Breaking Surface Tension In A Convertor

[irish_monk]

I have several pens that use a Schmidt convertor. Frequently I find that the surface tension of the ink makes the ink stick to the sides and not flow down to the section. The movement of writing surprisingly doesn't help. I thought you good folks might have a suggestion. I've cleaned the convertors (even disassembled and really cleaned the inside), tried putting a little ball in the convertor (that just generally sinks to the bottom and acts like a plug), Diluted ink with distilled water (I did this because of flow issues in an unrelated pen but has helped for at least on of the convertor pens). Any advice?

[Mike 59]

With use, and even more flushing and cleaning this effect does seem to 'go away' to a certain amount.

I have tried filling and emptying 50 times over in a few minutes with warm water + detergent, which seems to help.

Also not too sure about the ball bearing, seems to do more blocking than anything useful.

If the ball bearing was plastic and floated on the ink surface then I would think it would make a difference, need to try this.

Thinking about it any shape would do, a cube of plastic say, as long as it floated on the surface. Only needs to be just less than the inside diameter of the converter (obviously!)

What worked for me was to wind 3 turns of 26g copper wire around a 2mm drill, and fit that inside the converter, it's not easy to make but really costs nothing to try.

[lsmith42]

Ball bearings work flawlessly, but any inert mechanical solution would work just as well.

[sd10521]

A few have tiny short springs in them, I found out when I took a Montblanc converter apart to clean and had no clue where the spring came from until I Googled it and was sent back to FPN.

I would give Mike 59's method a shot first before buying anything.

[ac12]

As lsmith42 said, a stainless steel ball bearing.

Plastic is too light. I have a couple with plastic balls, and the ball just gets trapped inside the ink in the back of the coverter. IOW it does nothing. It does not have enough weight to fall through and break the surface tension.

 

The problem for most of my converters is figuring how to open the converter without breaking it.

Edited October 26, 2014 by ac12

[mhosea]

I don't seem to have too much trouble with this--a little. I do see it from time to time, just not that often. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I use silicone grease in my converters.

[Hooker56]

Irish_monk,

 

I have the exact same challenge with a schmidt converter. Others I corrected with a BB. The schmidt opening, however, is just a little bigger and allows the BB to settle and block the ink flow. I tried a rather large brad (small nail) and clipped the head off so that the shaft rattles around in the converter and breaks the tension, It works well. it is small enough so that it doesn't block flow, yet large enough that it won't go into the feed channel. You can even bend it some so that it won't rattle around quite so much.

 

[Bill Wood]

I don't seem to have too much trouble with this--a little. I do see it from time to time, just not that often. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I use silicone grease in my converters.

I've tried numerous things for this problem - but I think Mike may be on to something - and I'm going to give it a whirl. It does make sense if you think about it. A very very thin film on the converter - placed there by the converter plunger may be just the ticket.

[Bill Wood]

Well - this is working so far. I took apart the standard internation converter for an Edison. With a cue tip I applied a very small amount of silicon grease. Put the converter back together again. Using Noodler's Purple Heart and the flow has been great and even all morning long. You may want to try that. I'm delighted it's working for me. Sounds like a very easy solution.

[PAKMAN]

Some great ideas here! Since I have silicon grease I may try that on one of the converters I am having the most trouble with! Thanks,