holy crap this guy is intense. I usually complain about fountain pen prices (and I stick to my complaints) but this pen is worth it's price (as long as the pen will last like an ejected molded plastic pen). The amount of work he has put into this is insane.This person works really hard.
@@calvinreeder7580 From the website (Home - scroll down a bit): 'The Platypus fountain pens cost $150 for Model 1 and $170 for Model 10, plus postage. (Those are Australian dollars and at the moment they equate to about US$110 and US$125, or €93 and €105, respectively.) The flagship Model 20 is more complicated to make and is priced at $250.'
As a CNC programmer I completely understand and applaud Michael for his work. Sometimes you do have to ditch the software to get your machine to do what you need it to; especially for personal, non-work-related projects 😅 This pen is going on my wishlist. As always, thank you DoodleBud for bringing an engineering hat to our funny little corner in the fountain pen world!
Oh my! Considering what he has done to get here, that is a phenomenal price point. My gosh, I never expected to see all this engineering knowledge around Fountain Pens. Between you Doodlebud, and this chap in Australia, I’m totally blown away! 💗🙋♀️👏👏👏
I started with a Model 1. Loved it. Then got a Quokka pocket from Michael. He is such a relationship guy, we began regular communications. He looked for my feedback, and I'm a nobody in the pen world. Then he let me know about the pending Model 20, which he sent me an early version to test. Flying colors, of course. I now have two! I have a couple dozen pens from multiple manufacturers, but no one is as innovative or cares more to get it right than Michael. BIG kudos to Michael, and so glad you produced this video to give him more recognition!
This is a great show of a constructive approach to the process - and I am saying it from the context of IT company. Questioning every step: "can I do it better? how to solve this particular problem in other way? can I make it in my own way without making it too complicated?". And the pricing of it... Need resist the temptation... Hats off, ladies and gentlemen, hats off.
This pen is a magnificent achievement, truly a 21st century version of a fountain pen. I'm going to be culling the collection to acquire one. Thank you for explaining the printing process and reviewing this pen!
Blown away by the engineering. Give the guy credit, he just invented a new filling system for pens and innovation in the pen world is not something we see.
Something else I just thought about - this is only the second pen I've seen where the ink cartridge/sac/reservoir has been 3d printed. The other one was what came with my Atelier F2!!! Two makes a trend!!
Insanely cool! I might have to try and get one soon. I can't believe the amount of time and effort that went into this pen. Can we get him an innovators award?
I'm blown away too! I expected it to be at least twice as much--and that still would have been a bargain. Michael might change the FP landscape with his creativity and technical acumen.
Fascinating pen. It is very innovative. I was saving to buy a different pen, but now I am switching to this pen. What a wonderful pen! Thank you for the excellent review.
Super cool, it’s just cool knowing that theoretically if you ever had a part break, as long as this company is operating, they can always manufacture a replacement!
I have one of his Model 10's. It is an amazing pen- one of my best writer's . He tuned it perfect before he sent it. On top of that, his customer service is amazing and he is a very nice man based on my correspondence with him. PS- I have no personal or financial connection to Michael Lew.
Got an update for you DB. My copy of that Model 20 had arrived and was in my hands this past Wed. I love the pen, it's a near perfect size, and such a visually interesting design. There is one thing I stumbled across quite by accident. If you hold the pen with the cap in one hand & the filler knob in the other, then rotate the pen and you'll see an interesting visual pattern/effect!! Make sure you have it well lit!.
As someone eyeballs deep in 3D printing, that ink window makes me so nervous. It's probably tougher than it looks. being mostly sheltered inside the pen would protect it pretty well. TPU is extremely tough. I'm not surprised the bladder held up well.
I honestly did not even think of 3D printed pens. I mean, they sell nibs by itself... Can't wait until we start seeing Pilot Vanishing Points and stuff. Looking forward to it!
Great video about a very interesting pen. It's clearly been very well thought through and made well. My only concern is the stability of the TPU sac over time - not the number of flexing cycles, but how it might degrade over a period of five or ten years. I've seen quite a few things made from TPU get crumbly or sticky over that kind of time frame.
1. This filling mechanism is beyond cool. 2. Great info and story, thanks. 3. So far I wonder about the quality of the plastic of 3D printed pens. I need to actually touch one to be convinced. I've seen bicycle frames 3D printed out of TITANIUM. Maybe in a few years that tech will be used for pens.
I like the Studio more, justfrom the handling an the nib .... omg thenib is so smooth and nice to write with. But I really cannot hold the Lamy 2000 for a long time
Thank you very much for a wonderful video, as always. I'm definitely one of your devotees. Love that pen, astonished by its detail and quality. I live in the US: how can I buy one?
Is arm wrestling still a thing? I'm in my 50's and I think the last time I would have done this was in middle school at the lunch table at school after we were done eating. So, like 40 years ago.
Yup its still a thing and its growing in popularity. Here's a great match if you want to see: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kWS1gpbYTEI.html
Testing it for hundreds if years might be a bit over kill if the material just disintegrates before that, pretty cool though, interesting how it has basically the same filling mechanism as the the Ahab, albeit better executed
@@Doodlebud they both are improvements of the bladder and innertube models that I grew up with, this more so because the reservoir physically contracts but the ahab uses a second mini reservoirs to reduce/increase volume instead, seemed similar enough to me I guess since you pump all three a few times
I'm not sure about the usefulness of what is in the end a sac-based filling system, even though it is kind of fun because it's something different. It's always going to have to be made of a more porous material that will inevitably be harder to clean and maintain than hard plastics, metals and NBR O-rings. I don't really see the advantage of this over something like a Sheaffer Touchdown either, where nothing comes into contact with the sac.
looking into it, it seems anything higher end from asus's zenbook / vivobook line looks pretty good, maybe you should look into it as a new work/personal laptop?
My advice with that..... don't use them LOL. You can remove the nib unit then blast water up into the sac of the pen. Or..... just don't use shimmer inks 😆