What Are The Dos And Don'ts Of The Parker Vacumatic?

[Hanamizu]

Alas, it the engraving is pretty deep. It's a silver pearl jr, double jeweled. I only paid $8 for it, so I guess I can live with its imperfections.

[Ron Z]

You got many times that in parts value. Cheap enough that if you wanted to replace the barrel, you'd still have a pretty cheap pen.

[Venemo]

I will confess to you guys that I ordered my "graduation present" brown Vacumatic before I even graduated. But now I have earned it as I passed my written graduation exam yesterday.

It will still take a few weeks for the pen to arrive, though.

 

According to the seller it is "Excellent condition with minimal ambering and water clear transparency. Fully restored."

I'd like to make sure that it's as described. So when it finally arrives, what I should I check on it, before filling it, or even before dipping it?

[ac12]

Yay

[pajaro]

After buying a brown Vacumatic, small size, restoring it and filling it with ink, I have found that the "do" seems to be fill the pen before each use. The "don't" is bother with it. Nice transparency, good looks. Writes okay, dries up before the next use.

[Venemo]

It has arrived today!

The pattern on the celluloid feels nice and warm, and somewhat flashy, depending on what angle I'm looking at. It was made in 1943, which makes it the oldest pen in my humble collection (75 years). The seller didn't lie, the barrel does have transparency to it! And the blind cap blends seamlessly with the barrel.

 

At first, I just dipped it, then I decided to do a full fill with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite. First impression: this Vacumatic is a very small pen, much smaller than I anticipated. I knew in advance that this is a Debutante model, but didn't actually expect it to be even smaller than an Esterbrook. Anyway, the filling system seems to work fine, the pen was full after a few satisfied clicking and popping sounds from the filler. It's a great pocket pen and the extra fine nib is very smooth and wet.

 

So, I'm happy!

 

Thanks to everyone for giving advice!

[Hanamizu]

After buying a brown Vacumatic, small size, restoring it and filling it with ink, I have found that the "do" seems to be fill the pen before each use. The "don't" is bother with it. Nice transparency, good looks. Writes okay, dries up before the next use.

 

That doesn't sound like normal Vacumatic behavior to me. One of their selling points back in the day was how much ink they could hold. Are you doing the "press the filler down quickly, pause, and repeat maybe 10 times" to fill it? Is there a lot of ink visible when you hold to the light? (I have a brown vac that didn't fill up. Turns out that when someone replaced the feed, they didn't use a real vac feed, no filler tube or even a hole to put it in. After some work with a drill and some tubing from one of my wife's perfume bottles, I finally got the thing to take a big gulp of ink. Writes for a good long time now).

[CraigR]

Usability of my 2 vacumatics has been very good. Yes, the cleaning is harder for me than other pens but I don't mind and it hasn't been a deal breaker. I usually have one of the vacs inked with Waterman's blue/black (of which I have numerous bottles) and write with it almost daily. I do not clean after every ink fill and sometimes I go a while just refilling and writing without incidence. I love those pens and along with my Parker 51s, they are great vintage pens to use regularly.

[inkstainedruth]

 

That doesn't sound like normal Vacumatic behavior to me. One of their selling points back in the day was how much ink they could hold. Are you doing the "press the filler down quickly, pause, and repeat maybe 10 times" to fill it? Is there a lot of ink visible when you hold to the light? (I have a brown vac that didn't fill up. Turns out that when someone replaced the feed, they didn't use a real vac feed, no filler tube or even a hole to put it in. After some work with a drill and some tubing from one of my wife's perfume bottles, I finally got the thing to take a big gulp of ink. Writes for a good long time now).

 

I have one Shadow Wave which is like that. It just doesn't take up a lot of ink. I had it checked out by the person who repaired it originally, and he replaced all the seals and such a second time (under warranty). And that pen just doesn't hold a lot of ink. Part of it has to do with the length of the tube inside the pen, apparently -- Vacs will only fill to the top of the tube, and for some reason that pen has a shorter tube, so it doesn't take up as much ink. It is a smaller pen (it might be a Debutante as well, but I'm no expert on what they called various sizes in the different Generations).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: OTOH, all my other working ones are great, and hold a lot of ink. Even the smaller pens.

Edited January 16, 2018 by inkstainedruth

[Venemo]

 

I have one Shadow Wave which is like that. It just doesn't take up a lot of ink. I had it checked out by the person who repaired it originally, and he replaced all the seals and such a second time (under warranty). And that pen just doesn't hold a lot of ink. Part of it has to do with the length of the tube inside the pen, apparently -- Vacs will only fill to the top of the tube, and for some reason that pen has a shorter tube, so it doesn't take up as much ink.

