LAMY Bulb Filler Mod

[Tony Rex]

This is an alternative to the Vista eye dropper conversion. With this method you won't need a roller-ball barrel and mess around with epoxies etc. The idea was to keep the stock barrel to stay pristine, while you can still see ink sloshing around inside it. Here's how:


First. Cut a cartridge. Here's the first magic number (30mm)


Next. Cut a Parker aerometric sac to length (2nd magic number). The reason for the magic numbers is that there are anti-rotational ridges at the end of the barrel that squeeze the sac when you screw it in. If it's maxed out it will be impossible to screw the section into the barrel without mess.


Assemble the "bulb converter" as you would a normal sac on the cart. To make the job easier you may want to sand the arris beforehand. Then as usual put some talcum powder at the sac end where the it touches the ridges. Lastly, shellac it after you're happy with everything.


Voila. The thingy filled with water.

[Hawk]

It's not my thing. However, you did a fantastic, high quality modification that looks professional. I'm sure others will use your design. Maybe, the sac will eliminate the potential for burping when the ink level drops.

[mhosea]

This will function perfectly if you fill the bulb cartridge with a syringe. It is better than an ED conversion, though if one spends any time at all with Pli-glass sacs, one expects the aesthetic of the Vista in particular to change a little bit with use. Pink staining from blue ink is particularly common. I think the PVC sac will be OK with this plastic (can't let them stay in contact with some plastics).

[Avastgard]

Very nice! Post some pictures as soon as you ink it up!

[RuiFromUK]

Fantastic piece of ingenuity Tony. Cannot wait until I have a spare moment to try on one of my Lamy's!

[snedwos]

Now my temptation would be to use a rollerball barrel, and make a blow-filler.

[earthdawn]

Well done my friend !

Very very clean execution.

Do post a pic once you fill it.

[Tony Rex]

Thanks fellas. To be perfectly honest, this ain't really my thing either, I was just providing light entertainment

Mike is right. It might be better to use silicone sacs for saturated inks and gotta use syringes to top up fully. But if you wanna see ink sloshing around just squeeze the thickest diameter of the sac and it'll suck about three quarters sac-full.

[mhosea]

You know, every kind of sac has its strengths and weaknesses. PVC is functionally superior to pure silicone for this application because the pure silicone sacs are easier to tear and are gas permeable (the pen will leak unless stored nib up). Even pure silicone sacs will stain, though not as easily. There is a third (hybrid?) type of sac that is sold as "silicone" but that isn't pure silicone at least, if they are silicone at all. I don't have any, but I've been thinking about getting some for Snorkel restoration on the theory that they will neither suffer the gas permeability of pure silicone nor the potential for spontaneous break-down of latex. If they have any extra stain resistance over the regular PVC sacs, they might be a good choice.

You've already pointed out that the fountain pen barrel will not work on the rollerball, but I just had a thought that the rollerball barrel might enable this approach to be used as a blow filler. Of course one can use ones own bellows in a pinch, but with the one blow filler (converted from ED) I have, I prefer to use a $3 rubber bulb syringe that I cut the nozzle down from so that it would fit over the barrel. This is especially helpful when flushing the pen!