eyedropper do's and don't's - is there one?

[jebib]

I've started using ed's regularly, and enjoy them very much for their simplicity, functionality, and huge ink capacity. However, among those of you who are in the knowing, there are those do's and don't's you take for granted. For example here's a do: about every third time greese the threads with silicon; and and another do: carefully unscrew the cap the first time during the day nib up to make sure the pen was behaving when in your pocket waiting to be used; and here is a don't (mine from experience): if you are wearing a sportcoat or a suit do not put the pen on your inside shirt pocket (too much heat), but in the outside sportcoat pocket, till you take it off and then put it in your shirt pocket. Anywho: I guess I'm interested in others knowledgeable parties would care to share.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Don't let it run down to near empty, top it off every now and then. (How often depends on your experience).

 

Dillon

[Pippin60]

This is from experience with my first ED pen; don't put it in your pocket shirt or otherwise. If it is not completely full the heat from your body can expand the air and ink inside and cause a leak regardless of the use of silicon grease or not. Luckily most eye droppers have screw on caps that are pretty tight. This expansion can also happen if not full just from holding it in your hand for a long time.

 

There are others with a lot more experience than I, that I'm sure will respond.

 

 

 

 

edited for "typo"

Edited March 30, 2009 by Pippin60

[AndyH]

These sound like a David Letterman top ten list of reasons why Messrs. Conklin, Waterman, Sheaffer, and Parker invented and perfected the self filling fountain pen!

 

 

[Chris Chalmers]

When you pick up a cold ED from your desk, hold it in your hand, nib upwards, for a couple of seconds to warm the ink and air inside - thus expanding the air and avoiding 'burps' of ink that happen if you forget to do this and start writing immediately. A hard lesson learned here!!!

[scribbler77]

These sound like a David Letterman top ten list of reasons why Messrs. Conklin, Waterman, Sheaffer, and Parker invented and perfected the self filling fountain pen!

 

 

Yes, but an ED will hold several times more ink than the self-fillers! Also, the self-fillers are likely to leak under stressful conditions, such as a change in air pressure.

[King of the Road]

Hmm, maybe ED's are not the epitome of simplicity after all. It appears that there are "do's & don'ts" to most types of filling systems.

Having said that, I'll be buying an ED anyway.

 

KoR

 

I've started using ed's regularly, and enjoy them very much for their simplicity, functionality, and huge ink capacity. However, among those of you who are in the knowing, there are those do's and don't's you take for granted. For example here's a do: about every third time greese the threads with silicon; and and another do: carefully unscrew the cap the first time during the day nib up to make sure the pen was behaving when in your pocket waiting to be used; and here is a don't (mine from experience): if you are wearing a sportcoat or a suit do not put the pen on your inside shirt pocket (too much heat), but in the outside sportcoat pocket, till you take it off and then put it in your shirt pocket. Anywho: I guess I'm interested in others knowledgeable parties would care to share.

 

[hari317]

Dos:

 

The first thing is to fill the pens properly, I had compiled the following procedure for filling and priming an Indian ED a while back, it may be helpful:

 

1. The first thing to do is to thoroughly rinse the barrel and section in running water and dry them.
2. Apply silicone grease on the section threads and screw and unscrew the section a couple of times to let the grease penetrate.
3. Fill the ink into the barrel using a ED or a syringe upto the level where the threads end (you should be able to see the threads; where the threads end you see the ink level).
4. Now screw in the section carefully halfway.
5. Invert the pen now(nib pointing down into mouth of open ink bottle) and screw in the section fully (ink will drip into the bottle while screwing in), the excess air in the barrel will force ink out through the feed priming it.
6. Now tighten the section fully and wipe point to remove excess ink.
7. This procedure needs to be followed only when a dry pen is being filled.

 

Donts:

 

Never allow the ink to run down to less than 1/3 capacity.

 

Regards,

Hari

[hari317]

Duplicate post!

Edited March 30, 2009 by hari317

[Garageboy]

Extra capacity eh? So why the refill when 1/3 full rule?

[rwilsonedn]

Extra capacity eh? So why the refill when 1/3 full rule?

 

Refilling the pen early tends to avoid the ink-droplet phenomenon to which some EDs are prone. I think you'll find that 2/3 of the capacity of the typical ED is still much greater than the capacity of a similar-sized piston-filler, and certainly greater than the capacity of any size of squeeze-o-metric, lever, or or CC-filler. All of these self-fillers have too much other stuff going on in the barrel of the pen to accomodate as much ink. I have limited experience with EDs, but I'm beginning to suspect, based on both some very vintage and some new examples, that you get more uniform ink flow from a given feed and point, all other variables equal, from an ED than you do from a pen with a mechanical filling contrivance. (Except for the ink-drop issue, of course.) I suspect that the whole reason self-fillers were introduced was to save time for the user, and potential mess for the inexperienced user. I don't think it ever had anything to do with writing qualities, and may in fact have compromised them.

ron