Modified Converter For Use In Kaweco Sport

[mik86]

Modified Converter for Use in Kaweco Sport: a rapid and cost-effective solution

Originally posted: 29 April 2012 to The Fountain Pen Network

 

Purpose: For those who want a twist converter for the Kaweco sport. They want this because they do not want to make it an ED, like myself, and don't want to bother with a syringe.

 

Materials:

super glue(optional)

Baoer twist converter (comes with free pen) or similar international converter (not tested)

Empty Kaweco cartridge

skarp knife

 

Protocol (10-15 min) (see photos)

1. Pull clear bottom half off the Baoer converter. A small twisting motion might help.

2. Trim off about 0.5cm off the top of the empty kaweco cart.

3. Notice that the Clear Baoer plastic part fits into the metal part because it has narrower plastic. Take your knife and carefully make the plastic on the kaweco cart narrower to look like this. Don't trim too much, or you will need glue to hold it in. Mine was snug just with friction.

4. Unless you really trimmed down the clear kaweco converter, your new converter will not fit in the pen. screw converter all the way down to the empty position. Trim an appropriate amount of the top black part off so that the converter fits inside your kaweco pen. If your kaweco is transparent, this is easy. If not, the total length of the modified convert must be no longer than 2.25 inches to fit in the pen. I don't know if the AL sport pens are slightly different. I cut off a little more than half of the top black part.

5. When you ink your converter, the "screw" part of the plunder must not go beyond the black part that you trimmed. This will make it longer than 2.25 inches.

 

 

Results:

See photos. Experiment was a success. Converter seems to function perfectly normal.

 

Discussion:

The capacity of the cartridge seems to be the only limitation, as a function of the plunger internal screw length and the size of the pen. The total useful ink capacity seems to have been reduce to 2/3 of the original amount. The plunger internal screw can be trimmed at the top to increase capacity, but I do not recommend this because you may not be able to screw it all the way down without the plunger losing its threaded guide and falling into the ink reservoir. A squeeze bulb could have been used instead of the top of a Baoer converter for greater capacity, but those are harder to find and I did not have one on hand. An eyedropper would have held more ink, but using a converter is a tradeoff for peace of mind regarding leakage. Upon visual inspection, it appears an ED would hold up to 3-4x the ink of this converter. This is an estimation, no volumes were measured.

Edited April 29, 2012 by mik86

[wastelanded]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Well done!

[mik86]

There was so much chatter online about the Sport not being able to take ANY converter that I felt the need to post this. I think making one is easier than ordering 5 different "short" converters only to find that none fit.

[smodak]

cool stuff. don't these work in that pen...

[dcpritch]

cool stuff. don't these work in that pen...

 

Yes they do, but IMO they are nearly worthless, as they are not easy to operate (translate: personal experience says you might make a big mess if your hands aren't tiny enough to operate the very small plunger mechanism), and they hold very little ink.

[mik86]

cool stuff. don't these work in that pen...

 

I got mixed reviews on those. Few people say they work, most say they don't.

[wastelanded]

cool stuff. don't these work in that pen...

 

They don't work in mine. They don't snap in securely. They do, however, on an older "Kaweco by Diplomat" Sport that I know of.

[lovemy51]

mik86

[Daisy]

Hmmmm... if I'm reading this correctly -- and I'm not sure whether I am or not -- the empty Kaweco cartridge is making the actual connection to the feed nipple, but then transitions to the Baoer converter for its twist plunger, and it's the Baoer converter which is actually holding the ink. The empty Kaweco (or international short) cartridge just provides the connection to the feed nipple. Did I get that right?

 

Because if I did, it kind of begs the question: has anyone tried something along this same line, but using the empty Kaweco cartridge to serve as the neck of a regular ink sac, which would be adhered to the Kaweco cartridge? It would be the same fit to the feed, same or more ink capacity, and a lot less trouble I'd imagine.

 

That, and I don't have a Baoer converter handy, but I do have some seriously cheap Chinese pens with silicone sacs that I wouldn't mind cannibalizing for such a project. To me, the primary difficulty would lie at or around the part that gets the most stress, which would be the join between the sac and the Kaweco cartridge: you'd have to cut off the Kaweco cartridge at a point long enough to be grabbed by the fingers when removing, because it seems like if you grab a sac that way time after time, eventually you'll just pull the sac off the cartridge and be using tweezers to get the rest of your fine DIY assembly off of the feed nipple that day.

 

Any thoughts? I think I might be fixing to give this a try, actually...

Edited November 13, 2012 by Daisy

[Snargle]

Because if I did, it kind of begs the question: has anyone tried something along this same line, but using the empty Kaweco cartridge to serve as the neck of a regular ink sac, which would be adhered to the Kaweco cartridge? It would be the same fit to the feed, same or more ink capacity, and a lot less trouble I'd imagine.

 

Here's a step-by-step, illustrated description of exactly that process (from the Badger & Blade shaving forum): Squeeze Sac Filler Mod for Cartridges

 

My only concern would be eventual wear of the cartridge neck. I'd be afraid that over time the neck would loosen enough to start leaking ink into the barrel. Fortunately, the Kaweco is pretty ink-tight...which is why mine is converted to an eye-dropper filler.

[chiaroscuro]

cool stuff. don't these work in that pen...

 

I got mixed reviews on those. Few people say they work, most say they don't.

 

The one I've got doesn't engage the feed of any of my Sports, for what it's worth.

[doggonecarl]

Clever solution, but why?