 

Yes, the filler operates by pushing the air out through that tube, and drawing ink in. Once the ink level reaches the tube, it cannot push out any air through it.

Edison has the same mechanism but calls it "pump", I think. They have a cute animation about how it works: http://edisonpen.com/menlo-main-page

The mechanism is discussed in detail here: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/profiles/vac.htm

 

All things considered, I don't see why your guy didn't just replace that tube with a longer one. It should be a trivial task (I think), if he took the pen apart anyway.

[mitto]

So what should be the length of the tube?

[inkstainedruth]

@ Venemo and mitto -- the answer to both of you is "Not a clue...." The pen in question is pretty small, but when you hold it up to the light the tube seems to stick into the barrel far enough that it SHOULD get a decent fill. It just, well, doesn't. I wasn't charged for the second round of taking the pen apart and replacing all the seals and such, because it was just a few months after having gotten the pen repaired to begin with. But it was frustrating (and clearly for both of us, because the guy could NOT figure out what the problem was -- and he's done all my other Vacs with no problems whatsoever). So that pen is good for writing quick "to do" lists and such -- but definitely NOT for writing the Great American Novel....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Glenn Atkins]

So what should be the length of the tube?

 

Short enough so that it will not contact the diaphragm when the diaphragm is fully extended.

 

Glenn

[mitto]

Short enough so that it will not contact the diaphragm when the diaphragm is fully extended.

 

Glenn

Thank you, Glenn. That is what I wanted to know.

[Glenn Atkins]

Thank you, Glenn. That is what I wanted to know.

 

Very much welcome my friend. I still wonder, though, why Parker made them so much shorter. Is there a reason I don't know about? Maybe they were all the same length across all models and sizes of pens.

 

Glenn

[twall3]

Interesting timing that I find this recent thread - at a local antique store this past weekend and picked up a Vacumatic for $14 knowing nothing about it other than it looked nice and the plunger seemed smooth enough as to not arouse any worry. I flushed it a number of times until the water was mostly clear, filled it with blue ink (that's what had been in it), ran a Cape Cod cloth across the cap band and clip (both appeared more pewter in color, but are now bright gold), and turns out to be a pretty nice writer. I was shocked to look up Parker date codes and discover that this pen is nearly 73 years old. It writes easily as well as the modern(ish) Waterman that I use on a more daily basis. Great to learn more about these Parker Vacs from you all here - thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[Hanamizu]

@ Venemo and mitto -- the answer to both of you is "Not a clue...." The pen in question is pretty small, but when you hold it up to the light the tube seems to stick into the barrel far enough that it SHOULD get a decent fill. It just, well, doesn't.

Would an air leak where the filler tube goes into the feed cause this?

[Venemo]

Interesting timing that I find this recent thread - at a local antique store this past weekend and picked up a Vacumatic for $14 knowing nothing about it other than it looked nice and the plunger seemed smooth enough as to not arouse any worry. I flushed it a number of times until the water was mostly clear, filled it with blue ink (that's what had been in it), ran a Cape Cod cloth across the cap band and clip (both appeared more pewter in color, but are now bright gold), and turns out to be a pretty nice writer. I was shocked to look up Parker date codes and discover that this pen is nearly 73 years old. It writes easily as well as the modern(ish) Waterman that I use on a more daily basis. Great to learn more about these Parker Vacs from you all here - thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

Wow, that pen looks so cool!

Mine is the same color, but a smaller size version.

[twall3]

 

Wow, that pen looks so cool!

Mine is the same color, but a smaller size version.

Thanks! I'm really enjoying the color, too It's not gigantic by any stretch of the imagination. According to the Vacumatic page on Richards Pens, it's a "Major" size; so not the largest, but also not the smallest. Would love to see a picture of your Vac when you have a chance

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting timing that I find this recent thread - at a local antique store this past weekend and picked up a Vacumatic for $14 knowing nothing about it other than it looked nice and the plunger seemed smooth enough as to not arouse any worry. I flushed it a number of times until the water was mostly clear, filled it with blue ink (that's what had been in it), ran a Cape Cod cloth across the cap band and clip (both appeared more pewter in color, but are now bright gold), and turns out to be a pretty nice writer. I was shocked to look up Parker date codes and discover that this pen is nearly 73 years old. It writes easily as well as the modern(ish) Waterman that I use on a more daily basis. Great to learn more about these Parker Vacs from you all here - thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

Wow. That's a fabulous price! Nice going! I think you qualify for "Sumgai of the Week".

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth