Lamy 2000 Leak Ink Hole

[Cengiz]

Update: No more leaking. It is a lovely pen, dependable and smooth-nibbed!

 

I finally found a pen which makes Edelstein Smokey Quartz look beautiful! Every other pen I tried with this ink did't do right to the wonderful brown color, but with the Lamy the brown is just spot-on beautiful.

[Cengiz]

is everything still OK?

Edited December 27, 2019 by Tientze

[Estycollector]

How does a $150 pen leak?

[FromTheNetherlands]

is everything still OK?

Yes!

The pen still writes like a dream.

 

I haven't had any more trouble.

[FromTheNetherlands]

How does a $150 pen leak?

There was a leak in the piston filling system, leading to air intake from the top of the pen, causing ink to be pushed out at the nib.

 

I don't think the price of the pen really matters. Of course, a 1 dollar Chinese FP is more likely to have trouble than a 150 dollar pen. But still, manufacturing problems occur.

[Estycollector]

There was a leak in the piston filling system, leading to air intake from the top of the pen, causing ink to be pushed out at the nib.

 

I don't think the price of the pen really matters. Of course, a 1 dollar Chinese FP is more likely to have trouble than a 150 dollar pen. But still, manufacturing problems occur.

I would think the makers of a $150 pen would have checked before sending out . No so much with a $10 pen.

[bemon]

I've had 6 L2K fountain pens over the years. 4 Makrolon and 2 Steel. I still have 2, and they're among my favorite EDC pens. But I've found every one of them to be picky when it comes to ink. Just experiment with different inks.

[unheimlichkeit]

Sorry for reviving this old post, but I'm wondering whether you were given any more information about the leak in the filling mechanism when your pen was repaired. Was there a rip in the piston gasket? Or was there a scratch in the barrel that allowed a small amount of air through the piston seal?

I've been having a very similar problem with my Lamy 2000 for about 6 months or so. Ink tends to collect on the nib when writing as in your picture above. It seems to happen when the pen gets to be around 1/4 full, so I'm wondering whether this could be something similar to what happens to eyedroppers when they run low on ink. Oddly it's only happened in one Lamy 2000, and I've never had this issue in my TWSBI Eco which I use until almost dry.

[FromTheNetherlands]

 

Sorry for reviving this old post, but I'm wondering whether you were given any more information about the leak in the filling mechanism when your pen was repaired. Was there a rip in the piston gasket? Or was there a scratch in the barrel that allowed a small amount of air through the piston seal?

I've been having a very similar problem with my Lamy 2000 for about 6 months or so. Ink tends to collect on the nib when writing as in your picture above. It seems to happen when the pen gets to be around 1/4 full, so I'm wondering whether this could be something similar to what happens to eyedroppers when they run low on ink. Oddly it's only happened in one Lamy 2000, and I've never had this issue in my TWSBI Eco which I use until almost dry.

 

 

Hi!

 

Yes, I did hear back from the fountain pen store -> there was a leak in the filling mechanism (damaged rubber seal somewhere, which caused air to flow in to the ink reservoire).

 

I did have the problem everytime, even when completely filled.

 

What could solve your problem: hold the pen in your hands for a minute to let air expand, then write with the pen (make sure you hold the pen nib up). This was the advice given to me prior repair.

Otherwise: experiment with ink, some rather wet inks tend to 'exit the pen' too fast.

[bemon]

 

Sorry for reviving this old post, but I'm wondering whether you were given any more information about the leak in the filling mechanism when your pen was repaired. Was there a rip in the piston gasket? Or was there a scratch in the barrel that allowed a small amount of air through the piston seal?

I've been having a very similar problem with my Lamy 2000 for about 6 months or so. Ink tends to collect on the nib when writing as in your picture above. It seems to happen when the pen gets to be around 1/4 full, so I'm wondering whether this could be something similar to what happens to eyedroppers when they run low on ink. Oddly it's only happened in one Lamy 2000, and I've never had this issue in my TWSBI Eco which I use until almost dry.

 

I had a different problem with my Makrolon L2K. There was a hair line crack in the section that I couldn't see, but ink would seep out of over night. I didn't figure it out until the crack grew which took months.

 

Lamy Canada send me a replacement section for $20.

[Cengiz]

On 12/30/2019 at 12:52 PM, GJMekenkamp said:

Yes!

The pen still writes like a dream.

 

I haven't had any more trouble.

is everything still OK after about five years?

[twinspark]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but in case it's of use to anyone....

 

Have a Lamy 2000 that wrote beautifully for years and then one day it burped ink from the hole on the nib hood. Didn't think too much of this at the time - it was a hot day, pen was clipped to my shirt and had been jostled about on some bumpy roads. Over time however this occured more frequently and to a greater extent. There often appeared to be no rationale - I could freshly fill the pen, take it on a flight and use it without issue, but could leave it alone on a desk and it would burp! I would take the cap off slowly, always carry it nib up and it would make no difference.

 

I did try all of the flushing suggestions short of dismantling, but it seemed to make no difference. Now although I have used fountain pens since the early 1980s when I was still at school, I'm not an expert and baulked at suggestions of taking it apart in terms of unscrewing the nib section from the piston section... The pen was however now unusable so nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 

I unscrewed it carefully, being careful of how the cap nodules were orientated and being ultra cautious over the gasket. I don't have a bulb squeezer thing (see comment about me not being an expert!). I just blew with my mouth to flush water through from both directions!

 

I then set the nib section aside to dry upright on a paper towel whilst I turned my attention to the piston section and in doing so dislodged the nib from the hood (almost like the weight of gravity on the hood caused it to slide). Choice of either taking the nib out or putting back in. Figured probably more sensible to allow it to come out so I could see what I was doing properly in trying to put it back in.

 

That's when I discovered on the nib feed itself, in the groove that runs down the middle a "string of stuff". It looked like an ultrafine hair coated in dust that was full of ink. Looking closely it looked like this "thing" would be in the proximity of the hood hole. Anyway that got a good rinsing in water where it floated away.

 

I carefully put the nib back in and reassembled the pen before inking it. I've now used it daily for months now and its not burped once!

 

So.... It may be worthwhile taking the nib out of the hood and seeing if there's "foreign matter" there.

 

No idea what it was. My simplest suggestion was a fine hair, but could it have been paper debris from when I wipe the pen with tissue and some tissue has sloughed off and entered the hole, possibly building up over time? Or could it have been something in the ink - have heard of "nasties" growing in ink, however I'm using the same inks as before (Noodlers Bulletproof Black and Eel Black - boring I know....).

 

Anyway in case the above helps someone - just be careful with the unscrewing and reassembly making sure everything was as it was before....

[Ron Z]

Stir the ink with a bamboo or wood coffee stirrer, making contact with the bottom of the bottle, and then scrape it and at the end of the stroke lift the stirrer out of the ink.  If there's a string of snot, or SITB,  it's contaminated.  Toss the bottle of ink.  Nothing even if you do it a couple of times, it's good.