How I Replaced A Jinhao X750 Feed Housing With A Jowo Housing

[lurcho]

.

Edited December 16, 2016 by lurcho

[lurcho]

A few months ago, I wondered whether I could get an entire JoWo nib assembly into a cheap-as-chips pen body like a Jinhao.

Like many people, I've swapped the better nibs onto the existing feeds, and been very happy with the results. But I wondered whether the feeds that come with the nibs would work even better.

So I knocked out the housing from an X750 from the section, using, if memory serves, a small hammer and a stick (like a strong, cylindrical lollipop stock; it may have been a slim screwdriver). The stick wouldn't sit between the nipple and the inner section as I would've preferred, so it sort-of flattened the nipple on the housing. It took a little bit of welly, but out it popped, leaving the section clean.

To my dismay, rather than friction-fitting, the JoWo housing slid in and out of the section. So I put the bits and pieces to one side and forgot about it.

Yesterday, at a loose end, I had the bright idea of supergluing the housing into the section. I thought I'd need something like fillers as well. But I didn't. The play was less than I remembered, so when I applied the superglue to the upper part of the housing where I thought the gap was smaller (I may be wrong), it felt straight away as though it would work. In other words, the viscosity of the glue cushioned the housing very comfortably in the section.

One day later, the pen is working superbly. You know how fountain pens are. They're great one minute, then the next the same nib seems rougher or the flow's become rubbish. Still, on balance, this is a transformation for the better. It's a fine point that I've used first. I hate fine nibs, and abhorred this one for ages. It was drawered until this experiment, but I think the better flow is contributing more to its performance renaissance than the minor smoothing I've resubjected it to.

I'm sorry if this is old hat. I didn't check the archives this time as to whether anyone else had done this simple thing.

In any case, I commend it to anyone. The only caveat is that you must sacrifice the housing (and therefore, probably, the feed) to this one pen section. The ideal is a pen section that takes these housings such that one can replace them or swap them. The Italix pens do. And so do, I believe, TWSBI, Bexley, Franklin-Christoph, and Edison, though I don't have any of those makes..

Notes:

1. I get my JoWos from FPNibs in Spain, an excellent source. (I brag them up whenever I can, because I want them always to be there.)

2. I have a feeling that the feeds that my JoWo nibs come with are not made by JoWo, but sourced elsewhere by their distributor, WIN. (I'm not sure.) So JoWo nibs from different sources may have different feeds and housings. And, of course, Goulet, for example, doesn't supply a feed with its JoWos at all.

Edited December 17, 2016 by lurcho

[Jamerelbe]

@lurcho, thanks for this post - I've heard of people doing this with Bock assemblies (I think on a 159?), but not with JoWo. I prefer the latter - and, like you, tend to source my JoWo nibs from FPNibs. Their nibs are extremely competitively priced, as are their charges for custom grinds and other nib adjustments.

 

My only hesitation is that I'm putting a far superior nib assembly into a less superior pen - when the plastic inner cap dies (as they often do), your x450s and x750s are prone to nib dry-out. The screw cap on the 159 makes it a more likely candidate (for me at least!) when it comes to a procedure like this. [Or I could buy another Indian ebonite pen (there's a FPN group buy on at the moment!), which will allow me to screw-in and screw-out different nib assemblies...]

[lurcho]

That's the gamble, I suppose. (Or is it a certainty?) The snap mechanism will wear out in time, however long that is. Of course, you're only throwing away one feed or housing, and if you have other bodies that take only the nib, like Ahabs, then the nib needn't go for a burton when the Jinhao does.

 

And as you mention, if I carry on being happy with this feed, I'll try it next with a 159.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on the Indian pens. I'll have a look now.

[bobje]

Lurcho,

your work in Jinhao section experimentation and replacement is commendable. Thank you for this research!

[rogerbikeswim]

 

A few months ago, I wondered whether I could get an entire JoWo nib assembly into a cheap-as-chips pen body like a Jinhao.

Like many people, I've swapped the better nibs onto the existing feeds, and been very happy with the results. But I wondered whether the feeds that come with the nibs would work even better.

So I knocked out the housing from an X750 from the section, using, if memory serves, a small hammer and a stick (like a strong, cylindrical lollipop stock; it may have been a slim screwdriver). The stick wouldn't sit between the nipple and the inner section as I would've preferred, so it sort-of flattened the nipple on the housing. It took a little bit of welly, but out it popped, leaving the section clean.

