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inherited M&K 120, filling problems


indigirl

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Hello! I haven't been here in many years but just inherited this 120. My first Pelikan!

Problem is it doesn't fill. I fiddled with the piston mechanism & can't seem to get it to work.

Then I thought, maybe I can just use it as an eyedropper. But when I put ink in directly, it ran straight through the pen.

Am I missing a part? 

Would appreciate any advice! 

Thanks in advance.

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It looks to me like you are missing the gasket that goes around the piston mechanism. 

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We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

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Thanks! Do you know whether that's something I can easily find & put in myself? 

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The answer to your question is no.

 

The seals are molded into the piston on these pens. They're the two rings at the forward end of the piston.  Not the best design, but it worked. 

 

Over time the seals fail, so the pen won't fill or hold ink.  The problem is that you can't just snap on seals like you can with the Pelikan made pens.   I can repair the pen and replace the seals.  It takes a lathe and the right size 0-rings to do it.

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1 minute ago, Ron Z said:

The seals are molded into the piston on these pens. They're the two rings at the forward end of the piston.

 

Over time they fail and you lose the seal at the front end, so the pen won't fill.  I can repair and replace the seals.

Thanks Ron! Is this a different diagnosis than OCArt's? Or are you both using different language to describe the same problem?

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I'm a pen mechanic who works on Pelikans, , so I've had a chance to see a wider range of Pelikans and repairs.

 

The M&K made pens use a different design than the the Pelikan made pens.  Parts are available for Pelikans, even vintage ones.   They aren't for M&K, so I've had to come up with a repair to replace the 0-rings.  I've done many, and none have come back.

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Ron is the best, so I highly encourage you to take him up on his offer.

 

Erick

Using right now:

Visconti Voyager 30 "M" nib running Birmingham Streetcar

Jinhao 9019 "EF" nib running Birmingham Railroad Spike

Stipula Adagio "F" nib running Birmingham Violet Sea Snail

Sailor Profit "B" nib running Van Dieman's Night - Shooting Star

 

 

 

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On 5/17/2022 at 7:13 PM, indigirl said:

But when I put ink in directly, it ran straight through the pen.

Am I missing a part? 

Did you try eyedropper filling with the pen held nib-end downwards, and ink added through the open back end of the body, where the piston assembly would normally be?

 

If so, then the ink will fall out at the nib end.

 

Good news, if that is what happened. You don't need to worry that there might be a missing part.

 

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The problem is that the seals molded as part of the piston are no longer sealing.  That allows both ink and air to get past, so the ink will leak out of the pen - in both directions!

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1 hour ago, dipper said:

Did you try eyedropper filling with the pen held nib-end downwards, and ink added through the open back end of the body, where the piston assembly would normally be?

 

If so, then the ink will fall out at the nib end.

 

Good news, if that is what happened. You don't need to worry that there might be a missing part.

 

yes that's what I did. is there some better way to use it as an eyedropper? (edited because I realized I was mis-remembering how I fill my real eyedropper pen)

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I am not familiar with M&K pen nibs.

 

If the nib unit on your pen is similar to a normal Pelikan type - being a nib/feed/collar assembly that can be unscrewed from the front of the pen body - then you can unscrew that unit from the pen and fill through the front opening.

 

There a two problems to deal with:

 

The nib unit hole is smaller diameter than the hole at the end of the body of a pen designed for use as an eyedropper. You will need an ink syringe with a long needle or a plastic pipette with a long slender nozzle to get ink through the narrow opening into the ink chamber.

 

Also, as @Ron Z has said, the back end of your pen is not fully sealed, due to the leaky piston gaskets. If not addressed that leak may allow ink to seep out at the back of the pen, or allow air to seep in. Ink seeping out could be messy. Air seeping in may make the pen write wetter than it will when the piston seal has been fixed. There are temporary solutions to stop that seepage. A wrap of electrical insulating tape on the outside of the pen, covering all external seams of the filler twist knob, or silicone grease in the threads and mating faces of the knob, for example.

 

You are not the first to try filling an eyedropper from the wrong end.... The video below gave me a good laugh. Peter does realise and explain his mistake after some serious hand washing!

 

 

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The M&K pens, and Pelikan made pens are very different.  Indigirls first picture shows the mechanism of the M&K pens.  There is a pinned thread showing an exploded view of a Pelikan 800.  The inside parts for all of the pens, 100 up through 1000 are the same.  The difference is the size of the thread bushing on the end, the grip knob, and also whether the thread bushing screws in (800 and 1000) or is a slip fit that snaps into rings cut into the barrel wall (605 and lower).

 

On the M&K pens the grip knob and threads are bonded together, and the spindle is like the MB - external threads and skinny.  The piston has the internal threads.  There is nothing to keep the piston from turning except the friction of the seal against the barrel.  To remove the mechanism you turn the grip knob back, and then keep turning so that the threads of the grip knob jump past the threads in the barrel.

 

I've found that it takes surprisingly little to make a pen leak.  I've had to fix some pens where there's more ink in the mechanism than there is in the front part of the barrel.  :sick:

 

 

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