fountainbel
Member
I'm a 63 years old mechanical design engineer & pen aficionado from Flanders, Belgium.
After working 27 years as chief mechanical design engineer in the Int'l R&D department at Capsugel / Pfizer, I retired a few years ago.
Always using a fountain pen, I converted several young engineers in using & enjoy " the real writing tool" during my career.
I've acquired a nice collection of vintage fountain pens over the last 15 years, my first love & still lasting favorite being the OS Sheaffer's of the thirties & forties.
Always doing the repairs on my pens, I also started to repair pens for other collectors since my retirement.
I'm a particular fan of plunger fillers,since they can hold more ink as any other pen.
This technology is greatly under estimated over time, mainly due to the problematic repairs inherent to the early designs.
Although Sheaffer made high quality pens in their "golden era", their plunger fillers were unfortunately not always maintenance friendly.
Coping with these repair problems, I developed a plunger rod replacement cartridge, the "fountainbel" cartridge & appropriate tools for the repair.
The cartridge & tools are now used by several collectors & repairers
On the excellent "Penpedia" site -plunger filler repair- you can read all details on my cartridge & dedicated tools I've developed.
Always looking for new technical challenges,I designed & made various prototypes of my own OS plunger filler, called the PF Tribute*, during the last year. (*being a tribute to the plunger filler)
I just finished a new pump filling system, inspired by the Parker vac, however using a piston instead of the wear sensible rubber diafragm.
All parts- including the filling systems- are made in my shop, except for the nib assembly, for which I use Bock screw-in assemblies.
I will post some pictures of this pen shortly.
In my shop I have a Myford super 7 lathe and a small milling machine
As what concerns my other hobbies,I'm also a hobby beekeeper, a bow shooter & a collector of vintage pocket knives.
Hope to learn of lot from you all !
Thanks for reading so far !
Cheers, Francis
After working 27 years as chief mechanical design engineer in the Int'l R&D department at Capsugel / Pfizer, I retired a few years ago.
Always using a fountain pen, I converted several young engineers in using & enjoy " the real writing tool" during my career.
I've acquired a nice collection of vintage fountain pens over the last 15 years, my first love & still lasting favorite being the OS Sheaffer's of the thirties & forties.
Always doing the repairs on my pens, I also started to repair pens for other collectors since my retirement.
I'm a particular fan of plunger fillers,since they can hold more ink as any other pen.
This technology is greatly under estimated over time, mainly due to the problematic repairs inherent to the early designs.
Although Sheaffer made high quality pens in their "golden era", their plunger fillers were unfortunately not always maintenance friendly.
Coping with these repair problems, I developed a plunger rod replacement cartridge, the "fountainbel" cartridge & appropriate tools for the repair.
The cartridge & tools are now used by several collectors & repairers
On the excellent "Penpedia" site -plunger filler repair- you can read all details on my cartridge & dedicated tools I've developed.
Always looking for new technical challenges,I designed & made various prototypes of my own OS plunger filler, called the PF Tribute*, during the last year. (*being a tribute to the plunger filler)
I just finished a new pump filling system, inspired by the Parker vac, however using a piston instead of the wear sensible rubber diafragm.
All parts- including the filling systems- are made in my shop, except for the nib assembly, for which I use Bock screw-in assemblies.
I will post some pictures of this pen shortly.
In my shop I have a Myford super 7 lathe and a small milling machine
As what concerns my other hobbies,I'm also a hobby beekeeper, a bow shooter & a collector of vintage pocket knives.
Hope to learn of lot from you all !
Thanks for reading so far !
Cheers, Francis
