Yet another way of refilling Pilot Varsity with a syringe

[leewm]

My Pilot varsity/vpen was almost dry and I dreaded the use of pliers to pull out the nib to refill it. I destroyed more than one of these pens before when my pliers slipped This pen is special to me because I previously spent some effort to shorten the barrel and I didn't want to damage it.

 

So I spent the night thinking about alternative methods. The thought of putting a hard boiled egg into a bottle using matches to create a vacuum kept playing in my mind. As I mulled over the problem in my sleep, early this morning the answer came to me!

 

A syringe with the front got cut off that fitted tightly over the pen was my answer to my vacuum creator

 

Briefly, find a syringe whose internal diameter is 10mm. Chop the front off. Make sure that the section of the Pilot pen fits tightly inside. If too lose, wrap plumber's white tape around the pen section until u get a good air tight fit.

 

Holding the syringe upright, opening facing upwards, fill in about 2.5ml of ink, push pen into the syringe opening. Now hold it such that syringe is above and the pen is below. Gravity would cause the ink to flow down into the vacuum that would be created.

 

Pull piston to get a slight vacuum in the pen cavity. About 1-2 ml of vacuum is enough. Push piston so that ink flows into the pen cavity. Repeat process until all ink in syringe is transferred into pen.

 

Please remember not to push the piston too far down, we want to use a vacuum to suck ink inside. Not apply +ve pressure in the pen cavity. If there's +ve pressure, the ink will be blown out causing a mess.

 

Finally, pull the piston slightly and remove pen. The slight vacuum will cause whatever ink near the ridges to be sucked into the pen and not blow out.

 

I made a short clip on the technique used here:

 

Once the syringe is prepared, the whole operation can be done very cleanly under a minute with no damage to the pen. This technique would work with other disposable pens using liquid ink allowing you to reuse them. One just need to find an appropriate sized syringe to create the vacuum.

 

Enjoy,

weemeng

 

ps: the number of video downloads caused my web account to exceed it's quota. i placed the video on youtube instead.

Edited March 27, 2010 by leewm

[InkyWinky]

Very clever indeed.

[gross]

Very clever indeed.

+1 That is indeed what I call clever and creative thinking! Thanks for the video. I was doubtful before seeing it done, but "seeing is believing." Well done. Thanks, again.

Edited March 26, 2010 by gross

[Con]

Thank you so much for making and posting this video.

[Chthulhu]

Outstanding! Now I need to find a syringe with a 10 mm bore. :-)

[kv3x]

Now that, is ingenuity!

 

Wow... thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[lovemy51]

brilliant! the only two things i'm missing are the Varsity and the syringe

 

is it hard to find a syringe with the 10mm diameter?

[ogwen]

Thanks for that and thanks for the video! I love my Varsity. I got mine online from my local Sam's club ... $1.44 shipping included! Why it makes me giggle to be able to refill a $1.44 pen, I don't know, but it does!!

[markc]

That's brilliant! I love it. Now I just need to find 10mm syringes

 

I have a friend who did something similar on a larger scale : http://www.jossresearch.org/tjiirrs/018.html

 

He's a polymath that loves calligraphy and lasers.. Kinda perfect

 

Mark

[TWRDO]

Very cool. Very cool indeed.

[leewm]

That's brilliant! I love it. Now I just need to find 10mm syringes

 

I have a friend who did something similar on a larger scale : http://www.jossresearch.org/tjiirrs/018.html

 

He's a polymath that loves calligraphy and lasers.. Kinda perfect

 

Mark

 

Wow, that's one way of skinning a cat that I didn't know of

I can imagine using it to refill a whole bunch of Varsity pens all at once like in a factory.

 

If u can't find a syringe with a bore of 10mm, don't worry. U can use one that's a little bigger. Just be sure to wrap sufficient layers of plumbers white tape around the pen's section so that u get a good air tight seal when the syringe is fitted over the pen.

 

I think the syringe capacity is about 5 ml. I can't really tell as the markings on mine have been rubbed off. I remember it was used years ago to measure medicine dosage for my young daughter.

 

Over the weekend, I'll go visit a pharmacy to see if I can find the exact capacity.

 

[leewm]

the only two things i'm missing are the Varsity and the syringe

 

Ha ha ha, you are indeed a pen enthusiast and a collector

[rockydoggy]

Very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ernst Bitterman]

My imagination is suggesting some kind of permanent o-ring installation in the mouth of the syringe, but my awareness of my own abilities says I shouldn't try. I take it one uses a second, unamended syringe to load the one that does the real work?

[leewm]

My imagination is suggesting some kind of permanent o-ring installation in the mouth of the syringe, but my awareness of my own abilities says I shouldn't try. I take it one uses a second, unamended syringe to load the one that does the real work?

 

If the syringe bore is too big, an o-ring would probably work. Quite by chance, I had one that fit the pen perfectly.

 

Anything that forms a seal between the syringe and the pen would work. I'd recommend using plumber's white tape because it allow one to vary the thickness of the seal easily. If not tight enough, just wind more tape; if too tight, remove some tape. Just yesterday, I refilled an old needle point Pilot pen that's slimmer than the bore of the syringe using plumber's white tape to form the seal. The only thing to watch out for when using plumber's tape is the last part when u remove the pen from the syringe. There will be remnant ink on the tape that would stain your fingers so one must take extra care with tissues.

 

Using an unamended syringe to load the modified syringe with ink would definitely work! For me, I used a plastic eye dropper that I had lying around.

[pen2paper]

Brilliant! Love This!

The only Varsity I've refilled I just grabbed the section and pulled with a twist..

...it slid out, was refilled, section reinserted-but, a little too easy..

I'm not trusting that there's enough friction fit to prevent leakage, so it's sitting nib pointing up..

Your solution is both clever, and speedy.

Hope the syringes I have are the correct size.

Thanks!

[Juicyjones]

EVERYONE STAND BACK, HE'S GOING TO TRY SCIENCE!

 

I love it. +1

[Spector]

ooh seems interesting, but it might not work if all work isnt done exactly right

[dmuchow]

Excellent clip! I have a varsity that was sent to me with a sample cursive italic grind that I love, now I won't need to worry about it running out of ink!

 

p.s. anyone know the capacity of the varsity?

[wykpenguin]

An ingenious idea.