The Garage: A craft-y type thread for handypeople

Aw, yessss! That looks nice!

Been sanding the piano's hammers lately. Slow, boring, wool dust everywhere...

So of course I took a break and learned a bit about fixing fountain pens. Of course. Found a couple of cheap old lever fillers and replaced the sacs. One had a crack in the body, so I learned about solvent welding. One needs a new feed, and I have no idea if I'll be able to fit an 80 year old pen with a new feed. But I'm gonna try.

Messing around with fountain pens does make me appreciate the relative simplicity of pianos. It's much easier to find or make (or kludge) replacement parts for a piano.

Thanks, Scion. Your piano posts are always fascinating to me. As are fountain pens—I use them, I don't make or repair them.

I cut out glove pieces on some plain black fabric to get in some practice, and also as an everyday pair since I lost two pairs of cheap knit gloves to the dryer drum. I just remembered how much I hate making gloves!!! All that surgical precision and hand-sewing! Ugh.

Although they are very portable projects, and cheap too.

edited 18th Jan '17 3:24:07 PM by Leradny

Thanks! Always nice to know someone else is interested. Out of curiosity, do you have a favorite fountain pen? I don't yet. Still kinda new to the whole thing, in spite of owning two for years.

Got one of the junky pens working last night! The lever filling part works perfectly. Had to adjust & polish the nib, which I am not at all confident doing, but it writes smoothly now. And now I'm not sure what to do with it. Keep it around as a trophy, I guess.

I tried (new modern) Pilot, but find they go leaky after about a year. Currently I don't have a favorite, which is sad because I know I like the Waterman inks and would be happy to start shoring up on calligraphy. I do have a dip quill and several sketching dip pens, but they're much simpler than traditional refillable ones.

Once I get paid and take care of the rest of my bills, I'm going to get this 1903 Edwardian corset pattern. It's got very good reviews from what I've seen of other people who tried it out, I need exactly this type for a Gibson Girl silhouette, and the e-pattern is significantly cheaper even with the cost of printing it out myself.

It is recommended for people who have previous corset sewing experience, which I do not have, but when have I ever listened to difficulty ratings? I am making a mockup, though, since I happen to have canvas lying around and I know where I can get corset supplies.

Mock the turtle up. <nods> (Sorry, couldn't resist.) But, yeah — prototypes are things for a reason.

Leradny: Whatever is the fun of hobbies if you don't bite off more than you can chew? I do that all the time.

I feel like I should loan you the pen I just fixed, a Waterman 52 1/2 ring top◊ (second from left). It's a dainty little pen from the 20s, and from what I've read, the gold ring on the top of the cap was so that a woman could hang it from a necklace or chatelaine.

It's been harrowing trying to fix it, though. The lever box was broken, and new ones cost more than the pen did. So I just glued it in instead, which nearly went wrong multiple times. The sac seemed new, but it was slightly too big, so I replaced that - except the new sac has a slightly-too-thick wall, so when I tried to put the section back in the barrel, the barrel cracked. Right now it's held together with hope and shellac. But if it works? There's a reason restored ones go for $200: the nib is amazing. I'm gonna try inking it up tonight.

Also working on a Parker 21 which was apparently abandoned with a full ink sac. SO MUCH INK. Just gotta keep flushing, I guess.

Bad news: I was too ambitious on my waist. And also made another mistake somewhere—it's two inches too small in general.

Good news: I cut and sewed this mockup in a few scant hours. Piece of cake! So I can just reprint the pattern and get another yard of canvas and I'll be done with the second mockup tomorrow. THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!

Two inches? Geez, that's a lot when it comes to clothing. But it sounds like you've figured it out?

The Waterman 52 works. Beautifully. Also got a Waterman Dauntless to work (beautifully). And an Esterbrook LJ, though the ink isn't flowing freely enough and I'm not sure why. The Parker 21 still has leaks - I'm half-tempted to coat the hood with gloss enamel. But right now I'm fighting with this little red Sheaffer Balance that absolutely refuses to come apart.

I have figured it out, and I've got even better news: It wasn't my fault about the missing inches! The pattern apparently has a problem of turning out too small despite people following the instructions. I still have to make another mockup with the adjustments, but it's going to be a very easy job.

BAM!!! Look at my waist!

I'm going to take it in a bit more, since this wasn't even close to uncomfortable. Next up is the hip pad. There is a bust pad included with the pattern, but since they're not as essential I'm skipping them. I also found a lot of cotton lawn, so I'm going to make some combination drawers.

I found a corsetry shop within walking distance, but it's not open today and the rest of the week it has ridiculously limited hours. So I'll have to wait a bit to get all my fixings. Making corsets is so fun and easy! I can't believe it took me so long to try it out!

edited 12th Feb '17 7:35:21 PM by Leradny

You do realize you've just doomed yourself to have it all go wrong, right?

Well, the little red Sheaffer Balance broke right along the screw threads. Dang it. Because I'm stubborn, I've attempted to glue it all back together anyway. No idea if it'll work.

Been trying to get one of Sheaffer's plunger-filler pens off eBay, but the last couple I found in my price range were bought out from under me at the last second. Argh.

I only have 4$ so my corset is on hold until payday. I can still look at pretty corset supplies and lace!

So the Sheaffer Balance is a loss. The pen itself might work okay, but the cap no longer screws onto the barrel, and since fountain pens NEED well-fitting caps to prevent drying out, there's not much point.

