Bought a Sheaffer Tuckaway vac-filler on eBay...

**N6GQ** · June 29th, 2017, 03:24 PM

I had been wanting to find a vac-filler Tuckaway, bid on a bunch of them, then finally got one that the seller said needed a rebuild. I thought that was cool since I was planning on restoring anyhow.

So to make a long story short, I won the bid on this one at $23. Its an early one, lifetime nib, etc.

When it arrived, it was in almost perfect physical condition, but plunger wouldn't move. So I thought what the hell, soak it a while and see what happens.

After about 2 weeks of soaking in cold then hot water, the plunger moved! Yahoo! Now I can get it apart and rebuild.

Well, after a few times up and down, the plunger started making that "whoosh" noise at the bottom, and I thought what the hell, just fill it and see what happens (by now it was VERY clean from soaking).

I filled it with some Diamine Imperial Purple (1 stroke of the vac-fill) and it writes like a dream. I've been writing with it for an hour and its silky smooth, wonderfully fine nib, and it just keeps writing and writing and writing, no skipping even when writing fast, and yet not too wet.

I'm not sure what I did to deserve this, but I guess its proof that there's a few good deals left if you're willing to put a little elbow grease into it. This one's a keeper!

**Wade** · June 29th, 2017, 07:26 PM

Nice! Excellent score.

**jar** · June 29th, 2017, 07:47 PM

Watch out for a leak around the plunger shaft.

**N6GQ** · July 5th, 2017, 01:12 PM

In what can only be described as bizarre, I got together for a 4th of July dinner with my mom and dad yesterday. We were talking about collectibles and I mentioned that I had a soft spot for vintage fountain pens. My mom and dad did not know this, to which my mom responded "What, like Sheaffers and such?" I said yes exactly, and recounted the story of me losing lots of ebay auctions for various Sheaffer vac fillers (probably lost 10 auctions on various Sheaffer vac fills over the past month or two). Anyhow, she went into the other room for a few minutes and came out with a Sheaffer Triumph and its matching pencil. The Triumph is a vac filler that's in primo shape. They were apparently my grandfathers, and while there's some tarnishing, they're in almost new condition. I was dumbfounded. She gave them to me and so now I think I will have them professionally restored, even though the filler appears operational and whooshs

How bizarre is that?

**penwash** · July 5th, 2017, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by N6GQ

In what can only be described as bizarre, I got together for a 4th of July dinner with my mom and dad yesterday. We were talking about collectibles and I mentioned that I had a soft spot for vintage fountain pens. My mom and dad did not know this, to which my mom responded "What, like Sheaffers and such?" I said yes exactly, and recounted the story of me losing lots of ebay auctions for various Sheaffer vac fillers (probably lost 10 auctions on various Sheaffer vac fills over the past month or two). Anyhow, she went into the other room for a few minutes and came out with a Sheaffer Triumph and its matching pencil. The Triumph is a vac filler that's in primo shape. They were apparently my grandfathers, and while there's some tarnishing, they're in almost new condition. I was dumbfounded. She gave them to me and so now I think I will have them professionally restored, even though the filler appears operational and whooshs

How bizarre is that?

Such a nice way to get a vintage pen!

You can easily test if the vac-filler is still good or not, those Sheaffer are not afraid of water, so fill it with water and see if it'll take water and expel it back out. If not, then have it restored.