Refilling A Pilot G2 Cartridge With Fountain Pen Ink: How To!

[craigb]

I’ve been lurking here for a long time but finally registered just to post this.

 

 

For quite some time I’ve been mulling over how great it would be to refill a G2 cartridge with some nice fountain pen ink. I didn’t know if it would even be possible, but it turns out that it is, and it is pretty easy. The hardest part will be getting the stuff together, but it all amounts to less that $10 and even the long needle you could probably use a turkey baster needle or something.

 

What you need:

1. Silicone grease (Goulet Pens)

2. 3 mL Syringe (Goulet again)

3. Blunt tip needle (vide supra)

4. Long skinny needle. I used a spinal needle but unless you work in a hospital, this could be hard to get. It has to go all the way to the end of the cartridge. It looks like you could get them from Ebay though; mine is a 22G x7in BD one.

5. Some type of scraping thingee. Piece of a coat hanger, stiff wire, trimmed popsickle stick, whatever is lying around.

6. Your favorite ink.

 

 

Instructions:

I didn’t take pictures of actually doing this because, frankly, I didn’t expect it to work. Also, I started with a spent pen cartridge, but I bet it would work just fine with a new one if you scraped the goo off then sucked out the factory ink and replaced it with your own. Experiment!

 

1. Take the pen apart and harvest the cartridge.

2. Pop the cap off the back of the cartridge. I used my teeth. It isn’t glued on, just a friction fit.

3. Take you scraping thing and scrape up the sealing “goo.” I was afraid it would be hard and plastic-y but it is about the consistency of Vaseline. A valuable observation for later. You can sort of roll it and stick it to your piece of wire and wipe it off on a papertowel. The removal doesn’t have to be perfect so don’t sweat too much.

4. Put your long needle on the syringe and draw up 1/2 mL of your favorite ink. It is important to draw the ink through the needle so there is no air in it.

5. Fill the ink into the cartridge. Because I used the skinny spinal needle, I was able to get it way down into the gray section of the tip. I’m not sure if that is important of not, but I think it helped avoid air bubbles which, also, may or may not be important.

6. Take your scraping tool and another syringe and scrape some silicone grease into it. Mount up your blunt tip needle and layer a nice plug of silicone grease on top of the ink in the refilled cartridge. This should recreate the sealing plug of the factory cartridge and prevent the ink from drying or slopping out all over your fine bespoke shirt. Note that once you use a syringe/needle for this, you might was well make it dedicated to the purpose because good luck cleaning that stuff out!

7. Pop the cap back on the cartridge.

8. Laugh! You took a $1 pen and it is as functional as a fine expensive rollerball that you won't be sad when some tool at work steals it.

 

 

Notes:

-I'm not sure how long till the pen dries out, but I suspect it won't be a problem. There are plenty of liquid ink roller ball pens that don't have the problem.

 

 

[usk15]

Cool!

Thx 4 sharing.

[Penoholic]

Boy you are talented !

[holgalee]

This is awesome! I've always assumed the ink will just leak through, being thinner than rollerball ink.

[craigb]

Update:

 

The pen is still going strong, the feed is just fine, and it hasn't leaked even a little bit. Not start-stopping issues, nothing. Just a clicky pen full of fountain pen ink! Works as advertised.

 

--craig

[Bemo]

That's so cool! Thanks for showing this.

[lahlahlaw]

Shoot, several weeks ago I threw out over 15 G2s that had dried out:/

[drgt]

A Signo 0.38 is much smoother.

Edited February 4, 2018 by drgt

[Donald2]

Brilliant idea!

[drgt]

Yes!

Apart from being smooth, it writes right away even if not used for a couple of days. (with this ink, of course).

 

I will do a 0.28 Signo next.

 

P.S. For those who prefer a G2 body, the G2 will take a Signo refill.

 

For ref:

UMR82 = 0.28

UMR83 = 0.38

UMR85 = 0.5

UMR87 = 0.7

UMR80 = 1.0

Edited February 5, 2018 by drgt

[minddance]

This seems fun!

[drgt]

It is and it works!

[Tas]

Brilliant

 

I tried this with some ITOYA Parker style needlepoint refils years ago and never had an issue. They worked and looked a treat in my Rotring Rapid Pro.

 

*goes to look for one now

[drgt]

For best performance, just sacrifice a fresh working refill. (Open both ends (if you use a G2), push the ink out of the tube with a Q-Tip).

 

You may have issues if you try to use a refill that the ink has dried up and already has skipping or other issues.

[minddance]

Now maybe I know where that sargasso sea and baystate blue belongs

[drgt]

You will know when you try it!

 

I only tried JHPN (picture above)

Edited February 17, 2018 by drgt

[MYU]

It would be interesting to see someone post about having done this "X" times with a refill before it started to have flow problems. These rollerball tips aren't designed to last for the long haul. As I understand it, the wear is to the metal that surrounds the ball, and that as it wears away or distorts, ink flow is somewhat compromised (skipping, uneven flow).

 

As I've been having a little side fun of experimenting on fitting refills to pens that don't normally take them, I've found refill end plugs and even cut sections of plastic refills to make useful spacers. Just the other day, I disassembled a G2 refill. It's interesting how they use this orange colored vaseline that slowly flows down as the ink is used up. It helps prevent the ink from drying out. You can pull off both the front end and the back plug. Then using a bicycle pump, force the orange vaseline out the front end. You can then reuse the stuff after refilling the tube with ink.

Edited February 17, 2018 by MYU

[drgt]

It would be interesting to see someone post about having done this "X" times with a refill before it started to have flow problems....Then using a bicycle pump, force the orange vaseline out the front end.

X-times would be a lot of writing!

Don't need a pump, a Q-Tip will do.

[bluebellrose]

Why do all that effort? Pilot has a cartridge system rollerball for sale. Just refill the cart with fp ink. It's even converter compatible

[Tas]

Why do all that effort? Pilot has a cartridge system rollerball for sale. Just refill the cart with fp ink. It's even converter compatible

 

Ha. Tried that with my kids . . . the mess and ruined papers was horrendous. Not made to travel