![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Putting it all back together...
Jul. 10th, 2018 02:03 pmAchievement Unlocked: "A Fountain Pen Nerd is You": Completely strip, repair, and re-assemble a fountain pen, with appropriate tools. (10 points)
So, it's funny. At home, I have a workspace with the standard "set of small drawers for random small things" hanging on the wall behind my desk, but for a long time, it was basically aspirational. I figured I'd be using it for all sorts of electronic things, and never did.
Over the past 4 days, a significant chunk of the drawers are now filled with fountain pen paraphernalia: Ink, eyedroppers, cheap pens that can be eyedropper-converted, ink cartridges, cartridge converters, a 20x loupe, o-rings, silicone grease, etc.
How did that happen? Good question!
For the longest longest time, I've had this utter dread about taking things apart to fix/repair/understand them... because there was no guarantee that I would be able to put them back together, and then I would just be Breaking My Toys and Destroying Value, and that would not do. I'll take apart thought constructs all day and pin their teleological carcasses to the wall, just to reconstruct them and send them on their way after dinner... but physical objects? Nuh-uh. No way. Scary.
On Wednesday I acquired a new fountain pen (The Moonman M2, extra fine point). On Sunday, I dropped it, and the writing was.... off. The ink flow was much less than before, and even though it wrote just fine, it was clearly Not Quite Right. So I looked online, found videos of how to diagnose/repair common fountain pen problems, and bought a 20x loupe so I could see what I was doing. Short form: The nib was in fine shape, but it got knocked out of alignment with the ink feeder. Only thing to do is to take it apart, and re-insert the nib.
When the pen you're working with fills only with an eyedropper (gigantic capacity, but no cartridges), "taking apart" is a more complicated proposition than normal:
First, remove all the ink from the pen. Wipe out the sink when you're done.
Then unscrew various parts from other parts.
Make sure the O-rings are on a contrasting material where you can see them later.
[SO MANY small O-rings (well, okay, three. but they were REALLY small).]
Get a good grip on the nib and yank it out.
Marvel at the fact that you have fully dismembered the pen.
Stare through the loupe as you re-align the nib with the ink feeder (putting the "micro" in "micro-motor skills").
Put the O-rings back in the O-ring places (Are my hands too big for this? No, but it was a near thing.)
Finally, screw all the various parts back together, except for where you're going to put in the ink.
Refill with ink (you have your eyedropper, right?), shake a bit to get the ink into the feeder, et voila! A repaired pen.
Clearly I just needed to find something I wanted to understand enough to take apart, and then care enough about to put back together.
So, it's funny. At home, I have a workspace with the standard "set of small drawers for random small things" hanging on the wall behind my desk, but for a long time, it was basically aspirational. I figured I'd be using it for all sorts of electronic things, and never did.
Over the past 4 days, a significant chunk of the drawers are now filled with fountain pen paraphernalia: Ink, eyedroppers, cheap pens that can be eyedropper-converted, ink cartridges, cartridge converters, a 20x loupe, o-rings, silicone grease, etc.
How did that happen? Good question!
For the longest longest time, I've had this utter dread about taking things apart to fix/repair/understand them... because there was no guarantee that I would be able to put them back together, and then I would just be Breaking My Toys and Destroying Value, and that would not do. I'll take apart thought constructs all day and pin their teleological carcasses to the wall, just to reconstruct them and send them on their way after dinner... but physical objects? Nuh-uh. No way. Scary.
On Wednesday I acquired a new fountain pen (The Moonman M2, extra fine point). On Sunday, I dropped it, and the writing was.... off. The ink flow was much less than before, and even though it wrote just fine, it was clearly Not Quite Right. So I looked online, found videos of how to diagnose/repair common fountain pen problems, and bought a 20x loupe so I could see what I was doing. Short form: The nib was in fine shape, but it got knocked out of alignment with the ink feeder. Only thing to do is to take it apart, and re-insert the nib.
When the pen you're working with fills only with an eyedropper (gigantic capacity, but no cartridges), "taking apart" is a more complicated proposition than normal:
First, remove all the ink from the pen. Wipe out the sink when you're done.
Then unscrew various parts from other parts.
Make sure the O-rings are on a contrasting material where you can see them later.
[SO MANY small O-rings (well, okay, three. but they were REALLY small).]
Get a good grip on the nib and yank it out.
Marvel at the fact that you have fully dismembered the pen.
Stare through the loupe as you re-align the nib with the ink feeder (putting the "micro" in "micro-motor skills").
Put the O-rings back in the O-ring places (Are my hands too big for this? No, but it was a near thing.)
Finally, screw all the various parts back together, except for where you're going to put in the ink.
Refill with ink (you have your eyedropper, right?), shake a bit to get the ink into the feeder, et voila! A repaired pen.
Clearly I just needed to find something I wanted to understand enough to take apart, and then care enough about to put back together.
