Pelikan P1 how do you remove the piston

[Paul-H]

Hi all

I have a Pelikan P1 that is starting to stiffen up a little when filling so I need to get the filler out to clean and grease it up.

How do you get the piston mechanism out on these pens.

Thanks for any tips.

Paul

[Jeph]

I can give you pictures later. It is not that bad

[Paul-H]

Thanks

I await your picture.

Paul

[Jeph]

OK, here is a picture showing the parts. I just snapped a quick shot, so please forgive the quality but it hsows you what you need to know.

First, although you see threads going into the barrel, and a flat that appears to be for screwing in (and out) the piston housing, the piston unit is actually friction fit into the barrel.

What I do is wrap the piston knob in leather (paper will work) to protect it from heat and apply gentle heat (not even close to too hot for your fingers) to the end of the barrel. Then I unscrew the piston knob, wrap a thin leather strap around he piston housing and twist it enought to get moving, and then work the now loosened piston housing straight out of the barrel. If you do any of that off-center you can (will?) crack the barrel. Mine did not have any adhesive holding it in. It should not take a lot of heat or force to make the piston housing come out. Remember that patience is your most important tool.

P1 Parts.jpg

[KrazyIvan]

Looks like it is very similar to the M30. I took a TWSBI wrench and filed it down to fit the notches around the piston housing. You turn it opposite the normal direction (lefty tighty, righty loosy). I like that method better because you don't have to mess with realigning the piston nob to the piston. (As long as you do not turn the actual piston nob too much)


Modified a #TWSBI wrench to fit a #Pelikan M30 piston mechanism. #fountainpen by IvanRomero, on Flickr


Pelikan M30 dissasembly by IvanRomero, on Flickr

[Jeph]

P1 is friction fit, not screw in (with reverse threads) like the M30.

[KrazyIvan]

P1 is friction fit, not screw in (with reverse threads) like the M30.

Gotcha. Thank you.

[Paul-H]

Many thanks for the most helpful replies.

Paul

[Ernst Bitterman]

Arise from your slumber of the ages, thread!

I've just won a P1 at a price I could afford, because the seller what honest enough to admit that the piston is seized. While I expect it to be a while before I have the pen in hand, I want to start the pondering phase now, so I've a question (mainly) for Jeph. Does the feed need tapping out, or are it and the point drawn from the front as in the M20/30/etc?

I ask because I ponder the possibility of running a little rod up through the feed-hole to help nudge the filler out, or at least to introduce some kind of lubricant (even if only water) to unstick the piston and make disassembly a slightly less sweaty and nervous-making endeavour. I know that the former WON'T work with the M20/30/etc because there's a little flow-assisting formation on the wall the feed butts up against, but even if that's denied, getting some dampness into the barrel is bound to help... right?

[whych]

Before taking it apart, try soaking the whole pen in water and try to get some water into the pen. It could just be dried ink holding it.

[Jeph]

I agree with whych. I had an entire wall of text written, but I was trying to cover too many different possibilities.

The nib and the feed CAN come out the front, but the length of the feed means that if it is caked with dried ink (or crud) that it will fight being drawn out. Plus, the semi-hooded nib and bottom contour of the exposed portion of feed preclude getting a good grip. I have some tricks to only be used in an emergency but I won't even voice them at this point. My way to get them out is a gentle tap from the back with a wooden cooking skwewer. That way it only takes enough of a nudge to convince the feed that you are serious and then you easily pull the nib and feed out the front.

The good news is that if you remove the cap the entire pen can be submerged without issues. My normal trick if the piston is stuck such that I can't unscrew the blind cap enough to get my leather strap in there to unscrew the piston housing is to submerge the pen vertically in water. For this I use "test tubes" from a young kid's fake science kit that I stumbled across in some store. They look like big pen sized ink sample bottles. I hold the pen nib up under the faucet for a while, and then plop it nib up into the tube and fill the tube with water. If the barrel is full of air (normal starting condition) it will try to float but I have plenty of other random pen parts to place in there with the pen to hold it underwater. I also add a small drop of dishwashing detergent to the top. Eventually the water will do what it does best and work its way into the barrel.

[Ernst Bitterman]

{claps back of palm against forehead, reels onto couch} But... it's got a vestige of the original sticker still on it! {Dramatic violin sting}

Full body soak, eh? I'll pin my hopes on that. When, eventually, it arrives, I'll let you know how I've gotten on. It has to travel very nearly the whole length of both Americas to get to me, so it may be a while.