To my dismay, rather than friction-fitting, the JoWo housing slid in and out of the section. So I put the bits and pieces to one side and forgot about it.

Yesterday, at a loose end, I had the bright idea of supergluing the housing into the section. I thought I'd need something like fillers as well. But I didn't. The play was less than I remembered, so when I applied the superglue to the upper part of the housing where I thought the gap was smaller (I may be wrong), it felt straight away as though it would work. In other words, the viscosity of the glue cushioned the housing very comfortably in the section.

One day later, the pen is working superbly. You know how fountain pens are. They're great one minute, then the next the same nib seems rougher or the flow's become rubbish. Still, on balance, this is a transformation for the better. It's a fine point that I've used first. I hate fine nibs, and abhorred this one for ages. It was drawered until this experiment, but I think the better flow is contributing more to its performance renaissance than the minor smoothing I've resubjected it to.

I'm sorry if this is old hat. I didn't check the archives this time as to whether anyone else had done this simple thing.

In any case, I commend it to anyone. The only caveat is that you must sacrifice the housing (and therefore, probably, the feed) to this one pen section. The ideal is a pen section that takes these housings such that one can replace them or swap them. The Italix pens do. And so do, I believe, TWSBI, Bexley, Franklin-Christoph, and Edison, though I don't have any of those makes..

Notes:

1. I get my JoWos from FPNibs in Spain, an excellent source. (I brag them up whenever I can, because I want them always to be there.)

2. I have a feeling that the feeds that my JoWo nibs come with are not made by JoWo, but sourced elsewhere by their distributor, WIN. (I'm not sure.) So JoWo nibs from different sources may have different feeds and housings. And, of course, Goulet, for example, doesn't supply a feed with its JoWos at all.

 

 

lurcho - what an incredible idea. Since it's been a while since this was posted, is the pen still working out? Also, if you've tried this method again, do you have any tips? Thanks!

 

[lurcho]

@RogerW

 

Hello there!

 

The first tip I'd offer is this: Don't do it.

 

Let me qualify that! Don't do it unless you have to. First of all, see whether your new nib/feed fit into the existing Jinhao housing. Since publishing my now-world famous post last year, I've tried several more experiments, and some JoWo nib/feeds fit and some just don't. I imagine the rather small tolerances of the three components vary just enough to make it variable. After all, we're talking about a friction fit.

 

If you have to (or just want to) knock out the Jinhao housing, don't do what I suggested with a lollipop stick until you've looked around for something pipe-shaped that fits into the nipple-end of the section and surrounds the nipple. I tried this only last week when I wanted to take out a JoWo feed to fix something. (I'll explain the reason for this later.)

 

My first thought as a candidate for the pipe (by which I mean any slim, hollow cylinder) was a BiC Cristal, though I knew it would probably be too wide. Before I looked for one in the house, I found the ink tube from my stepdaughter's gold-ink gel pen.

 

That did the trick splendidly. But then I was trying to push out a replacement housing that I had myself superglued in, not the original Jinhao housing.

 

The reason for my doing this at all on this occasion was that the cartridge I’d put in the pen was sticking out of the section at a jaunty angle, and while the pen worked well, the jauntiness was getting up my nose.

 

Which leads me on to my next point. When you superglue your new JoWo (or Bock, or whatever) housing into the Jinhao section, use only a couple of drops of glue, in case you need to knock it out later. In fact, try UHU glue, or something more girly than superglue.

 

And when you push the new housing into the empty section, make sure the lip of the housing is absolutely flush and tight against the nib-edge of the section. Using superglue made me careless in doing this more than once, because it dries too fast and, of course, sticks your fingertips to the thing you're dealing with. (There is, I repeat, no need, in my opinion, for superglue.) My being careless with this caused the nipple-angle issue described above. This happens because the new section flares away from the cylindrical housing, allowing wobble-room.

 

I think that’s it.

 

If you want to ask anything else, you’re very welcome to ask. I am, however, not very handy (I’m not being disingenuous), and might better be described as a bodger. But what the hell! It’s cheap enough to try these things with Jinhaos and JoWos.

Edited September 21, 2017 by lurcho

[EMQG]

Cool project! How come you're using super glue instead of shellac?

