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Hongdian M2 Converter (feddit.online)

submitted 4 months ago by Unattributed@feddit.online to c/fountainpens@lemmy.world

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I've had my pair of Hongdian M2's for a couple of weeks now, and last night ran into a bit of an issue...

Originally, I bought two: the brass version with an extra fine nib, and the blue aluminum version with a fine nib. I found that I didn't like the extra fine nib, so I ordered a set of replacement nibs (that has a fine nib) for the brass version.

Last night, I went to re-set up both pens: change the nib in the brass version, and swap the ink in the blue pen. While I was doing this, I noticed on both pens that the converter has an issue. Whenever the piston is fully extended it pushes against the feed tube, which pushes the body of the converter away, and reduces the seal between the two pieces. This makes getting a complete fill of the converter nearly impossible, as air gets into the converter.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Have you done anything to fix this issue? Is there a converter that will fit better in the M2?

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[–] Unattributed@feddit.online 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, the converters were probably chosen just for the dimensions and aren’t actually made by Hongdian.

Oh, no... These are Hongdian converters, they came installed with the pens and are Hongdian branded...

a) is what I did initially - but found the weak fit annoying as it results in less than half-full converters. :)

b) is what I did to get a mostly full converter for now.

c) I didn't find any indication of a bad assembly...and I don't think it is mis-assembled. I bought some extras (after starting this topic) and tried taking one apart... It appears even the new ones have the same issue, and disassembling one doesn't look like they were assembled incorrectly. IMO - I think this is a case of Hongdian designed a generic converter and didn't account for different tolerances in the M2's design.

I'm on option d) I've ordered a bunch of other converters to see if a different one will fit better. I mostly ordered generic Chines converters, but some of them look better constructed (like having an extra ring on the portion that fits over the feed tube). We'll see what happens with them.

I was thinking about options (e) and (f)... (e) would be to just use cartridges (either dropper filled, or pre-loaded), and (f) would be trying to use them without a cartridge or converter as a dropper pen. I don't know that the o-ring would be good enough for option f - and I don't know if I want to find out the hard way...😂

[–] mongooseofrevenge@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I'm glad you're making progress at least! Hopefully you find one that works. I don't need anymore pocket pens but still want to pickup an M2 every time I see it.

Youre're probably right about a generic converter too. They probably designed one to work for multiple pens. I just meant they might not make the converters in-house but sub it out to a company that specializes in injection molding which could have led to a mistake. It's usually a cost saving measure for companies. Higher quantity, lower cost.

I will also mention that it's generally the conventional wisdom not to eyedropper metal pens. From what I've heard, the water and/or chemicals in the ink can react with the metals to contaminate the ink and/or accelerate rusting or corrosion in the pen.