[This is the fourth of five parts of the article Lamy 2000 and the Origins of "Lamy Design" written by Brandon Hollingshead. Every Friday we'll publish the next part in the series. If you need to, catch up on Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 or just skip ahead to Part 5. -Dan]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License by Brandon Hollingshead, August 2012, for The Fountain Pen Network and is reproduced here with permission of the author. This license extends to all text, images, and videos associated with this work.
Part 4. Tearing it all down: Lamy 2000 disassembly
One of the things that is so nice about the Lamy 2000 is its ability to be completely field stripped without the use of tools (unless you want to take apart the cap, in which case you’ll need to make use of a slender dowel). Let’s jump right in to written and visual instructions for complete disassembly.
Steps to disassemble the cap
1. For the love of Gerd do not attempt to use pliers to unscrew the cap. Doing so will leave wonderful marks on the top of the cap but it will do nothing to loosen the cap stud. The stud screws into a small brass sleeve. You need a probing tool to put pressure on the brass sleeve so that it does not rotate when you unscrew the cap stud. I use a blunted bamboo skewer, but any small rod will do (chopstick, knitting needle, computer spudger). You may need some force to get the stud to unscrew the first time. If it feels like you are unscrewing forever but nothing is happening, chances are the brass sleeve is playing games with you.
Fair warning: Once the stud is unscrewed, the brass sleeve may pop right out (yay gravity!), so you may wish to do this over a surface where it won’t roll away under the very heavy media cabinet (he said knowingly).
2. Slide the clip out of the notch, being careful not to loose the small spring. The spring is fitted in securely, but you don’t want to risk losing it.
3. Use the probe to push the grey cap housing and brass cap stay unit out. If you push straight down, the grey piece may come out without the brass piece. Instead, push down and slightly inward. Don’t use much force though; the grey piece is made of very soft plastic and you don’t want to damage it.
4. There is a final piece, the inner ring where the cap clutch ring fits in (aka, the fearsome “nubs” or “ears” at the section/body joint). I don’t see any good reason to want to take that out, and as we saw in the previous part, this is a place of weakness where cracks may form in older pens. Leave well enough alone.
Steps to disassemble the front section
1. Hold the pen horizontally with the nib pointing leftward. Grip the metal section securely, and unscrew the barrel by rotating the body down with a firm grip. Before you unscrew the section completely, make sure you are working in a clean, well lighted place, because there are two very important, very small, and very easy to lose pieces that may up and walk out on you if you are careless: a small black o-ring that sits at the end of the ink feed and the silver cap clutch ring. I keep a small glass dish handy so I always have a place to put them. If you lose the o-ring, your nib unit will not sit firm in the section and you will likely gush ink everywhere. If you lose the cap clutch ring, you will not be able to cap your pen.
2. Gently push the nib out of the section housing from the nib end. I like to apply pressure from the underside, not on the tines or tipping. The nib/feed unit should come right out, so don’t force it if it doesn’t.
3. The nib slides off the feed, but may need some cajoling. I usually use my fingernail to get some purchase.
Section reassembly
1.The ink feed is very easy to damage if you don’t insert it back in the section housing just so. Fortunately, Lamy made it easy on you. There is a small ridge on the inner wall of the section housing and a small valley on the underside of the feed. The nib-end of the section housing will only accept the nib unit in one way. If you line them up correctly, the feed should slide right in. If it doesn’t, you don’t have the section and the feed lined up. IF YOU FEEL ANY RESISTANCE, DO NOT FORCE THE FEED IN. Doing so may crimp the ink collector fins, crush the feed, and/or damage the nib.
2. Return the small black o-ring to the end of the ink feed, and slide it down as far as it will go (or don’t: when you screw the section and body together the o-ring will move on down). This o-ring creates the seal between the breather tube and the piston chamber, so it is a very important o-ring indeed.
3. Make sure the cap clutch ring lines up with the two slots on either side of the section. I find it is easiest to do this with the nib tip down (let gravity help you). There’s no significance to the gap in the clutch ring; you don’t have to line it up a particular way. Just make sure the tabs rest in the slots.
4. As you screw the section and body together, you want to make sure the connection is snug but not too tight. If you over-tighten, you run the risk of straining the Makrolon threading in older pens or damaging the ink collector fins and feed.
Steps to disassemble the piston
This is probably the coolest part of the Lamy 2000, but also the most cringe-worthy if you’ve never done it before: the piston screws right out without use of any special tools (well, one’s fingers are quite special thankyouverymuch but that’s beside the point). Here’s how to do it.
1. Loosely unscrew the piston knob as if you were inking the pen. You’ll feel it when the piston gasket gets to the end of the barrel.
2. Take a deep breath.
3. Keep unscrewing in the same direction. You may hear some clicking. After a few turns, the piston knob will come free.
4. There is a dark grey (newer model) or clear (older model) piece that will come out with the piston knob. Put that back in the body and twist it to reengage the threads just slightly so that you can get purchase on the piston rod to pull it and the rest of the piston assembly straight out.
Congratulations! You’ve taken apart a Lamy 2000 fountain pen.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License by Brandon Hollingshead, August 2012, for The Fountain Pen Network and is reproduced here with permission of the author. This license extends to all text, images, and videos associated with this work.
