Omas 360 Drying Out

[Precise]

My Omas 360 Mezzo F is my sweetest writing pen. But it dries up after a day of horizontal storage. When this happens a few shakes don't help, but standing it nib-down for ten minutes gets it working again.

 

I've tried two cartridge types, Pelikan blue 4001 and Diamine blue. Both have the same problem.

 

Between the Pelikan and the Diamine I did a very thorough cleaning, but did not pull the nib. As you may know the nipple is out of reach, but I filled the barrel with warm water and pushed it through with an ear-syringe bulb. I repeated this two or three times.

 

I've also tried storing it vertically, nib-down all the time. But although it starts better, the writing is very uneven for the first line.

 

I've posted elsewhere that I've fixed ordinary (round) dryup pens with an O-ring. But I don't see a way to do that on this triangular pen.

 

I've discussed this with John Mottishaw, but he hasn't offered a fix.

 

Do any other owners of Omas 360 pens have this problem?

 

Regards,

 

Alan

Edited November 17, 2015 by Precise

[Ghost Plane]

No. Normally they're wet writers. Those aren't such dry inks as to cause that.

[EclecticCollector]

I've read from others that the inner cap can become, over time, worn down where it seals against the section, resulting in the feed drying out even when capped. If your pen is new, the inner cap may be defective or installed incorrectly.

[Precise]

I've read from others that the inner cap can become, over time, worn down where it seals against the section, resulting in the feed drying out even when capped. If your pen is new, the inner cap may be defective or installed incorrectly.

The inner cap was the first thing I looked at. But I was surprised to discover that it does not seal. There is a single screw, easily removed, inside the cap. I unscrewed it and removed the inner cap. It has three spring arms that extend from the cap to grab the end of the section. But when it is engaged, the cap portion is several mm away from the section. So this inner cap is just a device to grab the section. It was not designed to seal the pen.

[Precise]

I pulled the nib today and found that the 1.5mm tube at the root of the feed is broken off. I am obtaining a new feed and will report here after it is installed and tested. That should cure the dry-up.

 

Alan

[EclecticCollector]

I pulled the nib today and found that the 1.5mm tube at the root of the feed is broken off. I am obtaining a new feed and will report here after it is installed and tested. That should cure the dry-up.

 

Alan

Thanks for the follow-up, can you share where you were able to source a new feed? Was it from Kenro?

[Precise]

I have a new feed on order from nibs.com. They are the official Omas repair facility in the USA.

 

I was able to make a new 1.5 mm tube and fit it to my existing feed. It did not cure the problem. So I'm not hopeful that the new feed will cure the problem either. John Mottishaw says that these pens have flow problems and he has modified them to remedy that. I'm awaiting more info on his mods.

 

The current problem is that the flow dries up while writing, not just when stored. I suspect that the problem is not in the feed, but rather in the flow from the cartridge to the feed. I've wondered how (all) pens manage to maintain flow without a deliberate air bleed into the ink source (cartridge or converter).

 

Do any of you know how air gets into the ink source to fill the void left by ink consumption?

Edited November 20, 2015 by Precise

[jar]

I have a new feed on order from nibs.com. They are the official Omas repair facility in the USA.

 

I was able to make a new 1.5 mm tube and fit it to my existing feed. It did not cure the problem. So I'm not hopeful that the new feed will cure the problem either. John Mottishaw says that these pens have flow problems and he has modified them to remedy that. I'm awaiting more info on his mods.

 

The current problem is that the flow dries up while writing, not just when stored. I suspect that the problem is not in the feed, but rather in the flow from the cartridge to the feed. I've wondered how (all) pens manage to maintain flow without a deliberate air bleed into the ink source (cartridge or converter).

 

Do any of you know how air gets into the ink source to fill the void left by ink consumption?

Air channels in the feed.

[Precise]

Air channels in the feed.

Thank you jar. Can you be more specific?

 

All of the feeds that I've examined connect to the ink supply with an extension 1.5mm diameter which has a slot about 0.5mm wide. Do you think air is bleeding up this slot?

[jar]

Thank you jar. Can you be more specific?

 

All of the feeds that I've examined connect to the ink supply with an extension 1.5mm diameter which has a slot about 0.5mm wide. Do you think air is bleeding up this slot?

Usually the ink channels are lower in the feeds than the air channel and yes, air must move back up though the channels if the pen is to work. Air has to get in to replace ink withdrawn or the pen stops writing. The only other way is with sac filled pens where the air is outside the sac and not in with the ink. With a cartridge, vacuum, piston or eyedropper pen the ink must generally get back in through the same path that the ink uses.

[Precise]

I received a new feed from nibs.com. The 1.5mm extension has a 0.6mm wide x 0.5mm deep ink slot and a 0.15mm wide air slot about 0.68mm deep measured from the bottom of the ink slot. Because I like to make things, I decided to replicate this exactly (with ebonite) for my old feed (which had lost its extension). Before making this, the pen had run out of ink while writing. The new extension (with air slot) fixed that. But the pen is still drying out when stored horizontally for a few hours. A couple of shakes gets it writing.

 

But I expect much better from Omas. As I've written earlier, when it's writing it's my sweetest-writing pen.

 

I classify my pens into "trouble free" and "not trouble free". A pen in this price range and reputation belongs in the first class. I have other Omas pens which are in the first class.

[freeboy]

My thought as a very new but happy omas pen user... I think its the ink storage system as we seem to be getting better results with the piston filled pen. When I asked about using the 360 you have as an eyedropper I was told that it could not be used, but if it could andthe issue was the ink supply sustem tha tMIGHT help.. good luck and hope we hear soon the fix....