Thoughts on fixing a Sheaffer vac filler

July 31, 2006

I've been collecting vintage pens on a small scale for about 5 or 6 years. Small scale has grown to about 200. In that collection I have about three dozen Sheaffer vac fillers that don't work. I bought them because the prices were right and I thought that at some time in the future I'd figure out how to fix them. I never pays to be in a hurry when you are fixing pens. Though some are very nice, I have not sent any out to be repaired. Part of the joy of collecting is figuring how to fix these things on your own.

I'm a school teacher and I'm on summer vacation so I have a bit of spare time on my hands. One of my goals for this summer was to solve the puzzle of the Sheaffer vacs. Thus, I've started on my pile.

I have Da Book by Frank Dubiel and I have a copy of Father Terry Koch's booklet on repairing Vac Fils. Both seem to be from the "stick a rubber washer in there and pray for the best school". I'm not convinced that is the proper way to go. Though I will say that Father Terry's advice on taking the pens apart is very good and well worth the purchase price of the booklet. With a variable heat gun I've had little trouble disassembling the pens. I started by taking 10 apart and storing them in resealable sandwich bags. You can probably tell that, as a guy, I'm not a multi-tasker.

From my research I discovered David Nishimura at Vintage Pens: http://www.vintagepens.com/FAQrepair/plung...er_repair.shtml

His method for repairing the packing unit is to drill out the old packing unit and replace it with a new gasket and a plastic washer to hold it in place. That seemed to make some sense. I ordered a set of 10 and began to make preparations to operate on my pens. However, a statement from the instructions on the Vintage Pens site caught my attention.

"Is a single solid gasket as good as the original packing of alternating rubber and felt washers? The main advantage of the more complex packing would seem to be its greater ability to retain lubricant. This would be of significant concern for a new design sold for general consumer use, but for a vintage pen being used by someone willing and able to wipe a bit of silicone grease on the shaft every now and then, the gasket is quite good enough."

This thought stuck in my mind. Is the reason for the failure of the packing unit a lack of lubricant? If so why not try lubricating the old packing unit before going through the steps necessary to destroy it and replace it with something new?

These thoughts were in my mind when I stated taking my pens apart.

So much for the background. You can only read so much before you just need to dive in and get your hands dirty.

The first thing that I discovered is that there are two problems with vac fillers. They are related but not necessarily connected. Vac fillers often don't fill and they sometimes leak. Everybody seems to assume that the problem is always the packing unit. I'm not convinced. The filling problem is mostly related to the piston seal washer and influenced by the packing unit. A pen that leaks is almost certainly the product of a failed packing unit.

In order to test the packing unit you first must be able to fill the pen. Think about it for a second. Automatically replacing the packing unit is like replacing the engine on your car when the transmission breaks. You don't need to fix something unless it is broken. What if the problem with the pen is only the filling system and not the packing unit?

The first thing that I discovered as I took the pens apart is that the piston seal washer on every pen had failed. In retrospect that makes sense. To fill the pen you pull out a rod that is under the blind cap. On the end of the rod (inside the pen) is a rubber seal that seals off the barrel. When you push the filler rod back into the pen the seal creates a vacuum between the seal and the packing unit. Near the section the seal offsets and the vacuum sucks the ink into the pen. In every case the seal was either broke or petrified. No wonder the pens wouldn't fill. There was no suction because the seals didn't seal.

Replacing the seals was not a major problem. You must first removed the filling rod by removing the section and then pushing the rod through the packing unit. Once out of the pen, there is a small nut on the end of the rod. With the application of heat the nut screws off easily and the petrified, cracked and broken seals slip off. To replace them I used pond liner. I'm a gardener with an ornamental pond and I have plenty of left over pond liner material. It is maybe a tad bit thicker than a bicycle intertube. It has plenty of flex but I didn't need much. I cut the new seals to fit using scissors. If I do many of these I'll probably buy a set of seal cutters from Vintage Pens.

Then instead of attacking the packing units I reassembled the pens. First I spread some 100% silicone grease inside the barrel and also inside the channel for the rod in the packing unit. I figured the silicone would help the seal slide smoothly inside the barrel. I greased the packing unit because of the comment from David Nishimura concerning the problems that he had with his packing washers. In order for the pen to fill properly it must be airtight on both the piston seal washer and also the packing unit.

