# Ink window and piston



## Penultimate (Apr 13, 2018)

Greetings
I purchased a piston and piston barrel with ink window (#20223 & 20226) from Richard Greenwald and thought I'd share my design.

The parts are inexpensive I think the piston was $8 and the barrel was $0.30. 
As you can see from the photo the barrel consists of an ink window with a turn down area for the section and a black barrel with the same diameter as the ink window. The piston is nicely made with a straight knurled cap to advance and retract the piston.

For my design the barrel needs some modifications. The section area has a thread but I couldn't identify what type of nib unit it accepts. It doesn't accept a #5 or 6 nib unit.Luckily, that there was a small bore close to the ink window that I could drill out and tap for a #5 Schmidt nib. The black tube presented some design challenges as well. I thought I could turn down the OD a little and thread a 7/16-20 for a blind cap to cover the knurled piston nob. There wasn't enough wall thickness and I didn't check it so I messed it up and had to shorten the tube a little. I turned the black tube down to 7/16 so i could bore out the body. That leaves the body a little proud of the ink window. The 1/2-32 thread on the section is also proud of the ink window a little.

I used the nib cover provided and it seat the nib/section nicely but something happened and it didn't seat deep enough in the cap. I intention was for the ink window to be covered when capped. Oh well, I'll figure it out next time. 

I like the assembly and will probably make another.

The clip is handmade.

Thanks for looking. I posted more finished pen photos in SOYP


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## Curly (Apr 14, 2018)

Thanks for showing and describing what you went through to make the pen. Not many would take it all the way to the end when things are not going as planned.


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## stuckinohio (Apr 14, 2018)

Looks nice. The problem is, now you won't want to make anything other than piston pens! I know from experience


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## Penultimate (Apr 14, 2018)

Peter, hanks for the comment, I'm too cheap to abandon a build I have to fix it. 
Lewis, I think you are correct I like how they work. That's what I like about this hobby. There is so much to try and learn. 


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## jfr (Mar 3, 2019)

I would like to make a pen like this, jfr


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## Penultimate (Mar 5, 2019)

Hi John, with the ink window and piston from Richard Greenwald it’s pretty straight forward. Depending on your nib unit a 1/4 x50 tap works well for the threads. 


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