[lurcho]

Cool project! How come you're using super glue instead of shellac?

 

Not really sure what shellac is, to be honest. As I say above, I believe a light adhesive is preferable. The very worst thing that can happen with weaker glue is that the feed assemply pops out of the section when you insert a converter or cartridge.

 

The major disadvantage of doing all this is that it is difficult not to destroy the original housing, though not unavoidable, and that it is possible to lose the new housing to that particular pen section. And I don't know how durable snap-on systems like the X750 are. On the other hand, spare feed assemblies are fairly cheap to buy as spares.

[EMQG]

Ah, gotcha!

 

To remove it without destroying it, you're going to want to build a makeshift knockout block and use some heat. A makeshift knockout block is easy to make - take two paint stirrers and a couple rubber bands. Tightly rubber band them together at the ends, then wedge the nib and feed between the two stirrers, letting the section rest on top of them.

 

Using a hairdryer, blow hot air on the section. Move it around a lot and very quickly so that the heat is evenly dispersed around the whole section. That'll help soften any adhesive and loosen the nib unit.

 

Then you take a hammer (I like to use a rubber or wooden mallet but anything works) and your punch (the hollow rod - I believe it said you were using the ink tube from a gel pen?), place the pinch in place over the cartridge nipple, and tap it out with the hammer.

 

Shellac and rosin-based sealant are the two most commonly used adhesives for fountain pen repair. They're much easier to remove than super glue (you just heat them up a bit and they soften), and they don't damage plastic, nor dissolve in ink.

 

Rosin-based sealant is available from Ron Zorn (Main Street Pens) for $15, and you'll get enough for a few hundred pens. Anderson Pens sells orange shellac (they might call it sac shellac because you can use it to attach ink sacs to vintage pens) for like $5.

 

If you're into tinkering, you should definitely get the right sealants!

[lurcho]

Ah, gotcha!

 

To remove it without destroying it, you're going to want to build a makeshift knockout block and use some heat. A makeshift knockout block is easy to make - take two paint stirrers and a couple rubber bands. Tightly rubber band them together at the ends, then wedge the nib and feed between the two stirrers, letting the section rest on top of them.

 

Using a hairdryer, blow hot air on the section. Move it around a lot and very quickly so that the heat is evenly dispersed around the whole section. That'll help soften any adhesive and loosen the nib unit.

 

Then you take a hammer (I like to use a rubber or wooden mallet but anything works) and your punch (the hollow rod - I believe it said you were using the ink tube from a gel pen?), place the pinch in place over the cartridge nipple, and tap it out with the hammer.

 

Shellac and rosin-based sealant are the two most commonly used adhesives for fountain pen repair. They're much easier to remove than super glue (you just heat them up a bit and they soften), and they don't damage plastic, nor dissolve in ink.

 

Rosin-based sealant is available from Ron Zorn (Main Street Pens) for $15, and you'll get enough for a few hundred pens. Anderson Pens sells orange shellac (they might call it sac shellac because you can use it to attach ink sacs to vintage pens) for like $5.

 

If you're into tinkering, you should definitely get the right sealants!

 

I should've spent more time trying to work out how to make a knockout block, but I was just thinking about drills and holes.

 

I am definitely going to try your method with the next one, and I want to thank you for the detailed proc.

 

Have you tried this yourself with Jinhaos?

[EMQG]

 

I should've spent more time trying to work out how to make a knockout block, but I was just thinking about drills and holes.

 

I am definitely going to try your method with the next one, and I want to thank you for the detailed proc.

 

Have you tried this yourself with Jinhaos?

 

Live and learn! Be glad that any pens/parts you damaged were just Jinhaos! My first repair mistake cost me a $45 pen!

 

The knockout block I described to you is a decent substitute, but I wouldn't use it for expensive or fragile pens. It works pretty well and I haven't had any issues using one, but I'll never look back from the proper aluminum knockout block I got from Pen Tooling (pentooling.com). $23+shipping, and they have a TON of other stuff, more than they even have listed on their website. If you're a tinkerer and wanna get into pen repair, I highly recommend checking out the site. I just received a $92 order from them and it's all VERY useful stuff.

