How do I repair the threads on this old pen????

[redfishsc]

I have a friend and long-time customer who brought me this old Papermate that belonged to his dad, and now is his. It's obviously well used and carries an enormous amount of sentimental value.

I tried to find a similar Papermate to (hopefully) rob the parts from... no luck. So I think I'm stuck custom making this part.

The plastic threads are shot on the lower end. The brass (or brass-looking) threads on the upper end are pretty good.



I went to Lowes to see if I could find the thread/pitch, and it's very close to an M7X1.0, but a bolt with that thread cut tends to start for several turns and then seize up, almost as if the brass threads taper in diameter.



Any suggestions?

(the "hair" is fuzz picked up by the duct-tape quick fix he was using... I promise the pen doesn't have pubes)

 

[Chthulhu]

It looks to be an unusual thread size; mine measures to 0.276" major diameter and 32 tpi pitch. Very close to 7 mm, but a bit finer than 1.0 metric pitch (0.03125" vs 0.0393") which would account for the jamming after a couple of turns. I don't know that there is a feasible means of reparing the pen without replacing the barrel, if you can find one like it (it appears to be a Slim Profile pen).

Your friend's best option is to just put it back together and retire it to his pen cup where he can see it. :-/

 

[soligen]

M7 x 1 is 25.4 TPI M7 x .75 is about 33.8 tpi. Maybe that will be a closer fit.

 

[redfishsc]

hmmmmm Solingen, thanks for that. I wonder if I could find that locally. Thanks!

Matt

 

[workinforwood]

You need to send it to Rick at American Restorations ..maybe he'll restore it on his new TV show..that would be a hoot! Of course with my luck he'd contract the repairs out to me.

Inside that cap it looks by the photo to be an insert. I'd set that upside down in some boiling water and see if you can get it to slide out. Then I would chuck the pen and spin it down thinner than the threads. Make a new piece of plastic which would be drilled to slide over the existing piece and glued in place. Then spin that down to a normal thread size. Go back to the cap and make a new insert with matching threads to whatever you did to the pen. That's how I'd fix it. But first I would completely disassemble the pen, polish it down with a fine abrasive wheel and have it re-chromed or gold plated.

 

[sbell111]

That is a honking lot of work for a paper♥mate. I believe that I would just tell him that I can't help him.

 

[tjseagrove]

... But first I would completely disassemble the pen, polish it down with a fine abrasive wheel and have it re-chromed or gold plated.

All that refinishing would loose the character of the pen. A beat up pen has memories otherwise just get a new pen.

Hope you can fix the threads, you would gain incredible word of mouth advertising from it...

Tom

 

[IPD_Mr]

Fire off an email to Aaron at Pentiques. He could probably tell you what the thread size is and might even have spare parts for it.

 

[redfishsc]

That's how I'd fix it. But first I would completely disassemble the pen, polish it down with a fine abrasive wheel and have it re-chromed or gold plated.

Jeff, thanks for the advice and I will definitely try to get it out this afternoon when I get off work, good advice. If it's just an insert, I might be able to rig it into a friction fit like our slimlines. I have a lot of brass rod laying around I can work with.

As for the polishing, I offered that, but he turned it down for the reason tjseagrove mentioned--- he likes the character.

That is a honking lot of work for a paper♥mate. I believe that I would just tell him that I can't help him.

It's his deceased daddy's pen, very heavily used. It's worth more to him than every Papermate on the planet. I have an old pocketknife and cheap set of binoculars that belonged to my dad, and an old, non-working Ocean Star fishing reel owned by my grandmother. Altogether they are worth $5 maximum. But you'd lose an arm if you tried to take them from me, you'd face my grandfather's old 12 gauge.

And, he's a good friend of mine, and I certainly don't mind the amount of money he offered for a good fix .

Fire off an email to Aaron at Pentiques. He could probably tell you what the thread size is and might even have spare parts for it.

Now this is a juicy tidbit of info. I'll be contacting them, thanks!

 

[workinforwood]

I understand wanting to keep it beat up but that's a 50/50 decision with people because just as many people would pay to restore something to be like new condition like when Dad first got it...the argument can go both ways, but it always comes down to what customer wants!

 

[redfishsc]

Yeah personally I'd prefer it restored too.