. Makes me think twice about the price of a fountain pen restoration, considered high by some of my clients.
I deal with Vintage Soviet Fountain Pens mostly. They are not as complicated as Parkers, but there are some tricky parts too.
I wonder what are you using to clean clips and trims, especially brass ones?
Regards!

Can you start a thread with some of your restorations? I would like to see some Russian pens- might start another avenue of collection.

 

[Dave258]

I have the Vac tools and a Vac on the way to me know. Can't wait to try one of these on my own!

 

[rickcharles606]

I've got a Vacuumatic Jr, and a 51 that both need to have a new sac...this thread makes me want to try it, but more than likely I'll send them off to someone. Who's a good person to do the work?

 

[Blue-EyedSon]

I have the Vac tools and a Vac on the way to me know. Can't wait to try one of these on my own!

Great! I look forward to hearing your progress.

I've got a Vacuumatic Jr, and a 51 that both need to have a new sac...this thread makes me want to try it, but more than likely I'll send them off to someone. Who's a good person to do the work?

With the right tools, it really isn't that difficult. If you're already looking at needing to send two away for repair, you're probably getting close to the cost of the tools, depending upon to whom you send them for work. Plus, it's kind of hard to stop at just one (or two, or three). : ) So, if you're planning to get more, the tools can pay for themselves when compared to repair costs.

But to answer your question ... I only had one repaired before learning to do it on my own. I sent it to Danny Fudge at thewritepen (http://www.thewritepen.net) and I highly recommend his work. The repair job was done very well, quickly, and at the best price I could find. I'd suspect that one might normally have to choose two out of three between quality work, turn around time, and affordability, but Danny gets high marks on all three from me.

 

[rickcharles606]

Great! I look forward to hearing your progress.



With the right tools, it really isn't that difficult. If you're already looking at needing to send two away for repair, you're probably getting close to the cost of the tools, depending upon to whom you send them for work. Plus, it's kind of hard to stop at just one (or two, or three). : ) So, if you're planning to get more, the tools can pay for themselves when compared to repair costs.

But to answer your question ... I only had one repaired before learning to do it on my own. I sent it to Danny Fudge at thewritepen (http://www.thewritepen.net) and I highly recommend his work. The repair job was done very well, quickly, and at the best price I could find. I'd suspect that one might normally have to choose two out of three between quality work, turn around time, and affordability, but Danny gets high marks on all three from me.

I have no doubt that I could do the repairs, it's more a matter of finding the time. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check him out ;-)

 

[tubaguy]

Just a reference on this,
Go for it if you want to take the risk when doing it yourself. I recently bought a vacumatic that I promptly had Mr. Fudge take care of. The pen, due to some form of abuse had shrunk, which made the work on it harder. I believe that Mr. Fudge said that while working on it, that it might have cracked while he was doing the work, but that he was able to fix it. It took a bit longer due to this, but I am sure he has done a fantastic job.
Just some food for thought!