Despite mass production there are variations from product to product. This is why I want to refill my V pen; I have a lot of fountain pens which I use to draw cartoons and the odd sketch. I used a number of Pilot V pens then I lucked upon one that is just slightly different to the rest. When I apply normal pressure I get a normal line but when I apply very light pressure I get a line so fine it is almost grey. The pen behaves almost like a pencil. And this is with the M nib. I have been saving this pen for special drawings but it is finally running dry. Hence I want to refill. This looks like the best clip I have seen on this procedure. I definitely do not want to remove the nib as it might get damaged and I doubt I could get an inktight seal when reinserting it. I have fine nibs, broad nibs, calligraphy nibs and dip nibs. I have expensive ones also. Yet my favorite is this mass produced product in a plastic barrel. Thank you for taking the time to share this knowledge.
Hardtop Harry , u are most welcome. It is so unusual to meet an artist. I tried writing with hard/light strokes with my pen and the outcome is different from yours. i dont get the light grey line u described. hope that your pen will continue to give u years of use!
So err... knowing how to pull nib&feed out is kinda essential for cleaning. Also you seem to be afraid to do this stuff but it doesn't hurt to try this on a different one. On my pilot parallel pen I have pulled the feed out and it is airtight afterwards.
Thanks so much Kenneth, for the idea and for the spare supplies you sent me! I did your method with a Tradio refill, and it worked great. I have an mostly-empty red Tradio, and I will film that and post it. I like the felt-tip of the Tradios. I'm not picky about making exact colors. Actually, that's fun for me -- seeing what mixes happen. I used Noodler's Eel Blue in the nearly-empty black Tradio, and I got a pretty teal/mallard blue. I am looking forward to whatever color I get out of the red Tradio. I would like a darker/richer red than what is normally in the red Tradios, so I might try a blend of black and Herbin Cyclamen with the red ink left in the Tradio.
pure genius...the link was shared via an amazon product answer! This was well presented! SO glad to know I could reuse these...anything is better than throwing away more plastic in this world. I love preppy fountain pens...not too pricey and there are cartage replaceable but there are HACKS to just refill them...always the possibility of a vacuum leak. i'm looking at an OLIKA but it has a hole in the end...might try a simple malleable eraser OR maybe some silicone or maybe some sculpt clay? TY again for this lesson! love, peace and write on!
👏 Nice work Kenneth. Loved how effortless you made this look and WOW not alot of mess (don't like inky fingers 😛). I've used these FP for a long, long time📆 and so happy they're still around! They're such good, reliable pens (no problems ever) and they sure keep my expensive stuff...umm...safe. After I'm back from my vacation🍹; it looks like I'll be doing alot (and I mean Alot) of refilling at some point ✒!! Thanks for sharing this... 💋 🇨🇦
Genial. Contribuyendo a un mundo menos contaminado. Eso seguramente afectará de manera importante la venta de este tipo de instrumentos de escritura..... difícil encontrar el equilibrio. Saludos cordiales desde Medellín, Colombia.
Very nice. You didn't even have to use gloves. A couple questions -- did you measure the amount of ink that you loaded? What size plastic tube is that, and where did you get it? Oh, and nice background music, too :D
Amount of ink is about 2ml. To estimate, 2cm height of ink in the tube. The diameter of the pen's section is 10mm. So any flexible tubes whose internal diam is slightly less will work, eg: 9mm or 3/8". Most tubes can be purchased at hardware shops, fish tank accessories shops, car accessories shops. If u don't mind the wait, email me your addrs and I'll send u a set. I still hv a couple of sets left. If u are not working, I'll pay for the shipping. U can pass the favor on to someone else when the opportunity arise :-)
Kenneth Lee Thanks. I'm happily retired, which means I have lots of time to browse the various shops; I'm sure I can find some downtown. I'm in no hurry -- it's going to be quite a long time before I'll be refilling one of my Varsities. Oh, and I measured my syringe -- it's exactly right
Do these pens take regular fountain pen ink or is it thicker stuff? It would be irresponsible not to attempt to re-use them. Even though I have got loads of other pens that cost far more. Because I tend to favour iron-gall ink. Hero 232 bl/blk, Diamine Registrars Ink, KWZ Iron-Gall Blue #1. All stuff you wouldn't dream of feeding to a top-rank pen.
any fountain pen ink will work. worse case if it ever gums up, just get another, or replace the feed/nib assembly with a chinese Lamy version costing a few cents.
