Do your Lamy Safaris leak a lot?

[ampatb]

I have three Lamy Safaris with XF,F, and M nibs. I use both converters and cartridges. Never had I leak. Let Lamy fix them or more likely replace them.

 

MP

Edited July 13, 2009 by ampatb

[rwilsonedn]

Is there any chance that your office is subject to large temperature swings or changes in barometric pressure over the course of a few days? This could even be something like the ventillating system pressurizing the building slightly during the day, and then shutting down, allowing the pressure to drop and the air to cool during the evening. Or it could be the office heating up on weekends when everything is shut down.

I ask because the only time I've seen a Safari leak is on an airplane. And then it leaked an entire cartridge into its cap during a relatively short flight--something I've never seen any other pen achieve even on a transatlantic flight. I surmise that one of the many QC issues with which Lamy has not chosen to deal is that at least some of the pens have a real problem with changes in air pressure.

ron

[pen2paper]

nary a drop, ever..the Bagallini my Lamy is strapped in hangs loose from shoulder to hip, so my hands are free while I'm at work..it's flung around all day. the cap never has ink in it, which amazes me..

I do use Lamy bottled ink in cartridges which I refill with a syringe.. not sure where my converter is hiding:)

edited to add, from winter weather, to lost in a hot vehicle for two + weeks..started right up!

Edited July 13, 2009 by pen2paper

[kernando]

This won't solve your problem, but there's no O-ring. It's a piece of rigid black plastic trim.

 

You can rule out cracks in the sections because you'd see one if there were any, right?

 

Does ink drip out of the nib and feed for the whole time? It's not as simple as having the feed too wet in the first place from not bleeding out a drop and sucking back in air, or wiping, right?

 

Is there a leak or drip with cartridges?

 

[Waterman007]

I have no experience with any of the inks you've mentioned but it seems from reviews I've read that Diamine inks are very wet, free flowing inks, maybe the others you mention are also. Pelikan ink (what I use in my safaris) is a drier ink and what I've used in my Safaris for many years with no issues, it can't hurt and it's worth a shot, I think it highly unlikely that you got 3 bad Safaris unless it was a bad day at the factory or they were somehow damaged in transit.

[HDoug]

One Vista, three AL-Stars, no such problem. This is an interesting riddle because it happens with all three of your Safaris, and you don't event tote them around with you. As others suspect, there must be something happening in your office environment, but it would take a pretty big variation in barometric pressure or temperature to cause that kind of leaking. Is your office in a submarine or a space shuttle or on another planet? I think the climate on Jupiter would do that kind of thing...

 

Doug

[JonW]

Again, thanks to everyone for the input. People here are really great.

 

Even more people without such problems. It must be me.

 

I’ll send them to Lamy and see if I can get them repaired. If that works, great. If not it’s no big deal because they’re not exactly expensive pens. But I do like them in some regards and I wonder if I should buy some more and give them another shot (if they do not get fixed). If the nibs were smoother (like, say, my M215 or Visconti) and they didn’t leak, I’d love them.

 

Is there any chance that your office is subject to large temperature swings or changes in barometric pressure over the course of a few days?

 

Yeah, it might qualify as having large temp changes. From morning to evening the temp often rises about ~7 F. But my other pens do not have this ink-all-over-the-section habit.

 

Is your office in a submarine or a space shuttle or on another planet? I think the climate on Jupiter would do that kind of thing...

 

Like everyone else, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Either I grew out of that or NASA lost my application or something. So, alas, it’s just a regular office.

 

 

I have no experience with any of the inks you've mentioned but it seems from reviews I've read that Diamine inks are very wet, free flowing inks, maybe the others you mention are also. Pelikan ink (what I use in my safaris) is a drier ink and what I've used in my Safaris for many years with no issues, it can't hurt and it's worth a shot, I think it highly unlikely that you got 3 bad Safaris unless it was a bad day at the factory or they were somehow damaged in transit.

 

Thanks. I’ve tried other inks as well. I just listed the ones I remember being in there for sure. I’ve got inks from Waterman, Caran d’Ache, Herbin, Private Reserve, and Diamine.

 

[JonW]

This won't solve your problem, but there's no O-ring. It's a piece of rigid black plastic trim.

 

You can rule out cracks in the sections because you'd see one if there were any, right?

 

Does ink drip out of the nib and feed for the whole time? It's not as simple as having the feed too wet in the first place from not bleeding out a drop and sucking back in air, or wiping, right?

 

Is there a leak or drip with cartridges?

 

No cracks that I see. And I stand corrected with regard to the plastic trim.

 

You bring up a point that I should have mentioned earlier: I never see a drip or leak from the nib. When it’s writing all seems to be well. But when I uncap the pens, there is ink all over the sections and nibs. (If “section” means the whole part covered by the cap, plus the nib.)

 

 

[london]

I have this problem with all my Lamys.

 

Ink around the base of the nib. Not a great deal, but enough to give me smudgy fingers every other day. My pens do get a rough life in my briefcase though. Ink gets in the cap, and transfers to the tip of the section.

 

Every so often I just run a tissue round the end and then twist it up to do the inside of the cap. That cures it for a while.

 

The Lamy Studio is the worse.

 

- Mark

 

 

 

 

[pen2paper]

I have this problem with all my Lamys.

 

Ink around the base of the nib. Not a great deal, but enough to give me smudgy fingers every other day. My pens do get a rough life in my briefcase though. Ink gets in the cap, and transfers to the tip of the section.

 

Every so often I just run a tissue round the end and then twist it up to do the inside of the cap. That cures it for a while.

 

The Lamy Studio is the worse.

 

- Mark

Sounds like there may be an issue with, perhaps, a manufacturing run, or two..

mind telling us specifically what pens, nibs, colors, and approx when, and where you bought your Safari's? Maybe we can pinpoint the problematic pens, and your service repairs will be smooth, with Lamy responsive to what will be a known QC issue???

I've been considering adding another S in Fine, so certainly want to avoid a run that will be less than the solid performer I'm prepared to purchase for everyday use at work.

[london]

I have this problem with all my Lamys.

 

Ink around the base of the nib. Not a great deal, but enough to give me smudgy fingers every other day. My pens do get a rough life in my briefcase though. Ink gets in the cap, and transfers to the tip of the section.

 

Every so often I just run a tissue round the end and then twist it up to do the inside of the cap. That cures it for a while.

 

The Lamy Studio is the worse.

 

- Mark

Sounds like there may be an issue with, perhaps, a manufacturing run, or two..

mind telling us specifically what pens, nibs, colors, and approx when, and where you bought your Safari's? Maybe we can pinpoint the problematic pens, and your service repairs will be smooth, with Lamy responsive to what will be a known QC issue???

I've been considering adding another S in Fine, so certainly want to avoid a run that will be less than the solid performer I'm prepared to purchase for everyday use at work.

 

The ones I've experienced it most on are the Black Limited edition Safari bought in 2007 (?), a graphite Safari bought in 2005 and a Lamy Studio bought in 2005. All bought in London. Various nibs in use.

 

Not sure its a manufacturing run thing though. I just put it down to rough handling on the Safaris, and just what happens with Studios.

 

- Mark

 

[chickpea]

My Lamy Safari doesn't leak at all, and I've had it for a while and used it daily for a while now without issue.

[HokieGeek]

My Orange Safari leaks all the time around the base, but my Logo doesn't have that issue

[de Servantes]

Just to add my USD 0.02:

 

To the ones who'se Safaris are leaking around the nib: have you ever removed the nib (e.g. to change from an F to a ? If so, are you sure that the nib is seated well on the feed?

 

You might want to remove the nib, and re-seat it (there's quite a lot of info on this here on FPN).

 

I switch nibs on my Safaris quite regularly (mostly because I can't make up my mind between EF, F and 1.1mm italic for my Lime safari), and had this problem as well. Pulling of the nib, and pushing it back on did the trick (1.1mm italic with FPN Galileo Manuscript, and M-nib with PR Tanzanite)

 

 

Might go faster than a round trip to customer service.

 

Greetings

 

Miguel

[swarden43]

Just to add my USD 0.02:

 

To the ones who'se Safaris are leaking around the nib: have you ever removed the nib (e.g. to change from an F to a ? If so, are you sure that the nib is seated well on the feed?

