Pelikan M1000 - How many drops does your barrel hold?

In ,
LarryW wrote:

J. Fabian suggested that I might try some
lithium grease to improve the vaccum seal around the piston. It's
conceivable the suction might be weak.

Just a small correction: that should be *silicone* grease. It should be the
right kind, too, but if you get it from one of the sources he mentioned
(Tryphon Enterprises is another), it will be.

Brian
--

I do want to make a small point here.
If a piston assembly is removed and not properly returned into the
barrel, the amount of piston travel will be affected. The whole
mechanism is very clever, and has to be reinserted correctly.

Pelikanyo Paul

"BL" wrote in message
news:lyPMh.15969$1a6.2953@trnddc08...
LarryW wrote:

I went into nibs.com and followed advice and
got both tines to line up together. The pen
now writes as smoothy as any other. I
figured if I messed it up, I could still send
the mistake back and get a free replacement.
I'm surprised what little effort it took on
my part to get it sorted out. Tine was the
same size after getting it straighened!

Yep, most of the time when a pen doesn't write smoothly, all it needs
is a little tine adjustment. One should always visually inspect the
tines and adjust them before considering more drastic measures like
smoothing/sanding. John's instructions are the best I've seen on the
web.

I'm afraid I'll never see more than 1/4 of
the window (if that much.)

Does yours have a striped barrel or a solid barrel? When you screw
down the piston knob and the piston seal inside the pen retracts or
pulls up, it only retracts so far. That may be a quarter of the way up
the barrel, but that's how the pen is designed. The ink chamber is the
space between the bottom of the piston seal when it's in its highest
position (piston knob screwed down completely) and the top of the
feed. In the striped pens, the clear stripes run the entire length of
the barrel. That doesn't mean you're supposed to see ink from one end
of the barrel to the other. The ink chamber is, by design, only a
small fraction of the entire volume of the barrel.

In the solid pens, there's usally a green transparent ink window
between the top of the section and the bottom part of an opaque
section of the barrel. When the pen is full, ink should cover the
window when the pen is held nib down.

I don't know how many pages you should be I
haven't decided whether or not to return pen
for that reason by itself. It may in fact be
engineered that way. If this is the case, I
wonder if it isn't a flaw. It has good flow
and it glides like butter across the page.
This makes me very satisfied. -LarryW

I wish I could see the pen. I'm having difficulty picturing what you
think is wrong with the pen. -- B

LarryW wrote:

I have the green striped barrel. Through the
translucent window, I can see the sillouette of the
internal works (piston, archimedean screw etc.) When
I draw ink into the chamber, I shouldn't be able to
see "empty" occupying the space below the piston. It
should be visibly occupied with ink. I did believe I
should only see light from the top of the piston all
the way up the shaft surrounding the screw. Perhaps
this is not the case.

This is indeed the case.

J. Fabian suggested that I might try some lithium
grease to improve the vaccum seal around the piston.
It's conceivable the suction might be weak.

If the suction was weak, you'd probably have ink seeping behind the
piston seal and staining the inside of the barrel above the ink
chamber (pen held nib down). If you can hear sucking or bubbling
sounds when you fill the pen (like the sound you hear when you suck up
the last drops of a soda through a straw), then you're inadvertently
letting air in while you're filling the pen. This would explain your
problem. You really have to submerse the entire nib and a good portion
of the section to ensure a good fill. I'd be surprised as heck if
anything was wrong with the piston seal. Those seals are hard as
rocks, and everything is manufactured to extremely high tolerances. I
can imagine a problem with suction if, for example, the inside of the
barrel was damaged in some way (warped by excessive heat, damaged by
some basement bomber ink). Short of that, it's hard to imagine a
modern Pelikan failing to fill completely because of poor suction.

Honestly, there may be nothing at all wrong with
then pen. There may be a misunderstanding on my part
as to it's expectations. Apparently 20 drops
capacity of ink may be generous regardless of how
much it is(n't) showing. This amount afterall is
liberal compared to what the Phileas or other
similar converters hold. -LarryW

Again, I'd love to see the pen. I've had and still have a ton of Pelis
and have never experienced a problem with poor suction. I had an
old-style tortoise that came with a seized up piston mechanism that
was easily cured by smearing a little silicon grease on the inside of
the barrel. Otherwise, I've found them to be among the best of the
best in terms of trouble-free performance. Good luck --- B

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:14:01 -0500, "LarryW"
wrote:

Oddly, I just
ran into a recipe scrolled in a very old book using drams and drops
(elixir of wormwood was one of the ingredients I immediately recall.)

OK, just a guess - chocolate chip cookies.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

"Paul G" wrote in message
...
I do want to make a small point here.
If a piston assembly is removed and not properly returned into the
barrel, the amount of piston travel will be affected. The whole
mechanism is very clever, and has to be reinserted correctly.

Pelikanyo Paul

Please pardon my delayed response. Your feedback was most helpful in
my final conclusion that there indeed is nothing wrong with the piston
function. It was my lack of previous experience with Pelikan. I simply
thought that I should be seeing more ink within the chamber. I agree
with your positive opinion regarding the overall quality of the brand.
Twenty drops of ink is a respectable amount of ink that the pen will
hold. I was also comparing my Pelly to some of my ancient pens that
use the bladder. I believe the M1000 will outlive me. Also I
appreciate the inspiration received in the group to take a chance and
readjust the allignment of the nib. Indeed this was a problem and I
feel good that I was able to fix it myself.

I was just thinking about all the cheap 29 cent Wearevers (?) that I
intentionally sabotaged because I hated them so much. They gave a
scratch, gnash & cut right out of the "10 Cent Store" display. We're
speaking circa 1956. I think Eversharp (?) made a more expensive
version setting one back a whole dollar. Oh those old days. It took
months of saved lunch money just to break away... and get that great
hooded Parker that lasted me through Jr. High. It is amazing how so
much of everything has changed, except for fountain pens. For this
reason, a "perfect" idea evolved into a classic. It's a shame that
billions of people will never have an opportunity to see, let alone
writing with one. I suppose when oil is $300 a barrel and plastics
become prohibitively expensive, people may once again revert back to
fountain pens. -LarryW

"BL" wrote in message
news:%ngNh.1643$8l2.345@trnddc01...
Again, I'd love to see the pen. I've had and still have a ton of
Pelis
and have never experienced a problem with poor suction. I had an
old-style tortoise that came with a seized up piston mechanism that
was easily cured by smearing a little silicon grease on the inside
of
the barrel. Otherwise, I've found them to be among the best of the
best in terms of trouble-free performance. Good luck --- B

Please excuse my delayed response. I agree with your opinion. Don't
think the pen is not performing contrary to its design. My head was
somewhere off in left-field when I drew such conclusion. I've even
decided not to send it in for service. I think my greatest concern
right now is to find more "fountain-pen friendly" writing paper. The
nib is scratchy with my current stationery that happens to come from
Crane. In contrast, the nib glides across some of my cheaper writing
tablet paper. Big thanks to your feedback and encouragement. -LarryW

"LarryW" wrote in message
...
snip
...I think my greatest concern
right now is to find more "fountain-pen friendly" writing paper. The
nib is scratchy with my current stationery that happens to come from
Crane. In contrast, the nib glides across some of my cheaper writing
tablet paper. Big thanks to your feedback and encouragement. -LarryW

I vote for Clairefontaine!

--
Moira

Am 8 Apr 2007, Moira Perkins schrieb:



"LarryW" wrote in message
...
snip
...I think my greatest concern right now is to find more
"fountain-pen friendly" writing paper.

[...]

I vote for Clairefontaine!

Clairefontaine gets a meh from me. I vote for garden variety Japanese
paper & Rhodia.

--

In ,
LarryW wrote:

Also I
appreciate the inspiration received in the group to take a chance and
readjust the allignment of the nib. Indeed this was a problem and I
feel good that I was able to fix it myself.

I was just thinking about all the cheap 29 cent Wearevers (?) that I
intentionally sabotaged because I hated them so much. They gave a
scratch, gnash & cut right out of the "10 Cent Store" display. We're
speaking circa 1956.

It's funny, because I have a mid- to late-1930's Wearever that, in fact, had
a misaligned nib. After adjusting it, I've sometimes carried and used it.
A couple of people have tried it and thought it was a wonderful pen.
Incidentally, I guess they earned the "Wearever" moniker -- the tipping
looks (magnified) and feels absolutely brand-new.

Brian
--

I vote for Clairefontaine!

--
Moira

I second that.

Gordon