Vacumatic Flex- To Much Flow When Flexed, How To Adjust

[uilleann]

So a few weeks ago I got a beautiful Green Senior Maxima Parker Vacumatic. It writes beautifully. But I am really into flex pens for my spencerian and the nib on this pen did not flex much. So I have been on the hunt for a flex nib that would fit or another pen like this that would flex. Today I got one!! Its not as pretty and mostly looks black. It flexes from a fine to a BBBB Which is wonderful. BUT......around a medium to B line it starts shooting ink. No blobs but on Claire Fontaine Paper the BB to BBBB takes about 5 min to dry. I have an assortment of inks (none promoted to be "fast drying" inks) and they all behave about the same. When I write with my Watermans, Conklins, or eversharps they do not take this long to dry. At normal writing pressure the latest ink (Waterman intense black) dries in <5sec. The tines are set well. Its when I open the tines and pull back the nib from the feed that the flow happens.

 

Today I swapped nibs between the two but it seemed to make no difference. I am looking at getting faster drying inks. I guess I could live with it and just carry a blotter? Is there anything I can do to the feed to slow down the flow? Other ideas?

[ReadyFireAim]

No blobs but on Claire Fontaine Paper the BB to BBBB takes about 5 min to dry.

That sounds about right.

 

The worst thing about flex pens is adjusting ink flow.

Other things like color and drying time are almost too much to ask.

 

I had this flex pen that would only run on Visconti brown.

(I hated Visconti brown)

[uilleann]

That sounds about right.

 

The worst thing about flex pens is adjusting ink flow.

Other things like color and drying time are almost too much to ask.

 

I had this flex pen that would only run on Visconti brown.

(I hated Visconti brown)

 

Ok... that was a LOL moment for me .... thanks.

[ReadyFireAim]

Its when I open the tines and pull back the nib from the feed that the flow happens.... Is there anything I can do to the feed to slow down the flow? Other ideas?

 

On a more serious note...

Flow increases when the feed is further out of the pen and decreases when it is stuffed into the section more.

Sometimes 1/32" can make a difference.

 

The correct spacing between the nib & feed is one thickness of mylar paper near the tip of the feed.

Too much of a gap will cause dripping and/or railroading.

 

Dripping can sometimes be minimized by moving the feed out toward the tip of the nib.

This sometimes also helps with railroading.

 

Private Reserve makes fast drying ink.

I like it but many others do not & I'm almost afraid to recommend it.

 

What kind of flex pen do you have?

There are many tricks to tuning pens.

Some involve additives to ink like distilled water or Liquitex.

[hari317]

...I guess I could live with it and just carry a blotter? Is there anything I can do to the feed to slow down the flow?

Slowing down the flow will cause the nib to railroad. A sheet of blotting paper is the best idea.

[FarmBoy]

What is 'fine to BBBB' mean in terms of change in width?

[Inkling13]

What is the width of a BBBB nib? What is the width of a F nib? Its the transition to flex from F to BBBB width.

[Honeybadgers]

a quad broad flex is a nib that you're going to break. a lot of vacumatic flexy nibs are prone to snapping at the breathers, make sure yours doesn't have any hairline cracks at the breather already (I got burned on a vacumatic with that, thank god for Greg Minuskin and his laser welder,) and try to keep it under a BBB (1.5mm is about as far as you should regularly go on a nib, beyond that you're really into the dip nib territory, because you ARE work hardening that nib, even though gold is one of the most ductile metals in existence, it does work harden)

Edited February 14, 2018 by Honeybadgers

[FarmBoy]

What is the width of a BBBB nib? What is the width of a F nib? Its the transition to flex from F to BBBB width.

Is that in Metric units then?