 

I'm all for converters, and prefer them to having to buy proprietary cartridges, but the Kaweco takes international short ones. And if ink capacity for this "hacked" converter is less than with a cartridge, why not just refill an empty cartridge with a syringe?

[dcpritch]

Clever solution, but why? ... why not just refill an empty cartridge with a syringe?

 

I rarely use carts, but keep a couple of empty ones in case I have a pen that needs one (like a Kaweco Sport or Stipula Passaporto). I fill the carts with a syringe, like many do. However, the problem with that is that the feed doesn't get saturated properly because it isn't dipped in the ink bottle. Not only that, if you do dip the nib to get some ink on it, that doesn't do nearly as good a job as drawing ink through the feed into the ink sac. So, I think this simple, artful solution works better than a cartridge, and waaayyy better than any of the hokey converters which supposedly work for these small pens.

 

By the way, I just made a squeeze sac filler for a Kaweco Sport - took me about two minutes (not counting drying time for the shellac).

 

Thanks Snargle for the excellent tip!

 

PS, Daisy, I can make one for you if you like and send it over to use with that new Kaweco of yours. Let me know.

Edited November 13, 2012 by dcpritch

[Daisy]

PS, Daisy, I can make one for you if you like and send it over to use with that new Kaweco of yours. Let me know.

 

Yes, please!!! Cuz you know that sweet lil new Kaweco is exactly why I'm here...

[Daisy]

Here's a step-by-step, illustrated description of exactly that process (from the Badger & Blade shaving forum): Squeeze Sac Filler Mod for Cartridges

 

My only concern would be eventual wear of the cartridge neck. I'd be afraid that over time the neck would loosen enough to start leaking ink into the barrel. Fortunately, the Kaweco is pretty ink-tight...which is why mine is converted to an eye-dropper filler.

 

Ahhh, that is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you!!!

 

The Kaweco I have has already been greased up and ready to go as an eyedropper, but the thing is that I tend to underfill my pens so as to be able to change inks regularly, and eyedroppers that are less than 1/3 full can have problems with burping ink, etc. The eyedropper thing is still very cool, just in case, and it gives me assurance that any failure of my own jury rigged cartridge/sac converter would be adequately contained, but I do prefer a converter. Changing inks as often as I do means that cleaning cartridges (a pain at the best of times) is really not a viable option, so this sounds like a great solution.

 

Thanks!!!

[dcpritch]

UPDATE on Squeeze Sac Filler Mod:

 

It doesn't work! At least, the way I did.

 

I found this out when I tried the device after the shellac had dried overnight: once you have glued a No. 18 sac to the cartridge the thickness of the device is too big for the inside diameter of the barrel, with the result that the squeeze sac filler gets stuck inside, won't turn as the section is being screwed into the barrel, and then remains in the barrel with the section is removed. I tried dusting the sac with talc powder, to no avail.

 

It is possible a super thin sac might work, but I don't have any to try. It may also be that different models of the Kaweco Sport vary in terms of barrel thickness; however, I tried it on the three Sports I have, which cover a range of 15 years, and had the same result with each of them. I'd love to hear that someone else got this to work, in which case I want to know what you did to make it work.

[Daisy]

Hmmm... well, as I mentioned above, I have some super cheap Chinese pens with silicone sacs, one of which I have already cut off but have not gotten around to putting together yet.

 

I haven't looked at the width issue, but if it becomes one I might try heat shrinking the back end of the cartridge just to see if it works, *before* permanently attaching the sac, of course. Assuming the plastic can be effectively heat shrunk, as long as the back (open) end of the cartridge doesn't become a bottleneck for the ink flow and retains a smooth shape (in order to affix the sac without leaks) it should be fine.

 

But I haven't tried it yet. I'm so behind on the projects I have going that I need to finish up the ones I've got just to make room on the table!

[Daisy]

P.S. It also occurs to me that you may have cut the cartridge too long, if the barrel of the Sport narrows toward the back end. The Badger & Blade guy cut his pretty short, leaving only enough of the cartridge to be able to grasp the cartridge instead of the sac for removal, and cut the remainder of the cartridge off. In the pictures he provided, this means that the bulky part of his construction probably corresponds with the wider part of the barrel. I don't have my little Sport handy to look at or measure right now, but that might be why he didn't have a size problem with his cartridge/sac converter. Any slight difference in the diameter of various international short cartridges could be a factor as well...

 

 

 

P.P.S. I forgot to add, he sanded the gluing surface of the cartridge before joining the sac to it. Depending on how vigorous he got with the sandpaper, that might also explain why he didn't have problems fitting his converter back into the barrel after assembly. That sandpapering actually sounds much easier and more reliable than heat shrinking, actually.

 

 

(edited to add P.P.S. - the best thoughts always arrive on the ride home, dontcha know)

Edited November 14, 2012 by Daisy

[Flounder]

Fun thread! I love this kind of tinkering. If the barrel is chambered so narrow as to be a spoilsport, could the nipple end be shellaced over a long, thin sac, rather than the other way around?

Edited November 14, 2012 by Flounder

[dcpritch]

Fun thread! I love this kind of tinkering. If the barrel is chambered so narrow as to be a spoilsport, could the nipple end be shellaced over a long, thin sac, rather than the other way around?

 

I don't think so. The section is sized so that a standard mini cartridge just fits inside it. There is a minimal amount of friction, but it is a tight fit. I'm trying out a shorter cartridge, with less than 1/4" showing outside the section, just enough to attach a sac. More to come ...