Filling Shaeffer Pen

[Wcwilson]

I assume this pen is a snorkel. It has 0664 on the barrel. I’ve found the instructions on PenHero as to how to fill this pen, and I’ve watched several YouTube videos. I rate myself a 4/10 on mechanical abilities, but it seems like the fill is working backward. When I push the plunger in, it extracts air into the ink, and the pen doesn’t fill with ink. It only fills with ink when I pull the plunger out. What could I be doing wrong? I think there is a clutch mechanism. If so, is it possible the clutch isn’t engaging?

 

 

[Inky.Fingers]

There's a bladder inside. When you pull the plunger, it should squeeze the bladder (by creating a vacuum in the barrel). When the bladder (a rubber tubing) is sqeezed the, the air and ink in the bladder is expelled. Time is needed for the bladder to fill with ink by expansion. There is leakage from the plunger to allow this.

 

In a shell...you need to service the pen first

[BaronWulfraed]

Ignoring the snorkel tube itself, snorkels and touchdown models use the same filler principle.

 

When you pull the plunger out, at the end of the stroke, it lets air /into/ the barrel. With the nib/snorkel in the ink, pushing rapidly on the plunger compresses the air in the barrel -- that in turn squeezes the bladder (bubbles in the ink). At the bottom of the stroke, a valve/seal opens letting the air in the barrel out. As the air escapes, the bladder attempt to return to normal -- sucking in the ink. It takes a few seconds for this process to complete, so leave the nib/snorkel in the ink longer than you might think...

 

If the bladder goes bad -- you do NOT want to attempt loading ink, or any liquid. The snorkel models have a spring which can corrode. A possible test for this situation is to extend the plunger, wrap your lips around the section, and gently blow into the nib... If the sac is good, you should encounter a pressure build up. A bad bladder will let the air leak out...

[Inky.Fingers]

There's a bladder inside. When you pull the plunger, it should squeeze the bladder (by creating a vacuum in the barrel). When the bladder (a rubber tubing) is sqeezed the, the air and ink in the bladder is expelled. Time is needed for the bladder to fill with ink by expansion. There is leakage from the plunger to allow this.

 

In a shell...you need to service the pen first

[Wcwilson]

Thank you for the info. I performed the test that Baron suggested, and I do not feel any air escaping. The nib does blow bubbles on the downstroke, and I’ve left it in the water for a good 30 seconds, but still nothing going into the pen. I found on a site, RichardsPens.com that I must have a Sovereign. That site also had a good article on how the pen works. Do the numbers 0664 reference the year made or something else possibly? I’m in the Atlanta area. I went to the pen show for a few years, but now at a loss for who I could get this pen to for further analysis.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Wcwilson

[shalitha33]

When you are filling the pen make sure to push the plunger nearly all the way down. From your image, notice the small cutout in the plunger. Check if it fills up if you push the plunger to only have the tip of that out and rest pushed in to the barrel.

 

Please note that i don't know much about these pens. and i only have one Australian made snorkel. Its just the way i fill mine, which may be the entirely wrong way to do it Other thing that may cause it to malfunction would be if the gasket (o ring) at the front just after unscrewing the nib, or the one at the end of the plunger rod near the blind cap is not entirely airtight.

Edited September 28, 2020 by shalitha33

[gmark_wa]

Thank you for the info. I performed the test that Baron suggested, and I do not feel any air escaping. The nib does blow bubbles on the downstroke, and I’ve left it in the water for a good 30 seconds, but still nothing going into the pen. I found on a site, RichardsPens.com that I must have a Sovereign. That site also had a good article on how the pen works. Do the numbers 0664 reference the year made or something else possibly? I’m in the Atlanta area. I went to the pen show for a few years, but now at a loss for who I could get this pen to for further analysis.

The 4-digit numbers on some Snorkels has been discussed at this post: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353681-what-does-engraved-number-on-snorkel-mean/.

Basically, we haven’t worked out what they mean.

[3rdlakerobert]

Thank you for the info. I performed the test that Baron suggested, and I do not feel any air escaping. The nib does blow bubbles on the downstroke, and I’ve left it in the water for a good 30 seconds, but still nothing going into the pen. I found on a site, RichardsPens.com that I must have a Sovereign. That site also had a good article on how the pen works. Do the numbers 0664 reference the year made or something else possibly? I’m in the Atlanta area. I went to the pen show for a few years, but now at a loss for who I could get this pen to for further analysis.

