I have two pens that do not work and I was wondering if anyone has any do-it yourself repair suggestions. I say do-it yourself, as both pens are cheap enough that having anyone repair them would cost more than the pens are worth.

(1) Wality eye dropper that will just drop blobs of ink while you are writing. I was able to push the nib into the pen about ¼”, but it did not help.
(2) Duke Shark – pen will write if you dip it, but once the dipped ink is gone, the pen is very dry to non-writing.

I have soap and water cleaned both pens.

Thanks, for any advice, as I am about ready to trash can both pens. Life is too short and using FP’s is too fun to put up with junk!

James

Hi James,

1)If this is a continuous happening then the symptom described would make me think of an air leak into the filler end of the pen, a pin hole in rubber or a joint not sealing, that sort of thing.

2) This sounds as though air isn't getting into the filler to replace the ink used. If the pen works after you hold it nib upward for a few minutes this would tend to confirm this, it suggests a blocked air bleed.

A quick check on the way the nib sits in relation to the feed might reveal another possible cause of the dryness, if the gap between the nib and feed is too big then ink will not be drawn down the feed as the ink on it is used.

Having pushed the nib further in on pen 1 might have made things worse not better as the feed and the nib may well be too close together or the feed may now be far too close to the tip of the nib which can cause excessive flow.

I am not familiar with either of the pens involved so I couldn't say exactly where to look or what to try to locate the hole or find the blockage other than to take them apart give all part thorough clean and examine sacs etc for obvious holes and feeds for blockages and reassemble carefully. Hope this is of some help, there will very likely be others along in a while who will high light firther possibilities. Cheers, John

Yes, the nib is a bit of a loose fit in mine also and I have had to force it back into its seat twice. That helps the ink dropping.

The other thing I had to do was switch to a thicker ink. I switched to Noodlers and that stopped the problem for me. YMMV

Thanks, I am through with both of these pens.

I had a couple of Wality pens that to be honest were absolute junk also, same sort of problems as yours. Mine went in the rubbish bin eventually.

The old adage of you get what you pay for is definitely true - I paid very little and I got very little

What surprises is me that there are people on the board that still mention Wality when people ask about "good" but cheap pens.

Too bad. My two Wality pens are performing at a very high level and to my personal satisfaction. The eyedropper (69L) did require a bit of adjustment and a switch to a thicker ink but it is doing exceptionally well these days.

As always YMMV.

Yes mine might well have performed better if I had changed to a different ink, which probably would have needed to have the consistancy of pitch. But why should I have to do that - the pen was rubbish

I sent my Wality (along with a non working Duke Shark) to a fellow FPer. I will let you know if he is able to get the Wality to work and be happy with it, or if he echos are sentiment about the Wality being junk. I agree with you, that in either case I will still regard the pen as junk because even if he can fix it, why should he have to? and why should I have to get rid of a pen just because I am not a repair person?

these pens were sent to me and i have both working the way they should

Wality--reseated nib and feed to correct position--and realigned feed with nib--filled and tryed with Cross black with no leaking or skipping problem

Duke--realigned feed with nib--and sorta power flushed the vent and nib section with one of the baby suction things that has been cut down so the end fits flush with the nib section--filled and tryed with Noodlers Zhivago with no skipping or flow problems

i PM'd James and have offered to send them back to him--the corrections i have done free from one pen lover to another /:) /:)

So if one buys a Wality, one will need to reseat the feed & nib? That's a drag. Is it relatively easy to do (sans pen pliers, etc.)?

Yeah, I know this is an old thread; sorry.

It's so easy. Everything should be this easy.
I've done this to two Wality's, a 69L piston and a 52 eye dropper. They are two of my favorite pens now.

Hold the pen with the point up. You just pinch the sides of the nib between your thumb and index finger, pull the nib off straight up, then slide it all the way back in. I've even done this with the pen filled and the nib and feed wet with ink and received minimal ink on my fingers.

I've done this to both pens, they both arrived with loose nibs. The 69L ran wet-and-dry, the 52 dropped a drip now and then. They are two of my favorite pens now, and write reliably.

As to thicker inks: I run my favorite ink in the 69L, Parker Quink blue condensed 20%. But I've also run incredibly loose inks and vintage inks in both pens (vintage 1940's Quink solv-x, vintage government dip pen pot ink reconstituted from powder, and Noodlers Black and Navy) it's all been good once the nibs were reseated.

I am about to plug the hole in the 52 cap as it seems to be evaporating pretty quickly. It's surprising how much you can see the ink volume decrease in a clear eye dropper as a result of overnight evaporation!

If you like a big, oversized, well balanced, workhorse pen that is a pleasure to fly across the page (my opinion, YMMV) you can't beat a 69L piston filler for the money.

There's also a modification that needs to be made to the piston seal. This is a little more advanced though and involves a lathe.

Thanks for the info. I've read that the pistons are plastic rather than cork or even rubber. I was thinking more of the eyedropper, actually.