I Can't Seem To Fill My Vanishing Point Converter Correctly

[A Smug Dill]

If the problem individual users have is with the CON-40 converter, that is now supplied with Pilot Capless pens by default, as recently as May 2019 I was still able to buy new CON-20 converters (but presumably not from authorised Pilot dealers, locally or online) and got myself three, of which I haven't used any yet despite having a dozen Capless pens in my household. I just had a look, and the CON-50 is still available new from the same seller(s) on AliExpress, but the CON-20 isn't any more. There are some current listings for the CON-20 on Amazon.com, but the asking prices are a bit silly.

 

I've been using CON-50 converters with Pilot Capless pens for years, and never had a problem filling it completely with two draws, with the step in between to drive out the air that was in the feed. The CON-40 seems to requiring a whole lot more finesse during the draws, as well as more shaking/agitating during the step in-between, to give a roughly comparable result, so now that I have a syringe — actually, about ten dozen of them in all — with blunt tip tubular 'needles' or snorkels for transferring liquids, I've started to use it to fill CON-40 converters too, but the divider disc about one-third of the way up the clear tube of the converter seems to stop the ink from just flowing down despite having big holes around its rim.

[leewm]

I have a snorkel but haven't been able to figure out how to use it with my VP. Any chance you could post pictures? The Pineider Snorkel doesn't seem to fit with some of my pens, and when I try to pretend it does I end up with the mess I was trying to avoid by using the snorkel.

 

The filling principles should be similar to this:

[essayfaire]

If the problem individual users have is with the CON-40 converter, that is now supplied with Pilot Capless pens by default, as recently as May 2019 I was still able to buy new CON-20 converters (but presumably not from authorised Pilot dealers, locally or online) and got myself three, of which I haven't used any yet despite having a dozen Capless pens in my household. I just had a look, and the CON-50 is still available new from the same seller(s) on AliExpress, but the CON-20 isn't any more. There are some current listings for the CON-20 on Amazon.com, but the asking prices are a bit silly.

 

 

 

The CON-50s I find seem to be six times the cost of a CON-70, which is a lot of silly. I like my Capless pens partially because of the ease of use, which does not seem to apply to the filling process in its current iteration.

 

 

The filling principles should be similar to this:

https://youtu.be/Y4LAp_hyAlQ

Thank you; I will refer back to this at my next fill and try to use the Pineider with the Capless.

[A Smug Dill]

The CON-50s I find seem to be six times the cost of a CON-70, which is a lot of silly.

Not questioning your report of what you're seeing, but let me tell you what I saw just now when I went to check:

Pilot converter prices I saw in the marketplace just now

[/td]	CON-50	CON-70
US$ 7.60	US$ 15.20
Seller #2	US$ 8.09	US$ 15.61
Seller #3	US$ 8.54 (US$ 18.63 for 2 pcs)	US$ 17.48 (US$ 23.80 for 2 pcs)
Seller #4	US$ 8.99	US$ 18.09
Seller #5	US$ 8.99	US$ 18.10
Seller #6	US$ 9.94	US$ 19.08
Seller #7	US$ 10.39	US$ 12.79
Seller #8	US$ 14.68	US$ 28.15

Edited November 22, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[sirgilbert357]

In theory, A Smug Dill could make a small fortune being someone's "personal shopper" -- he consistently finds the best prices on FP stuff, lol. I never question his findings anymore if he says he has found the lowest price on a pen -- usually the only variable is shipping, as we all know the destination makes a world of difference at times.

[essayfaire]

In theory, A Smug Dill could make a small fortune being someone's "personal shopper" -- he consistently finds the best prices on FP stuff, lol. I never question his findings anymore if he says he has found the lowest price on a pen -- usually the only variable is shipping, as we all know the destination makes a world of difference at times.

Arbitrage!

 

And it looks as if I would pay less for a CON-70 ($9.20 US) and more for the CON-50 (approx $35 US).

 

Maybe I should start handing out the 70s and A Smug Dill the 50s.

[A Smug Dill]

usually the only variable is shipping, as we all know the destination makes a world of difference at times.

I just checked again, and the prices I listed are valid for shipping to the US as well.

 

Maybe I should start handing out the 70s and A Smug Dill the 50s.

Actually, I have significantly more CON-70 converters than I have Pilot pens into which they would fit; I've been progressively getting rid of my Pilot Custom pens one way or another, after time and time again they've proven least enjoyable for me to use among Japanese fountain pens of the Big Three brands. I also don't like using the CON-70 itself, how it fills and how difficult it is to clean thoroughly.

 

Whereas I don't have a stockpile of new/spare CON-50 converters. I don't even have enough to give every Pit Capless, MR, Prera, Plumix, Penmanship and 78G fountain pen here its own CON-50, and I haven't added the desk pens and Parallel pens to that count.

[essayfaire]

I just checked again, and the prices I listed are valid for shipping to the US as well.

 

 

I'm usually fairly resourceful, but I don't see anywhere near the prices you are finding, other than when items show us under my CON-50 search that are actually CON-40s. Is there an Australian search engine I should know about?

[A Smug Dill]

Look on AliExpress. I can't send you a link to the search results for "Pilot CON-50" on that market platform, because when I pasted the link into an incognito window in Chrome it didn't work, on account of the country of delivery destination is not set.

 

If the listings are bringing up the CON-40 by default, just click on the tiles for the different product options to bring up the CON-50.

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[DrDebG]

I gave up on the converters. I refill my cartridges. Overall they seem to work much better for me.

[readytotalk]

That`s the brilliant solution, cartridges are both reliable and have more ink capacity.

