Refilling Carts?

[Kendra]

I have heard quite a bit about refilling carts as opposed to or along with converters...but how does one go about doing so? I understand how I might do it with a syringe, but what happens if its a blue cartridge and I want to refill it with a different color....say red? how do I rinse it out?

[jsonewald]

Use a syringe filled with water and flush the old ink out.

[Kendra]

But is it going to take me 985676859 hours to completely flush it?

[Yoda4561]

But is it going to take me 985676859 hours to completely flush it?

 

 

Cartridges flush easy. So do converters for that matter, it's the feeds that hold so much residual ink. A few CC's of water should be all that it takes with most carts. 1 or two syringes worth.

[KCat]

not difficult at all. Easiest with a nice long-needled syringe but in lieu of that a syringe or micro-tip transfer pipet will do the job.

[jsonewald]

But is it going to take me 985676859 hours to completely flush it?

Probably not. More like 9.85676859 x 10E0 seconds.

[physicsgirl]

But is it going to take me 985676859 hours to completely flush it?

 

Nope,

1) Fill syringe with water

2) Insert needle into the open end of the cart

3)Hold the opening of the cart where its pointing down over sink

4) Depress plunger

5) Done!

[Surnia]

Pilot cartridges are even faster, with the super wide mouth all you really need to do is half dip the opening, and the water just flows in. Repeat by tilting it down, and it all just spills out (once the surface tension is broken).

[Sailor Kenshin]

Use a syringe filled with water and flush the old ink out.

 

 

Or use a plastic pipette to do the same job. It takes me only a few minutes to flush a cart AND suck the water back out.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Using the syringe to rinse a cartridge works just fine.

 

The thing I usually do to rinse out a cartridge, and I mostly refill cartridges so I've done this a lot now, is to use hot tap water. Some cartridges will just fill when held in the stream. Some others are more difficult. For those I put the blunt needle into the cartridge, and put the end of the needle that's supposed to go onto the syringe under the flowing, hot tap water. I get a high volume of water flowing through the cartridge and the fact that it's hot water gets the ink out of there fast.

 

I'll fill the cartridge up, let a little overflow, then I'll flip the water out of the cartridge. I repeat this and after four times the cartridge is as clean as it's going to get.

 

This procedure provides for less wear and tear on the syringe, where the rubber may not like the hot water so much.

[DwarvenChef]

I got a couple syringes that had some LONG heavy needles, about 18 gage, and ground off the points with a dremmel. These things are great for refilling cartridges and eye dropper pens when you don't have an eye dropper...

Edited January 18, 2011 by DwarvenChef

[pen2paper]

quick note: the small carts with very small access, or those with an interior metal bead, may not empty, fully, unless you also Draw the rinse water out with the syringe. think that's where the syringe may be the better tool if speed is required. 22 gauge 1/1/2 " are great if you can find them.. this may be approx the size on the refill kits???

[jsonewald]

The best needles I've found are in some ink jet cartridge refill kits, usually the super cheap ones. The needles are blunt, and long enough to reach the end of a Waterman cartridge.

[CRB]

To get the rinse water out of carts that have a metal or plastic bead, I insert a syringe full of air into the inverted cart and depress the plunger; the air chases out the water.

[neena]

Refiiling carts is really easy - This youtube vid is what inspired me to start refilling cartridges HTH

[jonwat]

Just one point to add.

 

Some cartridges such as Parker - there may be other brands I don't know of - have an "ink reserve" at the top/far end that may fill with water. You have to give these a good shake to ensure that no water remains inside before you fill with ink.

[johniem]

I found a "needle" which I use for flushing and refilling at Hobby Lobby. It's originally intended to apply miniscule drops of glue in craft projects. They are long enough to reach bottom in a Sheaffer cartridge but I haven't tried it in a Parker cartridge yet. I use the fine size. I found them in the section near plastic models, located next to air brushes and accessories. They also snap over the end of some medical syringes I have from treatment days. Cost $3.99 USD for a pack.

[pen2paper]

Like the video!

Suggestion, to avoid possible contamination of bottled ink...

Rinse - flush needle between procedures - especially other inks... ( And After you've finished )

Only draw up enough ink to fill the cartridge.. If you draw up too much ink, add that remaining ink in the syringe to another cartridge, or another pen in use. Do Not return siphoned ink to the original bottle.

 

Unless you happen to be using a sterile needle, a rinse Before drawing up ink is a good idea too..

See which: Sam Capote's ongoing SITB thread.

 

 

[jonathanchuang1]

peartreepens.com actually sell ink refill kits for cartridges