Adding A Steel Ball To A Lamy Converter

[kiann]

My first post on FPN. Think I should write something Lamy-related because I love my Lamy Safari

 

So I've been noticing the surface tension of inks within a converter since I got into fountain pens. Other people have also noticed this phenomenon. Someone had this post before:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/265664-surface-tension-in-a-lamy-converter/

 

The reason for this is simply that the diameter of the converter is so small, so the gravity acting on the ink drop does not out-weight the surface-tension force, thus the ink drop stays up in the converter. Simply adding a steel ball into the converter will solve this problem. So here are the steps that I used:

 

1. Take the Lamy converter apart -- this is the hardest part, so proceed with care

 

I partly followed this video:

 

Do step 2 in the video first, and then: I did not follow steps 3 and 4 in the video, because the method used there really hurts my fingernail... My alternative is: I used my left hand to hold the lower part of the converter (the ink inlet/outlet end) and right hand for the higher part of the converter (the twisting piston end). Position the converter so that it is vertical to my body, with the twisting piston pointing outwards (left hand and right hand still holding their ends). Then apply the appropriate brute force!

 

Here is the result:

 

 

2. Acquire a steel ball

 

I find that Platinum cartridges come with a steel ball. I'm somewhat confident that the steel ball does not react with most inks (correct me if I'm wrong). So I took the ball out of an unused Platinum cartridge.

 

 

 

3. Put the ball into the converter barrel and re-assemble

 

 

 

The result was just what I expected. The ink now flows freely in the converter, so I can expel as much air out of the converter as possible and thus get as much ink into the converter as possible. Plus, I find the subtle sound of the ball rolling inside the converter quite satisfying

 

 

Edited December 6, 2014 by kiann

[LamyOne]

Hello Kiann,

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! This is a very impressive introduction of yourself here at FPN. Most of us are here for a while before we contribute anything really useful. So far, I haven't contributed anything but my 2 cents.

 

I know some people love the agitator in their converters and others loathe them; I'm one of those who can take them or leave them, (e.g., I do not like Parker's because the ball comes all the way to the opening and causes a block when you're trying to flush out the converter; Levenger's is much nicer, it has a step-down inside the converter barrel that prevents the ball from plugging the hole - it appears to me, the black plug on the end of the Lamy Converter may accomplish the same thing - I hope).

 

However, I may try this because I have noticed on occasion that after using the pen for a while, I have to crank down my converter to get ink going, i.e., the pen seems a little dry and starved until I turn the piston a couple of turns. If this technique would eliminate that problem, I'd be happy. (And my section threads would be happier too, less wear on them).

 

I wonder... would a BB fit? You can get a carton of 1,000 of them for around $5 and you don't have to spend your time cutting used cartridges apart - or wait until you use up the ink.

 

BTW, congratulations to you as well for being smart enough to choose Lamy.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

Edited December 6, 2014 by LamyOne

[Fuellerfuehrerschein]

Thanks for your tip. I routinely add 3 mm (1/8") or 4 mm (5/32") diameter bearing balls made of 316 grade stainless steel as agitators in my converters I usually fill with acidic iron gall ink. Iron gall inks have no good reputation regarding producing a generous inkflow in modern fountain pens. I found out 3 mm (1/8") bearing balls can be pushed in and knocked out of the opening of Lamy converters and deal with any surface tension induced problems just as fine as larger diameter bearing balls. When a converter is taken apart to add an agitator it is also a good idea to apply a bit of silicon grease on moving parts like the "threads" and the piston seal(s) of the converter.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Fuellerfuehrerschein

[PAKMAN]

Thanks for a wonderfully illustrated fix!

[nujnay]

thank you for the tip! i have the same problem where the ink stays high in the converter (Pelikan Brilliant Black - love it). Going to try it once i get myself a steel ball

[kiann]

I'm not sure what kind of material are usually used in BB bullets. If it is metal, then maybe OK. If it is plastic, then maybe it floats on top of liquids?

