Rotring Rapidographs

[Splicer]

I have mixed results on my use so far of the Rotring rapidographs instead of the Koh-I-Noor ones I've been using for decades. Rotring-branded rapidographs use a capillary cartridge with the breather helix built in to the cartridge, rather than the eyedropper-style filler found in most modern rapidograph-style pens. The idea is that this reduces the maintenance required to prevent clogging, since there's a whole new breather every time you add ink.

 

This also seems to cause the pens to be very slow to start. Getting the flow to start with a rapidograph is always an exercise in patience; it seems more so with the Rotring cartridges. I spent two hours tonight and went through five ink cartridges unsuccessfully trying to get one of three of my pens to write for more than 5mm at a time. Very frustrating. Some of this is undoubtedly the fault of some old cartridges, but cleaning, cartridge replacement, even replacing the point of one of the pens, none worked. I'll start again with fresh carts and a brand new point for each of these (the two smallest in the set, 0.13mm and 0.18mm) before I declare the experiment over, but there's a limit to the time, expense and frustration I'll put up with. Tonight was two hours of my life I'll never get back.

 

One thing I have to say about the Rotrings: when I've gotten them to work, they are very smooth and have even flow in comparison with the Koh-I-Noors. My 0.70mm Rotring rapidograph is smoother even than my jewel-tipped Koh-I-Noor of the same size. So I have a set of Rotring isographs on their way to me. If the only thing wrong with the rapidographs is the cartridge filling system, the isographs ought to be a treat.

 

It's always been difficult to keep the finer points maintained. The lesson here may be to abandon the 0.13mm and 0.18mm pens, stick with larger sizes and simply work on bigger paper. I kind of hope it won't come to that (though it would probably be better for my eyes).

[Goshzilla]

totally off the wall here, but I remember a news report on nbc sometime after 9/11, they said "terrorists could use a poison pen much like James Bond," then they showed a picture of the rapidograph. Now I feel my intelligence was insulted, those cartridges are use once only.

[mmoncur]

I've coincidentally been experimenting with a cartridge-filled Rotring Rapidograph recently. I had the same trouble as you at first, but it turned out I had some old cartridges that had dried to a jelly-like consistency. A lot of the cartridges out there are NOS, although they still make them.

 

After putting in a fresh cartridge, my .25 model has worked very well - no trouble starting, and when it's been left alone for a few days, it starts much easier than the Koh-i-noors - I just tried it after forgetting about it for two weeks and it took 10 seconds to start. The .25 Koh-i-noor in the same drawer appears to have no hope of restarting without a cleaning.

 

I have a .13 pen on order and hope my luck is better than yours... I'm also on the verge of giving up on the smaller sizes but I'd rather avoid it.

[Splicer]

I have a .13 pen on order and hope my luck is better than yours... I'm also on the verge of giving up on the smaller sizes but I'd rather avoid it.

 

My .25 and higher pens are doing better, and I let the points for the 0.18 and 0.13 sit in cleaning fluid overnight. I'll report back how new carts perform, and after that how new points perform.

 

What kind of paper do you use the 0.13 or 0.18 with? Even smooth finish bristol tends to catch on the smaller sizes.

[Splicer]

OK, the overnight soak and freshly purchased cartridge seems to have done the trick for my 0.18. It took a while to start, but once it did, I wrote about a yard without a hesitation or a skip. Now to get to work on the 0.13....

 

[edit]I may have spoken two soon. Both are back to 5mm of writing at a time. Now I'm wondering if my vellum is clogging the tip on contact, the way thermal paper does with a fountain pen. Both pens worked great for several seconds on bristol before I went to work on the vellum, when they died within about 10cm of lines, and went right back to the 5mm maximum line length between shakes.

Edited June 17, 2008 by Splicer

[mmoncur]

What kind of paper do you use the 0.13 or 0.18 with? Even smooth finish bristol tends to catch on the smaller sizes.

 

I've had pretty good luck with Smooth Bristol, but what I use most of the time is Borden & Riley #234 PARIS Bleedproof Paper for Pens. It's very white, the smoothest I've ever found, and cheap to boot.

 

I'll wake this thread up and report on how the Rotring Rapidograph 0.13 and 0.18 sizes work for me...

[Splicer]

What kind of paper do you use the 0.13 or 0.18 with? Even smooth finish bristol tends to catch on the smaller sizes.

 

I've had pretty good luck with Smooth Bristol, but what I use most of the time is Borden & Riley #234 PARIS Bleedproof Paper for Pens. It's very white, the smoothest I've ever found, and cheap to boot.

 

I'll wake this thread up and report on how the Rotring Rapidograph 0.13 and 0.18 sizes work for me...

 

Please do. I'll add that as long as I kept an even lighter than normal touch on the vellum, the 0.13 and 0.18 would work without too much complaint. So I suspect that little pieces of plastic were getting dug out from the vellum and blocking the point. Switching to a 100% rag vellum seems to have helped, too.

[David R Munson]

I tried the Rotrings and eventually went back to the Koh-i-Noors. When they work well, the Rotrings are nice, but I'm just so used to the Koh-i-Noor rapidographs that I just find them much easier to work with. If something isn't working right, I know I can fix it, and can usually do so quickly. All the same, I'm glad that there are various choices available in technical pens still.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I've had better luck with the Staedtlers, except cleaning these points is a pain, even with an ultrasonic cleaner.

 

Best I can say is to just keep on trying. By the way, the cartridges I have in stock are a new multi-media formulation (mf). I still have them in case you want to give them a try.

 

Dillon

[mmoncur]

I just got my .13 and .18 Rotring Rapidographs, and a bunch of cartridges, from Dick Blick.

 

It took me about a minute to get each one started, and since then they've worked great. I'll see how they handle being left overnight now...

 

Note: the instructions said "shake pen to start" so I did, and when I say shake, I mean the kind of shaking that would give a Koh-i-noor Rapidograph user a good fright and send drops of ink flying everywhere. Rattling the weight back and forth like it's a tiny spray paint can. The same shake I used on Rapidoliners back when you could get those. Once I dared to do that they started right up, and apparently they can handle a good shake much better than the Koh-i-noors.

 

If you bought yours from anywhere they might have sat on a shelf for a few years, I'd strongly recommend giving the nibs a soak/rinse and trying a brand new cartridge.