Filling A Cartridge Converter Correctly

[lggilman]

I have recently started using fountain pens again after 30 plus years. I notice that when I fill a pen with a cartridge converter I seem to get an air bubble in the converter. I would like to know if this is normal and if not, how to remedy. I've tried filling really slowly, filling and then releasing back out and refilling while the pen is in the ink and I still get the little air pocket. Any advice is most appreciated.

[Chrissy]

Fill and empty several times while leaving the nib submerged in the ink. It will never be 100% full, but it will be as full as you can get it.

[jar]

Not just normal but necessary.

[Jerome Tarshis]

That air in the converter is normal.

 

Think about this: When you hold the pen in your hand, poised above the ink bottle, or even with the nib inserted in the ink, there is a distance between the mouth of the converter and the nib of the pen, where ink will be taken up. That distance is filled with air. When the converter begins sucking, it sucks everything that's present: first that cylinder of air, then ink.

 

It is possible to take extraordinary measures to avoid this. I grew up using fountain pens, I think it's normal to use fountain pens, they don't make me an unusual person, and I'm not looking for unusual experience with something as ordinary as a pen. Usual air is all right with me. Others differ.

 

(I agree with Chrissy's advice. I do that myself if I'm unsatisfied with the first fill. But a good deal of the time I am satisfied with the first fill.)

[calvin_0]

I have recently started using fountain pens again after 30 plus years. I notice that when I fill a pen with a cartridge converter I seem to get an air bubble in the converter. I would like to know if this is normal and if not, how to remedy. I've tried filling really slowly, filling and then releasing back out and refilling while the pen is in the ink and I still get the little air pocket. Any advice is most appreciated.

 

this is normal, all you can do is expel and refill a few times to get as much air out as possible, but there is always going to be some air bubble in the converter, this is true for any other type of filling system as well, including eyedropper.

[Driften]

What I do is after the fist fill hold nib up and expel the air and then going back in the ink to draw up more. Afterwords expel a 2-3 drops back in the bottle. You will end up with a small bubble of air which is normal.

[Honeybadgers]

Only one pen I fill the converter directly and not with it inserted in the pen - the faber castell loom, since its snap section is at the end of the grip and it's a nightmare to clean.

 

Fill several times. If you just have a REALLY stubborn bubble, fill the converter up 2/3 or so, invert the pen to be nib-up, finish "filling the converter" by twisting it so the piston drops all the way down and it sucks all the ink out of the feed, screw the converter back up until you just see some ink at the base of the feed, dip back in the ink and fill again for a complete fill. This only occasionally happens with pens that have really big feeds.

[lggilman]

Thank you all for the insights. Most appreciated.

[Driften]

One last thing. Wash out your converter in water with a drop of dish soap, the wash with clean water. It helps a new convert to flow better.

[pajaro]

I think the bubble is needed for the ink to flow. Manufacturers recommend that when you have filled the converter, you release a few drops back into the ink bottle, then with the nib out of the ink, work the converter to suck some air in. Apparently a too full converter isn't desired.

[Runnin_Ute]

Even with my piston filled Pelikan's if the pen hasn't been filled in a while or I just flushed it because I am changing inks, I draw it up, push it out two or three times. Whether it pulls more ink or not I don't know but it does flood the feed real good so that my color isn't to watery and the pen starts right up without issue.

[Noihvo]

I think the bubble is needed for the ink to flow. Manufacturers recommend that when you have filled the converter, you release a few drops back into the ink bottle, then with the nib out of the ink, work the converter to suck some air in. Apparently a too full converter isn't desired.

 

[mtcn77]

What is the general consensus on air bubbles forming in the converter after refilling, does it indicate any leaking, or is it normal considering ink is cold and it is due to converter heating it up dissipating dissolved air?

[Mercian]

51 minutes ago, mtcn77 said:

What is the general consensus on air bubbles forming in the converter after refilling, does it indicate any leaking, or is it normal considering ink is cold and it is due to converter heating it up dissipating dissolved air?

If I understand your description correctly, you are referring to air being visible in the converter after you fill the pen, but before you have written anything, yes?

 

I would imagine that this is air that was between the nib/feed and the converter-feed-nipple when you were filling the pen, and which only became visible once the ink had settled in the pen (& the air collected at the piston-end of the converter). It’s quite normal, as others have already said above.
The only way to avoid it is to fill the converter, then; hold the pen nib-up and flick the converter (& then the grip section) so that all the air migrates towards the nib, then; hold the pen over the ink bottle & move the piston of the converter until ink is coming out of the nib/feed, then; put the nib back in to the ink and fully-retract the converter’s piston.

 

Doing all of that should enable you to completely fill the converter with ink, but: as Noihvo said, accepted ‘best practice’ is to then expel a few drops of ink back in to the bottle and draw up just a bit of air in to the feed of the pen.
As he explained, this avoids having an over-saturated feed (& also reduces the probability of ink leaving the feed and going in to the cap when you are carrying your pen).

 

If you store your pen nib down after filling with ink and expelling a few drops, the air in the feed could very well migrate up to the top of the converter as capillary action draws the ink into the feed’s fins.

 

I wouldn’t worry about it. If you are worried that your pen may be leaking, the best way to test that would be to clean the pen & cap thoroughly, then re-fill it with ink & leave it standing nib-down (e.g. in a cup) for a few days.

After those few days check inside the cap to see if any ink has gathered there, or at the join between nib & grip-section, or grip-section & body.

[mtcn77]

@Mercian thanks, it was a review of everything I forgot. It was a pen I hadn't written in a bit and the pen feed must obviously be dry, eventhough I had written a moment before. I got cautious because there were uniformally fizzy large bubbles in the converter like it was only half full, but I hadn't filled it a couple of times to top it.

On 8/2/2018 at 2:17 PM, Honeybadgers said:

Only one pen I fill the converter directly and not with it inserted in the pen - the faber castell loom, since its snap section is at the end of the grip and it's a nightmare to clean.

I'm sorry to hear that. Both my snap cap pens are very easy to clean around the lip - all you need is a toilet roll tissue folded into quarter of its size and dampened from the sink. You can clean all hand grease, ink stains from the section by rolling the pen on its end pressing down on the tissue placed on your fingertip and you never have trouble touching the feed while cleaning the lip section perfectly. I always do before I cap it after a fill, otherwise you may have a vapor-lock ink squirting incident when you uncap it the next time!