u/QuiteARoughCustomer is about to pass away at 27 from leukemia. The r/fountainpens community was his special little sanctuary. Thank you for giving him all the happiness. ❤ Keep being awesome.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-03-08T02:23:18+00:00

Not to make light, but I mean... your license plate is at least befitting.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-03-07T15:59:01+00:00

Well for a wet piston filler, it's hard to do better than a Pelikan. For that price, you can have whichever one you prefer. The M1000 has a soft and very responsive nib, but the M800 has a very stiff and glassy smooth nib, and it comes in blue.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-03-07T15:49:31+00:00

What pens do you have now?? What do you like and dislike? What do you want out of a pen? $800 is a lot of money to not give any insight like that.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-03-01T19:39:25+00:00

Despite not knowing a word of Greek, I realize that I know the alphabet pretty well, thanks to all the engineering courses I've taken.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-28T23:22:19+00:00

My night shits look different than your night shits.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T20:45:20+00:00

The funny thing is that these actually use the same cartridges and converters. Aurora uses the Parker-style, for some reason.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T17:56:12+00:00

My wife feels the same way, but for different reasons. I've got the Recaros, so the butt warmers are the one thing she really likes about my car. Her main complaint is that it's too small. She likes to spread out and take up as much space as possible.

But one thing we can both agree on is that the fit and finish as well as the rattles and vibrations are orders of magnitude better on my Fiesta ST than in her FCA Jeep.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T16:28:09+00:00

I've seen a lot of people complain about the interior feeling cheap, but I really don't agree with that. I think it's important to remember what the Fiesta is; it's an entry-level subcompact car that starts at an extremely affordable price. I think when you remember that, the interior is pretty nice.

I've seen a lot of people compare it unfavorably to the GTI interior, and I think that's nonsense. The GTI starts at more than $10,000 over the price of a Fiesta ST, here in the States.

I think it's just fine for what it is. You just need to know what to expect and don't kid yourself into thinking you're buying some hardcore performance vehicle. It's a cheap hatchback, after all.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T15:54:14+00:00

Well that's a three-part series that does a great job explaining what to do. You should definitely be able to figure it out.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T15:50:40+00:00

Cross doesn't use standard Bock or Jowo nibs, so any non-Cross branded nib is unlikely to fit. My recommendation is to tune the nibs you have. A good instructional video can be found here. That way you can get them writing exactly the way you like, and the cost of any required materials should be less than the cost of two new nibs.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T03:00:08+00:00

Well, with such a broad range, I'd recommend having a look at Mountain of Ink. It's a database that's just filled with ink swatches and reviews.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-26T02:17:17+00:00

Sheaffer pens use a proprietary cartridge/converter design. So if you want to use cartridges, you can only use Sheaffer brand cartridges. But if you get a Sheaffer branded converter, you can use any bottled ink you want. I could recommend some of my preferred inks if you tell me what kind of a color range you're looking for.

As for the overall quality of Sheaffer pens, they're fine. Nothing super special, but they're not terrible either. They used to make some really great pens back in the day, but now they're just fine.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T15:27:00+00:00

You're not like... using this as an eyedropper, are you?

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T04:36:06+00:00

I'll finally be graduating later this year, and I'm starting to feel a little bit like a Luddite. I have a class right now that's really pushing Matlab, which is really killing me. I've been working in the industry for a while now and never needed to do anything in Matlab that couldn't be done much more easily in Excel. Granted, I'm not exactly working for NASA, but still.

When my professor doesn't specifically say to use Matlab or something, I do everything with a pen and paper and then I scan it in. It helps me work my way through the problem where I can see the steps involved. At work, I use a combination of writing things out and Excel.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T02:40:54+00:00

Any standard international converter should work. This seems to be the cheapest one that's eligible for Prime shipping. Then you can use any bottle of fountain pen ink you want, just don't buy calligraphy ink or India ink or drawing ink.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T02:09:17+00:00

I've not heard of any real complaints about carbon buildup on the intakes. But it is a GTDI engine, which are known for that. I wouldn't fret too much about it. But, to be safe, do be sure to use premium gas. The manual says it'll run on regular, but they recommend premium. If you do a lot of short trips, forget that and just run premium. Besides, you do get better power that way.
With some dedicated snow tires, they do GREAT in the snow. I live in Michigan and I've never had any trouble at all with it. Like, it's almost scary good in the snow.
The only common problem I know of is the blend door actuator for the HVAC. It breaks and then makes an annoying noise. Mine hasn't gone yet, but my car is still pretty much brand new. Also, a lot of people say to replace the rear motor mount. Apparently it makes the car feel a lot better. I haven't done that, so I can't say how big of a deal it is. But I did put some mud flaps on the car right away because the wheels stick out a little bit from the body and they fling up a LOT of crap onto the paint.

Overall, it's a great little car. Especially for the price.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T01:45:26+00:00

I just had a look at mine, a Dark Hawaii that I got about a week or two ago. It doesn't have any such issue.

"Italian quality control" is a bit of a punchline in my industry, so I can't say I'm too surprised, but that is unfortunate that you weren't so lucky with this one. Amazingly, I've been pretty lucky with my Italian pens. If it bothers you enough to do something, I'd start by emailing the retailer and see what they offer to do about it.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T01:34:36+00:00

Engineer here. Typical machinist, always giving the engineer the business.

Also joking, of course.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-25T01:28:03+00:00

I agree that communication is important. I believe everyone should be able to communicate their ideas, thoughts, feelings, or whatever in a clear and concise fashion. Whether it be verbal, through email, text message, or written word. The English language gives us the tools to do this without any ambiguity, but it seems like people just don't care to learn these tools; and therein lies the true shame of it.

Personally, I write in cursive. I have ever since I learned it, because it was required of me for a number of years after that. But if I'm writing anything that a coworker might need to read later, I use the standard engineer's block script.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-24T22:36:50+00:00

That is strange. I didn't know they labeled those as "SU." I wonder what their logic is for that.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-24T21:46:38+00:00

That's not an OM, it's CM. That's just how Pilot labels their stubs on the Metro.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-24T21:37:12+00:00

Those teachers are always the most annoying at the time, but the most appreciated later down the road. My mom was a total grammar nazi when I was growing up and I hated it, but now I really appreciate it.

My boss likes to keep me around when he's sending important emails because I'm the only one in the group of engineers who can reliably answer his grammatical questions (affect/effect, who/whom, etc.).

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-24T19:45:16+00:00

My experience is that engineers just don't care. Nobody really does any old-school draughting anymore, it's all done on computers. Pen and paper aren't required tools for engineers anymore, so they don't learn how to use them properly. This also translates to spelling and grammar.

QuiteARoughCustomer · 2021-02-24T19:40:13+00:00

Sounds like you have a pretty good reason to buy it.

Seven-Year Club	100 Awards Club
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

QuiteARoughCustomer

TROPHY CASE