I hv used pelikan 4001 and parker quink. If after filling, the pen doesnt write, there might be an air bubble inside the nib. Do this th-cam.com/video/n_-IZ5TtURo/w-d-xo.html
in aliexpress.com look out for the Safari compatible looking pens. Hero 336 writes well too. But they can’t beat varsity in ink capacity; they need to be refilled weekly and used every few days. Preppy is just as good. i think india has quite a number of locally made pens but i don’t the prices.
@@leewmlee I'm an architect hence a pen serving both purposes of writing and drawing will be a good option..hero 336 is a good writer but wonder how good hooded nibs wud be for drawing
@@MP-lb1bv For architect drawings, I think a pen like the Pilot Hitech point would be better. It has a needle point, roller ball, tip nib that's better for using with rulers and templates. With normal fountain pen nibs, at certain angles, the ink won't flow. The same method of refilling the pen can be used except that the inner diameter of the tube should be 8mm as the diameter of the section is 9mm. There are some syringes whose internal diameter can fit over the section tightly so no tube is necessary. Just cut the front part of syringe and fit it over the pen. Unlike the Varsity nib which can write "forever", the Hitech point nib wears out much faster; the ball will fall out eventually.
@@MP-lb1bv it’s great that u are taking the trouble to reduce plastic usage doing this when disposable pens are so inexpensive these days. some countries make customers pay for plastic bags; just another form of taxation at the end of the day.
You can probably get the tube from aquarium / hardware shops. Any tube with internal diameter of 9mm should work. Good luck. If u still encounter difficult, u can contact me but the postage etc would cost more than what u can get locally ...
What's that exact fitting tube? If one can't figure that and not explained how does this whole video be of any help? Sometimes even a word if not spoken but written as subtitles is of great importance for the viewer
it’s a vinyl tube inner diameter 9mm. it was explained in earlier videos and i mistakenly assumed that viewers would view the earlier videos first. all the refilling videos were created when a better method was discovered. pls checkout the fountain pen’s friend video. it is an ink container that can also be used to fill up the pen.
@@MP-lb1bv I previously bought mine at amazon. I could send u some for the price of postage but I found that you can buy it cheaper online at aliexpress.com. Search for "tube ID 9mm" (ID=inner diameter). U can buy vinyl, PVC, silicon etc as long as inner diameter is 9mm and the material is slightly stretchy (the diameter of the pen's section is 10mm). It's used for motor cycle fuel lines, aquariums, coffee maker repairs, etc.
Richard Clintone, the syringe is also about 9mm external diameter. It can be a bit smaller/larger, as long as the tube can accommodate it and form a tight seal. I had a syringe in my toolbox whose internal diameter was 9mm and it didn't require any tube coupling. I had it for so many years and when I wanted to buy it again, couldn't find it anywhere, hence the tube coupling...
The coupler is just a flexible vinyl plastic tube with 9mm internal diameter, about 5cm in length. A well stocked hardware shop should have it or a fish tank supply shop.
Wouldn't it be easier to just pull the feed out and use an eyedropper to fill the barrel? That's the way I've always done it, and it takes one or two gushes under water to clean out the ink from the eyedropper.
I used to do that too and it worked for some years until I broke the feed :-( U can see where it broke in one of the videos I uploaded. This method puts no stress on the feed and it can probably be passed down as an heirloom ... lol I also found that once the tools are available, it was less messy and it took less time to refill the Varsity.
It came about after 25+ years of tinkering, trial and error. Lying in bed in my "alpha state" one day, it dawned on me that when ink gets used up, air must flow in to take its place. I asked "what if" I could suck air out of the pen body and let ink flow in to equalise the pressure? Sort of the reverse process. I happened to have in my box of "stuff", an old syringe that fitted the pen section tightly. So using the syringe, I sucked out the air and let ink flow in. It worked on the first try. It is documented here: th-cam.com/video/SEdJyrSEsMc/w-d-xo.html. One of the happiest day of my life after 25yrs of toiling. Then I tried buying that special sized syringe in all the pharmacies I could find without success. So I spent another couple of years trying to figure out how best to make the seal using available syringes ... and came across large bore plastic tubes. So it was a step by step process ...
You gotta be extremely dedicated to coming up with thousands of ways to pressure fill a varsity. However little you seem to know that you can just pull the nib&feed out...
yep, hv been drilling holes, pulling nib out etc, but those methods would eventually destroy the pen. hence, the long search for these methods that do not destroy the pen 😃
To solve scratchy nibs, google "nib smoothening" or just try another. But at $2-3, it won't have the same glide as the more expensive fountain pens that use better quality nibs :) I have used this refill method to refill other pens that use water soluble inks like the pilot vtech roller balls; these are much smoother than tined nibs.
