Part One
The purists in our line of interest will perhaps be aghast at some of the following, what works for me may not work for everyone, but a good few years of experience, have led to this article, which does have an element of the Penn and Tellers, (US magicians who reveal trade magicians’ secrets).
Shellac
All people who have ever attempted to service/repair will be familiar with our most common adhesive, which has multiple uses and unfortunately abuses. Said to be made from the secretions of the female Lac beetle caught in the resin secretions of trees, it is sometimes said to be the wings of the lac beetle, but these are the impurities that a are sieved out of the final Shellac flakes or buttons. There is a whole article on its own that could be devoted to this wonderful substance and my take is very simplified. A simple mixture of shellac flakes, (easily obtainable from furniture finishings suppliers) and methylated spirits, for very little money will give you a lifetimes supply. Used mainly for attaching latex sacs to sections in servicing, if a silicon sac is to be used, shellac will not adhere to the silicon. Fit the sac as normal using shellac, then shellac the outside of the sac wrapping sewing around thread to hold sac in place, shellac over thread and it will hold. You should never, have to re-sac that pen ever and there is no chance of out gassing discolouring the celluloid, if that is the pen material.
Set Shellac will release at around 160º, but it can be a frustration achieving that temperature inside a pen barrel without over heating the pen itself, many visits to a pen or part, reduce the risk of catastrophic failure.
Shellac is NOT suitable for fixing sections to over sized barrel, by all means build up the diameter of the barrel with layers of shellac, allowing each to dry and set fully prior to another application. A tedious process, but you will avoid the ire of anyone in the future who has to dismantle the pen. Parker Vacumatic pens should never see Shellac in any part of their servicing at all! Shellac will not adhere to Hard Rubber in any of it’s, colours, extremely unpleasant having to remove excess shellac if someone has tried to fix a crack by this method.
Rosin
Used extensively in Sheaffer piston fill pens, but has many useful applications in other pens, this is a mixture of Rosin flakes and castor oil. Unlike Shellac it never fully sets and will soften to be workable at 100ºC, Ideal solution for some pens where the celluloid is less stable and you wish to guarantee the type of seal that shellac would give you, particularly where threads are involved. Care always has to be taken not to over tighten threaded items on pens.
Beeswax, Paraffin, Mineral oil
Loosely related in the context of the article, Beeswax, Paraffin and Mineral oil, at times a seal is required that is not suitable for Shellac or Rosin, hood to a Parker 65 is a case in point, or Montblanc 146 /149 section shell (See their specialist, “bubblegum “filler syringes). Wax can be melted and used in these situations. Paraffin and Mineral Oil are used for sealing corks in piston filler pens, indeed wherever a cork seal is used in a pen the cork should be so treated.
Acetone
After shellac, most likely the commonest liquid/chemical I use in pen repair, having several uses. The favoured method for any type of crack repair is solvent welding, to fuse the original materials together, problem being there is shrinkage caused in this process. I mix shellac with cellulose nitrate lacquer to aid in gap filling with a material that will fuse with the pen base material. Many times, its black pens, that require gap filling, I mix the original coal? dust, French polishers would use, they would have various colours to match. If a coloured pen fill is required “melting with Acetone some sacrificial material can provide “fill “material.
MEK
Methyl Ethyl Ketone, there are a multitude of variants of chemicals going under the banner of MEK advertised as Polystyrene Cement for model makers. Results with these I have found very variable until sourcing true MEK. This is required for Lucite pens such as the Parker 51 and for many Sheaffer pens, whose celluloid from the 1930’s I have found to be less stable than the cellulose nitrate of other pens of the period. This chemical is very volatile and if and when required should be utilized with the utmost care for your health.
Five (5) Second Fix
The inspiration for the article was a problem with a Swan VX? Visofil, not the more complicated VTpen.pen was serviced and totally checked over, these are notorious for leaks to the clear celluloid octagonal clear plunger. Filled with ink ready to carry out write test and it leaks, customer has already been promised their pens along with this one back.
Normal procedure is to solvent weld a crack in celluloid, more on this later. Time though not particularly of the essence was a mitigating factor in my use of Five (5) Second Fix. This a low-cost adhesive that is use to fix and developed primarily rear-view mirrors to glass wind screens. Please advise if this or any other information in this article is incorrect. Filler/ adhesive work s, by UV light, so unsuitable for unexposed, fixing circumstances. A small amount of adhesive is applied, then, the U/V Light is held to it for 5seconds to set off the chemical reaction solidifying the adhesive. I have found it to be preferable only to have a thin layer of solution, built up in layers
Superglues (Cyanoacrylate adhesive)
Limited uses, due to the Hygroscopic nature in setting of attracting moisture, even once, what we would consider fully set, “superglues” continue to attract moisture till ultimately, they fail. To release items, or clean them, off soak in water. Unless they are, Black Hard Rubber, or Casein (see WES magazine No.70), water always being avoided. Everything has its place no matter how incongruous that may seem and when these situations occur, for a fast temporary fix superglue is invaluable. I have three differing viscosities, as shown only 2.
Loctite 480
Photographed is what I believe to be a copy of the original Loctite 480 adhesive, this photo shows what I believe to be a superglue with black pigment added.
Loctite 480 is said to be able to adhere to hard rubber surfaces, I have in the past had the original and certified Loctite 480, which I have had a success in fixing cracks in particularly caps. I would never trust these solutions to be capable a of prolonged use and far prefer other solutions.
Interestingly Loctite themselves in their data sheets do not recommend this as an adhesive for rubber.
Part article, to be continued with further adhesives and also products with useful gap filling properties.