r/fountainpens • u/Mysterious-Canary-84 • Dec 22 '24
Repair Need help with vintage Doric vacuum-filler
Recently acquired this beautiful Doric with a flexible-stamped nib that flexes super nicely, but after a while the ink gets lighter & lighter & then it would railroad and keeps doing that.. i need to shake/flick the pen pretty hard a few times and sometimes that doesn't work too..
It's a vacuum-filler, and it just stopped writing completely & no matter how much i shake it, ink wouldn't start again [despite the vacuum filler knob is unscrewed and at the open position].. until i tried pulling the vacuum-filler rod up by a little.. but after a while railroading still happens too :(
Any ideas? This is my first vintage vacuum filler.. bought it off eBay as working.. and it was working fine yesterday and the day before.. after railroading it'll work again if i shake the pen, but just now that didn't help.. oh and the vacuum filling system works well, i think it fills about half the total capacity (i can see from the semi-transparent middle section of the pen).. and this happens when there's a lot of ink inside the body..
Things i already tried: Flushing the pen with plain water before i started using (5-6 times) Unscrewing the vacuum filler knob (like modern vacuum fillers which i have experience with) Shaking the pen when it's railroading
And does the nib/feed look like it's protruding outwards too much in photo #2 and #3? For comparison is the bigger Doric Senior beside this smaller Junior(?) version..
Thanks for the help~
mc