Vac Mini Compared To Twsbi Mini (And Others)

January 11, 2017

excellent pictures and i can see that you're quite right, our VM nib units do appear to be the same after all. and a lot more similar to the OP's than i originally understood to be the case. it had never occurred to me that the inner nib unit screwed into the sleeve which in turn screwed into the pen body. the OP's picture had me thinking it was constructed differently: i'd imagined that the sleeve on the nib section of the OP's VM was part of the pen body and the nib unit fit through that to screw into the pen body itself, not threads within the sleeve. clearly it's just a matter of the OP having partially disassembled his from the get-go rather than having unscrewed the whole nib assembly and then disassembled that, as you did in your most recent pictures.

well, there we go! mystery solved and my mistake all along after all. my apologies for doubting your previous observations.

that said i'd still say the recent VM looks a whole lot more like the Diamond Mini in the OP's picture than it does the his VM but it would seem that's more perception than fact.

(heads off to correct other posts)

January 11, 2017

@1pen2pen, thanks for that - didn't want to come across as pedantic (though really, I am and I need to own it !) - just wanted to make sure people reading these threads were able to get a clear picture of the product. And I agree with you: the change to the VM's back end (at least on the smoke model) brings it closer in appearance to the Diamond Mini.

November 7, 2017

Thanks for this review and information. I'm a big fan of TWSBIs, great pens, hold a lot of ink and are inexpensive. The TWSBIs I guess have a reputation for cracking. My Eco after about 8 months of hard daily usage developed a crack near the front of the feed. TWSBI US is great about replacement parts. $4 for shipping and the turn around is very fast. So cracking and damage isn't a problem because I can fix it within a week for the cost of postage.

I found the Mini Vac and the 700 Vac to be a bit fussy to refill, but still worth it. I bought the Eco just to try out the EF nib. It's a piston filler, holds a lot of ink and I don't need to use the special bottle to fill it up. It's a great pen.

One big issue with buying a TWSBI pen is the Goldilocks Dilemma. The Vac 700 is really big (I'm 5'8 178cm? with average guy hands.) the Eco is about the size of the 580. I use both the 700 and the Eco with the cap off. The Eco is slightly smaller than the Vac 700 but a lot lighter. The MiniVac is just fine with the cap posted. I'd buy another Eco or Mini Vac, without hesitation. The heavier Vac700....I might pass on to my 6' son. The 580 I have no experience with. There are Aluminum AL versions of some of the TWSBIs. I would now opt for the AL version, usually an extra $10US, that would eliminate the cracking that happened to the Eco. (A quick fix was nail hardener. It filled and sealed the crack for a few days. The clear Demonstrators are resin, so would plexiglas cement work? Don't know. I think if I was on a trip I would just use clear nail polish every couple of days.)