 

I haven't, no. I have quite a few Jinhaos (a bunch of X750s and a 126, rebranded as a "Zenzoi Million Dollar Red" and sold to my girlfriend for $40) but I kinda like the nibs on them, and haven't bothered replacing them. A Jinhao/Edison (Jowo) nib swap was the first tinkering I ever did with a fountain pen, though! Never really thought much about swapping in a new nib unit. Don't have any spare Jowo or Bock units, and don't really want to spend the money to stick one in a Jinhao, but it's good to know that it's an option!

[lurcho]

 

Live and learn! Be glad that any pens/parts you damaged were just Jinhaos! My first repair mistake cost me a $45 pen!

 

The knockout block I described to you is a decent substitute, but I wouldn't use it for expensive or fragile pens. It works pretty well and I haven't had any issues using one, but I'll never look back from the proper aluminum knockout block I got from Pen Tooling (pentooling.com). $23+shipping, and they have a TON of other stuff, more than they even have listed on their website. If you're a tinkerer and wanna get into pen repair, I highly recommend checking out the site. I just received a $92 order from them and it's all VERY useful stuff.

 

I haven't, no. I have quite a few Jinhaos (a bunch of X750s and a 126, rebranded as a "Zenzoi Million Dollar Red" and sold to my girlfriend for $40) but I kinda like the nibs on them, and haven't bothered replacing them. A Jinhao/Edison (Jowo) nib swap was the first tinkering I ever did with a fountain pen, though! Never really thought much about swapping in a new nib unit. Don't have any spare Jowo or Bock units, and don't really want to spend the money to stick one in a Jinhao, but it's good to know that it's an option!

Been there with trying to fix gold nibs and ruining them. Two Custom 74s. Though my wife’s dog (as it’s been called ever since) chewed the barrel of one of them, so I considered the nib a spare.)

I live in Britain, so I can’t as easily use that resource you mention, but I'm going to look for something similar over here. It’s ridiculous that I didn’t think of buying rather than fabricating a knoclout-block before.

You’re full of handy information, you are!

 

By the way, I buy those standard JoWo #6 nibs from FPNibs in Spain, and I think they’d be very cheap for you to import to the US. We have to pay value-added tax at 20%, but you don’t. And their shipping is, I believe, 6 euros for a light parcel, i.e., a big bunch of nibs. I typically buy trhree at a time, though it makes much more sense to buy many more than that.

 

Keep it real.

[EMQG]

Been there with trying to fix gold nibs and ruining them. Two Custom 74s. Though my wife’s dog (as it’s been called ever since) chewed the barrel of one of them, so I considered the nib a spare.)

I live in Britain, so I can’t as easily use that resource you mention, but I'm going to look for something similar over here. It’s ridiculous that I didn’t think of buying rather than fabricating a knoclout-block before.

You’re full of handy information, you are!

 

By the way, I buy those standard JoWo #6 nibs from FPNibs in Spain, and I think they’d be very cheap for you to import to the US. We have to pay value-added tax at 20%, but you don’t. And their shipping is, I believe, 6 euros for a light parcel, i.e., a big bunch of nibs. I typically buy trhree at a time, though it makes much more sense to buy many more than that.

 

Keep it real.

 

Ooh man, 74 nibs is a baaaad place to start on nib repair! You gotta buy some Noodler's nibs for $1, damage em on purpose, and then undo what you did. That's how you learn nib repair (probably. I don't really do much nib work, I leave that to others for now). What was wrong with the nibs, and what'd you do to em? Do you still have em?

 

Buying a knockout block is a pretty good idea, but shipping it to the UK from the US would probably cost like $15 or something absurd. I'm sure someone in the UK sells knockout blocks.

 

Yeah, shipping from Europe to the US is super cheap, and when you take away VAT, it's usually a good deal to buy from Europe! I might do that sometime - I don't usually have much use for modern nibs, though. Most of my pens are vintage and I can usually replace those nibs for fairly cheap with gold ones! A couple days ago I got two flex nibs off the 'bay for $12.50 each, free shipping!

 

Read Ron Zorn's website and blog - he's got some cool notes on cheap pen repair supplies, including making a decent quality knockout block. I use the one from Pentooling personally, but after some repairs I did last night, I wish it wasn't aluminum. The aluminum is so damn cold, it sucks heat out of pens that you just heated up. Makes repairs more dangerous. I might make my own out of wood sometime soon.

