What's your troubleshooting routine?

[manoeuver]

Building off Jon Szanto's thread about finicky pens we can't part with, what are your go-to troubleshooting techniques when a pen isn't writing well enough for you?

I'll juice the feed with a drop of water first.
Then I'll check the ink supply: If it's a cart I'll give it a squeeze, if it's a piston or a converter I'll advance the piston (a little or a lot) to goosh the feed.
If that doesn't work I'll clean the pen and ink it with one of my more cooperative inks (Pilot Blue-Black, Waterman Serenity Blue, something Aurora if it's really giving me trouble.)

I should probably slip in an alignment check before the reinking but I can usually tell if something's misaligned by writing with it (or so I believe.)

What's your process?

[FredRydr]

For hard and no-starters, after the ink squeezes, I flush with flushing solution followed by rinse water, then check nib-to-feed contact, then refill with Waterman ink. If that wasn't good enough, it's disassembly of the front end for an ultrasound and a close look at feed channels under a lens. After that, I get all pissy when I can't find the reason and put the pen away or, like with my Connaisseur, put up with it. (Although I was just informed of the cause by a wise private messenger.)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Building off Jon Szanto's thread about finicky pens we can't part with, what are your go-to troubleshooting techniques when a pen isn't writing well enough for you?

I'll juice the feed with a drop of water first.
Then I'll check the ink supply: If it's a cart I'll give it a squeeze, if it's a piston or a converter I'll advance the piston (a little or a lot) to goosh the feed.
If that doesn't work I'll clean the pen and ink it with one of my more cooperative inks (Pilot Blue-Black, Waterman Serenity Blue, something Aurora if it's really giving me trouble.)

I should probably slip in an alignment check before the reinking but I can usually tell if something's misaligned by writing with it (or so I believe.)

What's your process?

Similar, but I don't squeeze carts. Too many sad stories regarding that. I have a loupe and a couple of magnifying glass things. A new pen might need smoothing.

My last step is usually a run through the sonicator with Rapido-Eze; I can't tolerate anything approaching ammonia/pen flush.

Most of the time it's a matter of finding the right ink.

[Chrissy]

I currently have two candidates for troubleshooting. One is the now legendary Parker 45 Coronet detailed on Jon's thread. The other is a slightly less troublesome Delta 366. Both of these pens are regularly flushed with water then soaked in Platinum pen flush because they are either very troublesome (Parker) or slightly troublesome (Delta). That particular pen flush is a sachet of liquid that gets mixed with water and it seems to make pens flow slightly better. It is great for piston fillers, where it seems to make their pistons run smoother. For pens that develop stiff pistons it is my go to, first choice, pen flush.

I have other pen flushes that are occasionally used even Rapido-Eze, but I always tend to fall back onto the Platinum version.

If this routine fails to make them write perfectly then I go straight to step 2. If I'm confident enough that I can, I remove the nib and feed. I whizz them and the section in the USC then reassemble. This usually works. Unfortunately it hasn't been a permanent fix with either of these pens and they have both been subjected to step 2 twice so far. In fact step 2 gets upgraded to two whizzes in the USC with both of these pens.

The Delta is improved as it can now write a longer paragraph or even two paragraphs before the ink supply starts to get dryer and fainter then dwindles away. I'm not sure what it's problem is because it uses Birmingham Pens ink and that's quite wet, but I still persevere. It has a threaded Delta converter that is extremely precious as it's as rare as a hen's tooth and was expensive and really hard to find. But several other threaded converters have been tried and none of them fit into the 366. So if this one cracks at the tip then I will have to use a push in converter or cartridges.

The Parker and I have a love hate relationship. I love the pen and the ink but the pen hates to write with it.

[An old bloke]

Periodic flushing of nibs and converters with cold water is my normal PM.

[Chip]

Depends on the problem. Sometimes it's the nib. Or it might be a persistent leak. Or a sticky filling mechanism. Bad sac. Corrosion.

An accurate diagnosis saves heaps of trouble.

[Jon Szanto]

There is mounting evidence that Fred and I were separated at birth, or at the very least, raised by the exact same pack of wolves. In any event, he saved me some typing.