The first test for the filler was my tongue. I stuck my tongue on the end of the open barrel and pushed in the filler rod. The barrel stuck to my tongue, meaning that the seal in the rod was creating a vacuum and that the packing unit was not leaking. Then I screwed the section back on and filled the pen with water by holding the pen horizontally under water in a pan. The trick is to observe where the air is leaking from the pen. The air only came out of the section and not from the packing unit. The pen took in about an 80% load.

I further tested the packing unit by pulling the filling rod back with the pen filled. This is said to be death to packing units. I was trying to force liquid out through the packing unit. Again, I had no success. The rod remained dry. I pulled the filling rod back a half inch and, after capping the pen, left it upright for a day to simulate a pocket. It didn't leak. I turned the pen over and stored it nib down. If the packing unit leaks the pen should leak through the nib. Nothing happened.

I repeated the above actions with three more pens with the same results. All are now filled with ink and I'm waiting for them to start leaking but so far everything has been good.

My conclusions are that one of two factors are in play here. Maybe the packing units on all four pens were in better condition than anticipated. Only one has shown any telltale sign of ink leakage where the filling rod comes out of the packing unit. There is a tiny smidge of bright aquamarine ink coming from the packing unit on one. The pen is filled with black ink. The ink could have impregnated the felt packing in the packing unit. The other three are dry so far except for the silicone grease.

The other possibility is that the silicone grease is sealing the packing unit, which makes some sense. The filling rod is a moving part. It is logical that it would need some lubricant in order to function properly and that a dry unit would leak.

Admittedly, a week is not years. I still don't trust these pens to park all day in the pocket on a good dress shirt. Perhaps they will all fail in a short period of time. Then again, maybe they won't. If they do, it really isn't that difficult to pull them apart and I can always drill out the packing unit and insert the new gasket. I just don't see the need to do that if the old packing units are functioning as designed.

Thought everyone might be interested in my experiences. All comments and predictions of catastrophe are welcome. I'll probable do a couple more pens and then take a break for a while to see what unfolds.

Ray

July 31, 2006

Very interesting. A weekly update on the progress of those pens would be most welcome.

If you do wind up needing to tackle the packing unit consider the Fountainbel replacement. Francis (fountainbel here on fpn) developed a replacement for the packing system that he claims has a long life and works better.

I ordered one from him (from Belgium) and when I received it I thought it was intriguing. Unfortunately, I'm not mechanically adept enough to tackle the repair on my own so I gave it to someone who thought he could do it and never got around to it. I'm waiting to get it back so I can find someone else to do it. I might even send it (and the pen) back to Francis and let him do it, but 3 flights between San Diego and Belguim for a pen gets expensive.

I don't have experience with the process you outlined but if it works it might help a bunch of us to reuse some very handsome pens.

Hope to hear more from you on this subject!

Andy

July 31, 2006

Then instead of attacking the packing units I reassembled the pens. First I spread some 100% silicone grease inside the barrel and also inside the channel for the rod in the packing unit. I figured the silicone would help the seal slide smoothly inside the barrel. I greased the packing unit because of the comment from David Nishimura concerning the problems that he had with his packing washers. In order for the pen to fill properly it must be airtight on both the piston seal washer and also the packing unit.

Hi Ray,

Thanks a lot for shearing your revealing experiences on Vac-fill repair with us !

Its surely is a fact that the piston seal is detoriated on 90% of the pens & replacement of the piston seal is the first thing one should do.

Being a fervent collector of the beautifull Vac-fillers myself, I went through the same thinking patern as you did & injected silicone oil in the felt rings till they were fully saturated. I've used a small medical syringe to do so.

Note I've only done this on a few of my "open nib" vac-fillers. Since disassembling the Triumph nib feed assembly is rather tricky- one never knows if the complete feed assembly will come out or if the nib will come off separately ( see "Da Book")

Unfortunately I was not so succesfull: On three of the 4 pens had a leak over the rod packing unit.

After pulling the old rod packing seal out & removing the seals & felts I discovered that the rubber rings were somewhat extruded - or "pulled out"- towards the vacuum chamber, clearly forming a"lip" towards the vacuum chamber. Consequently the seals were slightly leaking, possibly also over their external diameter.

Note this problem is surely triggered by the high "dry" friction between seal & rod when the original greasing agent is gone.

This was in fact the only reason why I decided to design & make me the "fountainbel" cartridge. This cartridge uses two O rings on the rod, featuring a silicone grease reserve chamber between them, ensuring a long trouble free functioning.

Whenever neccesary these O rings can be replaced in 5 minutes from the blind cap side whitout the need to disassembe the feed assembly.

Since the cartridge simply slides in the original barrel packing seat - thightened by a separate static O ring -one can simply pull the cartrigde out from the blind cap side & replace the piston seal in no time.

