Ultrasonic Cleaner

[playpen]

I wonder if the ultrasonic cleaner would do as well with my house....

[OldGriz]

My wife got an ultrasonic cleaner lastnight (she is a Director for Mary Kay and won it for her sales) I have a Dani Trio that seems to have given up the fight to write. I have soaked it time and again and it seems something is clogging the nib... I am going to try the ultrasonic cleaner and see if that helps. I will let you know.

well, I used the ultrasonic cleaner on my Dani Trio and it has been writing for the last 5 hours with no stoppages... I am sold on the ultrasonic cleaner. I had tried everything to unclog the nib... flossing with negative film, soaking in various formulations and the only thing that worked at all was the ultrasonic cleaner. I have done 5 other pens as well, just for regular cleaning.

I love this thing!!!

Hi,

 

What is your Ultrasound Technique? What liquid do you use? How many pens do you do at once? How long do you leave it in?

 

Trying to decide if I really want to buy another gizmo....

 

Andy

Andy,

I use plain water in mine... the model I have has a 3 minute timer.... I generally do one pen at a time so I can see how much is getting cleaned out..

I am doing a real nice Parker 21 right now and it is on the second cyle.. so far it seems all the gung is gone... even after flushing it as clean as I could get it, the Ultrasonic bath left the water with a definate color tint, telling me there was still a load if ink in the pen...

I have used it on my Parker 51 and it really did a job on that..

It gets used every time I change ink colors in my Pelikans and really cleans the nibs nicely... no residual color at all...

And for cleaning nibs and feeds on older pens that are being restored it is worth it's weight in gold..

 

For real stubborn nibs and feeds, a 10% ammonia solution has been recommended, but I have never used it yet.

[OldGriz]

I wonder if the ultrasonic cleaner would do as well with my house....

Just a tiny piece at a time... but the reconstruction costs would be a killer

 

:roflmho: :roflmho: :roflmho:

[Onion]

My wife got an ultrasonic cleaner lastnight (she is a Director for Mary Kay and won it for her sales) I have a Dani Trio that seems to have given up the fight to write. I have soaked it time and again and it seems something is clogging the nib... I am going to try the ultrasonic cleaner and see if that helps. I will let you know.

well, I used the ultrasonic cleaner on my Dani Trio and it has been writing for the last 5 hours with no stoppages... I am sold on the ultrasonic cleaner. I had tried everything to unclog the nib... flossing with negative film, soaking in various formulations and the only thing that worked at all was the ultrasonic cleaner. I have done 5 other pens as well, just for regular cleaning.

I love this thing!!!

Hi,

 

What is your Ultrasound Technique? What liquid do you use? How many pens do you do at once? How long do you leave it in?

 

Trying to decide if I really want to buy another gizmo....

 

Andy

Andy,

I just use water... the ultrasonic cleaner does a 3 minute cycle. It is amazing to watch (it has a window on top) , after I have flushed a pen till clean water comes out I will put it in the UC and all of this ink starts coming out of the pen/nib and the water becomes the tint of the ink, after a 3 minute cycle I empty and refill the UC and go another 3 minutes... the nibs are so clean they look new and it actually fixed my Dani Trio which wouldn't write at all.... I am sold on this. I haven't tried a 51 yet.... that may be next... gotta talk to Griz about those first.

As far as technique I will do one at a time.

Tell your wife you bought it for her to clean her jewelry.... it works wonders on jewelry as well.

[dmorgen]

I've got the Haier ultrasonic cleaner due to arrive from Amazon today or tomorrow. I've got a Bexley Americana Greenbrier with the broad stub nib. Usually this pen has great flow; but lately it's become inconsistent. I suspect it needs a good flushing (it's been awhile, since I've been using the same ink - PR Sherwood Green). I thought I'd try my new ultrasonic cleaner on it.

 

Do you know if it's safe for this pen to be put in an ultrasonic cleaner?

 

Do I remove the converter & have the entire section & nib in the water?