 

Also I should test-write the Safari for a while to see whether my steel agitator blocks the ink outlet. I think those little air gun bullets may be able to do the task. They can fit into a converter barrel and they are not completely circular. The only think I don't know is the material of them.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/4.5_mm_%28.177_in%29_match_air_gun_pellet.jpg

 

 

Hello Kiann,

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! This is a very impressive introduction of yourself here at FPN. Most of us are here for a while before we contribute anything really useful. So far, I haven't contributed anything but my 2 cents.

 

I know some people love the agitator in their converters and others loathe them; I'm one of those who can take them or leave them, (e.g., I do not like Parker's because the ball comes all the way to the opening and causes a block when you're trying to flush out the converter; Levenger's is much nicer, it has a step-down inside the converter barrel that prevents the ball from plugging the hole - it appears to me, the black plug on the end of the Lamy Converter may accomplish the same thing - I hope).

 

However, I may try this because I have noticed on occasion that after using the pen for a while, I have to crank down my converter to get ink going, i.e., the pen seems a little dry and starved until I turn the piston a couple of turns. If this technique would eliminate that problem, I'd be happy. (And my section threads would be happier too, less wear on them).

 

I wonder... would a BB fit? You can get a carton of 1,000 of them for around $5 and you don't have to spend your time cutting used cartridges apart - or wait until you use up the ink.

 

BTW, congratulations to you as well for being smart enough to choose Lamy.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

[RMN]

If you take out the nipple piece as demonstrated you could cut a little wedge out, so the ball won't totally obliterate the opening.

 

 

And thx for the idea about the Platinum carts. I was thinking about where to get a suitable ball.

 

The fix also works with other brands converters, ofcourse.

 

 

Thx for the video.

 

D.ick

[LamyOne]

I'm not sure what kind of material are usually used in BB bullets. If it is metal, then maybe OK. If it is plastic, then maybe it floats on top of liquids?

 

Also I should test-write the Safari for a while to see whether my steel agitator blocks the ink outlet. I think those little air gun bullets may be able to do the task. They can fit into a converter barrel and they are not completely circular. The only think I don't know is the material of them.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/4.5_mm_%28.177_in%29_match_air_gun_pellet.jpg

 

 

 

Hello Kiann,

 

While it has been some years since I have purchased them, BBs were typically either solid brass, copper or stainless steel; what you have pictured, is commonly called a "pellet," and those are usually made of pot metal or steel. (At least that is how it was 30 years ago when I was in the BB/pellet ammo market).

 

Update: After doing a quick search, I've found that the average BB is 4.5mm in diameter - so they may be too large???

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

[RMN]

I thought these diabolo-shaped pellets were made of lead. I would not put them in my ink!

Name here was Diabolo. There were also round pellets but as most airguns had a 4.5 mm bore, that was the diameter of these pellets.

 

 

D.ick

[Robert Alan]

Thank you very much for sharing the information about the converter. This is a very clever solution to a common converter problem, and I performed this modification to a Lamy Z24 converter. However, it does add another problem. When the pen is in the vertical position, it is nearly impossible to expel ink since the pellet acts as a stopper.

 

When I fill a converter, it is often necessary to perform the 'filling' more than once, in order to get the proper amount of ink in the converter, and I found that it was impossible for me to easily move the piston downward since the pellet was blocking the ink and air flow. The only way I could expel ink and/or air was to put the pen in a horizontal position, moving the pellet away from the converter opening.

 

Pilot solved this 'blocking' problem by employing a hollow cylindrical weight in the new CON-50 converter, and Montblanc, Montegrappa, and Parker solved the problem by using a spiral, spring-like weight. Perhaps cutting a short piece from a suitably-sized ballpoint pen spring and using that instead of the pellet from the Platinum cartridge would work. However, I have no idea about a chemical reaction between ink and the metal of the spring.

