Mabie Todd button bar filler sac size?

[Chrissy]

My best friend has a Mabie Todd button bar filler calligraphy pen that needs a new sac. I have managed to get it apart using my hairdryer, and have removed all traces of the old sac. The nipple measures 6mm across. Does that mean I need to buy a 5mm sac? Are they all the same length, so would I just need to measure it alongside the barrel and cut off the excess length?

The button has a small crack in it, but it's working the bar exactly as the book suggests it should. I've cleaned everything up by putting the barrel, section and cap in the ultrasonic for a couple of minutes. However, I don't have a knock-out block so I haven't managed to get the nib and feed out of the section. It might be OK though as it looks very clean now. It's a very nice looking 14ct gold nib, and there seems to be no other damage apart from the fact that the pale green barrel has slightly darkened towards the top.

So I think once I can get a sac it might be good to go. It will be my first ever attempt at fitting a sac into a pen :cool:

[Cob]

Chrissy:

Replacing a sac in a pressure bar leverless can be a major pain in the neck. The point is that you must have the bar fully extended (i.e. the knob fully unscrewed) ensuring that the other end of the bar is correctly located in the filler button assembly and is free to turn.. You then engage the end of the bar in the slot in the section and as you screw in the section you turn the filler knob clockwise slowly.

For a 6mm peg you would use a size 16 sac. There is helpful information on this site (http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/?page_id=27).

Rgds

Cob

[Chrissy]

Chrissy:

Replacing a sac in a pressure bar leverless can be a major pain in the neck. The point is that you must have the bar fully extended (i.e. the knob fully unscrewed) ensuring that the other end of the bar is correctly located in the filler button assembly and is free to turn.. You then engage the end of the bar in the slot in the section and as you screw in the section you turn the filler knob clockwise slowly.

For a 6mm peg you would use a size 16 sac. There is helpful information on this site (http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/?page_id=27).

Rgds

Cob

Thank you Cob for that valuable information. I read in my book about the bar and the button, so I hope I can do that once I have a sac.

[Cob]

I should add that "feel" is important when installing the sac/section assembly. If one is careless one can end up with a horribly mangled pressure bar and even a wrecked sac.

I have in my "chamber of horrors" a fine example of a crumpled pressure bar; this came from innumerable attempts to fix a Calligraph. I gave up in the end and broke up the pen for parts!

It is important to take care of Swan pressure bars, because they are not available. They are approx 75mm long and the bars one can buy today are either 66mm or 84mm. I have just restored a very handsome big torpedo dark blue leverless that arrived without a pressure bar. I had to dismantle (i.e. uncrimp) a new 84mm bar in order to cut it to length without damaging the spring part. The latter has to be shortened but so also does the pressure plate.

Rgds

Cob