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Modding Vintage Pens To Converter


fpwriter78

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I have a bunch of vintage-ish pens that aren't really worth the few dollars it would take to sac them, has anyone had luck adapting sac-less sac fillers to fit a c/c? Worst case I would consider gluing the converter on the back, effectively turning it into a piston. I am really not a fan of sacs, but I still want to use these pens and they can't eyedropper convert because of the lever and pressure bar. Anyone have any ideas/successes?

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I have a bunch of vintage-ish pens that aren't really worth the few dollars it would take to sac them, has anyone had luck adapting sac-less sac fillers to fit a c/c? Worst case I would consider gluing the converter on the back, effectively turning it into a piston. I am really not a fan of sacs, but I still want to use these pens and they can't eyedropper convert because of the lever and pressure bar. Anyone have any ideas/successes?

I recommend that you use shellac in lieu of glue.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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Hi FP,

 

You'll also want to use a speck of shellac to secure the lever in place,... you'll probably have to remove the pressure bar (and old sac) to make room for the converter... unless you use a Monteverde or Kaweco mini,... but then there wouldn't be much point in going forward. :D

 

(The lever will just flop around freely w/o the tension from the pressure bar to secure it).

 

 

In the words of the immortal Scoob... rots a ruck. :)

 

 

- Anthony

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I don't think most converters would be very well suited to coupling to a sac nipple, due to their narrow mouth intended for a cartridge nipple. Possibly a wide-mouthed Pilot converter would work better.

fpn_1375035941__postcard_swap.png * * * "Don't neglect to write me several times from different places when you may."
-- John Purdue (1863)

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I’d think a sac costs less than a converter and would take almost no additional time to install since you would be cleaning the pen anyway.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

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I agree with FarmBoy, you'll get a better seal with a sac rather than a glued-on converter (assuming you can get hold of sacs). And you will be able to fill the pen without having to be unscrewing and screwing the barrel every time (possibly putting undue stress on it).

 

Good luck with it. I hope you can get your pens up and working again.

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Give the worthless pens away....all of them....there is Pass it Forward....I'm sure there are lots of sac lovers....if the fastest loading of all pens are stable enough to be thought as converter pens would be worth re-sacking for free.

Question, how are you going to yanking off the front every time you want to reload?

If you sand paper the front enough....you should be able to yank the pen apart twice a week....for a couple of months......after you super glue on the well modified converter.

 

So much trouble making a converter, which also cost near as much as sacks.......and sacks are too much trouble to renew??????????

 

By the way...what are your worthless pens???

.....I've had some nice pre & post war Wearevers, until I simplified my collection. My wife still has a '60's turquoise Wearever, with a new sack.

I'm sure someone would like to have a Venus pen.....somewhere. Not me, Early '60's Wearevers were a touch better then Venus as I remember.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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I love old, third tier and below lever fillers. A Wearever, an Arnold, and I don't know what it are in the rotation as I write. PM me with what you have and I will make you an offer.

 

Edit to correct terminology.

Edited by kestrel

Dave Campbell
Retired Science Teacher and Active Pen Addict
Every day is a chance to reduce my level of ignorance.

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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I'm confused. Your pens are not worth investing a few pence in a new sac but you are willing to glue a converter on which costs a multiple of a sac?

 

Anyway, you would have to overcome two problems. First, the feed is not made for a converter set up. You would have to make an adapter to connect the converter with the neck where the sac is glued on. Do you have a lathe and the time to do this. Second, the barrel of lever fillers are not designed to be opened and closed frequently. Most sections of lever fillers are friction fit. I don't see an easy way to turn this into a design to be opened and closed quickly.

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And depending on the pen, the barrel might not fit over a converter.

 

Last time I checked, sacs were $2, converters in the $5-8 range each. Seems more cost effective to resac. My initial investment into a few sacs, shellac and talc from Anderson Pens was $20 shipped. I could do many many many many more sacs with only needing to pay $2 each for sacs before I had to get more shellac and talc.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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The section is not maded to be opened and closed several times, every time you want to fill the pen.
You will break it easily.

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I'm in the "re-sac the pens" camp. The barrel of a lever fill pen was never intended to come off several times a month like that of a C/C pen.

