Parker Refill in a Slimline Rumors

[budnder]

I called these rumors because I have it in my head that I thought I'd read several times that this can be done and requires drilling out the nose cone and flipping the transmission. However, today when I thought I might give that a try, I was a bit befuddled on how that could work, and when I searched the forum I found a few references to it being possible, but not anyone that had done it and ended up with something that still looked like a slimline.

It looks to me like the fundamental problem with this idea is that the parker refill has to be pushed by the transmission, rather than run through it like the cross. This means the transmission is moved pretty far to the rear of the overall pen body so the nib is in the correct place. Correspondingly, this changes the size of the two body sections - the lower gets considerably longer and the upper considerably shorter... the centerband/split would fall about halfway up the clip.

I'm just doing a reality check to make sure I'm not missing something. It looks to me that you can't easily mod a slimline kit to accept a Parker refill and end up with anything that still looks like slimline.

FYI - I know there are kits like the Slimline Pro that would accomplish the "looks like a Slimline but takes a Parker"... I just had a bunch of Slimline's and thought this might be a way to use them up.

 

[Mr Vic]

Had a Slim Line and a Wall St II on my desk and pulled them apart. The Slim line transmission moves about 1/4" in and out as you twist it. The parker refill laid beside the Slim Line lower is 1/4 in shorter the nib tip to end of transmission. Center band to the end of the transmission is 1 " the upper body is 2". The brass portion of the transmission presses into the lower is about 1/4".

So if you use a brass tube 3" long for the lower and 1 in long for the upper but use 2" blanks so1" is exposed. Use a sacrificial center band and turn as one piece. When turned/finished press the transmission in from the finial end backwards. Complete seating it by pressing in the finial and clip. Might need to trim the end of the parker refill to get a good nib exposure.

Make snese. never did one but may have to try this weekend.

 

[magpens]

Make snese. ... not completely ...

One thing is that the Parker refill does not fit into the slimline transmission. . But maybe you had in mind to turn down the diameter of the plastic end piece of the Parker refill to make it fit. . Not sure that would be a successful fix.

 

[Houtkop]

I have done that once before. Had an order for a slim pen using a Parker refill. All the observations about the length of lower barrel, and drilling the nib is true. Now as to the transmission, as Mal points out, a Parker refill back end does not fit into the back end of the transmission. To make it work I had to make a 'piston' that screwed into the transmission and CA'd in. I have tried to find photo's of the pen, but have not been able to. If I have time this weekend I will slap one together and document the process.

Worked ok, BUT (there is always one), the biggest problem is that due to the transmission only sliding into the lower barrel, pressure on the refill point tends to push the back section (holding the transmission) out. The only way to prevent that is to make the nib removable. The only way I can see this done is threading the nib (6mm?) and then tapping the lower barrel, so you would have to build up the inside of the tube.

 

[budnder]

Kinda weird, but the generic parker refills included in kits seem to fit ok in my slimline, but the 9000 refills don't - the plastic must be a hair bigger on those.

I'm going to try and lay out Mr Vics ideas and post a pic... I think what he's describing might be workable.

I had concerns about the refill spring pushing off friction fit also. Threading the nib is an interesting idea.

 

[lorbay]

Kinda weird, but the generic parker refills included in kits seem to fit ok in my slimline, but the 9000 refills don't - the plastic must be a hair bigger on those.

I'm going to try and lay out Mr Vics ideas and post a pic... I think what he's describing might be workable.

I had concerns about the refill spring pushing off friction fit also. Threading the nib is an interesting idea.

Are you saying that you use a standard Parker refill in a slim line pen with no alterations??
Lin

 

[Sylvanite]

Check out http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/euro-pen-parker-style-refill-122390/. I did it with a euro pen kit, but the procedure for a slimline would be the same.

Regards,
Eric

 

[budnder]

Are you saying that you use a standard Parker refill in a slim line pen with no alterations??
Lin

My goals (yeah, kinda academic) were to do it using only the slimline kit and a parker refill and spring. I was willing to drill, tap, cut, etc. as much as necessary. Oh, and just to complicate matters even further, I wanted to give these away, so they needed to be reasonably reliable and user refillable.

The back story is... someone else committed me to donating a couple of pens and rather than push back and say no, I decided I'd turn it into some type of opportunity, but I didn't want to spend much time/money on it, and it didn't need to be high end by any means - slimline with a Parker would be just the ticket. When I ran into too much head scratching on how to do it, I went a different direction for the donation pen, but am interested in chasing this down to see what's possible for next time.

 

[budnder]

What you did was awesome Eric!

Attached is a layout idea I did based on Mr Vic's comments. Note that my measurements aren't exact - I think before I try this I'll calculate them out exactly.

 

[budnder]

Mission accomplished and posted Parker in a Slimline, over in the show off your pens forum, including a final design diagram. Be sure to check out Sylvanite's efforts as well while you're there.

Thanks all for the ideas and inspiration!

 

[magpens]

Well done, Roy !!!!!!! . Thanks for posting all the details on this and your other thread.