[cellmatrix]

i've found the perfect solution to refilling my trusty scratched up old black stealth pilot vanishing point which nowadays is my daily/only writer:

 

All I need is

1) a 350 ml blue black bottle pilot ink

2) a 30 ml glass bottle

3) a thin plastic eyedropper

4) two boxes of pilot blue black cartridges.

 

What I do is:

1) periodically decant from the big bottle into the little bottle

2) refill pilot cartridges from the little bottle with the eyedropper.

3) carry an extra cartridge of pilot blue black for when I run out while on the road, but this does not happen often maybe twice a year at most.

 

The 350 ml bottle (cost me $20) will probably last ten years ($2/year), and 2 cartridges/year are $1, so I am paying $3 a year for quality ink.

 

I know some of you will say, you can't handle just using one ink and one pen and thats cool this system is not for you. Cheers C

 

PS - power user tip: when you are getting ready to refill a new pilot cartridge for the first time, bend a little "U" at the end of a paper clip, and use it to remove the little plastic disc in the cartridge. It makes refilling much easier.

 

power user tip #2 - using the little metal cartridge cover cap (its sold by pilot for $3 if you don't have one) will help your cartridges last many more refills, at least twenty if not more

[A Smug Dill]

On Amazon.com.au, a three-pack of Pilot CON-50 converters — sold by and shipped from Amazon US, and is Prime eligible, so shipping to Australia is free if the Prime eligible international items on the order total A$49 or more — is currently on offer for A$19.70. That's only a little over US$14, including shipping and Australian GST, for three pieces. I think I'm going to order some more while I can at cheaper-than-on-AliExpress prices.

[essayfaire]

On Amazon.com.au, a three-pack of Pilot CON-50 converters — sold by and shipped from Amazon US, and is Prime eligible, so shipping to Australia is free if the Prime eligible international items on the order total A$49 or more — is currently on offer for A$19.70. That's only a little over US$14, including shipping and Australian GST, for three pieces. I think I'm going to order some more while I can at cheaper-than-on-AliExpress prices.

So in the US on amazon.com, the three-pack doesn't show, but on the Australian site it shows but as unable to be shipped to the U.S. (and as shipping from Japan). Quite confusing. Do you see something that I don't? It looks like those of us in North America might not be able to get these. I suspect Amazon US is the holding company and not a physical location, but that is just my suppostion.

Edited August 18, 2020 by essayfaire

[A Smug Dill]

Do you see something that I don't?

I suppose so.

 

There's a hyperlink embedded in the underlined ".au" in my earlier post, to:

 

 

It looks like those of us in North America might not be able to get these. I suspect Amazon US is the holding company and not a physical location, but that is just my suppostion.

Amazon US is the merchant. I don't know whether it will physically import the item from Japan into the US and then forward it to me in Australia, or arrange for it to be shipped to me directly from Japan; and, as long as Amazon is taking care of that and not charging me for shipping, I don't really care one way or the other.

Edit:

So in the US on amazon.com, the three-pack doesn't show,

Hang on. What's the problem there?

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[essayfaire]

I suppose so.

 

There's a hyperlink embedded in the underlined ".au" in my earlier post, to:

 

 

Amazon US is the merchant. I don't know whether it will physically import the item from Japan into the US and then forward it to me in Australia, or arrange for it to be shipped to me directly from Japan; and, as long as Amazon is taking care of that and not charging me for shipping, I don't really care one way or the other.

Edit:

Hang on. What's the problem there?

 

This is the problem:

I tried both US and Canadian addresses, to no avail:

Edited August 18, 2020 by essayfaire

[A Smug Dill]

@essayfaire Now I'm confused. I get that you can't get it delivered to the US when ordering on Amazon.com.au. But you said it isn't showing up on Amazon.com in the US, and I've just established that the claim is incorrect. That's why I asked you what the problem was.

 

In your earlier post (which you edited while I was busy taking screenshots), you asked for a link to what I saw, to which I replied the hyperlink was always there under the ".au". But that's a different matter to what does or does not show on Amazon.com.

[essayfaire]

@essayfaire Now I'm confused. I get that you can't get it delivered to the US when ordering on Amazon.com.au. But you said it isn't showing up on Amazon.com in the US, and I've just established that the claim is incorrect. That's why I asked you what the problem was.

 

In your earlier post (which you edited while I was busy taking screenshots), you asked for a link to what I saw, to which I replied the hyperlink was always there under the ".au". But that's a different matter to what does or does not show on Amazon.com.

I am confused as well - where exactly is the hyperlink? If I set my delivery to Chicago, and use the link from the .au site to search, this is what I get:

[cellmatrix]

Cant get a converter? No problem. Its the same price to get a pack of pilot cartridges and a cheap plastic pipette or syringe to refill them with. The cartridges hold 1cc which is almost twice as much ink as the con-50s

[A Smug Dill]

I am confused as well - where exactly is the hyperlink? If I set my delivery to Chicago, and use the link from the .au site to search,

 

We're talking at cross purposes, I'm afraid.

 

 

 

You asked me (in text which you've since edited out) if I had a link to the product listing that shows it shipped from and sold by Amazon US. The answer to that is the link — to Amazon Australia — was there even before you asked the question; but, to see that it is shipped from and sold by Amazon US, the delivery location has to be set to somewhere in Australia. That won't allow you to acquire it and have it sent to the US, but merely validates my earlier claim.

 

You then claimed that you see the item as shipping from Japan (as opposed to just being a "Japan import"); but your own screenshot proves otherwise.

 

 

 

You also claimed that the same product isn't being listed on Amazon.com. That is also factually incorrect.