Even stepping up to the Pilot Metro fountain, you get so much more smoothness. It compares to any rollerball I've ever used. I'm sticking with fountains for now, just need to spend more than $3 on one to be happy with the performance.
My preppy cracked on me, the section :-( it is made of some kind of brittle plastic. The plastic of the varsity on the otherhand, is not as brittle. Some kind of tough plastic that wknt crack.
![[Part 1] รักมาไม่ทันตั้งตัว❤ หนุ่มสาวโสดถูกจับมาแต่งงานกันกะทันหัน แถมเธอยังเป็นหัวหน้าของเขา?!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/y2pOOMkuFI0/mqdefault.jpg)
Despite mass production there are variations from product to product. This is why I want to refill my V pen; I have a lot of fountain pens which I use to draw cartoons and the odd sketch. I used a number of Pilot V pens then I lucked upon one that is just slightly different to the rest. When I apply normal pressure I get a normal line but when I apply very light pressure I get a line so fine it is almost grey. The pen behaves almost like a pencil. And this is with the M nib.
I have been saving this pen for special drawings but it is finally running dry. Hence I want to refill.
This looks like the best clip I have seen on this procedure. I definitely do not want to remove the nib as it might get damaged and I doubt I could get an inktight seal when reinserting it.
I have fine nibs, broad nibs, calligraphy nibs and dip nibs. I have expensive ones also. Yet my favorite is this mass produced product in a plastic barrel.
Thank you for taking the time to share this knowledge.
Hardtop Harry , u are most welcome. It is so unusual to meet an artist. I tried writing with hard/light strokes with my pen and the outcome is different from yours. i dont get the light grey line u described.
hope that your pen will continue to give u years of use!
@@leewmlee Hope you show me how to pump uni ball vision elite ink pen. Looking forward to helping
So err... knowing how to pull nib&feed out is kinda essential for cleaning. Also you seem to be afraid to do this stuff but it doesn't hurt to try this on a different one. On my pilot parallel pen I have pulled the feed out and it is airtight afterwards.
Thanks so much Kenneth, for the idea and for the spare supplies you sent me! I did your method with a Tradio refill, and it worked great. I have an mostly-empty red Tradio, and I will film that and post it. I like the felt-tip of the Tradios. I'm not picky about making exact colors. Actually, that's fun for me -- seeing what mixes happen. I used Noodler's Eel Blue in the nearly-empty black Tradio, and I got a pretty teal/mallard blue. I am looking forward to whatever color I get out of the red Tradio. I would like a darker/richer red than what is normally in the red Tradios, so I might try a blend of black and Herbin Cyclamen with the red ink left in the Tradio.
Looking forward to your video how u refilled the Tradio. I would be most interested to see how long the felt nib lasts.
pure genius...the link was shared via an amazon product answer! This was well presented! SO glad to know I could reuse these...anything is better than throwing away more plastic in this world. I love preppy fountain pens...not too pricey and there are cartage replaceable but there are HACKS to just refill them...always the possibility of a vacuum leak. i'm looking at an OLIKA but it has a hole in the end...might try a simple malleable eraser OR maybe some silicone or maybe some sculpt clay? TY again for this lesson! love, peace and write on!
Neat trick, using this method also allows one to fill the pen to the limit it seems
That is brilliant...u just turned a disposable pen into a vacuum filler! Just have to find the right tubing size now!
Nice, Very Innovative technique..............
Thanks so much for sharing this idea. Pure genius, Kenneth!
Satisfying to watch the ink seeping into the pen!
👏 Nice work Kenneth. Loved how effortless you made this look and WOW not alot of mess (don't like inky fingers 😛). I've used these FP for a long, long time📆 and so happy they're still around! They're such good, reliable pens (no problems ever) and they sure keep my expensive stuff...umm...safe. After I'm back from my vacation🍹; it looks like I'll be doing alot (and I mean Alot) of refilling at some point ✒!! Thanks for sharing this... 💋 🇨🇦
Man, that's absolute genius!
Soooo good, to reuse in a clean and clever way.
That’s brilliant!!!
Clever refilling method
You have a new subscriber, good man!
Genial. Contribuyendo a un mundo menos contaminado. Eso seguramente afectará de manera importante la venta de este tipo de instrumentos de escritura..... difícil encontrar el equilibrio.
Saludos cordiales desde Medellín, Colombia.
Pure voodoo, awesome!
Excellent.
Where can you buy smaller quantities of the tubing?
Very nice. You didn't even have to use gloves. A couple questions -- did you measure the amount of ink that you loaded? What size plastic tube is that, and where did you get it?
