Refill Sac With Syringe?

[thebeesknees]

So the pressure bar on my J has fallen off, and, despite the helpful postings here in this forum, I have a hard time reattaching it, so I refilled my sac with the bulb syringe. The only issue is, without the pressure bar, it rattles. Is there anyway to stop this? Thanks.

 

God bless,

Nick

[lovemy51]

is there any way to insert the piece of j-bar back in the barrel so it sits between the sac a nd the lever? or are you talking about the actual j-bar rattling inside the barrel?

[thebeesknees]

Well, let me make sure I have my terminology correct. The lever is the metal thing that I pull when I fill it with ink, right? And the j bar is the thing that actually presses against the ink sac, that I can't see from outside, right?

 

If so, I took the jbar out of the pen, and I think it's the lever that's rattling.

[JakobS]

I think reattaching the J bar would be the easiest solution, if yours is in working condition, line it up with the lever at the opening of the barrel and push it in, its going to be a tight fit, but the lever will catch onto the J bar relatively quickly, then its just a matter of pushing it far enough in to fit the sac. You can probably do this with something as simple as the eraser end of a wooden pencil, I personally use a dissection probe from my anatomy dissection kit! Dental picks would work well too, even a small flat head screw driver, gently push the J bar in a little at a time until you can fit the sac in without twisting it, or pushing up against itself.

 

Taping the lever down from the outside one, may not stop the rattling of the unattached lever inside, and two, is probably not great for the celluloid body, taping the lever from the inside would be quite the trick, harder than putting the J bar back in for sure!

 

Hope this helps!!

[lovemy51]

ok, i see!

 

like Jakob said, re-attaching the j-bar is the best solution. if it's not in one piece, you can can get a new one for a couple of bucks: http://www.tryphon.it/catalogo.htm

 

 

http://www.tryphon.it/JB.jpg

 

did you try to re-attach the bar before and couldn't? it shouldn't be to hard. here's a pic of how it should look on the inside (fro R Binders site): http://www.richardspens.com/images/ref/anatomy/lever/pen-no-cap.jpg

 

best,

[thebeesknees]

Ahh I get it! Ah I get it!

[JakobS]

Ahh I get it! Ah I get it!

 

Yay! great!! It's quite a great feeling to fix a J bar or sac, having a broken pen come alive and write once more makes me want to run in circles with happiness!!

[ladyinthemists]

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

 

http://www.tryphon.it/JB.jpg

AHA! The photo of the j-bar from Tryphon is exactly what I received from them with that extra piece on the side of it. When I tried to insert it into my pen with that extra piece it stuck out away from the wall of the barrel. In removing it the 4th or 5th time after trying to make it sit flush against the barrel, that extra piece came off. Okay...so, I re-inserted the j-bar without that piece and guess what? It went in flush against the barrel wall. So, I can only guess that the extra piece was unnecessary and it needed to be removed to make the j-bar replacement properly. Right?

[Deirdre]

I've refilled a sac pen via syringe before.

[JakobS]

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

 

http://www.tryphon.it/JB.jpg

AHA! The photo of the j-bar from Tryphon is exactly what I received from them with that extra piece on the side of it. When I tried to insert it into my pen with that extra piece it stuck out away from the wall of the barrel. In removing it the 4th or 5th time after trying to make it sit flush against the barrel, that extra piece came off. Okay...so, I re-inserted the j-bar without that piece and guess what? It went in flush against the barrel wall. So, I can only guess that the extra piece was unnecessary and it needed to be removed to make the j-bar replacement properly. Right?

 

The piece of metal attached to the bar is so that the lever physically attaches to the J bar. What I believe is happening in your case, is that the j bar has such a tight fit when it is inserted, that the lever is able to press and release the J bar by having it pressed so tightly against it, pressure alone keeps the bar in place, but there may also be a chance of the bar sliding off of the lever and you would have to replace it once more. The two metal pieces were/are on the original J bars too. Not all old levers had those two pieces, my Burnham 44 for example has two indented lines on either side of a raised parabola(sorry a more general term isn't coming to me!) that has the lever slide into and hold onto the bar(all one piece). So the "extra" piece of metal does have a purpose of securing the j bar onto the lever by friction fit. I do not know the likelihood of the j bar sliding off or not, as I mentioned, the tight fit and pressure might keep it from moving around. Dropping or shaking the pen though may be enough to cause it to slip off. I believe what causes the bar not to sit flush against the wall of the barrel is that the edges or rails of this piece of metal may need to be trimmed a little, as they may be a bit longer then the original. ZeissIkon has mentioned this phenomenon a few times as causing the lever to not sit properly. Hope this helps!

Edited October 11, 2009 by JakobS

[ZeissIkon]

AHA! The photo of the j-bar from Tryphon is exactly what I received from them with that extra piece on the side of it. When I tried to insert it into my pen with that extra piece it stuck out away from the wall of the barrel. In removing it the 4th or 5th time after trying to make it sit flush against the barrel, that extra piece came off. Okay...so, I re-inserted the j-bar without that piece and guess what? It went in flush against the barrel wall. So, I can only guess that the extra piece was unnecessary and it needed to be removed to make the j-bar replacement properly. Right?

 

Yes and no.

 

The original Esterbrook J-bar had a flat piece welded to the spring part at the bottom end, where the modern replacements have the channel crimped on. This is to give a more complete fill, as leverage from the bottom end will push the upper part of the secondary bar into the upper part of the sac; a simple spring bar without the secondary piece won't squeeze the top of the sac as efficiently (though the difference in the fill will probably only be a few drops -- getting every possible drop of ink was a much bigger deal in the 1930s, when everything was done with a fountain pen and most folks had only one, than it is now). It may also help prevent the bottom of the bar digging into the sac, though that shouldn't be a problem if the bar is properly sized and located. The reason your bar wasn't sitting flat, however, is because the channeled secondary bar in the modern units extends above the spring that the lever tip rides on; the edges of this channel are the part we've said may need to ground or filed away to let the lever seat correctly in a pen like the Esterbrook, originally designed for a flat J-bar. In your case, when you trimmed the new J-bar for length, you removed most of the crimp, allowing the secondary bar to come off. If the pen fills well, and you sized and seated the bar correctly so the bottom of the spring isn't too close to the sac nipple, it shouldn't cause trouble.

[ladyinthemists]

Thanks to you both for your replies, JakobS and ZeissIkon. All I can say about my little j-bar repair job is that so far, so good. It's in my favorite brown icicle Estie so I hope that there will be no problems. My fingers are tightly crossed!

[NORTON]

Zeisslkon - You are spot on with your assessment of the old and new J-bars. Unfortunately, sources for the original-design J-bars are scarce, so most replacements end up without the secondary bar attached. As you mentioned, the difference in the quantity of ink that can be loaded is probably miniscule.