TWSBI Vac Mini - A bit fiddly

[maclink]

I just purchased and inked up a TWSBI Vac Mini with a F nib.  It's now inked with Montblanc Permanent Blue.  As expected, it writes well with great nib tuning out of the box. 

 

Although it has decent ergonomics, I do find the Vac system finicky and do not see myself putting up with it for too long.   Simply unscrewing the rod isn't enough to allow ink into the primary chamber.  I thought the revised design would have allowed this, but alas, the pen ran dry.  I had to pull the plunger back a bit and ink flooded in.  

 

But then I can't pull the rod back too far either, or else it will abut against the narrower part of the ink reservoir, blocking ink flow beyond the rubber seal/plunger.  So I fiddle to find that sweet spot where the rubber floats in the 'ballooned out portion' of the ink reservoir.  This is so unlike my Custom 823, Conid Bulkfillers and Opus pens that work once you simply unscrew their rods to allow ink flow into their primary ink chambers.

 

I have two of the older designed TWSBI Vacs that I abandoned using for this reason. 

[irrigger]

Have you tried removing the small o-ring on the rod? It essentially removes the ink stop function of the filler.

 

Removing Vacuum Filler Pen O-rings - YouTube

[ethernautrix]

Second what irrigger suggested.

Before my TWSBI Vac Mini was even near a year old, it fell apart. Cos I kept dropping it. I figured, maybe I'll buy another one one of these days, and I'll be able to use the nib unit at least, so I put the pieces away and forgot about it. This was only last year.

 

Yesterday, while organizing my pens and parts, I came across the TWSBI... and, while wondering if I should toss it, tried putting the pieces back together. The plastic pieces weren't broken, just cracked (four vertical lines) in the endcap threads. I remembered that the rod and stopper mechanism wouldn't work. Sure enough, the rubber stopper kept coming off. I wondered how I could tighten it, so that it would remain in place.

 

Then I thought, Wait a minute! Why not just get rid of that little rubber stopper and fill the pen with a syringe? 

 

And lo! I was rewarded with a repaired TWSBI Vac Mini. I filled it with a syringe from the nib section (having unscrewed the nib section) (cos the nib and feed don't come out, as I recall reading somewhere), put a bit of silicone grease around the threads, and placed the pen in a baggie and walked around with it in my backpack for a coupla, few hours, to see if it would leak.

 

So far so good!

 

[ethernautrix]

Update: The nib and feed unit screws out of the nib section for easy-peasy topping up using a syringe. 

[maclink]

On 3/21/2021 at 3:47 PM, irrigger said:

Have you tried removing the small o-ring on the rod? It essentially removes the ink stop function of the filler.

 

Removing Vacuum Filler Pen O-rings - YouTube

 

The rod has long been redesigned to not have that O-ring.  It's now just one ring of rubber that is required for the vac system to work.

[maclink]

21 hours ago, ethernautrix said:

Second what irrigger suggested.

Before my TWSBI Vac Mini was even near a year old, it fell apart. Cos I kept dropping it. I figured, maybe I'll buy another one one of these days, and I'll be able to use the nib unit at least, so I put the pieces away and forgot about it. This was only last year.

 

Yesterday, while organizing my pens and parts, I came across the TWSBI... and, while wondering if I should toss it, tried putting the pieces back together. The plastic pieces weren't broken, just cracked (four vertical lines) in the endcap threads. I remembered that the rod and stopper mechanism wouldn't work. Sure enough, the rubber stopper kept coming off. I wondered how I could tighten it, so that it would remain in place.

 

Then I thought, Wait a minute! Why not just get rid of that little rubber stopper and fill the pen with a syringe? 

 

And lo! I was rewarded with a repaired TWSBI Vac Mini. I filled it with a syringe from the nib section (having unscrewed the nib section) (cos the nib and feed don't come out, as I recall reading somewhere), put a bit of silicone grease around the threads, and placed the pen in a baggie and walked around with it in my backpack for a coupla, few hours, to see if it would leak.

 

So far so good!

 

Yes, this is a work-around to the problem, for those interested.

 

I have a TWSBI Vac 700R Iris that works just fine.  

[irrigger]

LOL, tells you the last time I bought a TWSBI