Decided To Call It Quit On Lamy

[Namo]

Are you serious?

Yes. You buy spare tires and have the garage handle them. I don't know how your insurance system work, but here, if I make a repair on my electric system and have a problem, my insurance will not cover the damages. I can buy some meds free of doctor presciption, it does not mean I can use them without a professionnal advise. I don't if this is still the case, but Yafa was selling all kind of Lamy parts, including L2K. But it very clear you play with the pen at your own risk. And so it goes.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Namo

[Namo]

Guess 3 years of swapping the nibs on my pens counts as experience, right? I mean, it wasn't a case of me out of the blue just swapping for the first time, ink or otherwise.

 

BTW if I swap "pen" for "computer" I would be forever condemned to fountain pen hell then! I assembled my own computers back in the 90's. My current MBP was memory upgraded and it's hard drive was replaced by a solid-state one by me too. Actually one of the reasons I've been reluctant to upgrade to the retina versions is the fact that now everything is soldered to the motherboard.

Sure. But if you break your computer in doing so I seriously doubt the warranty will apply

[Pen Engineer]

umph!

 

Lamy nibs can be changed, but the feed was not designed for that. A few times during a lifetime but not every five minutes. It needs some skill to do this job.

 

1) the nib is metal, the feed is plastic. They are held together by friction. Something is going to wear.

 

2) the nip end of the feed is designed that it pushes slightly against the nib. Plastic flows over time. The pressure reduces and you end up with a snug fit between feed and nib. No gap, no drying out of ink.

 

3) components come with tolerances. A slightly different nib may push the feed (elastically) more and when you replace the nib with another one, you may end up with a gap. Depending how big (up to 0.3) the feed will relax and close the gap, again. May take a few days or week.

 

I would recommend if you need different width and you doing it professionally, why not get several pens...

 

Feeds and sections come with tolerances. At the top and bottom of the feed and at the circumference of the feed where it meets the open end of the sections are tiny ridged, which are meant to deform, get squashed to compensate for the tolerances and guarantee a firm fit. This will vary. Feed and section are made from similar material and under pressure they fuse. How much depends on the pressure and the time period. Pulling the feed out rips or rubs off those tiny ridges and the fit will become looser. They are not meant to be taken out.

 

Hope that was not too much.

[gammada]

umph!

 

Lamy nibs can be changed, but the feed was not designed for that. A few times during a lifetime but not every five minutes. It needs some skill to do this job....

 

Hope that was not too much.

Too much? What a coincidence! Guess what I was reading this morning while having my coffe? Your blog!

 

Au contraire! Your insight is very appreciated by me. I've already got a ton of Lamy pens but after having a second look at the feed that's stuck, I was coming to the same conclusion on the effect of swapping the nibs on a frequent basis. So even thou am not sure I will keep buying Lamys, I must certainly keep at least two pens inked with the same color so as to avoid swapping nibs.

 

Hats off to you and your awesome work. Really impressed!

[Fuzzy_Bear]

I pulled the feed off of my first Al-Star. Bought a new section, and had an extra nib.

[EdeIstein88]

I pulled the feed off of my first Al-Star. Bought a new section, and had an extra nib.

 

same case like my friend

[a m a r g o]

umph!

 

Lamy nibs can be changed, but the feed was not designed for that. A few times during a lifetime but not every five minutes. It needs some skill to do this job.

 

1) the nib is metal, the feed is plastic. They are held together by friction. Something is going to wear.

 

2) the nip end of the feed is designed that it pushes slightly against the nib. Plastic flows over time. The pressure reduces and you end up with a snug fit between feed and nib. No gap, no drying out of ink.

 

3) components come with tolerances. A slightly different nib may push the feed (elastically) more and when you replace the nib with another one, you may end up with a gap. Depending how big (up to 0.3) the feed will relax and close the gap, again. May take a few days or week.

 

I would recommend if you need different width and you doing it professionally, why not get several pens...

 

Feeds and sections come with tolerances. At the top and bottom of the feed and at the circumference of the feed where it meets the open end of the sections are tiny ridged, which are meant to deform, get squashed to compensate for the tolerances and guarantee a firm fit. This will vary. Feed and section are made from similar material and under pressure they fuse. How much depends on the pressure and the time period. Pulling the feed out rips or rubs off those tiny ridges and the fit will become looser. They are not meant to be taken out.