 

Would it do any harm to put the converter into the water separately?

 

Has anyone tried using an ultrasonic cleaner, perhaps with some liquid detergent in the water, to degrease a new converter which has flow problems?

 

... Or does anybody know where there are instructions for using an ultrasonic cleaner on pens?

 

Thanks!

 

BTW, I told my wife I bought this for her ... not only didn't she believe me, but said she doesn't need it since the jewelry store cleans her jewelry for free. It was definitely worth a try though! Now if it could be used for shoes ...

 

Dave

[chemgeek]

I don't think you can damage this acrylic pen by a short dunk in water or water + dish detergent in the Haier ultrasonic bath. This is only a 35W unit. I disassemble the pen completely, flushing out as much ink as possible, before placing the dirty parts in to the bath. You can toss the entire nib section and the converter, too, into the bath. Make sure that the nib section and the converter are filled with bath liquid prior to cleaning, else the bath will have little or no cleaning effect.

 

For the ultimate cleaning, remove the nib and feed from the section and clean separately. An initial cleaning in water + dish detergent might aid in nib and feed removal if they are stuck. 10% ammonia is recommended here for tougher cases, but this is harsher than water and/or detergent, and can damage certain pen materials.

 

Chemists have used ultrasonic baths for years to dissolve balky solids, and nothing else is quite so effective. It's amazing to watch dried-up ink bits literally fly off hidden nooks and crannies in the nib section when its dropped into the bath.

 

I just rejuventated a completely clogged Sailor 1911M that had a bad ink experience, and now it is flowing better than ever. I did not have to remove the nib and feed from the section to get it going again. A simple water+detergent cleaning, followed by another with plain distilled water did the trick. The converter was completely disassembled and cleaned as well using the same procedure.

 

Cheers.

[playpen]

Griz: I just saw your reply. Was away for a few days....very funny!!

[Lloyd]

I recently read that hard rubber pens shouldn't soak and, as such, shouldn't go into an ulltrasonic cleaner. Is this correct?

[RichardS]

I've heard that too. But I have used my ultrasonic cleaner (same as the model referred to above) to clean the section/feed/nib unit of a Waterman 52, which is mostly hard rubber. The good news is that there was no discolouring or damage at all. The bad news is that there was virtually no shifting of the 80-year-old gunk in the feed channels either.

 

Works great for cleaning glasses though!

 

I wouldn't recommend immersing the whole pen though - and especially so if it were red or mottled hard rubber.

[jackoguit]

We have an ultrasonic cleaner that my wife got for her jewelry making.

I found it worked great on cleaning nibs and feeds. I use cool water and a little Windex.

Then I punched the button too many times in a row, not letting any time between cycles. The thing just quit! The pretty blue pilot light went out and I began looking around for a replacement.

Since I didn't have a spare $35 to send to Amazon that day, I thought about it and decided to try to take it apart. It looke un-take-apartable until I pried out the rubber feet and found screws underneath. I took off the bottom and found a circuit board with a small fuse.

Eureka!

I took the fuse to Radio Shack and bought a pack for $2.50 or so. Put one in, fired it up and now it works fine. (I hope I can't get sued if somebody burns down their house after trying this. But I'm so mad that we (as a society) just have to throw broken things away and go down to W----mart an buy a new one that I'm willing to expose myself {in the legal sense only!} to a suit.)

I promised myself I won't cycle it so rapidly. But when I do, I can fix it!

And yes, It works great on glasses. My problem is that I have such a big head and correspondingly big glasses that they barely fit in.

[drlloyd65]

I have just used my new ultrasonic cleaner to clean a number of my vintage FPs and I must say that I am very impressed how clean the nibs and sections are after the 3 minutes. I used to soak and sometimes for ages to remove nibs/section accordingly.

 

The only problem is that my black nib section on my 'Onoto' and the black jewel on the cap of my 'Waterman' have turned an olive drab/khaki colour!!! Obviously I am a little annoyed and not happy about this!

