Idea: On Preventing Inky Messes

[azbobcat]

Well I've gone and done it: I've started to experiment with Shimmering Ink!! I even bought a NEW PEN to be used JUST FOR THIS ONE INK!! I bought myself a Twsbi Eco with a 1.1 mm stub, and some Diamine "Cobalt Jazz". The Ink came in today!! Well you know what that means: Surf's Up!! Geronimo!!

 

I am very, VERY GLAD I decided to fill the pen in the bathroom... Did I ever make a MESS!! First off the bottle of Diamine's Shimmering Ink is rather narrow, and I have Parkinson's. In an attempt to NOT knock over the bottle I held the bottle with one hand while submerging the pen with the other.... the second the pen entered the bottle there was a gusher of ink as it over flowed the bottle!! I removed the pen and "ran" -- more like I shuffled my feet -- "quickly" to the kitchen and grabbed some paper towels. I now know for a fact that there is indeed gold glitter in the ink!! Nice midnight blue with gold glitter.

 

I 1) Eventually got the pen filled with ink 2) Got the bottle cleaned up 3) Got the pen cleaned up 4) Got all that Midnight Blue Ink with Gold Glitter scrubbed off the bathroom sink counter 5) Got all that Midnight Blue Ink with Gold Glitter washed off my hands and fingers.

 

Having played with my NEW INK (!) I had a chance to reflect on "The Mess". While I was able to clean the "Cobalt Jazz" up, I have another ticking time bomb ready to go off the second to repeat this mistake: Noodler's "Blue Ghost" which is a PERMANENT INK!! And I THINK I have figured out a way to prevent this from happening again: Simply find a bigger bottle with a bigger mouth! 1) Open the NEW bottle of ink

2) Open the NEW empty bottle 3) Stick the NEW Empty bottle with its wider mouth OVER the the smaller mouth bottle 4) Invert the small bottle over the top of the larger bottle. All the ink in the smaller bottle now goes into the larger bottle, and now you can stick the pen into the larger bottle without causing the ink to over flow the bottle.

 

Ta Da!!!

[GreenMountain]

How about going outside? Not sure I would trust your new method as liquid tends to stick to the glass and run down the outside.

I like vanilla in my hot water drink so after dealing with vanilla running down the bottle as I tried to pour out a few drops, I got a medicine dropper. Works fine. Might take you a while to transfer a few ounces, unless you get a turkey baster (ha ha).

[GreenMountain]

.

Edited February 17, 2020 by GreenMountain

[Arkanabar]

This is another reason to use disposable bulb pipettes to transfer ink into sample vials, from which one fills pens.

[Misfit]

You might take a look at Ink Miser. I got the clear one, and like using it.

[evyxmsj]

Thanks azbobcat. Any ideas are welcome :-)

 

The one time I used Noodler's BSB, I worked within a large tub so that any spills would be captured.

 

I sometimes use a similar method to Arkanaber, but find my sample vials too small. So I pipette into a small flask with a wide base.

[Karmachanic]

Eureka!!

 

.... the second the pen entered the bottle there was a gusher of ink as it over flowed the bottle!! I

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Karmachanic

[corniche]

You might take a look at Ink Miser. I got the clear one, and like using it.

Hi Everyone,

 

I have an ink miser and I love it.

 

But I think it might still prove unstable for someone with Parkinsons, arthritis, etc.

 

I would recommend building a bottle cup out of LEGOS: tornado proof.

 

 

Sean

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have an ink miser and I love it.

 

But I think it might still prove unstable for someone with Parkinsons, arthritis, etc.

 

I would recommend building a bottle cup out of LEGOS: tornado proof.

 

 

Sean

I did that. It was fun! Two sizes, one for samples, one for bottles.

 

But you can also get a cheap plastic tub (like for dishwashing/busing dishes) or even a shoebox at a dollar store and put your gear in there to fill pens.

[Arkanabar]

In addition to Lego, people also stabilize various ink containers with Sculpey, 2x4 or 2x6 boards with holes drilled in using a spade bit, a dab of Blu-Tack, or other methods.

[A Smug Dill]

I dream of a system, sorta like a vending machine, that just "summon" the container of the particular ink selected by the user from his/her personal collection (and "stock" loaded into the system), and dispense the specified/selected volume through a 14-gauge hollow metal tube into a converter, empty ink cartridge, or cavity of a piston-filler or eye-droppered pen barrel the user places and holds (with one hand, both hands, or the aid of some inanimate holder) in the dispensing area. After filling, the dispenser is retracted and automatically cleaned with pressurised water and a burst of steam, to pre-empt any clogging or contamination.