 

So either re-sac them and use them as they are intended to be used, or sell them as is and use the funds to buy some new C/C pens.

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The section is not maded to be opened and closed several times, every time you want to fill the pen.

You will break it easily.

+1

Khan M. Ilyas

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The section is not maded to be opened and closed several times, every time you want to fill the pen.

You will break it easily.

 

Precisely. Compounded by the fact that because sac pens (modern Conway Stewarts excepted*) have no piercing tubes, there is no effective way to connect the converter to the feed so that ink is transferred to the feed without leaking all over the place. I have been asked a number of time if I would do this, and I've always declined.

 

*Modern CS pens are a mashup of technology. They, and some from other manufacturers, use/used a modern nib unit with a casing and piercing tube etc, then stuck them in a section with a sac nipple, attach a sac and stick it in the pen, with varying degrees of success in performance. Often on the low end of the.... But they were designed with converters in mind while vintage pens were not.

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It's doable (if that's a word) but to do it right is fairly labor intensive and time consuming so I certainly wouldn't want to do it on a pen that I didn't especially like. Personally, I have a real soft spot for the old Wearever plastics and they, especially their button fillers, frequently are in such a state of disrepair that it's nearly as much work to try to restore them to original as it is to convert them. This one had a lever but the lever itself was damaged so I converted it. This was it before.

 

Green_Wearever.jpg

 

This was it after.

 

Green_Wearever_2.jpg

 

I'm a big fan of the 100 Year Pens too so I figured a little radioactive green wouldn't hurt. The section is from a Scheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pen, as I recall.

 

Green_Wearever_3.jpg

 

I turned the outside of the threaded end of the barrel of the Scheaffer on a lathe until it was thin enough to slide inside the barrel of the Wearever. Once it was the right diameter, I trimmed it and epoxied it in place which gives me a screw in/out section. The aerometric filler was adapted from a Chinese Parker 51 knockoff that I had lying around. I had to prefab a nipple to attach the ink sac and a breather tube but it worked out fairly well. Like I said, though, it's a lot of work so I would only do it on a pen I really wanted to keep and not something I wasn't much interested in.

 

This is another one I did using a Scheaffer calligraphy pen except I just used the regular Scheaffer section and didn't convert it to aerometric. Simpler, if less elegant!

 

Red_Wearever.jpg

 

Red_Wearever_2.jpg

 

Hope this helps.

 

Howard

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Out of curiosity I bought a brass coupler from a guy in India that makes a Parker 51 into a C/C pen. I can't exactly visualize what will happen to the breather tube when I work a piston converter. I have sac converters, which in the sum total of things make somewhat less sense than using a 51 as it comes with the pli-glas sac. Well, I just bought a black 51 with medium nib that I plan to convert to a Kullock swirly purple hood and barrel. Still mulling over the C/C concept.

 

On the other hand, I converted a small blue Waterman that used glass cartridges to a sac pen by shellacing a sac inside the section where a cartridge was meant to go. This has worked for a few years now. :thumbup:

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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Ecce Watterman:

 

 

fpn_1523994559__img_20180417_154406.jpg

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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On the other hand, I converted a small blue Waterman that used glass cartridges to a sac pen by shellacing a sac inside the section where a cartridge was meant to go. This has worked for a few years now. :thumbup:

I just bought one of the old Eagle glass cartridge fillers and opened it up to find the same type of mod. It works so I won't mess with it unless I find a spare glass cartridge lying around somewhere.

Dave Campbell
Retired Science Teacher and Active Pen Addict
Every day is a chance to reduce my level of ignorance.

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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I just bought one of the old Eagle glass cartridge fillers and opened it up to find the same type of mod. It works so I won't mess with it unless I find a spare glass cartridge lying around somewhere.

 

When I bought this little blue pen I looked into the glass cartridges, and I found they were expensive and a little hard to find. I had hoped to refill them, but the sac works OK..

 

CF converter: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=pens&_osacat=966&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xpens%20waterman%20glass%20cartridge.TRS0&_nkw=pens%20waterman%20glass%20cartridge&_sacat=966#item51b6241c63

Edited by pajaro

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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