Inexpensive eyedropper pens...?

[smol_medic_hope]

I've only really gotten into fountain pens in the last year, but I've enjoyed using pens like TWSBI Go with built-in ink refill mechanisms and biiiiig ink capacity.

 

The Opus 88 has caught my eye, but, uh, budget. I wonder if there are inexpensive options for eyedropper pens - short of converting one with O-rings etc! (I don't trust my crafting skills enough)

 

Bonus if they're demonstrators

[A Smug Dill]

@smol_medic_hope Welcome to FPN.

 

I haven't needed to put O-rings in the Platinum Preppy and Sailor Profit Jr pens I have eyedropper-filled. The Sailor Profit Jr that I filled with Noodler's Ink Blue Ghost a couple of years ago still hasn't completely dried out, and as far as I know hasn't leaked at all in the meantime.

 

[MuddyWaters]

Check out the moon man M2 or better yet, the copy by hyl that costs a few dollars. It comes with o rings. 

[A Smug Dill]

Oh, and you could of course just eyedropper-fill a PenBBS 308, which is designed to be a c/c-filler but already has an otherwise unnecessary O-ring sitting inside a groove above the thread on the grip section, where it joins the barrel.

 

Majohn makes several pen models designed exclusively to be eyedropper-filled; the M2 as @MuddyWaters mentioned, as well as the S7, C1, Q1, etc.

[Runnin_Ute]

A number of Indian pens (Ranga, ASA, others) can be eyedropper filled. Either from the factory or otherwise. 

[Penguincollector]

Not a demonstrator, but this Pilot is an eye dropper and reasonably priced. The nibs are nice.
Pilot eye dropper

[smol_medic_hope]

Thanks all! Some really interesting suggestions here

 

3 hours ago, Runnin_Ute said:

A number of Indian pens (Ranga, ASA, others) can be eyedropper filled. Either from the factory or otherwise. 

I never had Indian brands on my radar, thanks for the heads up!

 

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Oh, and you could of course just eyedropper-fill a PenBBS 308...

I'd heard about penbbs pens but this is gonna prompt me to actually check them out...

 

16 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

Check out the moon man M2 or better yet, the copy by hyl that costs a few dollars. It comes with o rings. 

shortly after posting this I saw the Majohn (what used to be Moonman I believe) Q1 and C1 on ebay!

[dipper]

@smol_medic_hope ... if you tell us what buying locations you have easiest access to then someone is sure to recommend local retailers.

For example, if you were shopping in the UK then I could suggest Andy's Pens.

Try a search on that site for "eyedropper pen" to view 32 eyedropper pens, at prices from £4.20 up to £105.00.

https://www.andys-pens.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&sort=p.price&order=ASC&search=Eyedropper+pen&limit=100

 

[mtcn77]

Kaweco classic series are eyedropper friendly, however a major disclaimer: you cannot store the pen except nib side up. It is such a crazy design, it doesn't resemble a real pen, but it is comfortable.

[Silvicolus]

I've had good luck using a Waterman Kultur (mine is a blue demonstrator) as an eyedropper. The feed is complex enough that it doesn't burp much. I use a bit of silicon grease on the threads but otherwise I just fill the barrel with ink. No actual modifications needed.

[smol_medic_hope]

On 12/12/2022 at 12:48 AM, dipper said:

@smol_medic_hope ... if you tell us what buying locations you have easiest access to then someone is sure to recommend local retailers.

For example, if you were shopping in the UK then I could suggest Andy's Pens...

 

Of course yes I should have mentioned I am in the UK. Thanks for the rec for Andy's Pens, will check them out

 

29 minutes ago, Silvicolus said:

I've had good luck using a Waterman Kultur (mine is a blue demonstrator) as an eyedropper. The feed is complex enough that it doesn't burp much. I use a bit of silicon grease on the threads but otherwise I just fill the barrel with ink. No actual modifications needed.

a project for another day!

[ErrantSmudge]

Maybe too inexpensive, and I haven't tried it myself, but the Platinum Preppy is apparently very easy to convert to eyedropper.  In the USA both Anderson Pens and Goulet Pens sell the appropriate O-rings and silicone grease to seal the barrel.

