I used an epoxi adhesive and it worked fine.
I used an epoxi adhesive and it worked fine.
"When, in the course of writing events, it becomes self-evident that not all pens are created equal" (Federalist Frank)
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I realize I'm responding to a post from 2013.
But I've been thinking along the same line to convert vintage pens with broken lever mechanism into ED.
Anyone know what Adhizen meant by "acrylic medium" ?
What kind of acrylic is that? Is it liquid at room temperature?
Or Adhizen, if you're still hanging out here
The biggest problem with your plan (well, I guess it's a toss-up with trying to fill an entire lever hole in the barrel) is that few vintage lever pens have a threaded section. Most all of them are friction fit, and usually put in place with a little shellac. How would you propose dealing with this (i.e. how are you going to repeatedly remove the section to fill the pen barrel with ink)?
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
penwash (November 9th, 2015)
Good point.
I'm not there yet. This is just an idea.
Right now I'm still trying to pull out my first section successfully out of a vintage pen.
Is a rubber-padded plier absolutely necessary? And how long do I have to heat it?
I've tried hair-drier at High settings for up to 3 minutes, and still nothing budges.
So far it has kept.
The Preppy of course.
Scheaffer No Nonsense
Kaweco Sport which I gave to my Dad.
Pilot Petit 1, very coarse threads so use a lot of grease.
Pilot Plumix, love this pen in a 1.1mm stub but of late the feeds have been leaky on about 1/3 pens I have bought.
A trick to keep epoxy from sticking where you don't want it is to cover the area with silicon grease. A trick to keep epoxy sticking where you want it to stick is to rough the area up with a coarse sandpaper.
One of these days I'm going to turn an eyedropper into a pen. I mean, you know, a real eyedropper.
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Noodler Ahab. And if by success you mean a huge mess then yes.
2 Penatias (the kind that were found for $2.00 at Big Lots a few years ago) and one Hero, no problems yet. But I'm a newbie!
On Epoxies: Use a food safe epoxy. They are intended to resist fluids, even boiling fluids without a significant contribution of leached chemicals. I suspect they will stand up to ink exposure best.
I have converted a Shaeffer No Nonsense with no problems other than a terribly scratchy nib. It was new old stock so may have some corrosion on the nib. I may convert to something like a stub possibly. No leaking problems. The Preppy of course and it still is a favorite pen for its solid reliability even after going unused for months. The Pilot Plumix is my favorite because I tend toward stub nibs. But, the feed in them does lend itself toward burping severely. About one in three will work well as an eyedropper. I wonder if it is an issue in how well the feed and nib are fitted? The ones that resist burping work very well and I love the section on these pens. I did a short How To on the conversion and posted it here. They have a tiny hole at the end of the body. I don't think it is a vent, maybe just an artifact of the plastic injection process. Anyway I fill it with epoxy using a toothpick as an applicator. If you cover the body around the hole with silicon grease you can get messy with the epoxy to make sure the hole is filled then just wipe off the excess. Works quite well for messy types like me and helps to fill the small hole completely which is sometimes a bit of a chore. Another pen I did was a Pilot Petite. It did not work well because the threads are very coarse and tended to leak. A gasket may have solved the problem.
Converting-Pilot-Plumix-To-Eye-Dropper-Fill-Pens
Last edited by Armstrong; January 10th, 2016 at 05:41 PM.
I'll admit that I haven't read through all the previous posts, so there's probably going to be some repetition here.
- Platinum Preppy. I don't know if Goulet's still sells those O-rings for the purpose, but I tried it out. Seemed to work well enough, but I didn't want that much ink in a pen that I didn't feel like writing with all that often.
- Kaweco Sport. Filling it this way worked well, but mine just don't have my favorite nibs, so I haven't wanted to write with one for a while.
- Stipula Passaporto. This one wasn't "converted" exactly, the manufacturer actually advertises it as an eyedropper, although it will also take short cartridges. Kind of a quirky pen, but I fiddled with it so much to get it to work properly that it ended up becoming an odd sort of favorite. I have it eyedropper filled right now.
- Pilot Varsity. Seriously, did someone already think of this one? The entire barrel of the pen comes filled with ink, so it's basically a pre-filled eyedropper. And if you refill it, by one of a number of available methods, then you're basically eyedroppering it again. I've refilled them by the brute force method of twisting out the nib and feed to eyedropper the body of the pen, but the next time it comes up, I plan to try the gentler method of injecting the new ink through the feed, using a syringe and a short length of rubber tubing.
Last edited by Kaputnik; January 11th, 2016 at 04:14 PM.
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton
My father has done some Pilot Varsity conversions with very good results. I took more work. He drilled through the end of the body so he could access both hollow areas within the body. Then he put a sheet metal screw in the hole to keep in the ink. Used a blunt needle syringe to fill the pen. It works quite well but is more work than say a Preppy.
I have converted a Sheaffer Javellin (plastic) to a "tanker" simply by putting silicone grease in the barrel/section threads. Success! as it gets toward empty it's prone to blob while writing but that's way down to the last few drops. Holds a big charge of ink.
I tried to ED a TWSBI Micarta but it made it too wet to use that way so I put the converter back in, having been cautioned that the Micarta could allow the ink to slowly bleed through the material.
Dana
Last edited by pensplash; January 13th, 2016 at 09:28 AM.
This was a broken nibless old Sheaffer No-Nonsense. It has grown this beautiful Omas nib. The NN is the only pen I could find where the feed closely matched the size and shape of Omas. Now all it needs is a new clip. These pens are so easy to use as an eyedropper and hold so much ink that you can confidently use it all day long.
Crazyorange (January 12th, 2016), Kaputnik (January 12th, 2016)
I have used a Pilot Petite as an eyedropper and also a Platinum Preppy with a extra fine nib and the printing scraped off of the barrel. I put a oring on the preppy and have no problems using it as a desk pen.
pensplash (February 9th, 2016)
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