 

I'm sure such a machine can be readily constructed with today's technology, but it simply isn't going to be in high enough demand to be a commercially viable venture.

[GreenMountain]

Good idea for sleepless nights! Invent ingenious devices to solve common problems.

Now, where is that sock? Not in the dryer. RFID tags for everything in the house? Automated retrieval robot?

[sansenri]

without going into difficult solutions, there are 3-4 things that can be recommended if you really want to limit risks of making a mess (often all goes well, but that one time when it does not, the cleaning up is tough work and sometimes stains cannot be removed - think of a wooden desk...):

1) do it the kitchen sink for a start, there is no safer place, particularly if your kitchen sink is flat bottomed and stainless steel

2) use some kind of bottle holder, especially with tall narrow bottles, lego is a good solution, but self made holders of the correct size can work better

3) use disposable gloves, an easy way not to stain your fingers

4) if you have to transfer ink from one bottle/vial to another don't doing by pouring, use adequate size pipettes or syringes, much easier, much cleaner

[Noihvo]

I dream of a system, sorta like a vending machine, that just "summon" the container of the particular ink selected by the user from his/her personal collection (and "stock" loaded into the system), and dispense the specified/selected volume through a 14-gauge hollow metal tube into a converter, empty ink cartridge, or cavity of a piston-filler or eye-droppered pen barrel the user places and holds (with one hand, both hands, or the aid of some inanimate holder) in the dispensing area. After filling, the dispenser is retracted and automatically cleaned with pressurised water and a burst of steam, to pre-empt any clogging or contamination.

 

I'm sure such a machine can be readily constructed with today's technology, but it simply isn't going to be in high enough demand to be a commercially viable venture.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I dream of a system, sorta like a vending machine, that just "summon" the container of the particular ink selected by the user from his/her personal collection (and "stock" loaded into the system), and dispense the specified/selected volume through a 14-gauge hollow metal tube into a converter, empty ink cartridge, or cavity of a piston-filler or eye-droppered pen barrel the user places and holds (with one hand, both hands, or the aid of some inanimate holder) in the dispensing area. After filling, the dispenser is retracted and automatically cleaned with pressurised water and a burst of steam, to pre-empt any clogging or contamination.

 

I'm sure such a machine can be readily constructed with today's technology, but it simply isn't going to be in high enough demand to be a commercially viable venture.

 

That sounds a lot like one of the robots from my husband's former company (they made robotic dispensing systems for hospital pharmacies. I got to see one in action at a company open house last summer. It would pick up a bottle of liquid medicine, remove the syringe, then use a new (presumably sterile) syringe to measure out the correct dosage and transfer that amount to a syringe, cap it, and even put a computer generated label on the the syringe so the hospital staff would know which patient it was for (they weighed the vials before and after to determine the right dosage, and I presume that it could determine which meds from the specific gravity as well as the bar code on the bottle). It would even then put the vial into a drawer for the pharmacist or pharmacy tech to get out.

Now all you'd have to do is cough up the dough to buy one, and then hire someone to code it so it would recognize the right ink bottle and a sample vial's capacity (leaving, of course, room for displacement when the nib and feed were inserted).

Of course, what *I* did was to buy a copper tube connector that has a smooth tube just big enough in diameter to hold a vial, and the other end is a threaded nut that gives it enough weight so it's relatively stable, and cost I think around $6 US at the hardware store in the center of town....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for formatting

Edited February 28, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

What happened to the pictures of the bathroom?

[stoof2010]

This is another reason to use disposable bulb pipettes to transfer ink into sample vials, from which one fills pens.

+1 to that. I do it with all my other nks but for a different reason which is contamination.

However given the mess factor, if you spilled the vial you'd only lose 5ml at most if full.

[Misfit]

I did the no-no. Filling a pen in the bedroom. I know better, I really do. But I did it last night anyway. I filled a pen from a sample vial! That often does not work out well. I thought I had done it with no issue. Then I saw the ink drop on my bed sheet. Grrr! Stupid stupid stupid. I do have Amodex, but the laundry detergent Era also does a good job.

[A Smug Dill]

Apparently my wife still doesn't know which of her pens are piston-fillers (and how they work) and which ones are 'eyedroppers' with valves and blind caps; and she often writes in her journals in bed. When she encountered a hard start with one of her pens, twist she did, and drip it did.

[Misfit]

That makes me feel a bit better. And your wife is not alone in the drip drip drip.