Oh, and nice background music, too :D
Amount of ink is about 2ml. To estimate, 2cm height of ink in the tube. The diameter of the pen's section is 10mm. So any flexible tubes whose internal diam is slightly less will work, eg: 9mm or 3/8". Most tubes can be purchased at hardware shops, fish tank accessories shops, car accessories shops. If u don't mind the wait, email me your addrs and I'll send u a set. I still hv a couple of sets left. If u are not working, I'll pay for the shipping. U can pass the favor on to someone else when the opportunity arise :-)
Kenneth Lee Thanks. I'm happily retired, which means I have lots of time to browse the various shops; I'm sure I can find some downtown. I'm in no hurry -- it's going to be quite a long time before I'll be refilling one of my Varsities. Oh, and I measured my syringe -- it's exactly right
@@leewmlee Excellent info, maybe you can add it plus ink types recommendation to the description, below the video.
Hope you show me how to pump uni ball vision elite ink pen. Looking forward to helping
just try doing exactly the same steps
Thank you so much for this ridiculously helpful tip!
Do these pens take regular fountain pen ink or is it thicker stuff? It would be irresponsible not to attempt to re-use them. Even though I have got loads of other pens that cost far more.
Because I tend to favour iron-gall ink. Hero 232 bl/blk, Diamine Registrars Ink, KWZ Iron-Gall Blue #1. All stuff you wouldn't dream of feeding to a top-rank pen.
any fountain pen ink will work. worse case if it ever gums up, just get another, or replace the feed/nib assembly with a chinese Lamy version costing a few cents.
Very useful tips! Thank u. Gonna to look for the flexible tube!
Genius!!! Simple physics trick!
Ingenious!
Please reshoot video showing the movement of the syringe plunger (which is currently out of camera range). Thank you.
It's not very interesting ... it looks exactly like this th-cam.com/video/D27CjXwqmjo/w-d-xo.html
pure genius
Impressive
Mr Lee which ink can I refill uniball micro in my country pelikan and Parker are available
I hv used pelikan 4001 and parker quink. If after filling, the pen doesnt write, there might be an air bubble inside the nib. Do this th-cam.com/video/n_-IZ5TtURo/w-d-xo.html
Which are other good fountain pens according to you around this price range ?
in aliexpress.com look out for the Safari compatible looking pens. Hero 336 writes well too. But they can’t beat varsity in ink capacity; they need to be refilled weekly and used every few days. Preppy is just as good. i think india has quite a number of locally made pens but i don’t the prices.
@@leewmlee I'm an architect hence a pen serving both purposes of writing and drawing will be a good option..hero 336 is a good writer but wonder how good hooded nibs wud be for drawing
@@MP-lb1bv For architect drawings, I think a pen like the Pilot Hitech point would be better. It has a needle point, roller ball, tip nib that's better for using with rulers and templates. With normal fountain pen nibs, at certain angles, the ink won't flow. The same method of refilling the pen can be used except that the inner diameter of the tube should be 8mm as the diameter of the section is 9mm. There are some syringes whose internal diameter can fit over the section tightly so no tube is necessary. Just cut the front part of syringe and fit it over the pen. Unlike the Varsity nib which can write "forever", the Hitech point nib wears out much faster; the ball will fall out eventually.
@@leewmlee thnks for all the valuable information
@@MP-lb1bv it’s great that u are taking the trouble to reduce plastic usage doing this when disposable pens are so inexpensive these days. some countries make customers pay for plastic bags; just another form of taxation at the end of the day.
Nice video but just a question how can i get this tube ?
You can probably get the tube from aquarium / hardware shops. Any tube with internal diameter of 9mm should work. Good luck. If u still encounter difficult, u can contact me but the postage etc would cost more than what u can get locally ...
what Ink should I use to refill a Varsity?
I have tried Pelikan 4001 (Green, Blue, Black) and Parker Quink (Blue, Black, Blue Black) with great success.
clever
What's that exact fitting tube? If one can't figure that and not explained how does this whole video be of any help? Sometimes even a word if not spoken but written as subtitles is of great importance for the viewer
it’s a vinyl tube inner diameter 9mm. it was explained in earlier videos and i mistakenly assumed that viewers would view the earlier videos first. all the refilling videos were created when a better method was discovered. pls checkout the fountain pen’s friend video. it is an ink container that can also be used to fill up the pen.
