Loose Estie Fill Lever
Posted Sat Feb 11, 2012 in
Machines
I had a decent-looking Esterbrook LJ in my repair tray this morning. It’s from a group of pens I bought of fleabay a couple of months ago. This one doesn’t have any real problems, at least that I can detect. I see nothing of kinks or bulges, the clip is tight, no lip cracks on the cap, the cap band is stable, the jewels are whole, and there are no apparent crack in the barrel. The imprint is decent, if not perfect.
So, I pulled the section this morning and removed the old j-bar. It wasn’t awful, but had a little rust on it so I replaced it with a reproduction. I renewed the sack, cleaned up the barrel, the barrel threads, and the cap threads. After the sac shellac had time to dry, I dusted the new sac with talc and reassembled the pen.
I was a little uncomfortable with the tightness of the section in the barrel, so I was very careful. However, after I reassembled the pen, I noticed the fill lever was a little loose… as in it “drooped” when held lever-side down. So, I applied a little heat from the halogen lamp I keep on my desk (finger testing for warmth) and removed the section. It looked like the J-bar was properly aligned with the fill lever and in contact with the barrel. Hmmm…
I pulled the J-bar and examined it. I could see nothing wrong with it. A sketch of my replacement J-bars follows. 
I inserted a paper matchstick under the J-bar and replaced it. No joy. So, out it came again. I studied the J-bar a bit more, and noticed that the spring bar (which the fill lever presses) lies in a bit of channel that forms the pressure bar. The assembly is shown as Section A-A in the sketch. Apparently, there is just enough clearance between the pressure bar and the lip of the channel that the fill lever develops a small amount of play. It’s just enough that, when factored through the leverage of the fill lever, allows the spatula of the fill lever to clear the barrel of the pen.
What I did was insert a small screwdriver between the spring bar and pressure bar and put a slight kink or bend in the spring bar at the point of resting contact between the fill lever and the spring bar. I replaced the J-bar, rewarmed the pen barrel, and reassembled the pen. It took a couple of tries, but I finally managed to have the spatula of the fill lever stay almost in contact with the barrel. The problem is much reduced, to the point that I don’t expect it to be an issue for every-day carry.
The result is in the header image. Now I have a nice LJ Esterbrook in blue with a new 9556 fine nib. It will be a great writer and a nice addition to my rotation.
Is fleabay a real site? Just the day before yesterday, I finished writing two letters by hand. For now, I just used a uniball. The really surprising thing was how painful the writing was (the letters were of 500 words each approx.). Dunno if transitioning to fountains would lessen the hurt, but let’s see how long I keep the habit.
And a rather off-topic-y thing, but I just participated in a ‘Book We Love Blogfest’ where you write on your blog a few lines on your most loved books. Thought it will be interesting to see if you could make a similar post–now or some time later…
— Ajay 11 February 2012, 22:10 #Fleabay is sarcastic slang for eBay. :) One of the places I hang out online is Fountain Pen Network. It’s a term I picked up there.
It sounds like you have a death grip on the pen. I’m relearning how to hold a pen. I find that writing is far less painful if I relax my grip some (a lot) and let the pen do the work.
I’ll ruminate on the books I love meme and see what I come up with. I’m sure I can write something. :)
— ruminator 11 February 2012, 22:39 #