 

Does anyone know what causes this discolouration (the obvious answer is water) as it hasn't happened to me soaking my pens in the past. Is there any way to correct it, either with polishing and if so with what polish etc, to rejuvinate them back to black?

 

Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

David

[effrafax]

Sounds like they may be made from ebonite, which ages from black to olive-coloured over time. Putting it in an ultrasonic cleaner seems to hasten that process. Yes, I speak from experience. The pen still writes well though.

 

I remember seeing one of the suppliers of pen repair materials selling a black restoration 'paint', for want of a better word. Just tried to find it but not having any luck. Will try to remember who it was.

[effrafax]

Found it: it was here at Tryphon

 

Unfortunately, it looks like they don't sell the stuff any more, just their service using it. May be worth a Google to see if anyone else supplies it.

[effrafax]

It's also mentioned in this post.

[effrafax]

But that wasn't actually the one I remembered.

 

That was here.

[drlloyd65]

Effrafax,

 

Thanks for that, much appreciated!!! I'll try and hunt some down.

 

Regards,

 

David

Edited July 6, 2012 by drlloyd65

[Tom Heath]

After more than 20 years of fountin pen restorations and thousands later I am now on my Third Ultra Sonic Machine / Cleaner.

 

The cheaper ones tend to wear out sooner, Vapors from your working solution get into the

interior of the unit developing electrical shorts and or corrosion..

 

Frequent clening and drying of the unit may add to its' economic useful life

 

My Current model ws ner the top of the line available at: Hrbour Freight, It is made by Chicago Electric Tool for Harbour Freight . I have had this model for about 5 years.

 

I empty the water and ink solution at least once per week and dry the interior with paper towels.

THe stinless steel liner has held up well This time a previous model with a similar stainless steel tray developed small pin holes/ leks most like due to prolonged use of clorox to aide in in my blackening of hard rubber pens "Period" .. I now no longer use it for such.

 

My recommendations is to buy the best unit you can afford... Do not continue to restart the untra sonic , as the liquid may over heat and cause unwanted damage such as discoloring of Hard rubber

parts.

 

Until you get the hang of it, do not place your valuable collectibles in the solution and leave it unattended...

 

Whenever using household chemicals do be mindful of unwanted vapors and fumes..

You my remember your chemistry lesson, never combine Clorox and Ammonia , it does produce

an obnoxious and possibly deadly gas....

[Marlow]

Edited July 7, 2012 by Marlow

[Chrissy]

Hi to all thread-readers...

 

As a conseqence of buying several lots of fountain pens over the last couple of months with only one or two in each lot that I want to keep, I now have over 50 pens that are in need of cleaning (and/or re-saccing and repair!!) before I sell them on (and hopefully end up with my cherished pens at zero cost overall! :embarrassed_smile: ) and I'm wondering whether anyone in the UK could recommend a decent ultrasonic unit? I've looked at the JPL 7000 - £32 delivered from amazon - but I'm a little concerned about quality and effectiveness as these crop up a bit too often for sale used on fleabay. I am willing to spend a bit more for a better one although I am mindful of the warning implicit in Mr Zorn's et al statement that non-industrial cleaners are those least likely to damage the pens whilst cleaning them!

 

As always there seems to be a better range of quality examples available in the US but I dont think this is the kind of item I want to import!

 

So...any UK suggestions gratefully received!....???

 

 

Mine is the smallest model of this range. It's the unheated version (the water still gets warm after 30 minutes) and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone in the UK.

 

I clean all of my pens and all of my jewellery in it

Edited July 7, 2012 by Chrissy

[Marlow]

Hi Chrissy and thanks very much for this. I may well go for this despite the £170 price tag as I envisage getting quite a bit of use out of it! I also get the general impression that you don't buy 'rubbish' so I feel quite confident in your recommendation!

 

I'll push the GO button on this in a couple of days unless anyone else has any good suggestions for comparison...?!

Edited July 7, 2012 by Marlow