 

I must re-sate what I have said on FPN before, regarding the converter problem. Ink in a properly-filled and properly-functioning converter should rock back and forth like the liquid in a carpenter's level. I believe the problem with ink getting stuck at the wrong end of a piston converter has more to do with air leaking into the converter than it has to do with the ink’s surface tension/viscosity. After all, I have never experienced such a problem with a dedicated piston-filled fountain pen like my Lamy 2000, Lamy 27 or Lamy 99, or with any of my piston-filled Pelikan or Aurora fountain pens, and that has been with a wide-variety of inks with varying viscosities.

 

Enclosed, dedicated piston-fillers do not have the tolerance issues apparent with relatively cheap converters. If converters can be easily disassembled, that could be an indication that air can easily leak into them or ink will leak behind the little piston in the converter. These leaks causes a serious imbalance which can inhibit the correct exchange of ink and air, as one writes. The converter weight solution forces ink that would have been stuck up at the wrong end of the converter to move to the feed nipple and that is, of course, a compromise. Once again I will state that I have never seen this problem with any viscosity ink in a dedicated piston-filled pen. Ink in a properly filled dedicated piston-filled pen will always rock back and forth like the liquid in a carpenter’s level which indicates the proper balance between ink and air (the reason there are ink and air channels in feeds).

 

Regards, Robert

 

[pajaro]

When dedicated piston fillers develop a leak, which will happen eventually at a seal, the repair is more expensive and labor intensive than replacing a converter.

[Robert Alan]

When dedicated piston fillers develop a leak, which will happen eventually at a seal, the repair is more expensive and labor intensive than replacing a converter.

Although replacing a converter is certainly easier, I must respectfully disagree with much of this statement. I have been using, collecting, and repairing fountain pens since I was an art student in the late 1960s, and I have only experienced two failures with dedicated piston-filled pens and this happened because I used Parker Penman sapphire bottled ink (gorgeous, intense color but dangerous). For the damaged pens, an OMAS Milord and a Pelikan M800, I received replacement parts, free-of-charge, from their respective manufacturers, and installation of the piston-filler, in both pens, was relatively simple (the Pelikan requires a tool similar to the wrench supplied with the TWSBI pens). No tools, other than a sheet of gripping material and, perhaps, a pair of section pliers, were needed to dismantle the OMAS. BTW, the Lamy 2000, along with older pens like the Lamy 27, can be completely dismantled and re-assembled by hand with no tools, making cleaning, adjustment, or repairs easy.

 

I have many piston-filler and cartridge/converter fountain pens in my collection and, regarding consistently properly-filled ink reservoirs, in my opinion, a dedicated piston-filled fountain pen is far superior to any cartridge/converter pen.

 

I have performed tests with the same ink (Parker English-made blue-black), using a syringe-filled cartridge, and standard Parker-filled cartridge, and various converters for Parker cartridge/converter fountain pens. When installed in the pen, ink in the cartridges always moved back and forth like ink in a carpenter's level, and ink flow in the pen (a Parker 75) was excellent. Using five new Parker piston converters, two performed properly and three had ink stuck up at the wrong end of the converter which made it necessary to shake the converter to force the ink down to the feed nipple. This experiment demonstrated that there was nothing wrong with the nib and feed, but converter vagaries (poor tolerances, air leaks at the open end of the converter and /or behind the converter piston) had caused the issues with the ink inside the converters, and, apparently, it had nothing to do with the type of ink used.

 

I performed the same test with a Bexley BX-802 and five new Pelikan international converters. In this case, one converter worked properly and the other four had ink stuck up at the wrong end of the converter.

 

Because of these issues, several manufacturers, as stated in my previous post, have attempted to remedy the converter issue by employing threaded converters and/or including a weight inside the converter. Both solutions, together, seem to be the best attempt at solving the converter problem (Montblanc and Montegrappa converters are excellent examples).

 

Just because there is a remote possibility that a dedicated piston-filled fountain pen may fail at some time, either because of age, lack of maintenance, or improper use doesn't mean that a cartridge/converter fountain pen is a better choice. Personally, I prefer to use cartridges in my cartridge/converter fountain pens. However, now that Pilot, for example, has redesigned their CON-50 converter with the included weight, I'm now more-likely to use bottled ink with my Pilot cartridge/converter pens.