[A Smug Dill]

3 minutes ago, ErrantSmudge said:

… the Platinum Preppy is apparently very easy to convert to eyedropper.

 

It's easy, in that no conversion is actually required; whatever the user does, however simply or cheaply, in that regard is superfluous. One can just fill a Platinum Preppy's barrel directly with ink, and screw the grip section back on, with or without first installing an O-ring around the thread on the grip section. I don't even know that applying silicone grease on the thread, which I sometimes do for other pens as well that are not eyedropper-filled, is strictly necessary to the observable outcome of ink not leaking from the join. I have three Preppy pens on which O-rings are installed, and five or more on which no O-rings are installed, that have been eyedropper-filled; and none of them has leaked ink from the join (and, yes, all of them wrote properly) between section and barrel for well over 18 months.

 

[dipper]

41 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

........and five or more on which no O-rings are installed, that have been eyedropper-filled; and none of them has leaked ink from the join........

Oh wow! I must try that. (Platinum Preppy eyedropper.)

 

In the past......

From a box set of 18 different sizes of small Nitrile Rubber o-rings I failed to find a suitable fit on my Preppies.

Comfortably snug fitting o-ring sizes simply popped out when the barrel and section were screwed together - ending up sitting around the outside of the barrel.

Tighter stretched o-ring sizes stayed in place, lightly silicone greased, when the barrel was screwed down gently. Two Preppies tested like that, without any ink. Next day one of the o-rings had ruptured. The other ring ruptured a day after that.

So I have been refilling cartridges since then.

 

Before I try the no-ring method can I please check that all Preppies are created equal?

 

Marked "Made in Japan", and purchased in the UK, my Preppies have a double start male threaded grip section - but have only a single start raised thread in the barrel. (The second thread is simply missing.)

Here are section and barrel partly unscrewed:

The black at left is ink, and the white ring floating inside is the business end of a Platinum cartridge.

Thread fit is rather floppy.

 

When screwed shut, the flat end face of the barrel does butt-up precisely against a raised shoulder on the section. Both those features are visible in the photo above.  Here they are pressed together:

 

Those two flat surfaces, pressed together, may be where @A Smug Dill has achieved a perfect ink-tight seal?

 

The raised shoulder on the grip section does have a beautiful smooth precision molding appearance.

The flat face end of the Preppy barrel is not perfectly flat. I see four small raised areas.....

 

Will that really seal safely? Or are some Preppies molded differently?

[MidSouthern-Dad]

Every time I've tried an O ring on a preppy, somewhere the plastic cracks.  

I just stick to the cartridges, which as almost infinitely refillable.

[OCArt]

The old Sheaffer No Nonsense pens made great eyedropper pens and can be picked up rather inexpensively. Be aware that the newer versions have a hole in the barrel designed to view the cartridge and are not suitable to eye-dropper.

[A Smug Dill]

On 12/16/2022 at 1:55 PM, dipper said:

Before I try the no-ring method can I please check that all Preppies are created equal?

…‹snip›…

Those two flat surfaces, pressed together, may be where @A Smug Dill has achieved a perfect ink-tight seal?

…‹snip›…

The flat face end of the Preppy barrel is not perfectly flat. I see four small raised areas.....

 

Will that really seal safely? Or are some Preppies molded differently?

 

I try not to mess with my eyedropper-filled Preppy pens unnecessarily, including for closer inspection, as long as they're still writing. However, seeing as all three of the ones dedicated to Sailor STORiA (Lion Light Brown, Night Blue, and Magic Purple) inks have totally clogged and ceased writing, I decided to clean and/or unclog them just now, but only as much as I needed to.

 

The blue and purple ones would have been last filled at least two, if not three, years ago. I think I had to unclog the yellow one in 2021, and refilled it while I was at it (because I screwed up, and ended up with a baby-poop coloured mess). All three pens live in a pen cup next to my wife's desk, and get written with very occasionally; none of them ever leaked at the join between barrel and grip section (or ever cracked, for that matter) while in use, or when laid on their sides on the desk or a writing surface.

 

I would usually put a small amount of silicone grease on the thread before resealing one of those pens, but that's about all the care I give them.