 

You might want to remove the nib, and re-seat it (there's quite a lot of info on this here on FPN).

 

I switch nibs on my Safaris quite regularly (mostly because I can't make up my mind between EF, F and 1.1mm italic for my Lime safari), and had this problem as well. Pulling of the nib, and pushing it back on did the trick (1.1mm italic with FPN Galileo Manuscript, and M-nib with PR Tanzanite)

 

 

Might go faster than a round trip to customer service.

 

Greetings

 

Miguel

 

You were reading my mind Miguel.

[Neill78]

I have 3 Safaris and they don't leak at all. I do get some ink on the plastic at the base of the nib but never past the little lip at the grip section, and it's never enough to cause messy fingers.

 

I wonder if your converters are seated all the way in. The safari section has two notches where two tiny little posts sticking out of the converter slip into, and if you don't set them in there, you might not have a tight seal. This could be allowing air in at the seal which would reduce pressure and allow the ink to flow out the nib.

 

Investing in a pen cup for your desk will also help, but I don't think that is the answer to your problem. My favorite Safari mostly lives horizontally in my backpack for weeks at a time, and survives walking and biking to school without any problems, so a sedentary desk life shouldn't lead to spewing ink. Unless maybe it's bored?

 

Neill

[JonW]

Sounds like there may be an issue with, perhaps, a manufacturing run, or two..

mind telling us specifically what pens, nibs, colors, and approx when, and where you bought your Safari's?

 

I’ve got a black medium, a yellow fine, and a red extra fine. I got them from isellpens.com in about August 2008, it could have been July. I hope that helps.

 

 

I wonder if your converters are seated all the way in. The safari section has two notches where two tiny little posts sticking out of the converter slip into, and if you don't set them in there, you might not have a tight seal. This could be allowing air in at the seal which would reduce pressure and allow the ink to flow out the nib.

 

Thanks Neill. I know exactly what you;re talking about. The converters are seated properly.

 

Investing in a pen cup for your desk will also help, but I don't think that is the answer to your problem. My favorite Safari mostly lives horizontally in my backpack for weeks at a time, and survives walking and biking to school without any problems, so a sedentary desk life shouldn't lead to spewing ink. Unless maybe it's bored?

 

Bored? Hardly! What I write is very exciting!

(ahem…)

 

 

[JonW]

Just to add my USD 0.02:

 

To the ones who'se Safaris are leaking around the nib: have you ever removed the nib (e.g. to change from an F to a ? If so, are you sure that the nib is seated well on the feed?

 

You might want to remove the nib, and re-seat it (there's quite a lot of info on this here on FPN).

 

I switch nibs on my Safaris quite regularly (mostly because I can't make up my mind between EF, F and 1.1mm italic for my Lime safari), and had this problem as well. Pulling of the nib, and pushing it back on did the trick (1.1mm italic with FPN Galileo Manuscript, and M-nib with PR Tanzanite)

 

 

Might go faster than a round trip to customer service.

 

Greetings

 

Miguel

 

Thanks Miguel. Good points. I have not removed the nibs. Just now I pushed in on the nibs, toward the rest of the pen. There was a little movement (~1 mm) in 2 of them but not the third. All 3 leak, though. I’ll just put them in a box and mail them out to Lamy tomorrow. They’re already out of the rotation due to the leaking. So the time away won’t be bothersome. And I might get a surprise back in a few weeks, like non-leaky pens. The Safaris do have some aspects to them that I really like. So even with "fancier" pens here on the desk it would be nice to have some working Safaris.

 

 

 

[pmsalty]

What a puzzle that you have three leakers. I have one Safari, a yellow EF filled with Waterman's Havana Brown. Nary a leak! I bought two other Safari's as gifts for two of my grandson's. No issues with those either. What are the odds of one person having three leakers!

PMS

[capnrefsmmat]

I have exactly the same problem with mine, and posted on it two years ago: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=39619

 

I tried just about everything, and nothing really helps. I ought to just send it back, but I just haven't bothered using it at all for a year or so now.