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#1
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Plunger vs. Piston FIller
Hello All:
Forgive me for displaying my ignorance in public, but what is the difference between a Piston Filler and a Plunger Filler? I'm familiar with piston fillers al a Pelikan. I'm assuming that a plunger involves some sort of sac as opposed to a watertight (ink tight?) barrel. Would a Vacumatic be a plunger? Apologies to those who may find this tedious. David Who has been fighting – and losing -- a years long battle to keep his fingers from becoming ink stained. |
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#2
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Forgive me for displaying my ignorance in public, but what is the
difference between a Piston Filler and a Plunger Filler? I'm familiar with piston fillers al a Pelikan. I'm assuming that a plunger involves some sort of sac as opposed to a watertight (ink tight?) barrel. Would a Vacumatic be a plunger? A Vacumatic is not a plunger filler. A Sheaffer plunger filler can be identified by the thin plunger rod made of metal or plastic. It fits through the body of the pen. On the other side of the hole is packing material which is designed to form a tight seal and not allow air or ink to seep past it. The end of the rod which is inside the pen has a couple of rubber rings which tightly contact the inside of the barrel. Now, let's start with the plunger rod fully extended out of the pen. The nib end is in an ink bottle. Firmly push the plunger all the way down. As the plunger goes down a region of low pressure is formed in the barrel between the rubber rings and the packing material at the other end. Air is pushed out of the pen through the feed (bubbles are coming up in the ink). Near the end of the travel of the plunger, the barrel widens. When the plunger reaches this point, the vacuum is lost and the remaining air in the barrel rushes up the barrel into that region of low pressure, past the rubber rings which no longer make contact with the sides of the barrel (because the barrel is wider down here), pulling ink from the bottle into the barrel. Problem areas are primarily the plunger rings and the packing area around the rod. If either of these leak very much then the pen won't work. And that's all I have to say about that. Except of course that I have no doubt that Frank could have explained this more elegantly and concisely. |
#3
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David Heverly wrote:
Hello All: Forgive me for displaying my ignorance in public, but what is the difference between a Piston Filler and a Plunger Filler? I'm familiar with piston fillers al a Pelikan. I'm assuming that a plunger involves some sort of sac as opposed to a watertight (ink tight?) barrel. Would a Vacumatic be a plunger? There is NO accepted term to really make clear the difference between a PUSH down piston filler, like old Sheaffers, a TWIST piston filler like Pelikans, neither of which use a sac and are entirely different in design. No matter what anyone says, both are really piston or plunger fillers, although perhaps plunger may better describe the swift one push design of Sheaffer vs the slow twisting of a Pelikan. But both do use a moving piston in the barrel. The sac filler Sheaffers are NOT pistons or plungers. They, if not levers, are TounhDown fillers. That is Sheaffer's term and it is accepted and used world wide. A Vacumatic, is, uhh, a Vacumatic and please leave it at that. You need Da Book which explains all this and further explains the absurd complex design of the Vac which is nothing more than a very simple air-pumped sac filled pen with a breather tube first used on the simple Postal Pen and later used in all sort of mad scientist designs in the silly 1930s idea of if it has more parts inside its better. Frank |
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Tim McNamara wrote in message ...
(David Heverly) writes: As the saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. ISTR that Richard Binder has cutaway drawings on his Web site showing the various filling mechanisms. Gentlemen: Thanks for the answers. Given their complexity, I don't feel so badly about asking such a "simple" question. And thanks for the link to Mr. Binder's site. True enough; one picture is worth a thousand words. However, many pictures may lead to fried synapses!!! It almost seems as if every manufacturer had a variation on a filling system. My head feels like it does when I was a kid and ate too much ice cream too fast!!! Again, thanks for the info. I can't think of anyplace else where you can get so much intellectual firepower at such a reasonable price. David Who is going to lie down until his head stops hurting. ; ) |
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#7
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Tim McNamara wrote in message ...
(David Heverly) writes: Tim McNamara wrote in message ... As the saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. ISTR that Richard Binder has cutaway drawings on his Web site showing the various filling mechanisms. Gentlemen: Thanks for the answers. Given their complexity, I don't feel so badly about asking such a "simple" question. And thanks for the link to Mr. Binder's site. True enough; one picture is worth a thousand words. However, many pictures may lead to fried synapses!!! It almost seems as if every manufacturer had a variation on a filling system. That's exactly right. Due to patent issues, most manufacturers created miniscule variations on the theme of how to fill a fountain pen. Some are simple, some are complex. Some hold up well over time, some don't. I suppose that in general, the simpler designs tend to hold up better. Yes, simple things are usually the ones which work, and sometimes the most complex as well. Remember Giotto's story: One day, the Pope Benedict XI sent a courier to Giotto to evaluate the artist's skill to paint some frescos; Giotto gave the courier a note with a hand drawn circle... a perfect circle. Obviously, he got the job. OTOH, "weird" designs in pen filling systems are part of fps hunting/collecting.. Sure, the vacumatic system may not be the ultimate system, but it was available for years and years in what IMHO is the most beautiful pen made by parker and the bulletproof P51. Those systems are part of fp's history, and I don't think in terms of which is better. Enjoy them all Juan |
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