 

 

This time around, on the basis of how much ink was left in each pen's barrel, I:

• used a solution of clear ammonia and dishwashing detergent as the bath in which each nib and feed was put through ultrasonic cleaning;
• fully emptied the blue one, and cleaned the grip section as well as the barrel in the ultrasonic cleaner in between rounds of flushing;
• cleaned the grip section of the purple one in the same manner, but left the barrel still holding what remained of the purple ink, and only wiped the rim and thread on the barrel clean with a piece of paper towel; and
• rolled up a small strip of paper towel to unclog and wipe inside the round channel in the grip section of the yellow pen, but otherwise left it the way it was.

You can see how the pens looked before and after cleaning. The yellow and purple ones are now writing again with the old ink that remained fluid, whereas the blue one is disassembled and being naturally air-dried at the moment.

 

Yes, the rim on the barrels of the pens are not perfectly flat surfaces; but that hasn't caused any problems for me in all these years.

 

[dipper]

11 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Yes, the rim on the barrels of the pens are not perfectly flat surfaces; but that hasn't caused any problems for me in all these years.

Thanks for the photos and information. It appears that all Preppies are created equal, with shallow injection-molding steps on the barrel end face.

 

I have now tested a Preppy without any o-ring, and without any silicone grease, eyedropper filled with water. It seeped slightly from the barrel/grip-section joint.

 

The only difference in @A Smug Dill's method is the light smear of Silicone Grease. That could be the crucial factor?

 

Assuming that it is the (not-quite-flat) end face of the pen barrel and the shoulder on the grip-section that form an ink-proof seal, I have added a little Silicone Grease to the end face of a Preppy barrel, eyedropper filled with Quink Blue-black, and put this pen into use - but on strict probation...

 

When not actually held in my hand the pen lives inside its paper-towel storage tube.

One hour into its probation test, and not a trace of ink leakage is showing.

 

Also the pen is now writing wetter and more smoothly and evenly than when it was fitted with a refilled cartridge 🤗🤗🤗.

 

Note that I have not greased the screw threads. That is a considered choice, to explore exactly where grease is vital. Slightly risky - but worth taking the risk to gain knowledge.

I now see that when the pen is held nib downwards ink floods into the thread area, filling that area completely. The ink flows in the wide open helical gap where the barrel thread has one of the double-start threads missing.

When the pen is turned nib upwards the ink flows out of the threads again, back into the barrel.

No ink passes the greased sealing surfaces of barrel end-face and grip-section shoulder.

 

Of course I will give an update in a few days. So far though, this is all very good news.

[AceNinja]

44 minutes ago, dipper said:

 with shallow injection-molding steps on the barrel end face.

 

Assuming that it is the (not-quite-flat) end face of the pen barrel 

I think you've focused on the wrong area (the barrel end face which is not flat).  I think the main point is to stop the ink at the threads area, before they reach the barrel end face.  And hence silicone grease at threads area is crucial.

 

If using o-ring and no silicone grease, I think the O-ring should fit in slightly inside the barrel (ie not sitting at the barrel end face) the threads in order for it to be effective to stop ink from coming out.  Meaning when you completely screw the barrel, you should not see the o-ring, as it is inside (if preppy is opaque).  It has 2 advantage, 1) seal off the ink, 2) it makes the barrel snug against accidental barrel rotation.  Just like those Jinhao 992 or 82.

 

If the oring is sitting at the barrel end face, not only it does not seals the ink (due to the none flat barrel end face), and it does not help to prevent the accidental rotation.

 

*note that I've never eye droppered a preppy, or any other pen.  Just my gut feeling.

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure if you can buy them by themselves, but Noodler Charlies are eyedropper pens.  (They are generally packaged in with the four ounce Noodler's ink bottles, but three of mine were from the Commonwealth Pen Show a few years ago, when Nathan Tardif did three inks exclusive to the show (Miles Standish, King Philip's Requiem, and Plymouth Wilderness).  

The Charlie pens have clear barrels, and various color caps, and are about the same size as the Flex Piston Creapers (I believe that the caps may be interchangeable between the FPCs and Charlies).

One of mine has become the dedicated pen for Bay State Blue, so I can easily add a bit of distilled water to dilute the ink (my bottle of BSB feathers horribly otherwise).  Another is the pen for Noodler's Blue Ghost (the invisible ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth