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Hey FPN team, I recently bought an awesome 1942 Vacumatic in silver pearl (plastic plunger) to restore and upon disassembly noticed that sometime in the past someone decided to use a dental pick to remove the pellet and the pellet cup is all chewed up. I suspect it could still hold a pellet, but I want to replace it now while I have the pen open to dissuade future failure. I have searched high and low and it seems the generally accepted replacement at this point is the cone on the tip of a Papermate Write Brothers pen. I went out and bought a pack of 24 last night, and have been having a heck of a time knocking out the metal writing tip without cracking the plastic. Does anybody have any tips on how I can disassemble these pens without destroying them? I've tried gentle heat on the tip (which caused it to deform too much), using a knockout block, etc. Every single time the cone cracks. I realize each of these things costs a few cents, but I would like to find a more reliable way to get them apart. I wish I could find a use for the leftover caps and barrels. Secondly, I noticed at one point Richard Binder responded to someone's post saying that he preferred this method over the new manufactured ones made from delrin because the material could be fused to the celluloid more reliably. What chemical do you think he is using to fuse these new pellet cups to the celluloid plunger? What effect would fusing the cup to the plunger have if this needs replaced again in the future? I bet the Parker folks never imagined we would be having this conversation almost 73 years after the advent of their "disposable" vac filler unit.... maybe we could convince the modern Parker to start manufacturing the disposable filler units once again. It seems problems always abound when trying to refurbish something that was designed to be disposable.