Piston Pull Filler Prototype

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Ed McDonnell

Ed McDonnell

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Here's a picture of my attempt at a proof of concept on a piston pull filler.

Top picture is with the piston full insertion.

Middle picture is with pistion full extension.

Bottom picture is inserted in the type of barrel I'm designing for.

This design has about 10% more capacity than a standard converter. With some fine tuning I think I could get this particular design up to about 150% capacity. But I want to shoot for a design that will give me 2x to 3x the capacity of a standard converter. That's on the drawing board now.

Haven't spent a lot of time on cosmetics a this point. I'm only working on functionality. This design is working great. So much easier to fill, clean and change inks without having to screw and unscrew a converter. I can make it pretty once I nail the final design.

The section pictured was my first prototype, made out of acetal. Don't look too closely at it. :redface: That's a Bock #5 nib, feed and housing. The section with the standard converter for scale is a JR Gent II with Schmidt nib.

Ed
 

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That's cool. Will the piston pull out if you pull a bit too hard?
How is it attached to the section?
What did you use for the seal? A tiny o-ring?
 
Something like this is already being used by Noodler's pens and Gate city. It's nothing new and has been used on pens near a hundred years ago. I was just asking about HIS particular product to see if he thought about it pulling apart and pulling out by accident while being used.
 
watch_art said:
That's cool. Will the piston pull out if you pull a bit too hard?
How is it attached to the section?
What did you use for the seal? A tiny o-ring?
Click to expand...

Hi Shawn - The end has a reduced ID so there is no way the piston can pull out without using a completely unreasonable amount of force (and probably pliers) which would destroy the unit. Not having a stop would eventually lead to disaster.

This one is a press fit into the section and could be adequately secured with an adhesive / sealer, but I'm leaning towards threading them so they can more easily be replaced. I have to change the way I make my sections for this though.

The seal is an o-ring.

Ed
 
Robert111 said:
Ed,

Just read your post and want to urge you to consider the commercial possibilities. Maybe you don't want to reveal too much about this.
Click to expand...

Hi Robert - Nothing here is my original idea. Richard Binder's article in the recent Pen World inspired me (and provided some nice generalized construction tips). If there was a commercial opportunity for something like this, I suspect that somebody with a relationship with a Chinese slave camp would be able to contract to have these made in large quantities for almost nothing. Thinking about it, I wonder why nobody has? It sure beats screwing a converter in and out.

I'm guessing that once I get a finalized design, and work out my process bugs, that I could make one in about 15 minutes. Without the use of slave labor, that would likely make the unit prohibitively expensive for commercialization. But it's worth it to me for my limited edition of one pens.

Ed
 
watch_art said:
Something like this is already being used by Noodler's pens and Gate city. It's nothing new and has been used on pens near a hundred years ago. I was just asking about HIS particular product to see if he thought about it pulling apart and pulling out by accident while being used.
Click to expand...

Gate City uses the same design concept (simple piston), except their piston cylinder is the pen barrel itself. The advantage of their design is that the ink capacity will be much higher than with a separate piston unit inside a barrel shell. But that limits the opportunities for embellishing the barrel (which is my primary interest and source of enjoyment).

Noodler's Ahab uses what I would call a hybrid piston setup with a breather tube that makes it function somewhat like a bulb filler. I'm not sure if it is a better design than a simple piston. I can see advantages and disadvantages. Theirs is a separate unit inside the barrel shell.

You can buy a Noodler's Ahab for $20. :eek: That's a shocking indication of how inexpensively a piston pull filler can be made. At least I was shocked!!

Ed
 
Looks like it's progressing well.

An idea occurred to me while looking at it: It wouldn't be very hard to add a return spring so that after it is pushed in it fills itself automatically without needing to be pulled.

Could lend itself to some interesting pen design possibilities that way.
 
frank123 said:
Looks like it's progressing well.

An idea occurred to me while looking at it: It wouldn't be very hard to add a return spring so that after it is pushed in it fills itself automatically without needing to be pulled.

Could lend itself to some interesting pen design possibilities that way.
Click to expand...

Hi Frank - I'll have to give that a try and see if that allows for one handed filling. That would be a big plus.

Your mention of interesting design possibilities got me thinking...."you could even have a button on the outside that you push to fill without having to unscrew anything!! What a great idea!!!!". Then I started thinking..."but if that button got pushed accidentally while the pen was full of ink it could be a real mess". Hmmmmm...maybe no button on the outside.

Well, the one handed filling possibility still seems interesting if I can make it work. Thanks!

Ed
 
Thanks Shawn - I did a search on CONID pens and found the following:

:: The Conidpen ::

Francois' accomplishments make my efforts look pretty lame, but I guess we all have to start somewhere. The slideshow on the Fountainbel Collection was very interesting. A piston pump with a detachable piston shaft to maximize ink storage. Very very clever.

Of course the "Making of the Pen" video left me feeling like the equivalent of a cave man using sharp rocks to hack things out of blocks of stuff. There were so many neat tools shown, but I was in awe of the plasma cutter that was cutting out clips. At least I think it was a plasma cutter. It was awesome whatever it was.

Ed
 
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