 

Lamy used to offer an excellent threaded converter, the Z 25, for the early Persona and early Accent series of fountain pens, and that converter seemed to work much better than the push-on type Z 26. The Z 24 employs a ‘snap-on’ connection to help keep the converter properly aligned on the feed nipple, but I don’t think it works as well as the threaded Z 25. I'd like to see the Z 25 converter back in production, and, perhaps, a weight could be added to enhance the converter's function.

 

Edit/added: I just remembered that my original 1980's Safari (the old Savannah green version) came with a push-in aerometric converter which always seemed to work properly (the newer piston converters do not fit these early pens). The other old-style aerometric converters, like the Pilot CON-20, do work well, too, since, if they fit snuggly on the feed nipple, they are a type of enclosed system. No air leaks can enter from behind!

 

/Robert

Edited December 10, 2014 by Robert Alan

[Matlock]

I have been following this thread for some time and find it interesting. I have never had any problems with converters (Lamy or otherh brands) but it is clear that some people do. I have just read on the TWSBI forum the idea of placing a ball in a 580 to break up surface tension, this on a piston filler pen! Are we going a little over the top and, perhaps, attention to the condition of the converter and seal is the real answer? (see Robert Alan's post).

Edited December 11, 2014 by Matlock

[Brianm_14]

If you can get it to fit inside, a very small stainless steel nut or washer might work, and be available at a Home Depot or similar place. Small ball bearings might be harder to find. Of course, you might find glass beads in a craft store.

 

A section of stainless steel spring, similar to the steel springs used in fountain pens, would seem to be an even better answer. Surely, there must be some small SS springs out there, perhaps as scrap.

 

Finally, if you have access to a solid piece of glass rod, such as a school laboratory "stirring rod," you can heat it in a propane flame and create small balls of glass. Try heating the glass rod red hot in the middle and play with drawing the two ends apart slowly. Even a small-diameter glass tube might work. One way or another, you'll get your small glass ball. This exercise calls for safety glasses and care with the open flame.

[haruka337]

OoOoOoOoOh!

Thanks for the tip!

[ac12]

5/32" stainless steel bearing ball is what I use.

 

The "problem" is getting the different converters open.

- I did a couple Chinese converters, and a couple Lamy converters.

- So far the Sheaffer converters have refused to open. And that one NEEDS the ss ball fix.

[dragos.mocanu]

Just to add my own experience, the steel ball from the Pilot standard cartridges is small enough to fit in the Lamy converter without the need of disassembly.

[ac12]

I have seen the ink stuck on one end of a couple of piston filler fountain pens. So this is not just a converter problem.

• Reform 1745, with Diamine Sherwood Green.
  The ID of the cylinder is closer to that of many converters than to the larger ID of many piston filler fountain pens. This make me think that the ID of the cylinder (piston pen or converter) is a variable in this problem, and the smaller the ID the more likely the ink will be to get stuck on one end.

• Noodler's Konrad, with PR DCSS blue.
  This one is odd because the ID of the cylinder looks to be fairly large, like that of other piston filler pens. So in this case, I think the material of the pen barrel is a relevant variable.

[Jerome Tarshis]

I agree about internal diameter being an important variable. This is known to manufacturers, and is sometimes taken into account. For example, I admire and enjoy UK Parker Aerometric Duofolds. The smallest in the line, the Slimfold, comes with a couple of rods inside the sac to avoid the problem of ink hanging up. My own first of these pens, the Junior, does not come with any inside-the-sac object to improve flow, and for a while I had a terrible time with ink hanging up. Eventually the pen got used to having ink in it, or my guardian angel had mercy upon me, and the pen improved.

 

This is not a particularly happy aspect of using fountain pens. I think Japanese manufacturers have in general done a better job of helping the user than European manufacturers have. As I read all these stories about taking converters apart and inserting ball bearings I have much sympathy with people who think fountain pens are too much trouble.

[RMN]

It's all about coherence and adherence. And static electricity might add to the adherence forces.

 

 

D.ick