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Esterbrook Plungr filler


antoniosz

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Εν οίδα ότι ουδέν οίδα, which means "I know one thing that I dont know anything".

Case in point plunger fillers. We had a short discussion with Jim last week on Marketplace about these pens,

and someone has questioned their ink capacity. So I decided to see how much ink they hold.

Surprising it can hold about just a tiny bit less than a M600 piston filler.

 

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/100_3510.jpg

 

Then I realized that I dont know their mechanism. What makes most of these pens are found to be in fully operational condition while the Sheaffers and other vintage plunger fillers always are found almost always in need of repair? First,I went to find the plunger filler patent of Esterbrook. US Patent 2,218,536Filing date: Jan 12, 1939 Issue date: Oct 1940, under the name Henry Clemens Klagges, a man with many Estie patents. There is also US Patent 2,500,833 Filing date: Oct 20, 1944 Issue date: Mar 14, 1950. But the actual design is much simpler.

 

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/100_3508.jpg

 

First of all - it is friction fit... Second it has a sac!... The end of the rod has a disk (presumably with an o-ring (I still dont know how to disassemble the plunger) that slides on the sides of the barrel and created pushed the air in the barrel which compresses the sac and expels the air from inside the sac. Then you wait few seconds and presto. It does not need vacuum grease on the rod - only on the "piston". I need to get a better photo to show the plunger. Maybe next week (Engineering Week ;)) Till then enjoy another picture. Note the transparent collar on the late style renew point (Medium - no model number)

 

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/100_3509.jpg

Edited by antoniosz
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Excellent information as usual Antonios. I love those patent details.

 

As I said in the Marketplace last week I would have, if necessary,resorted to You Tube footage to defend the honour of the Esterbrook Plunger-Fill. I had roughed out a screenplay and had settled on either "The Big Plunger " or "12 Drops " as the title.

 

:thumbup:

Edited by jimg
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There is also a early model of the Sheaffer Imperial EXACTLY like that. So exact, that looking at Antoniosz pics, it appears to me *someone* was dancing on the thin ice of patent infringement...

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

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Here's a trick question, Antonios. How is the sac attached? I have one of these and I did not attempt to remove the sac, but looking at it through the renew point opening looks to me that the sac has a thick rubber collar with a narrowing behind it that simply sits passively in the section without any adhesive. Edit: I just re-examined it, and I what I thought was a collar on the sac actually appears to be a separate part of the section. Now I'm really confused about how the sac attaches! I think some kind of adhesive would be necessary to keep air out and liquid in...

 

I too am wondering how to remove the plunger... I thought maybe the end cap would unscrew from the rod, but I'm afraid to put too much pressure on it just in case that's now the correct way to take it apart... It would be nice to get one with severe problems that I wouldn't care about destroying in efforts to learn more about them!

 

--Stephen

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Pen x-rays?

 

Now that would be very cool.

 

I did it once to prove a Sonnet I had was fake... but I've never tried to do it to study the internal parts of a pen... assuming I can get the proper contrast, I may give it a shot with the Plunger filler... If all the parts are made from plastic, it could be a challenge to find settings to get a good picture with the equipment I have, but worth a try if I get a slow moment during the day. :hmm1:

 

--Stephen

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It depends on the instrument. Here is couple of shots that I took over the years

http://azfp.blogspot...mechanisms.html

http://www.fountainp...c=7798&hl=x-ray

http://i22.photobuck.../x-ayer-all.jpg

I will try to get one also.

 

Very nice! The 3D scan is impressive. Your system definitely has a larger area than what I could do. The office I'm at now uses a digital system and we only have one sensor size (just big enough to x-ray 2-3 teeth at a time). If we were set up to do film, I could get a larger size film to get more of the pen at once, but even then I probably couldn't get as much as you are able to get! I miss film though--I'm not very impressed with the quality of our digital system, but there are probably better ones out there. It's a lot more convenient though, and if I were designing my own practice, I'd definitely stick with a digital system.

 

--Stephen

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OK. Here we are:

 

1) Piston, 2) Blind cap and 3) rubber sac

 

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/piston.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/piston-top.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/sectiondetail.jpg

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Thanks for the images, Antonios! I forgot to take my pen to work on Monday, and then yesterday and today were far too busy to even attempt playing with this. :)

 

I still can't figure out how to disassemble the plunger or install the sac. lol Any thoughts?

 

--Stephen

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Wow, that is a tiny sac!

Great images Antonios! Thanks!

 

I have one of those Safari plungers as well, but have not tried to open it/repair it yet either!

 

 

Frank

"Celebrating Eight Years of Retail Writing Excellence"

"When, in the course of writing events, in becomes self-evident that not all pens are created equal"

 

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