Best place to buy a J bar & what else is inside

[Titivillus]

Before I made my purchase with Pendemonium for some sacs and shellac I decided to open the pen up. Well a little hairdryer heating let it come right out!

 

Problem is that with the sac ( black) there also came out two metal pieces which I figure are the bar. So I need to find a source of replacements.

 

I shined a light into the barrel and it looks like there is a half round piece to hold the sac in place so I'm curious if someone else could enlighten me on the inners of an Estie.

 

 

thanks,

 

K

[biotdi]

Before I made my purchase with Pendemonium for some sacs and shellac I decided to open the pen up. Well a little hairdryer heating let it come right out!

 

Problem is that with the sac ( black) there also came out two metal pieces which I figure are the bar. So I need to find a source of replacements.

 

I shined a light into the barrel and it looks like there is a half round piece to hold the sac in place so I'm curious if someone else could enlighten me on the inners of an Estie.

 

 

thanks,

 

K

 

Do some reading on this forum as there's a nice cutaway photo of an Estie showing the relative positions of the j bar and sac. You can also check out http://www.richardspens.com for some excellent illustrations of what's inside a typical lever fill pen.

 

The half round piece you see is a spacer that allowed Esterbrook to use the same j bars and sacs in J as well as in slimmer LJ/SJ pens. That piece is secured in place. The new j bar would be pushed in against in but the sac would not hit the end of that spacer. This is one of those times that a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

I purchased some additional j bars from woodbin.ca while I was getting the sacs. The bummer is that there are no Estie j bars to be had so they're all generic. They are also a bit too long and will require trimming and fitting to fit properly. This is where some donor pens for part become invaluable.

 

Same thing happened to me with my first Estie pen (a red J).

Good luck.

Alex

Edited March 26, 2009 by biotdi

[Federalist Pens]

Kurt!

 

Glad to see that you decided to try it yourself!

The hairdryer was a good idea, and you may need a little heat again to get the section back in place. Worry about that later!

 

The "Half Plastic" piece you see is a sac protector(?). It's there to ensure that the #16

sac worked with all Estie pens. It belongs there, so leave it there! You will need to get the replacement J-bar in there past that plastic part when you get it back in though!

 

Farmboy here at FPN is an excellent source for Estie parts. I have gotten J-bars and jewels from him myself. PM him with those needs!

 

Frank

[ANM]

http://www.tryphon.it/catalogo.htm

 

Tryphon sells j bars. I don't know if it is the best place or not.

[MsLoathsome]

Kurt!

 

Glad to see that you decided to try it yourself!

The hairdryer was a good idea, and you may need a little heat again to get the section back in place. Worry about that later!

 

The "Half Plastic" piece you see is a sac protector(?). It's there to ensure that the #16

sac worked with all Estie pens. It belongs there, so leave it there! You will need to get the replacement J-bar in there past that plastic part when you get it back in though!

 

Farmboy here at FPN is an excellent source for Estie parts. I have gotten J-bars and jewels from him myself. PM him with those needs!

 

Frank

 

The sac protector/stabilizer might need to be adjusted if it's in the wrong place. I learned this from Farmboy. When I got mine, it had migrated askew. It should be placed directly opposite the lever. Farmboy said that there is some kind of little tab or clip inside that will lock the stabilizer in place once you push it into place. Hope that helps.

[Titivillus]

Kurt!

 

Glad to see that you decided to try it yourself!

The hairdryer was a good idea, and you may need a little heat again to get the section back in place. Worry about that later!

 

The "Half Plastic" piece you see is a sac protector(?). It's there to ensure that the #16

sac worked with all Estie pens. It belongs there, so leave it there! You will need to get the replacement J-bar in there past that plastic part when you get it back in though!

 

Farmboy here at FPN is an excellent source for Estie parts. I have gotten J-bars and jewels from him myself. PM him with those needs!

 

Frank

 

The sac protector/stabilizer might need to be adjusted if it's in the wrong place. I learned this from Farmboy. When I got mine, it had migrated askew. It should be placed directly opposite the lever. Farmboy said that there is some kind of little tab or clip inside that will lock the stabilizer in place once you push it into place. Hope that helps.

 

Yep that's what I thought it was since it is in the perfect place to hold the sac against the bar. I think it's in the proper place so that's at least good.

 

K

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

Kurt, Trust Me! I have the mechanical apptitude of a small appliance bulb. The one redeeming mechanical

skill I have is to know when, if I do one more thing, I'll mess it up beyond all repair. (There are actually worse

single skills to have...) If *I* can resac an Estie ANYONE can do it.

 

Having the section apart easily puts you half way there. I will say actually getting the sac on the nipple is

a little fiddly for my fat fingers but a little practice sans shellac beforehand helps alot there. Different

people use different de-fiddling methods. I do have a sac spreader but I found that more trouble than it's worth

personally. The method I've finally settled on for me is to hold the bottom of the sac over the bottom edge

of the nipple with a fingernail and use tweezers to pull the upper edge over. Since I tend to get shellac on

most everything within about 5' of me when I'm doing this, I usually masking tape over the sac section except

for the nipple area to keep it clean(er). After the sac is on and a bead of shellac run against the edge of it,

a wipedown of the section (staying away from the nipple area of course) with a paper towel wetted with rubbing

alcohol gets any shellac that may have snuck under the masking tape off.

 

HTH,

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[Titivillus]

Kurt, Trust Me! I have the mechanical apptitude of a small appliance bulb. The one redeeming mechanical

skill I have is to know when, if I do one more thing, I'll mess it up beyond all repair. (There are actually worse

single skills to have...) If *I* can resac an Estie ANYONE can do it.

 

 

Next question is what sizze of J bar do I need to get as I see three different ones and trash has already gone with the broken pieces!

 

K

[OcalaFlGuy]

Kurt, Trust Me! I have the mechanical apptitude of a small appliance bulb. The one redeeming mechanical

skill I have is to know when, if I do one more thing, I'll mess it up beyond all repair. (There are actually worse

single skills to have...) If *I* can resac an Estie ANYONE can do it.

 

 

Next question is what sizze of J bar do I need to get as I see three different ones and trash has already gone with the broken pieces!

 

K

 

Kurt,

 

Take this as preliminary info until someone more knowledgable steps in.

 

I think you need to order 54mm replacements BUTTT, I also think some bending/snipping is necessary too.

If at all possible, I'd try and get those 2 broken pieces so you can make a clone. Also keep in mind that

the modern replacements don't have the lever stop tabs in them, that you will have to manually stop the

lever at the 90 deg verticle point during a fill. If you want the lever to stop at verticle by itself you need a

standard Estie j-bar from (I think) the same style (J, LJ, SJ) pen you have.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

[Titivillus]

Kurt,

 

Take this as preliminary info until someone more knowledgable steps in.

 

I think you need to order 54mm replacements BUTTT, I also think some bending/snipping is necessary too.

If at all possible, I'd try and get those 2 broken pieces so you can make a clone. Also keep in mind that

the modern replacements don't have the lever stop tabs in them, that you will have to manually stop the

lever at the 90 deg verticle point during a fill. If you want the lever to stop at verticle by itself you need a

standard Estie j-bar from (I think) the same style (J, LJ, SJ) pen you have.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

Bruce,

thanks for the info- got a PM from Farmboy that confirms the 55 & my Churchill didn't have the lever stop tab so I've dealt with that already. Now to get all of the pieces and put together the pen.

 

K