Pelikan Piston Filler Ink Capacities?

[sargetalon]

Hello again everyone. I have an inquiry about the ink capacity of Pelikan's piston fillers. I have read through several older threads on this site that have discussed this topic which is what prompts my question today. Regarding ink capacity, the best account that I've found comes from the well known and respected FPN member fountainbel who posted the following in 2010 (thread found here);

 

Modern 200/400 : piston bore 8.2mm, piston stroke 24.5mm, potential ink volume:1.29 ml
Modern 600 : piston bore 8.2mm, piston stroke 26 mm, potential ink volume:. 1.37 ml
Modern 800 : piston bore 8.2mm, piston stroke 26 mm , potential ink volume: 1.37 ml
Modern1000: piston bore 8.2mm, piston stroke 28 mm , potential ink volume: 1.47 ml
Vintage 400 : piston bore 9.0 mm, piston stroke 31 mm , potential ink volume: 1.97 ml

 

Up until now, this is what I've assumed to be the case regarding ink capacities. I recently stumbled across an FAQ located here at the site of Niche Pens (a company that I am wholly unfamiliar with). They list the ink capacities as follows;

 

M1000 - 2.0ml
M800 - 2.0ml
M600 - 1.75ml
M400 - 1.5ml
M300 - 0.75ml
M200 - 1.75ml
M150 - 1.5ml

 

You can see that there is some significant variability between the two accounts. The Niche Pens FAQ is suspicious to me because the M200 and M400 are the same size pen physically but the M200 is being listed as having a bigger ink capacity. The M150 is one of the smaller of the range and they are saying that that has the same capacity as an M400 which just doesn't intuitively add up to me. Does anyone have the definitive answer on just what the ink capacities are across the range of Pelikan's outlined, from the M150 up to the M1000? Any light you can shed on this would be appreciated as my curiosity has been piqued. Thanks!

[proton007]

I think the second set of numbers doesn't make much sense. Howcome the difference is always a factor of 0.25?

 

I trust the upper set more, using the bore and stroke is the right way.

[MarkTrain]

I would agree with foutainbel, as the 200/400/600/800/1000/ all use the same piston, thus the piston bores should be exactly the same. The barels ( the part that is striated) also have the same length so the strokes should be similar. Note that the stroke will depend upon how far the piston is set to retract and I have seen this to vary by a couple of mm`s from pen to pen.

 

Mark

[Runnin_Ute]

Something that is included in Niche Pens numbers:

 

N.B - These are approximate measurements and it is worth noting that that a standard short ink cartridge holds approx. 0.75ml; a standard long ink cartridge holds approx. 1.45ml

 

Which would explain at least in part the difference between fountainbel's numbers and the others. In going to the link I found it is this:

http://www.pelikanpens.co.uk/acatalog/Frequently_Asked_Questions.html

 

So these are numbers on Pelikan UK's site.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Runnin_Ute

[oronet commander]

In my lab, weighting empty and filled pens, I got the following capacities :

 

M200: 1.18 mL

M605: 1.54 mL

 

They are single measurements, with the last drop returned to the bottle to reduce overfilling, so some variation is expected.

[oronet commander]

 

Which would explain at least in part the difference between fountainbel's numbers and the others. In going to the link I found it is this:

http://www.pelikanpens.co.uk/acatalog/Frequently_Asked_Questions.html

 

So these are numbers on Pelikan UK's site.

 

pelikanpens.co.uk is Niche Pens' Pelikan online shop. I don't think they've got any affiliation to Pelikan, although I may be wrong.

[Ernst Bitterman]

My measurements of the M400 and M600 accord with Francis. I wonder if the difference is in filling/measuring technique? I get my numbers from a normal fill routine; start empty, draw some to moisten the feed, expel, draw a full sweep, expel three drops and ingest some air to de-flood the feed (with some error brought on my then expelling into a shot glass and taking up in a syringe; I don't go by weight). The other numbers might be an idealized, no air whatever, total interior volume measurement, which sounds more impressive but isn't usually what people will end up with-- TWSBI does much the same thing with their volume declarations.

[Ursus]

I measured the ink capacity of my M800 (from the 2000's) a few days ago, and I believe that it was 1,45 ml (when totally filled with water).

[hari317]

I measured my M300's ink capacity using the dry vs filled weight technique. 0.76ml.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan internationals have @ 0.74/5ml so two would be @ 1.50....normally such a pen will hold two.

I have a couple Pelikan '90's Celebry pens which take cartridges.