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How use Ultra-sonic cleaner with pens?

kudzu

By kudzu
in Repair Q&A

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KenS Extremely Rare

KenS

Posted
Posted

I realize the vacuum chamber was probably intended as humor, but you may already have a vacuum chamber in your kitchen. I'm talking about your "Food Saver". Place your pen on a paper towel inside one of the vacuum canisters, put the lid in place, hook-up the vacuum line, hit the button and you can suck moisture out of places where it shouldn't outta be..

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piembi Collectors Item

piembi

Posted
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How about gold plated steel nibs or rhodium plated gold nibs?

 

I was afraid that the plaiting may come off so I had only plain gold or steel nibs in my US cleaner.

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Gerry Donor Pen

Gerry

Posted
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Has anyone tried the battery operated ones (4 off AA batteries)? Just seen one for a good price.

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

I would suspect that they were mechanical agitation, not ultrasonic, and therefore not as effective.

 

Regards,

 

Gerry

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richardandtracy Museum Piece

richardandtracy

Posted
Posted
Has anyone tried the battery operated ones (4 off AA batteries)? Just seen one for a good price.

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

I would suspect that they were mechanical agitation, not ultrasonic, and therefore not as effective.

 

Regards,

 

Gerry

They're being sold as ultrasonic; used for cleaning dentures, jewelery & glasses.

I've ordered one for £8 (about $16-$17) so I'll see what it's like & report back.

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

<a href="http://www.chestnutpens.co.uk">Chestnut Pens</a>

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aymr Mint

aymr

Posted
Posted

Just resurrecting an old thread. There's a lot of good info here, but pinning it (or pinning a summary) might be useful, as I'm just finding this after about 60 minutes of searching.

 

I've got an ultrasonic cleaner on order, as I seem to be getting most of my eBay pens caked full of ink these days (do you suppose when the postal worker says "is there anything liquid, fragile, or hazardous in this" it doesn't occur to them they're sending a little plastic vial full of liquid ink?). Sorry ... pet peeve. Would it kill them to run the dang thing under water? I'm on about my 8th soak of one nib - over a course of 6 days - and it's still turning the water black each time.

 

Anyway, tips and warnings welcome. Believe it or not, there's not a lot of detailed info on the board about this, unless I'm just over complicating it.

 

From what I've read:

use H2O perhaps with a bit of ammonia

try not to soak any body part that will rust, or fragile old materials, or things that are glued on

run it for 2-5 minutes, and can be run again

 

It just seems this should be a more complicated process, or involve more instructions or warnings. Perhaps I'd feel better about it if someone just spelled it out using an excess of words so I'd feel like I had complete instructions :) Most of the posts on the board just say "run it through the ultrasonic" with no details.

 

I just don't want to learn the hard way by breaking things.

 

Thanks!

Aym

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Pink Ink Extremely Rare

Pink Ink

Posted
Posted
I realize the vacuum chamber was probably intended as humor, but you may already have a vacuum chamber in your kitchen. I'm talking about your "Food Saver". Place your pen on a paper towel inside one of the vacuum canisters, put the lid in place, hook-up the vacuum line, hit the button and you can suck moisture out of places where it shouldn't outta be..

Thank you! For some of my pens the feed won’t come out and they’ve been taking forever to dry. I suppose a food saver should be my next investment.

Writing instruments of the moment:

  • Pilot Prera Fountain Pen in Vivid Pink XF (Levenger ink, Pinkly).
  • Uniball α-Gel Slim Pencil in Pink (0.3mm leads).
  • Pilot 742 Fountain Pen in Black with Falcon (flex) Nib, (Pilot ink, Black).
  • Nikko G Nib in the penholder.

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antonio ilmonaco Rare

antonio ilmonaco

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

Here's a few comments on US cleaner use :

- use some water and a drop of dishwasher as it helps crud removal dramatically

- do not immerse in US cleaner parker100 hood as it will detach the gold plating around the feed inside the hood

- do not immerse any painted part, for example the "blue diamonds" on parker clips as the paint will fall off

- do not immerse any hard rubber pen, since US action actually destroys the rubber

- do not immerse very old nibs as the tipping might not be soldered efficiently to the nib

- after getting a pen out of the US tank rinse it with clean water, wrap it in a lint-free cloth and put it in your shirt pocket, which will heat the pen parts and allow them to dry quickly.

 

All the best,

Antonio

Vacumatic pellet pocket repair

Making a vacumatic tool

Aurora 88 restoration

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penmanila Antique

penmanila

Posted
Posted

here's a cautionary tale from my blog, on what could happen at the very end of the process, if you're not too careful: ;)

 

http://homepage.mac.com/jdalisay/blog/MyBl...ml#bfx249796805

 

am having fun with the ultrasonic cleaner, otherwise. here's a vac in the bath (it's ok, the pen was being prepped for a diaphragm replacement):

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/3034937478_220ee91250.jpg

 

 

Check out my blog and my pens

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037 Near Mint

037

Posted
Posted

...a caution here.

Don't leave any nibs in direct contact with the metal bowl, the ultra vibrations will acts as a sanding action and steel will scuff the gold platings or gold surface.

Use the plastic bowl that comes with the unit or use something to separate metals touching.

 

I had the bad experience of scuffing the top side of a Parker 75 18K gold nib because of direct contact with the bowl.

...of course 'YdamageMV'

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