# Tighten up a Loose Nib?



## jskeen

I have accumulated 3 or 4 fp sections that will not hold a nib tightly for some strange reason.  I have traded and swapped and tried different combinations of feed, nib and for some reason these sections are just a bit too loose to hold the nib tightly.  Is there a way to either reshape the nib to make it a little tighter, or perhaps shim it somehow to keep it from wiggling around?  I assume the critical factor is to keep the contact between the nib and the feed down the centerline even so that the capillary action will pull the ink down to the tip.  The question is how?

James


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## DCBluesman

I've seen this more than once.  Some kits have more tolerance in the feed than they should...as much as 0.1mm which is huge when it comes to pressure fit.  This happens a lot on the Cambridge, so much so that I don't use these components.

The fix is fairly straight forward.  







To tighten the fit against the feed and within the collar, simply flatten the arc of the nib at the *shank* end.  Do this with your fingers or if you have nylon jawed pliers you can use them.  The amount of flattening needed is tiny, so adjust and test until you get a good fit.  Afterwards, you will need to adjust the ink flow.  See the article in the Library for details on adjusting ink flow.


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## Mark

Great diagram. Thx for the post.


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## ldb2000

Make sure that the nib is centered on the ink channel when you are done . 
Look in the breather hole on the nib with a bright light and a loupe and you should see the ink channel in the center of the hole . If you don't carefully reset the nib until it is centered .


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