Platinum Preppy As Eye-Dropper - Failure

[mke]

Today, I tried to make an eyedropper from a Platinum Preppy 0.3.

 

It leaked despite using silicone grease on the threads. If you close the cap while the nib points down and the thread is below the ink surface, the compressed air presses the ink into the thread section - and then it leaks some times after it.

It might work if you never forget to place your pen nib upwards when not writing. And also closing the cap in this direction.

 

If you let your pen stand nib downwards, ink is leaking through the feed into the cap. Fast and furious (I mean, a lot).

 

An F preppy used as eye-dropper will write like M-B pens. I consider the change from F to M as a knock-out problem.

 

If I didn't do something awfully stupid, I conclude that my Preppy pens can not be used out-of-the-box as an eye-dropper.

[alaskazimm]

In addition to silicone grease, you also need to use a rubber o-ring between the section and the barrel - like these

 

https://www.gouletpens.com/platinum-preppy-o-rings/p/Plat-PPQ-O

 

Apparently the threads are too coarse for just silicone grease to work.

[mke]

Thank you. It is probable that when using o-rings also the ink leaking through the feed will be reduced of will even go away. I will report back.

[DigitalMedievalist]

My Platinum Preppy with o-ring and silicon grease, coverted to an eyedropper pen per this video, works well, and so, far, doesn't leak.

 

I do take care to store it nib up though, and I'm not planning on using it away from my work area. It seems to hold, roughly 3 ml. of ink.

 

I do keep it topped up via syringe.

[mke]

Two more questions:

Doesn't the O-ring protrude over the barrel?

Does the ink fill the thread section?

 

If both are yes, then I will stay with the cartridges - which contain 1.2ml - quite a lot - lasting more than a week, especially considered that in places where there is no chance to dirty the pen I use my Sailor ProGear/Profit21/Jinhao159 pens.

 

Thank you.

[Algester]

the o-ring shouldnt protrude over the barrel the fit must be inside the threads

[Sasha Royale]

I received an eyedropper Preppy, with my 4.5 ounce Noodler's Heart Of Darkness. It has a rubber "O-ring" seal. I dipped it, an dip writes nicely. I cannot think of a reason to risk using it. Eyedroppers scare me.

[DigitalMedievalist]

I'm using my Preppy eyedropper to try ink samples; I'm not using even an entire 2 ml sample.

 

My hand-eye coordination isn't up to dipping using a sample vial, but a syringe works well, and makes sampling the ink simple.

[displacermoose]

I used silicone grease (Goulet) and an O ring (Home Depot) to eyedropper a preppy with a marker tip as a highlighter. Have used it for a couple of weeks carrying it around in my pen case with absolutely no issues.

[mke]

Actually, I have looked a little bit into other videos, e.g.

and did some more tests with my pens.

 

smallest problem first

1) the silicone grease will enter the barrel and the feed (and the ink?)

2) the line size gets thicker and wetter - you can see it in the video too.

3) the O-ring is often protruding - see the video; I haven't found yet a single one which is thin enough - the one at Goulet looks much thinner than the ones I have access too. The only real good solution would be an O-ring inside the barrel, before the thread

 

If I want to have a pen with the barrel full of visible ink, I guess, I will use a piston filler like the WingSung 618, Wingsung 698, Caliarts Ego-2 or others. This is certainly much more expensive but will not have the problems mentioned. And even more expensive choices are other companies' (Sailor/Pilot/Pelikan/...) demonstrators.

 

Nevertheless, I use my Preppys daily - with re-filled cartridges. And I removed the imprint with a solvent combination of 10% acetone in alcohol. This is still very strong, if you let it too long on the barrel it will cloudy the plastics - therefore many times cleaning with alcohol alone during the wash. Wipe with solvent mixture, dip it in alcohol, wipe, ... - this way, it remains fully transparent. Looking forward to see if it works with the new barrel type too.

 

If you have solved problem 3 with the Preppy. Please show me a detailed(!) photo.

Edited September 11, 2017 by mke

[Tinjapan]

I'm with Sasha R on this one. I have several vintage eyedroppers and can easily see why they fell out of use.

[alaskazimm]

Actually, I have looked a little bit into other videos, e.g.

and did some more tests with my pens.