As Andy suggested, we surely look forward to hear on your further experiences with this well thought & simple repair approach.

Wishing you succes & thanks again for shearing your experiences with us !

Regards, Francis

Edited August 1, 2006 by fountainbel

July 31, 2006

Then instead of attacking the packing units I reassembled the pens. First I spread some 100% silicone grease inside the barrel and also inside the channel for the rod in the packing unit. I figured the silicone would help the seal slide smoothly inside the barrel. I greased the packing unit because of the comment from David Nishimura concerning the problems that he had with his packing washers. In order for the pen to fill properly it must be airtight on both the piston seal washer and also the packing unit.
Hi Ray,
Thanks a lot for shearing your revealing experiences on Vac-fill repair with us !
Its surely is a fact that the piston seal is detoriated on 90% of the pens & replacement of the piston seal is the first thing one should do.
Being a fervent collector of the beautifull Vac-fillers myself, I went through the same thinking patern as you did & injected silicone oil in the felt rings till they were fully saturated. I've used a small medical syringe to do so.
Note I've only done this on a few of my "open nib" vac-fillers. Since disassembling the Triumph nib feed assembly is rather tricky- one never knows if the complete feed assembly will come out or if the nib will come off separately ( see "Da Book")
Unfortunately I was not so succesfull: On three of the 4 pens had a leak over the rod packing unit.
After pulling the old rod packing seal out & removing the seals & felts I discovered that the rubber rings were somewhat extruded - or "pulled out"- towards the vacuum chamber, clearly forming a"lip" towards the vacuum chamber. Consequently the seals were slightly leaking over their external diameter.
Note this problem is surely triggered by the high "dry" friction between seal & rod when the original greasing agent is gone.
This was in fact the only reason why I decided to design & make me the "fountainbel" cartridge. This cartridge uses two O rings on the rod, featuring a silicone grease reserve chamber between them, ensuring a long trouble free functioning.
Whenever neccesary these O rings can be replaced in 5 minutes from the blind cap side whitout the need to disassembe the feed assembly.
Since the cartridge simply slides in the original barrel packing seat - thightened by a separate static O ring -one can simply pull the cartrigde out from the blind cap side & replace the piston seal in no time.
As Andy suggested, we surely look forward to hear on your further experiences with this well thought & simple repair approach.
Wishing you succes & thanks again for shearing your experiences with us !

Regards, Francis

Hi,

I really liked this approach. Francis makes a very good product for us to use to restore our vac-fillers.

Keep us all posted!

Dillon

Edited July 31, 2006 by Dillo

July 31, 2006

I've just encountered my first "Oh, my God!" pen. The next in line to be fixed was a nice Crest. I removed the Triumph nib and pushed the rod through from the back side. The piston seal washer looked brand new but the pen wouldn't fill. So I thought, what the heck, I'll just lube this baby up and see what happens. Couldn't get the rod back in so I started to go fishing. Pulled 3 red rubber plugs out where the packing unit should be. Now the rod goes back in but the fit is extremely loose. Another example of an eBay bargain that wasn't. Only worked for about a month after I bought it. The failure was an inability to fill. In retrospect I'm lucky that it wouldn't fill. When the packing unit failed I would have grown a nice blue dot on my shirt pocket if the pen had been full. Obviously this is an example of a pen that won't fill because of a faulty packing unit. You can't get lucky all the time. I finally get an opportunity to try out one of the packing units that I got from Vintage Pens. My guess is that I won't be drilling anything out because I think the original packing unit is already gone.

Anybody have an idea on how to test a packing unit other than trial and "ink dot" error?

Ray

July 31, 2006

Ray,

Note the (red) rubber plugs were mostly installed additionally to the worn rod packing unit, so most probably you still have to drill out the old rod packing seal, or more specifically the packing unit enclosure washer.

This plastic enclosure washer (holding the seals & felts axially enclosed in the rod packing housing ) fits externally in the packing unit chamber of the barrel & has the same external diameter as the rod packing housing.

This impleis one can only remove the enclosure washer when pulling the rod packing assembly out.

Drilling the enclosure washer out from the section side is also possible.

This washer is only 1.0 mm thick, after drilling one can easily remove the felts & rubber seals using dental picks.

As what concerns upfront checking of the sealing efficiency, I use the following rule of thumb : having a perfect piston/ pistonrod sealing combination the pistonrod should jump out (return) automatically for at least half the stroke it was pushed in.

Regards, Francis