Polyolefin heat shrink tubing to cover a cracked Pilot Prera demonstrator fountain pen.

A cracked Pilot Prera fountain pen cap on an older, WELL used, writer is not much of a surprise. 

as much as i really like this pen, the fact is that it is one of my knock around work pens. 

this utilitarian prera is only going to get a real utilitarian fix.

before i go into the fix i had better briefly describe the damage: 

after a short drop, the crack started at the base's metal ring and reached out about 1/2 an inch. for such a little cap that really is a damaging blow. fortunately, the metal ring was holding well so i really just needed to stop the crack from spreading at the end and reinforce middle. 

NOTE: this repair is not for quality pens. when ink gets into the cap it can stain the glue.

i applied super glue through the caps interior into the crack. i did not wipe away the excess and positioned the inner sleeve over it. i was counting on adhering the sleeve to really help reinforce the crack (being a work pen i was counting on it falling on cement again). in about 2 minutes the repair was done. if this was a nicer pen i would have taken the time to completely dismantle, apply a proper epoxy to the crack and then buff out before reassembly.

but

it is not, so to cover the still visual crack in this demonstrator i cut some 1/2" polyolefin heat shrink tubbing to length. 1/2" is almost a perfect fit so it slid over fairly snuggly. just needed a bit of heat to tightly form around the slight taper.

this tight skin lasted for about a month before the polyolefin loosened up just a bit from the constant clipping in and out of a pocket. to fix this i simply applied a drop of super glue under the tubing before heating. since then it has stayed firm for months now. this tubing is also very durable and aesthetically blends in very well to the smoke accents on the pen. 

a drop of super glue under the polyolefin heat shrink tubing will keep it from  moving on the pen.