 

Hope that was not too much.

Indeed!

 

Hardly an issue with the design or QC from Lamy...

[senzen]

Seems like bad luck! I have exactly the opposite experience, but there is no need to suffer, best to move on. I'm on my seventh Safari Vista, they've been very reliable unless I managed to bend a nib or use a particularly stubborn ink like Rouge Hematite; but I have grown used to dismantling them to clean them and they work perfectly. The caps do look terrible though, with ink stuck in between the clear and silver bits.

 

My one Kaweco Sport I got as a gift has been a nightmare, first, good luck finding a converter that fits and isn't complete junk (like Kaweco's own), then realize the one converter that works can only suck in about a third of its already small capacity; then it burps without reason, landing big drops on my work; after the second time of gently wiping the nib with a paper towel, the gold came off the nib. Still, mustn't grumble at gifts!

[Pen Engineer]

.... but there is no need to suffer, best to move on. .... Still, mustn't grumble at gifts!

I like your philosophical inserts as well as the line in your signature. ...and that's why the stupid rule and are successful, because they can't see the problem... and if something goes wrong they blame others and try again. It's a numbers' game.

[Runnin_Ute]

I had the threads on a Al Star section break once - 10+ years after the fact and it didn't occur to me that it might be a manufacturer defect. Because I knew it wasn't. The pen was in a pen sleeve in my bag when it happened. I forked over the $25 for the section plus nib replacement part.

 

Changing the nibs frequently, especially using that tape method, sooner or later the feed is going to work loose. If it had happened without ink in it, you probably would have looked closer and not just tried jamming it in. I have had weird things happen with an inked pen. And I was so concerned about getting ink everywhere that looking close isn't something you do. It's a natural reaction.

 

The weirdness with the other pen, don't know what to say, other than I am glad you got it figured out. (Bought my Al Star in 1998- still using original converter) The cap doesn't stay as tight as it once did though. It was my first FP and it and a Waterman Phileas were all I had for nearly 15 years.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Runnin_Ute

[gammada]

Seems like bad luck! I have exactly the opposite experience, but there is no need to suffer, best to move on. I'm on my seventh Safari Vista, they've been very reliable unless I managed to bend a nib or use a particularly stubborn ink like Rouge Hematite; but I have grown used to dismantling them to clean them and they work perfectly. The caps do look terrible though, with ink stuck in between the clear and silver bits.

 

My one Kaweco Sport I got as a gift has been a nightmare, first, good luck finding a converter that fits and isn't complete junk (like Kaweco's own), then realize the one converter that works can only suck in about a third of its already small capacity; then it burps without reason, landing big drops on my work; after the second time of gently wiping the nib with a paper towel, the gold came off the nib. Still, mustn't grumble at gifts!

 

 

My Vista has no ink stuck anywhere. Have you used your Vistas as eye-droppers?

 

BTW My experience with Kaweco has been entirely different. I find them to be better writers off-the-shelf than many of my Lamys and their M nibs are as fine as than most of my Lamy F nibs too. Totally agree there's no such thing as a converter alternative unfortunately. I syringe-fill my cartridges.

[gammada]

I had the threads on a Al Star section break once - 10+ years after the fact and it didn't occur to me that it might be a manufacturer defect. Because I knew it wasn't. The pen was in a pen sleeve in my bag when it happened. I forked over the $25 for the section plus nib replacement part.

 

 

$25 for a section and nib? Did you know that you can buy a new Al-star pen on Amazon for less than $30?

 

I just threw away the pen.

[Pen Engineer]

The weirdness with the other pen, don't know what to say, other than I am glad you got it figured out. (Bought my Al Star in 1998- still using original converter) The cap doesn't stay as tight as it once did though. It was my first FP and it and a Waterman Phileas were all I had for nearly 15 years.

Firstly, pens, fountain pens in particular, are magic.

Secondly, the inner cap may have gone tired. It happens. It can be exchanged easily... just hard to get an inner cap. Have it fixed by a pen repairer.

[Pen Engineer]

I syringe-fill my cartridges.

Me too