 

 

It could be a leak in the sac or a crack somewhere in the barrel, or possibly the section. Sometimes it's a nick in the plastic top edge of the barrel under the little stainless steel trim ring.

 

You can find leaks from cracks by pulling out the plunger and immersing the entire barrel of pen in a glass of water. Watch as you rapidly depress the plunger and see if you have bubbles coming from a leak somewhere. May take a few repetitions before you see the leak. Try different angles.

 

If you want to get this pen working, you would be best advised to get it to a guy like Danny Fudge (The Write Pen) who can either repair or replace the barrel and/or replace the seals and sac.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Robert111

[KBeezie]

A disassembled view by the way of one I have, a Snorkel Statesman ("Statesman" being that it's a white-dot plastic cap, PdAg - Palladium Silver triumph/conical nib), which is possibly a first year (1952) on account of having a solid 14K snorkel tube instead of a steel tube.

 

 

What you can't see in the picture is the rubber o-ring that sits inside the back of the barrel, as well as the latex sac that would be housed in the sac protector (shown after the tube with the two holes on the side)

 

The Snorkel Tube itself is held in a little rubber gasket, and the end of that gasket is the sac attached, in my case I replaced the sac with a PVC one (longer lasting, less reactive to some inks, so more ideal for something that's tedious to restore if you don't want to have to open it back up for a while).

 

 

I also ended up taking a 14K Nib from broken Desk Pen, and put the PdAg Nib on a Green snorkel (making a loose 14K Medium from the green one), making the grey one a Snorkel Valiant , and the green one a Snorkel Statesman (both have plastic caps). Also canibalised the snorkel tube from the desk pen to be used in the green one, since it seemed the little ebonite feed channel down the tube was cracked at some point which hampers the capillary flow down the tube.

 

 

Resulting in :

 

 

It's important to note that it's not a Vacuum filler, but rather a Pneumatic filler. The barrel has to be sealed, which is usually why the threads on the grip that goes into the barrel is usually sealed with rosin (or shellac if you're a monster, or silicone grease if you're just lazy and want to regrease it every so often), and the o-ring in the back of the barrel is usually greased with silicone grease on the touchdown rod. The point seal that sits in between the nib unit and the grip (the little disc in the first pic), and sometimes a small piece of latex/rubber is used like a washer for the screw that goes into the blind cap to help create a seal.

 

When re-assembling and sealing, the rod stays out until you get it screwed in, then pushed in.

 

In the course of filling, I recall that Richard Binder had an animated GIF demonstrating how it works. But in a nutshell, pulling the rod out will have some impact though not necessarily important other than creating more space of air. There is a tiny little hole on the end of the barrel that you can see from the outside, and the end of the rod is a little narrower by the blind cap. The snorkel tube is dipped into the ink. When the rod is depressed quickly the space of air having no where to go compresses around the sac causing it to deflate, and should note some air bubbles (if its empty, otherwise whatever was previously in there), then the rod gets completely depressed and hits that little hole on the side of the barrel allowing air out normalizing to where the sac starts to inflate back on its own. Depending on the type of sac and its age it can take several seconds, many tend to recommend keeping the snorkel tube submerged for least 15 seconds before retracting. And the original manual suggests dipping the tip of the nib in the ink when filling for the first time (or if not having been filled for a while), to help create capillary flow between the snorkel tube and the feed above it.

 

While the PVC sac does last longer, its capacity is a tiny bit less as it's not as reactive to the pneumatic behavior, but the pens were never really known to have a large capacity to begin with (not much more than a standard cartridge), but they're very easy to top off when needed.

 

Snorkels are probably one of the more interesting filling systems for me to restore without being a total PITA, where as the general touchdown (no snorkel tube involved), is pretty easy-peasy by comparison, which includes the later tip-dip models (sort of a compromise, you don't have to dip the whole nib, just the tip, but also don't have to deal with a complicated filling system).

 

Edit: Also even without a sac, the nib will bubble with a downstroke of the plunger, because that air is still being pushed out one way or another. It's just not going to have any take up because there's nothing to displace the air, you just only pushed out the air that was in the rod portion. And pulling the plunger up while dipped will just flood the sac protector with water/ink and cause rust to the spring/sac protector. It's usually why I don't recommend even attempting to fill it if you found it in the wild without known restoration.

Edited October 6, 2020 by KBeezie