A minimalist and cheaper alternative to the Salad Spinner trick. I have been using this for some weeks to clean pens with considerable success.

Needed:
-A lenght of pipe of at least 7 in long, at least 1 wide. On of the sides needs to be sealed. For safety, the other should be sealable too. (I have been using a long prescription container, but I guess that any other light pipe would work.)
-Toilet paper.
-A sock.

1) Take some toilet paper, put a layer at the bottom of the pipe.
2) Put the pen to clean in the pipe, in such a way that the nib get buried in the paper. (If you have also rinsed the cap, put it in too, top up.
3) Close the pipe (if it has a cap). Slid the pipe in the sock, so that the bottom (where the nib is) is in the toes of the sock.
4) Holding the sock from open end, spin gracefully.

Is there a risk of bending the nib? Not to mention that butterfingers me might lose grip on the sock and create an inky airborne missile.

And I thought that Tom and I had the corner on cheap!

This is a variation on something I use.

1. Take off right sock

2. Take off left sock

3. Roll right sock into a ball and tuck into left sock

4. Place pen in left sock with nib tucked into right sock ball

5. Spin gracefully

6. Caution #1: Only use dark socks

7. Caution #2 Do not reverse socks!!!!

8. Caution #3 Beware of holes in socks

9. Caution #4 NEVER TELL MY WIFE!!!

Bob

Okay, I guess I'll relate my similar procedure.

1. Take off left sock, tear in two, stuff one part in left ear, the other in right ear.
2. Take off right sock, roll into ball, stuff in SWMBO's mouth.
3. Go ahead and bid on the pen.

Do you have to spin in the other direction if you're in the Southern Hemisphere?

Romagno,

This is a must. If you don't, the ink will back up into the pen due to the reverse properties of the Earth's gravitational pull south of the equator. If you swing it too hard, the ink will shoot out the blind cap of the pen and up your arm!

Hilarious thread. My vote for best thread in the month of April.

The enclosure for the pen seems logical. I post as "cheepgary", and I suppose I picked that name subliminally from a past which included regularly tying 3-foot strings to the clips of apparently empty ballpoints and spinning them above my head like crazy. This worked many times to force ink toward the ball and let me resume writing.
I only stopped when I tried to resurrect my first rollerball and painted a nice drippy stripe across the wall.

I'm in a quandary -- I write left-handed but I'm otherwise right-handed. What to do? (I'm in the northern hemisphere, if that helps.)

Don

In a more somber tone, please note that there have been claims (here) that the centrifuge force of the sock method could damage some pens, in this case a VP. I do not know how could this happen, but let's have it as a warning.

Yup, I have to agree...according to my pen, the VP doesn't like the sock. Do you think it was the smell? I will just stick with using "stationary" pens, i.e. lever fill, c/c fill, Vacumatics, etc. Not too many moving parts! Yes, a word of caution if you proceed with it. It does work well, however! I really can't say whether or not it was the centrifugal force or if it was just too sensitive to that. Has anyone dropped their VP with the nib in? Did it break it? I don't know if mine was just a freak accident or not. Who knows...

~~K~~