@@leewmlee thnks..partly my mistake too thinking this was the only video.😊
@@leewmlee where could one get the 9mm tube and is mainly used for what purpose? That would give me clue as to what shops to look for here in India
@@MP-lb1bv I previously bought mine at amazon. I could send u some for the price of postage but I found that you can buy it cheaper online at aliexpress.com. Search for "tube ID 9mm" (ID=inner diameter). U can buy vinyl, PVC, silicon etc as long as inner diameter is 9mm and the material is slightly stretchy (the diameter of the pen's section is 10mm). It's used for motor cycle fuel lines, aquariums, coffee maker repairs, etc.
@@leewmlee I will be able to get this or it's equivalent from a hardware shop or an autospares shop or water purifier shop.
I see that the tubing is 3/8. What is the size of the syringe?
Richard Clintone, the syringe is also about 9mm external diameter. It can be a bit smaller/larger, as long as the tube can accommodate it and form a tight seal. I had a syringe in my toolbox whose internal diameter was 9mm and it didn't require any tube coupling. I had it for so many years and when I wanted to buy it again, couldn't find it anywhere, hence the tube coupling...
WHERE DO YOU GET THE COUPLER? thanks so much for making this video, smiles, grace
The coupler is just a flexible vinyl plastic tube with 9mm internal diameter, about 5cm in length. A well stocked hardware shop should have it or a fish tank supply shop.
OMG that easy!
Indeed it is!
U are enjoying the fruits of more than 25 years of trial/error and deep thinking.
Wouldn't it be easier to just pull the feed out and use an eyedropper to fill the barrel? That's the way I've always done it, and it takes one or two gushes under water to clean out the ink from the eyedropper.
I used to do that too and it worked for some years until I broke the feed :-(
U can see where it broke in one of the videos I uploaded. This method puts no stress on the feed and it can probably be passed down as an heirloom ... lol
I also found that once the tools are available, it was less messy and it took less time to refill the Varsity.
@@leewmlee Where did you get inspiration for this technique?
It came about after 25+ years of tinkering, trial and error. Lying in bed in my "alpha state" one day, it dawned on me that when ink gets used up, air must flow in to take its place. I asked "what if" I could suck air out of the pen body and let ink flow in to equalise the pressure? Sort of the reverse process. I happened to have in my box of "stuff", an old syringe that fitted the pen section tightly. So using the syringe, I sucked out the air and let ink flow in. It worked on the first try. It is documented here: th-cam.com/video/SEdJyrSEsMc/w-d-xo.html. One of the happiest day of my life after 25yrs of toiling. Then I tried buying that special sized syringe in all the pharmacies I could find without success. So I spent another couple of years trying to figure out how best to make the seal using available syringes ... and came across large bore plastic tubes. So it was a step by step process ...
Science 💗
You gotta be extremely dedicated to coming up with thousands of ways to pressure fill a varsity. However little you seem to know that you can just pull the nib&feed out...
yep, hv been drilling holes, pulling nib out etc, but those methods would eventually destroy the pen. hence, the long search for these methods that do not destroy the pen 😃
I use China ink called hero to refill uniball micro but not work
Try removing air bubble inside nib with this method th-cam.com/video/n_-IZ5TtURo/w-d-xo.html
What's the music please ?
sorry, it was so long so i forgot what it was. i found it in youtube’s music library under the blues genre. in future videos, i would add that info.
What type of ink was used
Parker Quink, Pelikan 4001 and many other water soluble inks were used successfully.
@@leewmlee thanks
Clever solution, but who on earth likes the Pilot Varsity enough to go through that trouble?
Maybe I got the wrong nib, but mine is scratchy.
To solve scratchy nibs, google "nib smoothening" or just try another. But at $2-3, it won't have the same glide as the more expensive fountain pens that use better quality nibs :) I have used this refill method to refill other pens that use water soluble inks like the pilot vtech roller balls; these are much smoother than tined nibs.
Even stepping up to the Pilot Metro fountain, you get so much more smoothness. It compares to any rollerball I've ever used.
I'm sticking with fountains for now, just need to spend more than $3 on one to be happy with the performance.
Music?
Sorry, i dont really remember what the title was. It was selected from the free music list that youtube provides, under the blues genre.
@@leewmlee it’s okay. Thanks for responding though 💪🏾
CAN THE MUSIC BE ANY LOUDER? I CAN'T SEEM TO HEAR IT AT ALL.
Atleast say what you are doing
"A picture is worth a thousand words?" 🙂 Will do next time. thx for feedback.
Or you could just buy a Platinum Preppy.
My preppy cracked on me, the section :-( it is made of some kind of brittle plastic. The plastic of the varsity on the otherhand, is not as brittle. Some kind of tough plastic that wknt crack.
I have no idea what I'm looking at. No instructions!
Not very clever then... F
thoroughly convinced now that refilling the Varsity is simply a colossal waste of time and resources. Thanks.