Jump to content

Hoover 868: How does it work?


Don Jr

Recommended Posts

I recently acquired this Hoover fountain pen, model 868:

 

 

With a bit of heat the section unscrewed, and the plunger slid out from the barrel and into my hand. Here is an exploded view of the parts:

 

 

I'm not sure if I have all the parts, though. There isn't any filling mechanism present, and the barrel-end of the section doesn't look like it was made to accomodate a sac. There are no threads cut on the inside of the barrel other than the ones that accept the section.

 

Take a look at the plunger in the exploded view above - there remnants of a sac appear to be adhered to the bulbous end. If a diaphragm attaches to the plunger in some way, I'm not sure what else it would attach to.

 

How is this sort of pen supposed to fill? What am I missing? I appreciate any insight you might be able to provide.

 

Don Jr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 14
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • roberto v

    2

  • ZeissIkon

    2

  • markiv

    2

  • viclip

    2

  • 7 months later...

Hey FPN,

 

This Hoover has one of the best aesthetics amongst the pens I own.

 

 

 

Now I need your help in evaluating it's functionality. The picture below shows the exploded view of the pen. I have the same question as Don, how do I restore this pen? It seems like some sort of vacumatic mechanism but in my case the plunger has no step (the same diameter along the length) unlike the picture posted by Don. It is not clearly visible in the picture but it does seem like the step may have been scrapped down by a knife. I will be really grateful if you guys can point me (and Don) in the right direction.

 

 

Edited by FPN Admin:

Sorry markIV, your images are hosted on a site infected with malware, so we had to remove them in order to prevent the FPN server and FPN members' computers from getting infected

Edited by wimg
Links to site with malware files
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the plunger hollow all the way through? If so, maybe a bulb filler. If not and the barrel is one diameter, maybe a syringe/piston filler. Seeing a breather tube in the second pen might mean a bulb filler. Just guessing from what little I've seen and/or experienced. I'm leaning towards syringe/piston type at the moment.

 

Ralph

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting together details from both sets of photos, I think it's safe to say this Hoover had a filling system similar to a Vacumatic. The big question is how the diaphragm would be attached to the plunger and barrel, since the collar found in Parker Vacs isn't present here; it looks as if the diaphragm in the Hoover would be in tension as the plunger is depressed, so the rubber acts as the spring as well as the pump (instead of the Vacumatic's diaphragm folding into itself and a separate spring retracting the plunger after each stroke). The OP's is missing its breather tube, while the diaphragm on the second posted example appears to have been removed (and the plunger modified, possibly by a well-meaning attempt to restore the pen).

 

The plunger could probably be stuck to the center of the diaphragm with shellac, but I'm not sure what could hold the edge to the barrel under the tension of pumping action. I'm not sure if a Parker type Vacumatic diaphragm could be made to work here; it might depend on how the rubber is to be attached to the barrel.

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe these pens may be of the twist-sac type.

You glue a hollow sac (just cut off one end to size) one side to the section, other side to the 'plunger'

Then you just twist the 'plunger', thus compressing the sac, and release to fill.

If you have Da Book by Frank Dubiel, look at page 64 for a reference.

Help? Why am I buying so many fountain pens?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for the feedback. By minutely analyzing the replies, I have to agree with Sirksael. I do not have Da Book but quick googling has led me to believe this must be a twist filler. Now have to figure out how to attach the sac to the inside (top end) of the barrel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for the feedback. By minutely analyzing the replies, I have to agree with Sirksael. I do not have Da Book but quick googling has led me to believe this must be a twist filler. Now have to figure out how to attach the sac to the inside (top end) of the barrel.

 

If it's a twist filler, the sac should attach to the section like a lever- or button-filler sac; compression of the sac is accomplished by twisting the knob attached to the top rather than by squeezing the sac with a bar driven by the filling actuator. I'm surprised to see a breather tube in a twist filler, and the direction of lie of the rubber on the plunger that still has sac fragments isn't what I'd expect, either, but neither one is impossible to rationalize.

 

Edit to add: I'm not sure what the sense would be in making a sac reservoir pen with a clear(ish) barrel; that clear red barrel, as much as the breather tube inside, affected my opinion that it was a vacumatic-like action.

Edited by ZeissIkon

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point. The breather tube might actually even damage the sac when you twist it. Perhaps more investigation is still required...

Help? Why am I buying so many fountain pens?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

In my opinion, this is a modified Vac filling system.

Check if you see the hole for the breathing tube in the feed.

In the Hoover, probably the threaded part in the back of the pen is screw in the body. If this is correct, you shoud see with a good light and a good lens the traces of the threads in the transparent part of the pen. If this is correct, you need to unscrew that part (with a tool like the vac wrench, but be careful because the threads could be metric while the vac are not). You will find a conic ring which should also come out: on that ring you should shellac the lip of the new cut to size sac. The filling is done simply pumping up and down that row.

Edited by roberto v
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another theory is that the original sac, which attached to the peg on the section, was of the "accordian" type. The plunger when pumped would simply compress the the sac along its length, which specially shaped sac would tend to rebound to its original configuration when the plunger was released thereby drawing ink up while returning the plunger.

 

Note also that this could be a "through sac" which is open at both ends i.e. shellacked to the section peg as well as to the end of the plunger. Sort of like one of those simple accordians used by cowboys back in the day, if you know what I mean.

 

It's my understanding that accordian or bellows type sacs are no longer available either with one or two open ends however, I believe that restorers will insert a spring into the sac which effectively does the same thing. Presumably the spring would be stainless steel or other springy metal resistant to the acidic environment.

 

I'm just conjecturing here, as I have no experience with Hoover pens let alone accordian-sacced pens.

 

EDIT: Take a look at page 151 of the 2nd edition of Pen Repair by Marshall & Oldfield.

Edited by viclip
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a problem with Post #3.

 

When I view this post in Google Chrome, it complains that the hosting site of the images - imgurl.filetac.com - has malware on it.

 

 

Opening it in Safari (both on a Mac) presents no problems.

 

Any idea what is going on?

 

 

fpn_1412827311__pg_d_104def64.gif




“Them as can do has to do for them as can’t.


And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”


Granny Aching

Link to comment
Share on other sites

these Hoover (or Hoower) pens are Italian made - and we have no tradition in accordian sacs. The idea was to keep things as easy as possible so I still think the sac was a plain normal one. Just my 2 cents

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 years later...

First, sorry to those who are sensitive to reviving a decade old thread :)

 

But in the spirit of sharing knowledge, I feel that it is proper to post my finding on what I believe a pen similar to the one discussed in this thread, plus, this thread gave me the hints that helped during the restoration.

 

Meet Hoover Super 348, given to me by my fellow pen club member Marco (of avilapens) to figure out how it works.

 

So I did and as usual, I draw a diagram to remind myself of the restoration. For those who are not familiar with my sketches, all of them are drawn with the pen that I restore.

 

49196903263_b47d01ed8c_z.jpg

 

** A more thorough description of the restoration can be seen on Redeem Pens facebook page (just type Redeem Pens on FB search and you'll find it).

 

Hopefully this is useful for the future generations of pen restorers. Here's to another decade of this thread :)

Edited by penwash

- Will
Restored Pens and Sketches on Instagram @redeempens

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...