Seeking Ultrasonic Cleaner Advice

[mhosea]

Plain water is "cheapest", but I think it is neither easiest nor safest, all things considered. Once you purchase a bottle of Kodak Photo-Flo, you surely won't be looking for ways to conserve it. The bottle has an expiry date, which I plan to ignore unless it shows some sign of change. Barring that unfortunate occurrence, one bottle, dispensed mere drops at a time in my ultrasonic tank, would appear to be about 20 year's worth for me if I use it every time I fill the tank. The advantage of lowering the surface tension of the fluid in order to reach the nooks and crannies of the feed inside the grip section quickly is considerable, and the less time spent in the ultrasonic cleaner, the less likely other things besides ink will loosen. This is not to say that it is 100% effective in a 3 minute cycle in all cases, rather that it makes the normal cases go much faster. They're often done in less than 60 seconds.

 

I don't always add ammonia to a fresh tank, but if I don't, I empty it out when I'm done. That is to say, in part I add ammonia as a preservative.

[rtrinkner]

I've used this Haier model for several years. It's still running fine, and it's dirt cheap: Haier Ultrasonic.

 

I've never had a problem with ultrasounding Parker, Sheaffer, or more modern Wahl/Eversharp pens. I did melt a walter-soluable Burnham barrel.

 

If you only need to clean a nib or section, just put that piece/portion into the solution. As has been noted above, don't submerge any part that you can't dry completely, lest you cause corrosion.

 

When I'm restoring a pen, I usually ultrasound the nib/section unit while I'm working on the external beauty of the pen. I then blow water from the section end through to see if the water will come out through the nib. If it does, I carry on with the re-sac of of the repair. If the water won't go through, I know then that I need to knock out the nib and clean the feed manually. I try to knock out nibs as seldom as possible, because I've sometimes harmed nibs when resetting them.

[StrawberryJam]

Ok, ultrasonic cleaner acquired (from Amazon, woo!). Really dumb question here -- do I have to separate the nib and feed from the collar or can i just submerge the nib/feed/collar in the ultrasonic cleaner and be okay?

[mhosea]

do I have to separate the nib and feed from the collar or can i just submerge the nib/feed/collar in the ultrasonic cleaner and be okay?

I don't know what "collar" you are referring to, but generally I take door number 2. I don't remove the nib and feed unless it proves necessary, and that goes doubly (understatement) if we're talking about a Sheaffer plunger filler where the nib and feed sit in a celluloid collar. I'm not set up to manufacture a replacement for that part.

[Ron Z]

There are risks involved with taking a nib and feed apart, and I don't unless I have to, so the whole section goes in the solution. After a cycle through an ultrasonic, you can usually tell whether or not disassembly is justified. If there's still evidence of ink on the underside of the nib, then knock it out. Even then sometimes you don't know for certain until you try to fill or write with the pen.

 

Let me reinforce what Mike says about the Sheaffer Triumph nibs. Don't try to take them apart. Many of them have the nib pressed on, and then the back end of the nib nib rolled over the edge of the cone that it sits on. They are difficult at best, and frequently impossible to get apart without damage to the nib unit, and are equally if not more difficult to reassemble. The exception are the conical nibs on snorkels, which simply screw onto the collar.

[StrawberryJam]

Great, thank you both, @mhosea and @Ron Z!

[ac12]

I have taken the advice of people like Ron. I do not disassemble where I don't have to, as that risks damage, especially as I do not have the skills they do. And in many cases, the manufacturer is not available to get spare parts from if I wreck it. And I don't have the spare parts bin that someone like Ron would have. So...

• I use the USC to blast away the hardened ink.
• I flush to wash out liquid ink from the in channel.
• I soak to get liquid ink out of nooks and cranies that flushing can't clean. The fins in the feed and collector are not in the direct path of water flushing, so don't get flushed when I flush the pen, so I have to soak to clean them out.

And that is it.

 

For something like an Esterbrook nib assembly, I would do the above 3 methods, and that is it.

I would NOT knock out an Esterbrook feed/nib, unless I had to remove a damaged nib or feed for repair or replacement.

[rtrinkner]

Like the above posters, I knock out a nib only when doing so seems the only option. More than half the time, I don't have to knock out the nib.

 

After an ultrasonic treatment on the nib/section, I rinse the nib/feed with clean water and then try to blow some clean water through the nib from the section side. Some people use turkey basters or rubber bulbs, but I just put some clean water in my mouth and blow it through the nib section. If the water goes through easily, you likely don't have to knock out he nib. If you can't blow water through the nib/feed, it's probably clogged with ink residue and you'll probably have to knock out he nib and floss the feed's channels.

 

For pens with breather tubes, you can use piano wire to clean gunk out of the tube without having to knock out the nib.

[3rdlakerobert]

After opening, I put the section, feed, and nib assembly in the usc, and even though the cleaning solution I use (Kohinoor Rapidoeze) is very good at removing old ink and shellac, I like to knock the feed and nib out of the section and clean any remaining ink. Most of the time there's at least some ink on the underside of the nib, sometimes a lot. I then polish the nib with semichrome while it's free of the feed and section. Semichrome is excellent at removing tarnish on gold.

 

Reinstalling a feed and nib into a section is the second high-risk operation in re-saccing. I use my utility knife to lightly scrape away deposits on the smooth neck of the feed. I can see very fine particles of dried ink coming off the surface of the feed as I scrape. I do not cut in any way. The blade of the utility knife is held at a right angle to the feed as I scrape. I go all the way around the feed a couple times. If I don't scrape, I find the feed and nib are VERY hard if not impossible to reinstall fully into the section.

 

The small amount of scraping I do allows the feed and nib to go back into the section, though not easily. It's always a tight fit. To do it, I install the feed and nib into the section as far as I can and then stand it, nipple down, in the knock out block so that the nipple drops into the appropriate size hole and stops at the shoulder of the smooth tenon. I use a piece of rubber placemat to grip the feed and nib and press down hard against the knockout block. I usually hear , and feel, a very tiny "tick" as the feed and nib drop the last 1/16" home.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Robert111

[ac12]

 

 

Reinstalling a feed and nib into a section is the second high-risk operation in re-saccing. I use my utility knife to lightly scrape away deposits on the smooth neck of the feed. I can see very fine particles of dried ink coming off the surface of the feed as I scrape. I do not cut in any way. The blade of the utility knife is held at a right angle to the feed as I scrape. I go all the way around the feed a couple times. If I don't scrape, I find the feed and nib are VERY hard if not impossible to reinstall fully into the section.

 

Sounds to me like you are beveling the front edge of the section. I suspect that the "very fine particles of dried ink" may be particles of hard rubber from the section. If it were ink, it would come off during cleaning.

[3rdlakerobert]

 

 

Sounds to me like you are beveling the front edge of the section. I suspect that the "very fine particles of dried ink" may be particles of hard rubber from the section. If it were ink, it would come off during cleaning.

 

 

I don't know for sure what's coming off the surface, but I'm certain I'm scraping the entire mating surface of the feed. Beveling just the front edge would be disasterous.

[rtrinkner]

I just started a new thread on inserting nib/feeds into sections.

[RonLyke]

robert111----message sent