Cigar custom kitless... its on fire!!!

[jj9ball]

Here is another kitless I just finished. It is a Cigar style with no clip. It is 17mm at its widest and has 14mm X .75 threads cap to body and 11mm X .75 threads section to body. It also has a Schmidt K6 screw in converter. The pen is 6 inches long capped and just over 5 5/8" long uncapped. I would love to hear and comments both good and bad.

On a side note I do have a question for all the people who do kitless fountain pens. Do your pens leak? Let me clarify. As I understand it nearly all fountain pens will spew ink if you take the cap off and shake them vigorously. The problem that I have is that after I carry one in my jeans pocket for a day when I go to take the cap off there are small amounts of ink that have come out between the triple and my section. To remedy it I have put silicone grease on the triple before screwing it into the section but it eventually starts to leak just a little. When I make my sections I am within around .05 to.10 mm tolerance. I honestly can't make it any tighter or it won't fit! If anybody has had this problem and has any tips, I am all ears. I would love to hear from you.

 

[Brooks803]

Very cool pen Jeff!

As for your leaking. Where exactly is it happening? At the base of the nib at the end of the section?

You're using the K6 converter...are you threading it in where the converter is attached to the nipple of the feed, or are you threading it to where there's a free chamber of ink inside the section? If it's possible to see a pic of just the section from both ends that may help.

Carrying it in your jeans pocket loose can heat up the pen itself and you could be having "burping" issues. When you fill your pen do you push out the air bubble?

What size drill bits are you using when you drill for your feed housing? All the bits. Especially for the steps in the housing.

Is there any leaking into your cap? The leak could be from to large of a gap between the nib itself and the feed and it's pooling in the cap and then dripping back down. If this is an overly wet writer that could be a sign.

I had a similar issue on 1 pen (my wife's of course!) and I ended up remaking the section and swapping out the feed & housing. Couldn't replace the nib bc it had a special grind. Doing all of that did help. I wasn't 100% what was causing it so I just replaced everything I could.

 

[Charlie_W]

Great job on the pen! Love the colors in the cast!

 

[jj9ball]

Very cool pen Jeff!

As for your leaking. Where exactly is it happening? At the base of the nib at the end of the section?

You're using the K6 converter...are you threading it in where the converter is attached to the nipple of the feed, or are you threading it to where there's a free chamber of ink inside the section? If it's possible to see a pic of just the section from both ends that may help.

Carrying it in your jeans pocket loose can heat up the pen itself and you could be having "burping" issues. When you fill your pen do you push out the air bubble?

What size drill bits are you using when you drill for your feed housing? All the bits. Especially for the steps in the housing.

Is there any leaking into your cap? The leak could be from to large of a gap between the nib itself and the feed and it's pooling in the cap and then dripping back down. If this is an overly wet writer that could be a sign.

I had a similar issue on 1 pen (my wife's of course!) and I ended up remaking the section and swapping out the feed & housing. Couldn't replace the nib bc it had a special grind. Doing all of that did help. I wasn't 100% what was causing it so I just replaced everything I could.

Thank you for all of the good information. I forgot to mention that the pen that is leaking is a bulb filler I made. Here's where it gets even weirder. I think it does have something to do with air pressure. I can actually take the cap off the pen and stare and the end of the section and see and ink bubble form. If I loosen the section it will subside and if I tighten the section it will bubble back up. Is it possible that my pen is in a constant stage of burping??? It really is baffling me.

 

[Brooks803]

Ah...ok that's a whole other ball of wax! From your description I want to say it's an air flow issue. You're not expelling all the air while it's being filled. So you're in that constant stage of burping. Also if you're seeing air bubbles then you're not sealed all the way at the top of the nib housing.

How did you handle the air flow in the feed itself? Did you do anything or leave it alone?

How long is your breather tube and is it secured in place? Did you put a tiny pin hole in it?

 

[maxman400]

Great Looking Pen

 

[jj9ball]

Ah...ok that's a whole other ball of wax! From your description I want to say it's an air flow issue. You're not expelling all the air while it's being filled. So you're in that constant stage of burping. Also if you're seeing air bubbles then you're not sealed all the way at the top of the nib housing.

How did you handle the air flow in the feed itself? Did you do anything or leave it alone?

How long is your breather tube and is it secured in place? Did you put a tiny pin hole in it?

Okay now we're getting somewhere. I didn't do anything to "handle" the air into the feed itself. Was I supposed to? I also didn't put any holes into the breather tube. The breather tube goes just below the top of my middles section of pen (reservoir)... it ended up being around 1.250 inches. Tell me more about the airflow thing. I think I might be doing something wrong, or , at the very least, I could be doing something better. Do you think I should put a pin hole in the breather? or handle the tube going to the feed differently? I plan to make more of these and I don't want customers sending them back defective. Thank you very much for any tips you might be able to give.

 

[Displaced Canadian]

It looks good. I like the lip on the tip so your fingers have something to rest against. That blank is something else. Wild crazy and awesome just don't quite cover it.

 

[Brooks803]

Okay now we're getting somewhere. I didn't do anything to "handle" the air into the feed itself. Was I supposed to? I also didn't put any holes into the breather tube. The breather tube goes just below the top of my middles section of pen (reservoir)... it ended up being around 1.250 inches. Tell me more about the airflow thing. I think I might be doing something wrong, or , at the very least, I could be doing something better. Do you think I should put a pin hole in the breather? or handle the tube going to the feed differently? I plan to make more of these and I don't want customers sending them back defective. Thank you very much for any tips you might be able to give.

Yeah you need a secondary bleeder hole so the air can expel. There is a tutorial in the library that I found super helpful: http://content.penturners.org/library/pens/bulbfiller.pdf

I make mine pretty much just like this explains. The biggest PITA is drilling the feeds out. Especially Jowo's. I did learn that you don't have to drill in as far as the tutorial says. I only go in 1/8" or so. Just enough so the breather tube seats. Plus I do NOT shellac or glue it in place. To high of a risk clogging the feed and then you're SOL trying to get it cleaned. Not to mention you can't buy replacement feeds for Jowo. You do need that hole in the top of the feed that goes perpendicular. I use micro drill bits. 0.5mm I believe and I do it by hand.

You can play with the length of the breather tube. I like for mine to end just below the sac.

Start there and test fill with water. Try to get it to fill ALL the way. If you're not getting all the air out you won't be able to get it filled past a certain point no matter what. If you can get it to fill all the way up to the sac then you know you're getting proper air flow.

All of this is without having to put a pin hole in the breather tube. If you've done all of this and are still getting air issues you can try the pin hole and see if it helps. Oh...and put silicone grease on your section threads as well as the nib housing.

Would it be possible to see some pics of the nib totally broken down?

 

[MikeL]

Great looking pen!