The Esterbrook J sac

[Kabe]

Hi,

I just disarmed a J and discovered the sac to be about half the length of the pen itself. Can a bigger sac be used? Would a bigger sac be unfillable with the lever?

[Enai]

When the section with the sac is installed in the barrel, the end of the sac goes down to about the end of the bar lever. I think that's a pretty reasonable length.

[Paddler]

I don't measure the length of the sac when I install it. I drop a size 16 sac into the barrel and let it bottom out on the end of the J-bar. Then I cut it flush with the end of the barrel. I cut it again to remove the length equivalent to the section tang length. This gives the maximum sac length in the pen. This bit of extra length doesn't gain you more ink per fill unless you fill the normal way and then burp the bubble out and fill again. Most people don't want to bother doing that.

 

An Esterbrook J pen with a factory fitted sac will hold 0.85 ml with a normal fill (one operation of the lever). If you burp this pen and fill it "chuck full", it will hold 1.30 ml. I measured an oversize sac capacity to be 1.60 ml. That is nearly double the normal capacity if you "double clutch" it.

 

Paddler

[FarmBoy]

For all but the earliest of Js that had no sac support tray, the factory sac was a #16 and was 1-15/16" long and imprinted ESTERBROOK usually in yellow text. The same sac was used in the LJ and SJ.

 

Todd

[Kabe]

I would like to turn one into an eyedropper.

[Garageboy]

Good luck sealing up the gaping lever box

[OcalaFlGuy]

I heard of a pretty strange thing to do with a sac last night.

 

I was researching turning my Kaweco Sport into an ED and hit some posts searching where they mentioned the

non-OEM converters that fit it weren't that good and someone said they'd made their own converter by cutting

down an empty cartridge and shellacing a sac to it. :clap1:

 

The fact though is that is fixin' sumpin that ain't broke. The little Kaweco seems to do just fine as a ED

with just the threads sillycone greased, and probably holds 2x the ink that homemade converter does.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[Kabe]

I meant: If by adding a huge aftermarket sac, will it be impossible to fill with the lever, thus converting it into an eyedropper?

[Rabbit]

Good luck sealing up the gaping lever box

 

 

That's hilarious. The next beat-up pen I get from eBay I'm going to try it and see how it goes... I've already got some ideas going... should be a fun project!

 

--Stephen

[amh210]

One of the cautions in using a larger (diameter) sac is that if the sack fills the barrel and touches the sides it will be much more leaky since the hand warmth, pocket warmth, general warmth will be transmitted more easily to the ink in the sac which will expand and have no where to go but out the nib.

 

Andy

[Kabe]

One of the cautions in using a larger (diameter) sac is that if the sack fills the barrel and touches the sides it will be much more leaky since the hand warmth, pocket warmth, general warmth will be transmitted more easily to the ink in the sac which will expand and have no where to go but out the nib.

Thanks!