I'm sad. The carmine Sheaffers are just so gorgeous, and given how much they go for on eBay, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

But I've got three more old pens coming this week. One of which is a plunger filler! A big silver Sheaffer plunger filler. Also a silver Parker 45, and an old black Sheaffer No Nonsense. Which means I'll get to see if it's true that all No Nonsenses made between 1969 and 2000 can swap parts: I've got a red one I bought back in high school.

So the Parker 45 needed nothing more than a good cleaning. I've bought a fine point nib unit for it, since the medium it came with was a little too broad for my tastes. And it's a beautiful pen. It's a "Flighter", which has a stainless steel body.

The black No Nonsense is indeed mutually compatible with the red one I bought back in the 90s, despite the 20-year age difference. Also just needs a cleaning.

The piston filler's gonna be the tough one. I already broke the feed (oops!), though I think I can swap it with a different feed. Or possibly find some "new old stock" online. Last night as I was trying to pull part of the feed out of the body, it came free very suddenly and whipped globs of reconstituted black ink across my bathroom. Stained my (white) shower curtain. Ah well. It was a cheap curtain.

It will never cease to amaze me how much dried ink one pen can hold.

Scion: You couldn't create some sort of gasket or seal for the gap left by the cap and have that hold it on could you? Or is this a case of the cap size being wrong for the barrel?

edited 18th Feb '17 6:00:02 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Tuefel: I'll try to describe what's going on.

Fountain pen caps usually have two layers: an inner cap nestled inside an outer one The outer cap is usually designed to grasp the pen body so that the inner cap makes a seal around the nib & feed. In this particular pen, the outer cap screws onto the pen's body (barrel). When the outer cap is screwed all the way down, the rim of the inner cap is pressed against the section, which is the plastic bit that holds the nib & feed. The first diagram on this page might help.

For the pen in question, it's the barrel that's messed up. The screw threads no longer mate properly with the threads on the outer cap. So the cap doesn't screw down well and comes off without being unscrewed. So there's not much of a seal between the inner cap and the section.

I've got a couple ideas of how I could make it work, but I'm not that experienced with fiddling with plastic. Seems like it'd be more trouble than it's worth.

Ahh. I think I understand. I can see that being rather difficult to fix. Well if you find out a way to poke at it do share for the curiosity of it.

Well, I'm trying the "hemming my own pants" thing again. I tried it once in high school, and the results were horrific. I'm pretty sure I've corrected the problems this time.

Last time I was using what I now know is a running stitch, and it was really long stitches, sometimes over an inch. This time I looked up what stitch to use for a hem and learned the backstitch, and I'm trying to keep it short.

Last time I just folded the hem over once, and left the cut edge exposed (on the inside of the pantleg, but still). This time I rolled it in twice, so you can't see the cut inside or out.

Last time fell apart in a few weeks. This looks pretty sturdy, but I'm worried about the tied-off ends. I never really got the hang of that.

I spent about two and a half hours with a needle and thread today, and completed one leg. I'm leaving the other leg for another day to save my fingers. It's not the prettiest backstitch in the world, but the thread is so close in color to the denim that it won't be visible.

Been working on the piston filler. Turns out that the best way to replace the soft rubber washer (which hardens with age) is to cut a new one from a piece of bicycle inner tube.

The steel piston rod was originally plastic coated, but the coating split and the steel rusted. I cleaned that off and am painting it with acrylic to prevent more rust. I also glued the feed back together, since apparently Sheaffer did a lot of experimenting with feed design and it's difficult to find two the same. Here's hoping I didn't accidentally plug up the breather channel.

On a side note: that leaky Parker 21? Is still leaky, but it's unexpectedly reliable & pleasant to write with, given that 21s were discount pens. The only thing that annoys me is that unless you take the pen completely apart (like, with tools & heat & mess), the only way to empty the reservoir is by writing until it's empty. So you can't swap inks on a whim, and it's that much more annoying to disassemble for cleaning.

I'm also in love with the Waterman Dauntless, another discount pen. That nib! So flexy!

I visited the shop with corsetry supplies and found a certain staff member to be rather unpleasant and condescending.

I tell you, if that shop wasn't within walking distance and the other associate hadn't been competent, I wouldn't bother going there again.

Cripes. One of those people. I swear, every hobby/discipline/field of study/trade has 'em. You have my sympathies.

Thanks, Scion. The pink will wait a bit—I got some linen herringbone twill which passed the stretch test and is a very lovely pale green.

Since I'm off work tomorrow and only have a workshop planned, tomorrow will be a sewing day! I'll finish tweaking my corset mockup at least, if not start cutting out the good fabric. I'm also starting on the chemise and drawers combination that goes under it.

Open drawers are very frustrating to draft from scratch. I thought they'd be simple! However, the last few tweaks were made to my corset and I am definitely cutting it out of the good fabric before work tomorrow. If all goes well, I might try the drawers again. If not, I'm off Monday and Tuesday.

Good luck!

So the broken feed works fine with a little rubber cement. The metal piston itself is giving me trouble: two of the washers would not stay put, so I've resorted to using JBWeld. The new gasket works fine, though. And before the washers came loose, they made a very satisfying seal. Pulled the ink right up!

Also combined parts from two Parker 21s to make one working pen. No leaks!

I keep forgetting to smooth/tune nibs before inking up. Dang it.