[Jeph]

If you really want to preserve the vestige of the sticker you can mask it with a small, thin piece of paper and then tape over that. Kind of like masking imprints for polishing but with the addition of protecting the sticker from the adhesive. I find high quality electrical tape works better than scotch tape or masking tape against water. Cheap electrical tape is almost worthless though. You were warned.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Well, it turns out that the piston wasn't seized, but the threads of the blind cap were. The previous owner has apparently been messing with it since taking eBay pictures, as the friction collar was about 1/2 out when it arrived. Once I got it all the way out, it was pretty easy to free the knob. And then crack the barrel a little during reassembly.

Grf.

SO, we discover that Tenax works on this kind of plastic. I was a bad boy and gave the friction collar a light sanding to ease re-assembly, and you'd hardly know anything had gone wrong. A couple of possible oddities in this one, though; first, the cap's content indication says SILVEX rather than SILVEXA (which apparently is usual, referring back to a review-- two data points make a trend, right?). The other is that ring around the middle-- it appears to be there to hold the cap snug, which is very belt-and-suspenders of Pelikan... but I don't see it in Jeph's and because the pens on Werner's site are capped, I can't see it there. A common feature?

[Jeph]

I remember seeing somewhere else that there indeed was a "Silvexa" version of the P1.
Does the cap say "Pelikan P1 Silvexa" or something similar?
The cap certainly looks like a P1 cap and not like the M20 or M30 caps.

Both my M20 (Silvexa) and M30 have the clutch rings but their caps clearly state the model (as does the P1).

I have never seen an M30 referred to as a "Silvexa" so that my thought that it talked to the method of cap retention doesn't really hold water.

I can only guess that there is a "P1" as well as a "P1 Silvexa." Now to figure out why, when, and what the difference was!

Pictures of an M20 Silvexa and an M30 for reference.
Top M30 Rolled Gold
Bottom M20 Silvexa

Pelikan M20 M30.jpg

[tandaina]

Well, it turns out that the piston wasn't seized, but the threads of the blind cap were. The previous owner has apparently been messing with it since taking eBay pictures, as the friction collar was about 1/2 out when it arrived. Once I got it all the way out, it was pretty easy to free the knob. And then crack the barrel a little during reassembly.

Grf.

SO, we discover that Tenax works on this kind of plastic. I was a bad boy and gave the friction collar a light sanding to ease re-assembly, and you'd hardly know anything had gone wrong. A couple of possible oddities in this one, though; first, the cap's content indication says SILVEX rather than SILVEXA (which apparently is usual, referring back to a review-- two data points make a trend, right?). The other is that ring around the middle-- it appears to be there to hold the cap snug, which is very belt-and-suspenders of Pelikan... but I don't see it in Jeph's and because the pens on Werner's site are capped, I can't see it there. A common feature?

I have a P1 with a cap that says SILVEX (NOT "Sivlexa") as well. Seem to have been a thing, mine are both chrome caps like yours. (A burgundy and a grey)

[Ernst Bitterman]

I remember seeing somewhere else that there indeed was a "Silvexa" version of the P1.
. . .
I have never seen an M30 referred to as a "Silvexa" so that my thought that it talked to the method of cap retention doesn't really hold water.

I can only guess that there is a "P1" as well as a "P1 Silvexa." Now to figure out why, when, and what the difference was!

Pictures of an M20 Silvexa and an M30 for reference.
Top M30 Rolled Gold
Bottom M20 Silvexa

When I was lapping around the 'nets doing what I'm pleased to describe as "research" on these thing, I found references to Silvexa in connection with Montblanc pens, too. It appears to just be a mainly-nickel alloy that got used in pens from Germany for a short while. I suspect it's something like Lexan or Makrolon-- a trade-name for something of a more generic family (alloy in one case, acrylics in the other)-- although now all google gets is herbal ointments, wholesale jewellery outlets, and these pens. I take support for this from the placement of ROLLED GOLD on the M30's cap in the same place as SILVEXA on the M20.

Now, why the P1 got a masculine version while the later M/P20 got feminine is a bit of a mystery atop the mystery of what Silvex(a) actually is.

[whych]

The first Pelikano had a chrome cap and steel nib. Then they brought out the upmarket version of the Pelikano with a gold nib and either chrome or gold cap.
To distinguish between the plain Pelikano and the gold nib version, they called it Silvex/a.
It may just be that by calling the P1 version Silvex and the later type 2 version Silvexa, distinguished between the type 1 and the later type 2 and 3 versions.

[Ernst Bitterman]

This would be the "howl of dismay" portion of the show. Weld is set, pen is back together, and... no draw at all. I can get some fluid in if I leave off the knob and use the piston as a syringe, by a quick action, but that doesn't really solve the problem. My piston seal is a little ragged, which I suspect is the cause of my issue.

Anyone got a spare? I've discovered that a grab-bag of parts I recently got, mainly M20/30/&ct., doesn't offer anything the right size, and fabricating a new one is a LOT of effort.

[Jeph]

I think I have your address somewhere but PM it to me anyway and I will send you an entire piston with seal.