[FredRydr]

There is mounting evidence that Fred and I were separated at birth, or at the very least, raised by the exact same pack of wolves. In any event, he saved me some typing.

I remember that. Mom always liked you best.

[Sandy]

1/ dip nib in water to check for dried feed.
2/ squeeze catridge or convertor to force ink into feed
3/ change paper
4/ clean pen with washing up liquid. Use old tooth brush to clear feed.
5/ change ink
6/ keep writing with pen over 2 or 3 weeks to see if thee is a change (sometimes these things fix themselves)
7/ Try bending tines - gently pushing tines in and out.
8/ send it to repairer

[dneal]

I've drafted several responses to this thread over the past few days, but life keeps getting in the way of refining it for posting. Chip's comment "depends on the problem" is crucial, and it's beneficial to understand how a fountain pen works in order to know what's going wrong and where to focus your efforts.

As noted many times by many people, a fountain pen is a "controlled leak". It is simply a reservoir of ink, using capillary action, surface tension, and vacuum to deliver ink on demand.

Starting from the reservoir, ink is drawn through capillary action along the feed to the nib and to the page. Anything that degrades or prohibits that movement causes problems. As the ink is used, a vacuum is created in the reservoir. Air must travel back into the reservoir or the vacuum becomes too great for capillary action to overcome.

The feed is the first connection to the reservoir. Sometimes surface tension will hold the ink where it can't reach the feed. It happens most frequently with converters, but some ink formulations will do it in cartridges and other reservoirs (pistons, sacs, etc...).

SurfaceTension015_zps1c980d6d.jpg

You can try switching inks, cleaning the converter, introducing some agitator to break surface tension, add various chemicals or (in my case) give the barrel a light flick with your fingertip to break the tension. When I ran out on that fill, I quit using that ink in that converter in that pen, and used cartridges instead.

Once ink is reaching the feed, we can focus on that. At its most basic, it's a simple channel for ink to travel along. Capillary action and surface tension tends to draw the ink along the narrowest ("bottom") portion of the channel. Air returns to the reservoir easiest at the widest ("top") portion of the channel

OmasFeed003_zpsdd5efb25.jpg

Anything blocking or inhibiting that will cause the pen to write poorly or not at all. If that is from dried ink, or manufacturing residue, cleaning/flushing the pen is sufficient. It's the "bang on the TV to make it work" method (which worked because: vacuum tubes, but that's another discussion).

If there is physical debris in the channel that can't be flushed out, you have to clean the channel with the corner of a brass shim or the back side of an X-acto knife.

The end of the feed (opposite the reservoir) curves or ramps upwards toward the nib. If you choose to clean a feed channel, start from the "ramped" portion and work back to the reservoir end. If you cut a new groove at the tip of the feed (rightmost image), you have created a new channel for ink to travel. You end up with a drippy pen at worst.

IMG_1550.jpegIMG_1554.jpeg

The nib should be in contact with the feed for the ink to make this "jump". I've seen a gap advocated to increase flow, but really that increases pooling and poor regulation of flow. Ever seen a page of writing where the ink gets darker and then lighter, repeating that every few sentences? Poorly regulated flow, and a gap is one possible cause. This is why you see all those comments about "setting" the feed. It's easier to do with ebonite than plastic, and easy to screw up in either case. It's not terribly difficult with a little practice though.

IMG_1545.jpeg

Lastly you have the ink traveling along the tines (again, via capillary action) to the tip of the nib. If the tip isn't more narrow than the rest of the gap, capillary action will still happen - just in the wrong direction. Now's when you're priming the nib to overcome that temporarily. Squeezing cartridges and whatnot. The nib needs tuned. If the gap is so tight that ink can't freely move to the paper, the nib needs tuned. If the tipping has "baby bottom", some variation of "Grand Canyon", etc... the ink can't easily reach the paper and the nib needs tuned. See Richard Binder's nib tuning for beginners. His workshop notes are embedded toward the bottom of the webpage.

[amk]

With a lot of problem pens I've found it's the gap between the nib and the feed that was the main problem, rather than tine alignment or a blocked feed.

However, there is a special case of blocked feed channel that I should report. When shellac from putting a new sac on gets into the feed channel and blocks it.

Don't ask me how I know that. :-)