[lurcho]

Thanks for all your advice, my friend.

 

I don't usually act on tips I get here, I suppose, but I will on yours. (And that's a very interesting tool site. Cheers!)

[EMQG]

Thanks for all your advice, my friend.

 

I don't usually act on tips I get here, I suppose, but I will on yours. (And that's a very interesting tool site. Cheers!)

 

Awesome! Glad to help

 

Seriously, check out pentooling.com, just to see what's out there. They've got SO much cool stuff. Five Star Pens, too!

[Eusorph]

On 12/17/2016 at 4:34 AM, lurcho said:

A few months ago, I wondered whether I could get an entire JoWo nib assembly into a cheap-as-chips pen body like a Jinhao.

 

 

 

 

Like many people, I've swapped the better nibs onto the existing feeds, and been very happy with the results. But I wondered whether the feeds that come with the nibs would work even better.

 

 

 

 

 

So I knocked out the housing from an X750 from the section, using, if memory serves, a small hammer and a stick (like a strong, cylindrical lollipop stock; it may have been a slim screwdriver). The stick wouldn't sit between the nipple and the inner section as I would've preferred, so it sort-of flattened the nipple on the housing. It took a little bit of welly, but out it popped, leaving the section clean.

 

 

 

 

 

To my dismay, rather than friction-fitting, the JoWo housing slid in and out of the section. So I put the bits and pieces to one side and forgot about it.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, at a loose end, I had the bright idea of supergluing the housing into the section. I thought I'd need something like fillers as well. But I didn't. The play was less than I remembered, so when I applied the superglue to the upper part of the housing where I thought the gap was smaller (I may be wrong), it felt straight away as though it would work. In other words, the viscosity of the glue cushioned the housing very comfortably in the section.

 

 

 

 

 

One day later, the pen is working superbly. You know how fountain pens are. They're great one minute, then the next the same nib seems rougher or the flow's become rubbish. Still, on balance, this is a transformation for the better. It's a fine point that I've used first. I hate fine nibs, and abhorred this one for ages. It was drawered until this experiment, but I think the better flow is contributing more to its performance renaissance than the minor smoothing I've resubjected it to.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry if this is old hat. I didn't check the archives this time as to whether anyone else had done this simple thing.

 

 

 

 

 

In any case, I commend it to anyone. The only caveat is that you must sacrifice the housing (and therefore, probably, the feed) to this one pen section. The ideal is a pen section that takes these housings such that one can replace them or swap them. The Italix pens do. And so do, I believe, TWSBI, Bexley, Franklin-Christoph, and Edison, though I don't have any of those makes..

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

 

 

1. I get my JoWos from FPNibs in Spain, an excellent source. (I brag them up whenever I can, because I want them always to be there.)

 

 

2. I have a feeling that the feeds that my JoWo nibs come with are not made by JoWo, but sourced elsewhere by their distributor, WIN. (I'm not sure.) So JoWo nibs from different sources may have different feeds and housings. And, of course, Goulet, for example, doesn't supply a feed with its JoWos at all.

 

Could you please explain how you knocked out the housing. I tried, but was unsuccessful. I wanted to try and fit my jowo housing with ebonite feed. It could be great.

[lurcho]

Hello Eusorph.

 

Sorry for not seeing this sooner.

 

I can't clearly remember exactly what I did. However, I can say that it's a somewhat fiddly job—at least the way I did it—and what you really need is a knock-out block. Not having one myself, I simply used force and perseverance. It was a frustrating experience, but I did manage with a few 750s, and I still have a few empty sections lying around.

 

If I did it again, and in lieu of a knock-out block, I'd use a small vice and plenty of protective cushioning to hold the section. The thing is, if you're prepared to destroy the existing housing you can whack the bloody thing without fear. The very worst thing that could happen is that you'd damage the section, but even then we're talking very little money.

 

If the housing comes out, it will come out cleanly, and you'll have a perfectly smooth inner section. Glueing will be the only simple way to secure your new JoWo housing, but while aesthetically displeasing as a fix, it won't be visibly so, and it will work pefectly. At least, mine did. And if you use a glue gun, or some other lighter glue, the process will be reversible.

 

I really don't feel I'm any more qualified to advise on this than a chimpanzee who's found a hammer near his rubber tyre, but please feel free to ask if you'd like, and good luck. Please report back.