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Refilling/cleaning Montblanc Rollerball With Own Ink


asegier

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Dear all,

 

I have a Montblanc Rollerball that I want to refill with my own ink (for more color variety, and to use other inks besides Montblanc's inks, as well as use up my stock of ink.. I have too much).

 

I looked online and saw tutorials on how to do so. Pop the tail cap off the Refill, pour ink in, pop cap back on. Easy right?

 

However, my issue pertains to cleaning. Because I would like to change the ink color (originally black). I ran water through the cartridge and after a while it ran clear. But I left it for an hour or so to dry, came back, and flicked it, and got lots of ink coming out again. I figured since the cartridge was old it had some dried up. So I soaked it in water for 3 days. Each day I changed the water and flicked water out of the cartridge. There is always some residual black ink leftover. I noticed that the inside has a piece of felt. Although I don't have tweezers so I couldn't pull it out, I was wondering if the best way was to pull this felt out and clean it out before cleaning the metal cartridge or if there was a more efficient way of doing this. Or should I just not bother with changing ink colors??

 

Thanks all in advance!

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Put the ink cartridge through a sonicator. You will need to do this several times. You will be amazed at what will be loosened.

"Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh."

 

Lord Chesterfield

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My personal experience was that you can add ink, but not clean out all the ink. I did my ink refills by placing the rollerball (this also works with disposable fountain pens and fiber tipped markers) tip up in hot water. Once the body of the refill (or pen) was hot to the touch, I put it tip down in the room temperature ink sample. The change in temperature creates a vacuum and the ink is now in the pen. You won't however be able to actually get out all the ink from the fiber center that is currently in the refill with this method, but it is easy and even my kids can do it without making a huge mess.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the replies. So far it's at Day 5, and I've been soaking the pen and flicking it. There's dramatically a lot less ink now, and It's getting to be quite opaque. I think maybe if I continue this till Day 10 or so, it'll maybe be finally clear? Maybe I can try adding another color and see how it performs... Although seeing how annoying it is now, I don't really feel like putting a color like turquoise (was originally going to this this) if its going to be this hard to clear out.

 

My brother has an Ultrasound Cleaner. I'll try using that and update you guys.

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My technique for this is to pop the back off the refill like you did and then I shake/tap the sponge cylinder out. I run water through it until the ink is gone and it is white. I let it dry for a day or so. I do not really clean the tip, but I think it also pulls out the front. To ink the sponge, I found that putting a tiny bit of dish soap in the ink (like dipping a paperclip in dish soap and then dipping it into a sample vial with ~2ml of ink) makes it write more smoothly. Then I put the end of the sponge in the ink vial and let it sit for a minute to draw up the right amount of ink. Then I gently push it back into the metal body - all the way in using a pencil eraser. You can see the end of the ink sponge that has a small hole where it fits on the back of the tip.

I have some Sailor Miruai in one now and I love it!

Good luck!

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