I've had some problems with pretty much all (only 4) of my preppy eyedropper conversions and am wondering what other people have seen.

On pretty much all of them I have removed the nib, then removed the nipple with an awl and screwdriver, and finally applied silicone grease to the barrel/section threads to seal it.

Two of my pens have had the barrel crack, probably from me tightening it too hard. I guess the silicone grease makes it easy to overtighten so I'm very gentle now.

I've also noticed that some of my pens have starting problems, and all of them seem like they have too much ink in the feed combs. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have removed the nipples, or if I was overaggressive in doing so and overenlarged the opening or something. I'm also wondering if removing the nib is a bad idea because the little slot in the plastic stick part of the feed needs to be aligned closely with the slot in the comb feed part.

Anyway, I created a poll just to see what problems people have seen at least with the fountain pen preppy. Please don't answer it for the highlighter preppy. It isn't very scientific but might be interesting/helpful anyway.

Anyone else have comments on this? So far it looks like only 3 people have responded to the poll. Surely more people are using preppy eyedropper conversions.

Your poll doesn't have a "No problems" options.

I just added my vote - I've only tried one Preppy, which came with my Heart of Darkness ink. It was fine for a week, but today I noticed some ink on my hand, and found a small crack at the threads. The strange thing is the crack doesn't start at the end of the barrel; it begins about 4 mm from the end, and extends about the same distance.

I rather liked the pen - it looked good with ink sloshing around inside, and the nib wrote very nicely. I played around with a few cartridges and converters, but I don't think anything I have will fit. Since I didn't do the conversion, I don't know what was removed from the section, but the length of feed sticking out is very thin. Short of gluing the section in place, I guess this one's done for. Oh well, it's an excuse to grab a few from Jetpens or Pendemonium.

Jon

My vote also...



I have 4 and all work just fine. No leaks or drips, or floods. When the feed comb fills up in the section I know its time to check the seating and clean and regrease the the threads.

I've had three inked on my desk for a couple of months now. I converted them to ED fillers using silicone lubricant from Tryphon. ZERO problems, which was not an option in the poll, so I didn't vote.

Just self-converted my first Preppy today. I have several, mostly with cartridges, but one other ED (highlighter) that came with a bottle of Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig. So far, the only problem I've had with the new Preppy is that it blobs ink onto the page at the most inopportune times (not that there's ever an opportune time for that, though...). I only sealed the barrel with silicone grease, as I had no O-rings. Mine too looks like the feed is flooded with ink (J. Herbin Perle Noire, btw)... I think that could have something to do with the blobbing, although how it got like that in the first place is a little perplexing.

Okay, rant over.

You need to put a lot of silicone grease to ensure an airtight seal. This is exactly the same problem as I had with mine but some more grease sorted it out and now it's flawless.

Thanks for that suggestion! I put a ton of silicone grease on the threads (to the point where I had to wipe away the excess afterwards), and voilà! My pen has been golden so far

Preppys might have a quality control problem. I've only operated two so far, and they're still in the cart stage. The yellow one is a horrible, scratchy writer, and the blue one smooth as anyone could want.