Filling a cartridge

[RobJohnson]

Some of you may be uncomfortable with going into a pharmacy to buy a syringe.

These cartridge refillers are purpose made and available from Amazon for around £6

Hope this helps someone

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You will see that the converter actually includes a small spring which breaks the meniscus, often missing on other more expensive converters.

The converter can be used on its own on pens that take an international size cartridge.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Cool product, thanks. I've been using either industrial (blunt) syringes or plastic pipettes.

[RobJohnson]

They work well, my last syringe broke and I have just managed without for a while but these do the job and your fingers are not at risk from ink stains being some distance from the ink bottle and the cartridge.

Cheap enough to gift one of the six to a pen buddy.

I haven't said so but the needles are blunt of course.

[Jon Szanto]

I've always used syringes, but a couple months ago I picked up a pack of the ones on the right, in red. I might suggest against that purchase, and try either of the piston/twist models. The issue I had was that the spring was stiff and the piston often gets stuck at the back. With a really thin object to grip, it makes it hard to press down the plunger with out the entire unit flying out of your hand. Bottom line is that it felt awkward enough that I didn't end up sticking it in any ink bottles for fear of a mess, and went back to my blunt needle syringes.

[RobJohnson]

I have only used the red 'pump' filler so far, as Jon suggests, it was hesitant to move, I was going to write stuck but that was too strong, A couple more presses on the spring and it filled nicely, held the ink and then discharged into the cartridge. I flushed it after the fill.

Just been to check it and no hesitancy, it is a proper pump action and different to use, as you say, a twist to fill may be a little more certain.

[Jon Szanto]

Meh, Rob, mine might have just been a wonky example. I'll try them again.

[RobJohnson]

The benefit of the red pump filler is that it is all done with one hand, the finger pressure is about the same as a Parker Speedline filler.

[Chrissy]

I also bought a pack of the red springy ones from Amazon UK and use them all of the time for filling cartridges and converters. Easy.

On my red springy ones it's very simple to unscrew the red threaded disc part at the top of the tube, disassemble it, and add a tiny dot of silicone grease to the internal plunger every once in a while to keep it's action very smooth rather than letting it get jerky.

Plunger filler.jpg

[Sailor Kenshin]

I put some in my cart, but the reviews spoke of difficult assembly and application. Any particular brand that works better than another?

[Jon Szanto]

I just did what Chrissy suggested, took it apart and greased the piston head. Works better now, also took out the little spring inside to make more room for ink, and I might try to trim a bit of the spring on the plunger rod because it seems stiffer and longer than necessary. Then I'll try loading out of a sample vial for starters. Glad this came up and I might actually make use of them!

[Chrissy]

I put some in my cart, but the reviews spoke of difficult assembly and application. Any particular brand that works better than another?

Maybe some of the different converter styles in mixed sets don't fit so well into those pens that buyers tried them in?
I have had no problems with my set of red springy ones.

[RobJohnson]

I put some in my cart, but the reviews spoke of difficult assembly and application. Any particular brand that works better than another?

Hi

I am not sure what is meant by the word application.

They will arrive with three sets of components, a converter, a small plastic thing and a metal rod. They all fit together of course. The plastic part fits into the converter, you will need a firm hand as it is a tight fit. The metal rod fits onto the plastic adapted, again it is a tight fit but you really wouldn't want it any different.

I cannot say that it is a difficult assembly, you will have all six done within two minutes without tools or anything else.

Trying to think of what the application issue might be, if you have filled a cartridge by a syringe then this is, IMHO, easier.

The benefit of the red pumper is that it can filled and emptied with one hand whereas my last syringe needed two and too stiff for risk free filling.

The maker of the set that I bought was Toyandona and the Amazon distributor was Waldenwde.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Rob, by application I mean that reviewers on Amazon had trouble pressing the plunger and said the spring was too stiff. My hands are weak so this might give me problems. The one in my wish list is 'Asvine,' but I can't recall if they're all red.

Seems like something that would be fun!

[RobJohnson]

Very best of luck

I am half way through Titannic, I have broken off to make sure I know what I am talking about, so you are honoured!

The six I bought have four normal converters and two pump springers. I have retried the springers by holding the converter between my thumb and middle finger and pressing the plunger with my index finger, it is as easy as filling a Vacumatic. Just for the sake of it I tried using my little finger to see if someone with less strength in their fingers could use it, a very awkward grip, but it still worked.

I haven't tried the grease in the top of the barrel but that can only help, I think that there is an engineering term called stiction, meaning a slight reluction to move, the emphasis is on the word slight, I have known worse in Pelikans etc.

Best wishes

[Jon Szanto]

I think a lot of the issues can just be chalked up to varying degrees of quality control in manufacture. A couple of mine *really* want to stick at the fully open state, and require a pretty good post to get the plunger going; the others don't. One other bit that might be handy, especially with highly saturated inks, is that unscrewing the back end is so easy that you could do that and then stick the tip of a bulb syringe in the back end and do a quick power flush to clean it out for the next use.

[mizgeorge]

I also use these all the time. I find them particularly good for mixing inks in precise proportions, and also for adding single drops of wettener (or whatever) accurately.

[Stands on Feet]

I bought a 5-pack of the Asvine red springy ones back in 2021, based on a post here by Chrissy. They work fine. The one I opened of the five is OK, so I can't comment meaningfully on their quality control.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Just for laughs, I press-fitted the business end of a blunt syringe onto a standard twist converter and filled it. It worked sort of okay, but offered no true advantage over bottle-filling or pipette-filling.

The Asvine set's still in my wish list.

[dkpw]

I bought a pack of 10x 5ml syringes from Amazon UK for £6.99 and they are excellent. Having so many, means that if I'm doing several ink swaps or refills at the same time, I don't need to wait for one to dry out before I move onto the next. The quality is very good, with nice and smooth plungers. As mentioned above, with that number, you can pass a few out to friends.

[Ron Z]

I was about to put a note up about this... The ones above are blunt needle.

You can buy blunt needle industrial syringes on Ebay and Amazon. An Amazon search for "industrial syringes" comes up with a variety of size syringes with different gauge needles o you can do everything from filling cartridges to flushing out snorkel tubes or Vac breather tubes. Good things to have around.