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View Full Version : TWSBI Mini and Diamine ink - and some success with the blind cap.



I like mango pudding
August 12th, 2013, 10:48 AM
Well, I decided to go back to my TWSBI Mini with Diamine Grape after about a month's in activity. It had about 30% ink left in the piston chamber. I go to write with it after uscrewing the cap and it's dry. I turn the blind cap to force ink out the feed and nothing happens:confused:. . I check the reservoir and it looks like its all dried out. The ink is just clinging to the sides of the chamber. Anyways I disassemble the piston assembly and begin to wash it out. My intention is to refill it with Diamine Grape again, so I didn't take apart the nib assembly. I just ran it through lots of water to release any dried up bits of ink.

Now remember the issues I had (and lots of other people had) with the free movement of the blind cap after reassembling it? Well, I fixed it. It no longer moves when the piston is in the fully up position and screwed back on.

How did I do it? Well there is one thing you need to do first before assembling it back together. Before you start reassembling everthing, insert the TWSBI wrench into the slot and screw the blind cap back on till the wrench is snugly fit into the slots. Strategically fit the piston rod to the ideal location. We all know how to do this already, so I won't go into details. Stephen Brown has a YT vid on that. The key is, is to have the TWSBI wrench snugly fit and tight to the blind cap when the cap is screwed down. All this is done BEFORE you insert it back into the chamber. Once it is snugly fit. insert the entire assembly back in and then start screwing in counter-clockwise to tighten the piston into the piston threads.

The only drawback: My piston is not 100% in the up position. I lost about 4mm of chamber volume. I guess I could reposition the piston rod to reduce that 4mm gap, but I am not going to chance it with a full load of ink. Once I use up this filling, I might play with the piston rod a bit more to get a full load.

I also noticed that some of the ink got in behind the clear finger grip too. No biggie. I can put apart everything next time.

I'd do a YT vid, but I doubt I'd get it right the first time, and it'd look like a comedy of errors going trial and error about 3 or 4 times. :)

theolu
August 16th, 2013, 09:43 AM
Brian Goulet did a disassembly/reassembly video for the TWSBI 580 where he addressed how to ensure the piston goes all the way back up. This should apply to the Mini as well - here's a link to the video.

http://www.inknouveau.com/2013/03/twsbi-580-disassembly.html

The part I'm referring to starts around the 7:00 minute mark but you might want to go back a little for context.