From Vac to Eye Dropper?

[Lugworm]

Hello
I don't have much love for the Vac filling system.  I never seem to have sufficient depth of ink, or my 30ml Diamine bottles are too small to actually insert a fountain pen.  I use a syringe to fill them.

I'm considering the idea of removing the diaphragm of the piston and turning it into an eye dropper.  I'm guessing it will work just fine without have to open the endcap up.

Has anyone actually tried this and did it work? 

[VacNut]

Are you referring to a Parker Vacumatic or another vac-type filling system?

[Lugworm]

TWSBI Vac, or Pilot 823, or Wing Sung 699 I was thinking.  

Just the one though if I as to do it.

[mke]

13 hours ago, Lugworm said:

Has anyone actually tried this and did it work? 

 

Have you considered that the feed might be overwhelmed by the (weight of the) ink?

I once tried to use a Platinum Preppy as eyedropper, the EF nib wrote like a B nib.

Just as a word of caution.

[SpencerianDream]

It dawned on me yesterday that a Vac-filler like the 823 is basically a Japanese eyedropper already, with the added refinement of automatically sucking some ink through the feed instead of requiring the eyedropper. 
 

My vote would be to leave as-is and invest in an “Ink Miser” or similar. Several of my bottles can’t easily accommodate sections of some of my pens, so this gadget is well worth it, IMO. Cheap and effective. 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

46 minutes ago, SpencerianDream said:

It dawned on me yesterday that a Vac-filler like the 823 is basically a Japanese eyedropper already, with the added refinement of automatically sucking some ink through the feed instead of requiring the eyedropper. 
 

My vote would be to leave as-is and invest in an “Ink Miser” or similar. Several of my bottles can’t easily accommodate sections of some of my pens, so this gadget is well worth it, IMO. Cheap and effective. 

This. Or just get one or two sample vials that are big enough to accommodate the pen in question and fill from them?

[Lugworm]

4 hours ago, mke said:

 

Have you considered that the feed might be overwhelmed by the (weight of the) ink?

I once tried to use a Platinum Preppy as eyedropper, the EF nib wrote like a B nib.

Just as a word of caution.

Caution noted.
Using a syringe, I tend to fill them to the brim usually anyway.

 

[ruby.monkey]

It would be a lot simpler just to use a Pineider pen filler to get a full fill of your vacuum-filler.

[Lugworm]

Pineider pen filler is £35
Syringe is free.

But the biggest issue is my vac systems all seem to be troublesome. 

  

[torstar]

Turning pens into an eyedropper didn't turn out all that great, burping left paint streaks on walls and floors, and just the ones that i saw.

 

The fad worse off soon after this. 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I have a few cheapie eyedroppers (mostly Noodler's Charlie pens that came free with bottles of ink).  And I've found that while they do hold a LOT of ink, they also tend to burp and drool when the fill gets to be below half or so.  Just a mess.  

Don't recall the Platinum Preppies that I set up with the rollerball heads being a whole lot better....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth