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Lamy Scala Works With Cartridges But Not With Converter!


bso

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Strange problem. Please help me diagnose and give some suggestions!

Bought a Lamy Scala Piano Black Special Edition 14k Gold Fine Nib from ebay. Gorgeous pen!
It doesn't come in that special box I saw on Lamy, the one that has a bottle of ink in it.
Instead it comes in a standard Lamy Scala box, which is OK by me.
It comes with one blue cartridge and a Z26 (I think) converter.

I put in the cartridge. Pen immediately writes nicely. Flowing and smooth. I very quickly used up the cartridge.

Never skipped a beat.

Now I put in the converter. It doesn't go in as tightly as the cartridge. Seems to wobble just a tiny bit if I move it around.

I didn't pay much attention and proceed to draw some ink (Lamy Blue to be consistent).
It's able to draw ink up fully. But after writing half a page, ink flows dry and eventually ink stops.
I tap and flick the converter, then ink will come back for half a page at most, then it'll stop again.

At this point, I remove the converter and put in another new Lamy cartridge, a black ink this time.
Again ink flows beautifully and smoothly immediately and never stops again.

 

I have since flushed the pen and soaked with mild ammonium solution before trying again.

Same problem. It's not the feed or the nib because it writes smoothly with a cartridge.


What is the problem? It would be quite sad if this pen is sentenced to cartridge forever. Thanks!

 

See Converter Image The Pen

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  • bso

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I wasn't able to see your pictures

 

 

Below, is Lamy Germany page, for the Scala, in English.

 

http://www.lamy.com/eng/b2c/scala/051

 

 

Below, is Lamy Germany page, for the Accent, in English.

 

http://www.lamy.com/eng/b2c/accent/096_al_dr

 

 

The Accessories info is missing on the Scala page, so, it is possible that the converter doesn't fit on the Scala.

 

 

If it does fit: wait until the converter is empty rinse the ammonium solution thoroughly. I personally never use such a harsh chemical.

 

 

The best way to prime a converter and help flow is to use dish soap, the soap that one uses to wash the dishes by hand.

 

I am writing this because, once found a cleaning agent for dishwasher in the same bottle as the one for dish soap, they were the same brand.

 

Squeeze the upright bottle of dish soap, a little bubble is going to form, gather the soap that formed the bubble on a toothpick, put some in the converter, rinse thoroughly and refill with ink.

 

I was told that this technique breaks the surface tension between plastic and ink.

 

Let us know if the converter works better after some more use.

Edited by Anne-Sophie

Is it fair for an intelligent and family oriented mammal to be separated from his/her family and spend his/her life starved in a concrete jail?

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Thanks. I'll try the soap idea.

 

(Have you clicked on the image links? They are links to a photo album that should be visible by everyone. They are not directly embedded in the posting... still learning how to do that)

 

Thanks again.

 

I think I figure out how to upload and post pictures:

 

fpn_1455654727__lamy002.jpg

 

 

fpn_1455654698__lamy001.jpg

Edited by bso
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It sounds to me like the included converter may be faulty - more specifically, if you don't have a good seal around the nipple, you may get air leakage which fouls up ink supply.

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A zoom in of the converter (bad) and a cartridge (good). The opening (nipple??) of the converter has some protruding material. It is not able to "click" in however hard I push, while a cartridge plugs in with a nice click.

 

fpn_1455660611__lamy003.jpg

 

 

Good cartidge

 

fpn_1455660009__lamy004.jpg

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Thanks. I'll try that when I used up a Platinum cartridge. It takes quite a bit of brute force to disassemble a Z26. Hope it's still tightly sealed after the open surgery.

 

I did the soap washing technique but didn't help.

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Probably, your problem is........ air.

 

More precisely: air bubbles

 

Many converters have that problem. When the ink flows out, air comes in through the feed and forms a bubble. That bubble sits right above the feed, and under the ink.

What should happen is that small bubbles rise through the ink, so ink still gets to the feed. But in some cases the bubbles will not rise, become bigger and fill up the bottom of the converter, starving the feed.

 

So why does this not happen in cartridges? The plastic there is different, the bubbles don't stick at the wall of the converter and rise better through the ink, AND in most cartridges there is a tiny ball moving around, helping break up the airbubbles.

 

 

The problem is worse in the clear high grade plastic carts. You have the luxury converter z26. Probably your problem will be less with the z24 which has the more opaque soft plastic. If the problem persists opening the converter and inserting a small pellet in it will help solve the problem.

 

This problem is not only for Lamy but also for the standard international converters and the Watermans.

Parker has solved the problem by inserting a small ball in their cheaper slide converter. Montblanc adds a metal coil as tension breaker.

 

 

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

An update on this situation. All of you are generally correct. Adding a bearing from a Platinum cartridge solves the problem most of the time.

 

If I hold my pen steadily and continue to write a couple of pages, then the feed will dry up again. Then I have to shake the pen gently until the ball bearing moves around inside. Then it becomes wet and continues another few pages.

 

I hope priming the converter for a period of time will make the inside surface more lubricated. I'm not inclined to put soap in it. Right now I am using only Lamy Blue in this pen. If there is an ink that can lubricate the surface please give me some suggestion. I'm will to try until the problem is 100% gone.

 

Parker Quink?

 

I followed this video to disassemble:



Edited by bso
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I have a Lamy Studio that uses exactly the same converter as your Lamy. I put a 0.125 inch diameter 316 stainless steel ball bearing in my converter that solved minor flow issues I had with relatively dry writing iron gall ink.

 

Cleaning a (new) fountainpen with a bit of hand dishwashing detergent solved in cold water before inking it is not a bad idea. That removes (manufacturing) oils from the pen that if present impede ink flow. Just flush out the soapy solution flush with cold water afterwards and let the nib and feed dry before inking it. If you are in a hurry putting the wetted pen nib down on a paper towel or some toilet paper will suck the pen dry in a few hours.

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Me, too ! Sounds like the converter is not making a good seal. Are you sure you have a Z26 ? The Z24 converter looks the same, but has two small "ears" on the side, to fit the notches of the LAMY Safari section.

 

You should be able to get a Z26 converter for about $6. Meanwhile, refill your cartridges using a syringe. You might like that the cartridge hold more ink.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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Sasha, yes I have Z26. The turning knob is black color. Z24 is red and won't fit in Scala. RMN was right. I am pretty certain it has air bubble issue. I do like your idea of refilling a cartridge now that you mention it holds more ink. A lot more I think. Need to get a syringe from somewhere...

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I used my calibrated syringe normally used to refill a traditional eyedropper pen to measure the ink capacities of the Z26 converter and the Z10 cartridge for those who like a large ink capacity.

The Lamy Z26 converter has approximately 0.7 ml ink capacity.

The Lamy Z10 cartridge has approximately 1.15 ml ink capacity.

Edited by Fuellerfuehrerschein
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Update: PR DC Supershow Blue doesn't have any problem. And I like the color.

 

I don't know if this is because the Pelikan ink primed the converter so the wall is now surface tension resistant; or PR DC Supershow Blue has low surface tension (... the color is very saturated... intuitively higher saturation seems to infer higher viscosity and surface tension, right?)

 

I'll put Lamy Blue back in the converter (which I know had surface tension problem in this converter) after I used up the PR, and give an update.

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