Help I Dont Know What I Did Wrong! - Twsbi Mini

[Aprilv]

I am new to fountain pens. I recently purchased my Twsbi Mini piston fill fountain pen. it worked beautifully out of the box. I decided to change out the ink for the first time, so I went thru all the steps to thoroughly clean it and flush the pen. I ran into some trouble putting the pen back together. after running water thru, I noticed in the portion of the pen that I hold ( sorry do not know the proper name for this part, its the clear tube the cases the feed and nib, it screws off) there was a little left over water in it, so I decided to remove the feed from that clear tube and clean out the water from the clear tube. when attempting to pop the feed/nib back into it I really struggled with this. it would not pop back on. after a good while I noticed the rubber ring must have misplaced apon removing it. I slip it back down and it popped back on easily.

 

to my issue- since I have done this. I filled new ink, and I noticed it will write fine with initial ink in the feed/nib, but once the ink already in the feed is done, my pen will not write any longer. I have to manually twist the piston a bit to force some ink to draw down into the feed to get it to write again. it will for a while, and again, once that ink is done, I have to twist the piston again to get more ink . it is not flowing down to the feed on its own.

 

I have no idea what I have done, so frustrated! any help would be really appreciated.

[Witsius]

Hmmm, Without seeing the pen, it's hard to tell what's wrong. I wonder if perhaps you might have misassembled the nib unit. That would be my guess. If you could post some close-up pics, that might help us diagnose the issue.

 

In the future, you don't need to strip down your pen like that. You shouldn't have to remove the nib and feed from the nib unit. Just blot the nib with a paper towel until all the water is drawn out of the feed. After that, you can set the pen aside with the cap off to dry for a few hours or overnight perhaps. Unscrewing the nib unit is one thing. Pulling the nib and feed out of the feeder sleeve is just not necessary unless there is a real problem.

[Aprilv]

Thank you! And Sorry I don't think I explained myself correctly ,I did not remove the nib and feed those stayed together. I removed the grip by unscrewing it but the Nib and feed were still intact I was just trying to clean the grip on the inside as there was water in it . Funny enough I figured out the issue it was actually something very simple .the cap For the piston was twisted tightly the whole time and I watched a few videos and realize I'm supposed to keep that slightly loose once I fill it with ink. after I did that everything was fine. Rookie mistake! thank you for your help!

[Sasha Royale]

Flushing a TWSBI involves drawing, then expelling water, Just because a pen can be disassembled, does not necessitate that one disassembles the pen.

[Witsius]

Thank you! And Sorry I don't think I explained myself correctly ,I did not remove the nib and feed those stayed together. I removed the grip by unscrewing it but the Nib and feed were still intact I was just trying to clean the grip on the inside as there was water in it . Funny enough I figured out the issue it was actually something very simple .the cap For the piston was twisted tightly the whole time and I watched a few videos and realize I'm supposed to keep that slightly loose once I fill it with ink. after I did that everything was fine. Rookie mistake! thank you for your help!

 

 

 

That's only for the Vac and the Vac Mini. If you have a regular piston filler, you shouldn't need to loosen the piston knob in order for ink the flow in the pen. The Vac pens have a valve that closes when the pistion knob is tightened all the way to keep ink from getting into the feed so that the pen won't leak on an airplane when the cabin is pressurized. The piston fillers don't have that feature. So, if you have a regular piston filler, and you have to loosen the piston knob to get ink to flow, something is wrong.

Edited January 5, 2017 by Witsius

[Aprilv]

I do have a piston fill mechanism. That is good to know that I should not have to keep the cap loose. I will reach out to twsbi and see what the issue might actually be. Thank you for the feedback!!

[Aprilv]

Piston knob was tightened and pen is working great! Im not sure what i did initally that caused the issue but I will certainly be more careful next time I clean it! Thanks for the info. of not needing to keep the knob loose on piston fill mechanisms!

[ScienceChick]

Just because a pen can be disassembled, does not necessitate that one disassembles the pen.

This can't be repeated often enough.