 

smallest problem first

1) the silicone grease will enter the barrel and the feed (and the ink?)

2) the line size gets thicker and wetter - you can see it in the video too.

3) the O-ring is often protruding - see the video; I haven't found yet a single one which is thin enough - the one at Goulet looks much thinner than the ones I have access too. The only real good solution would be an O-ring inside the barrel, before the thread

 

1) if you have silicone grease entering the barrel and feed then you are using way too much. It only takes a thin film of grease.

2) I don't eyedropper my pens any more (and I don't recall this when I tried) but that seems to make sense to me in that there is more "pressure" to the nib from a larger column of ink pushing into the feed

3) Yes, the o-ring will protrude some and the thinner o-rings from Goulet will help with that. But you don't necessarily want an o-ring in the barrel as that will cause pressure pushing outward on the barrel. That in fact happened to me and my first eyedropper attempt with a Preppy where the o-ring got between the threads and the barrel and cracked the barrel rendering the pen useless as an eyedropper.

 

I've long since given up on eyedroppers so I don't have any pictures to show you, but once I got the o-ring properly seated and the thin film of silicone grease on the threads, it worked well.

[cattar]

+2 with sasha royale and tinjapan

 

I'd rather not deal with an eyedropped preppy burping ink.

Cartridge or converter fill is easy & quick.

 

Reliable pens for testing inks, keeping less used colors fresh, giving to newbies...

[mke]

> if you have silicone grease entering the barrel and feed then you are using way too much.

 

But have a look at the Goulet video. He uses a LOT. Seeing this made me fear about the grease entering the barrel and feed.

Personally, I used much less. Actually, in the laboratory, I would use teflon grease for isolation instead. I will test this another time.

Something like this product: LINK to amazon.com

[LazyPen]

I have just now ordered a platinum preppy from china.

 

Other than to buy an o-ring I'd like to know if I can use vaseline grease instead sylicon grease.

 

Thanks.

[Denver]

I've done a lot of Preppy eyedropper conversions and have settled on what I think is the best method since it doesn't require an o-ring or silicone grease. Seal the clean threads with clear 5-minute epoxy (e.g., BSI 5-minute epoxy) and fill the barrel via the easily removed feed. To do this you will need a syringe and a 2" or longer 20 Ga blunt dispensing needle. Pulling the nib and feed is simpler and faster than messing with threads.

[Denver]

[halffriedchicken]

On 7/31/2021 at 10:58 AM, Denver said:

I've done a lot of Preppy eyedropper conversions and have settled on what I think is the best method since it doesn't require an o-ring or silicone grease. Seal the clean threads with clear 5-minute epoxy (e.g., BSI 5-minute epoxy) and fill the barrel via the easily removed feed. To do this you will need a syringe and a 2" or longer 20 Ga blunt dispensing needle. Pulling the nib and feed is simpler and faster than messing with threads.

That's a great idea filling with a syringe like that. Do you have any suggestions on cleaning the pen? 

[mke]

@Denver

Did using it as eye-dropper not change the F line size to something like M-B?

[SamLowry]

 

On 7/31/2021 at 12:58 PM, Denver said:

I've done a lot of Preppy eyedropper conversions and have settled on what I think is the best method since it doesn't require an o-ring or silicone grease. Seal the clean threads with clear 5-minute epoxy (e.g., BSI 5-minute epoxy) and fill the barrel via the easily removed feed. To do this you will need a syringe and a 2" or longer 20 Ga blunt dispensing needle. Pulling the nib and feed is simpler and faster than messing with threads.

 

I'm intrigued by this idea and will have to give it a try.  The one time I converted a Preppy to eyedropper fill, it worked perfectly fine, until the day I absent-mindedly picked it up and tried to unscrew the cap rather than pulling it straight off.  (Most of my other pens are screw caps, so it's habitual.)  Before I knew what was happening, I had unscrewed the barrel from the section, and there was ink everywhere.  And bright red ink, of course.  Diamine Poppy Red, if I recall correctly.    I'd like to think that, having done that once, I would probably never do it again, but I know myself better than that!

 

Update:  I gave the filling technique a trial run with the syringes I have, which are only 1" long.  That's not long enough.   I now see why you specified 2" or longer - that is critical to not having ink shoot all over the place.   (Fortunately, I only used water for this trial.)