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Esterbrook Pencil Feeding Poorly


Toddar68

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Hi All,

 

I just received my first near as makes no difference NOS boxed Esterbrook pen and pencil set. The pencil however is doesn't seem to want to work as smoothly as is looks. In fact it hardly works at all. Does anyone have any ideas? I havent been able to take it apart yet and dont want to break anything. It's very dificult to push the cap and must be pulled off and the inner tube pulled on to grip the lead.

 

Thank you, in advance,

 

Todd

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To get it apart, you first need to clear the lead feed. What I do is ...

 

Find a straight pin, snip a little bit off the pointy part so that it is just round on the end.

 

Push down on the cap, extending the feed, and push the lead back up the feed, all the way back up into the barrel. This'll clear the channel, to that the feed prongs can contract. Remove the cap.

 

The inner mechanism screws into the barrel at the ring. The cone cap at the front where the lead comes out screws into the barrel. Push in the end as if to feed lead, and unscrew and remove the cone cap. Then, hold the barrel, grasp the ring, and unscrew the innards from the barrel. If the feed prongs don't withdraw into the into the cone cap, you haven't fully cleared the lead channel. Re-do the thing with the pin, and try again. Once you get the mechanism out, you can inspect for broken or weak spring, gunk inside the barrel, etc.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited by Hobiwan

Best Regards
Paul


“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
– Albert Einstein

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Wow. Very well done description there Paul! :notworthy1:

 

Well written procedure directions aren't very common anymore.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

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Thnank you Hobiwan,

 

All lead removed and I can see light from end to end. I can identify the all the parts you mention but this "ring". I have also come to realize that I neglected to mention it's a J series. I've tried to unscrew the cone from the barel but it won't budge (no heat used, just a couple bits of grippy rubber and strong fingers) The feed prongs are as closed as they'll get.

 

Best wishes and thankyou for any further help,

 

Todd

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Thnank you Hobiwan,

 

All lead removed and I can see light from end to end. I can identify the all the parts you mention but this "ring". I have also come to realize that I neglected to mention it's a J series. I've tried to unscrew the cone from the barel but it won't budge (no heat used, just a couple bits of grippy rubber and strong fingers) The feed prongs are as closed as they'll get.

 

Best wishes and thankyou for any further help,

 

Todd

 

Sorry, I probably should have said "ring-looking part of the mech at the cap end of the barrel". The "ring" on regular "J" pencils is actually part of the mech, but looks like a ring. It's right at the end of the plastic of the barrel, and screws into it. It's about 1/4 inch, and not much to grab. If you're working with a Pastel pencil, the only thing holding the mech in is the cone.

 

You're right about the cone being tight, although some are loose enough to undo with bare fingers. I had to use pliers (oh no!) around a piece of rubber automobile water hose, and a bit of muscle to get both ends unscrewed on mine. Pushing the rear to extend the prongs makes it easier. Tight as it is, it'll come.

 

Controlled strength is important. Be strong enough to make it twist, but not so strong as to bend/warp/crunch the part (done that once or twice).

Best Regards
Paul


“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
– Albert Einstein

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Another huge thank you Hobiwan for such detailed instructions. :clap1: Having a couple of pencils which are in working condition (and hopefully stay that way for a very long time), I have a follow up question. How easy is it to find a suitable spring should one in a pencil need replacing?

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My first offering is "Good Luck". Not necessarily finding one, but INSTALLING it. I've never done it myself, but what I'd try to do is simply find one out in the marketplace. Much easier would be to simply find a "donor" pencil of the same size and pull the mech from that one.

 

But...if it had to be done, I'd....

 

Measure the spring length extended in the mech, and add about maybe 1/2 inch. It has to have some tension in the spring to keep the unit extended and not loose. Then measure the diameter or width of the spring. It has to be exact, and conform to the diameter of the parts it butts up against, so as not to slip off. So be precise in that measurement.

 

Then I'd take myself to the local hardware store or Home Depot kind of place, where they sell springs, sometimes a packaged lot of many, or in single units.

 

Be careful about the measurements. Estie pencils are AMERICAN made, while today's store-bought springs may be metric.

 

That's the easy part. Slipping a new spring (slightly compressed) back into the mechanism without bending it out of shape is another story. The mechanism is made up of more than one part, CRIMPED together, so you can't just disassemble and "drop" the spring in, without a level of expertise I can't imagine. You'd have to "horse" it in, IMO, and that's where you'd need some patience and good luck. Me? I'd just wait for a donor.

Best Regards
Paul


“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
– Albert Einstein

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Hobiwan et al,

 

An update:

 

Well I had a couple packages come in over the last few days and they included a couple Esterbrook J-series pencils. These two pencils have the ring of which you speak one is perfect and won't be taken apart the other is definitely a user so I dissected it. It came apart as you described. The pencil that is feeding poorly has no such ring at all but otherwise identical to the J's.

 

Best, Todd

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  • 8 years later...
15 hours ago, lantanagal said:

Greetings, can you tell me if the mechanics are the same in a Parker Pastel? 

 

 I couldn't say specifically, I recently learned that Parker came into the pencil game late.   They didn't manufacture their own, rather did the design of the appearance and farmed out the work to existing companies.  A lot of early Parker pencils, once taken apart are actually nothing more than Esterbrook pencils inside a Parker barrel.

 

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@gweimer1 Thanks for the insight, I don't want to hijack this thread but where do I start learning about care and use - I'm not sure even how to put a new lead in to see if it's working...  

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Pretty sure it's a clutch mechanism, push down on the cap until the ''teeth'' open and make sure all the old lead is gone. Then pushing down on the cap again, just feed your new lead up and in.  I've just looked at my own "J" type pencil and it seems to take a number of lead sticks, fed in one after the other.  1.1 mm by the way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@pen lady This is it, I don't think the mechanism is the same, there's nothing to push down like the J series. It expels lead ok but will not wind it back in.  I'll begin a new thread rather than sidetracking this one.

20220130_171315.jpg

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10 hours ago, lantanagal said:

@pen lady This is it, I don't think the mechanism is the same, there's nothing to push down like the J series. It expels lead ok but will not wind it back in.  I'll begin a new thread rather than sidetracking this one.

20220130_171315.jpg

 

With these it is usually the case that you just twist the mechanism back up and then push the lead back in.  Easily done. No fuss, no muss.

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Now I'm really confused (not hard to do) but the picture is of a Parker pencil not an Esterbrook.  Now if it is a Parker pencil and the lead wont wind back  in, wind the current lead all the way out of the tip and make sure there isn't a broken bit still in there. If there is, get rid of it, continue winding until the little metal push-rod shows up in the tip, wind it back enough to allow you to re-load the lead, leave just a tiny bit showing and press down on a firm surface. If all is well, the lead should now go in and out.

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@pen lady Sorry if I created the confusion by asking if the mechanism in my Parker might be similar to the Esterbrook (which I now know it isn't). And

@crescentfiller it's not working as it's supposed to...  So I've started a new thread here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/365040-help-with-parker-duofold-pencil-mechanismrepair/

 

Edited by lantanagal
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