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How To Dry Out Vac Fillers?


K. Cakes

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Recently I won a very generous PIF and was the lucky recipient of a TWSBI Vac 700. Everything about it was wonderful, and I had it in continuous rotation since I received it. Until a little over a week ago when I flushed it, left it sitting in a cup with a cloth to suck out the excess water, and then I stored it. I took it out today and :sick: Yikes! It smells like something is growing in there. I flushed it again (with some dish soap) and tried to dry it out better, but for the life of me I can't get all of the water out of the barrel. I noticed that when changing inks there was always a good amount of water droplets left in the barrel after flushing, but the ink capacity is so large it was never enough to effect the ink so I didn't think much about it until now. Is there some trick to flushing Vac fillers I'm missing out on?

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

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Easiest way with the VAC700 is to use the wrench thatt came with the pen to unscrew the piston from the back of the pen. Then use a tissue or some scruched up towel to dry the barrel. I would also give the metal rod a wipe down and dry, and unscren the feed unit to make sure you have cleaned all ink out of there.

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Easiest way with the VAC700 is to use the wrench thatt came with the pen to unscrew the piston from the back of the pen. Then use a tissue or some scruched up towel to dry the barrel. I would also give the metal rod a wipe down and dry, and unscren the feed unit to make sure you have cleaned all ink out of there.

Thank you. I'm always apprehensive about taking apart TWSBIs, lest they crack on me. But this seems like the only way to go about it. I'll do that next time I take it out of rotation.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

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Recently I won a very generous PIF and was the lucky recipient of a TWSBI Vac 700. Everything about it was wonderful, and I had it in continuous rotation since I received it. Until a little over a week ago when I flushed it, left it sitting in a cup with a cloth to suck out the excess water, and then I stored it. I took it out today and :sick: Yikes! It smells like something is growing in there. I flushed it again (with some dish soap) and tried to dry it out better, but for the life of me I can't get all of the water out of the barrel. I noticed that when changing inks there was always a good amount of water droplets left in the barrel after flushing, but the ink capacity is so large it was never enough to effect the ink so I didn't think much about it until now. Is there some trick to flushing Vac fillers I'm missing out on?

 

 

Be careful! Something might be growing in there!

 

Check other threads on the forum for mould. if it smells bad it might be that it's infected and needs quarantine, any ink you use might become infected and contaminate other pens. I would suggest thoroughly flushing the pen with an ammonia solution to be sure. Sorry to scare you, but it's worth being cautions.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. -Carl Sagan

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Be careful! Something might be growing in there!

 

Check other threads on the forum for mould. if it smells bad it might be that it's infected and needs quarantine, any ink you use might become infected and contaminate other pens. I would suggest thoroughly flushing the pen with an ammonia solution to be sure. Sorry to scare you, but it's worth being cautions.

I'm almost positive there was something growing in there. I flushed it out with regular dish soap (Mrs. Meyer's Honeysuckle if that at all matters) and filled it back up. It seems to be working just fine, no clogging or hard starts and no funny smells. I fill it from a Vac 20 bottle and it's the only pen that uses that bottle so the worst is that I would just have to toss the ink that's in there. But I will take your advice and pick up some ammonia if I notice anything funky going on.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

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I'm almost positive there was something growing in there. I flushed it out with regular dish soap (Mrs. Meyer's Honeysuckle if that at all matters) and filled it back up. It seems to be working just fine, no clogging or hard starts and no funny smells. I fill it from a Vac 20 bottle and it's the only pen that uses that bottle so the worst is that I would just have to toss the ink that's in there. But I will take your advice and pick up some ammonia if I notice anything funky going on.

Cool, I had a brand new 580 that started to smell a bit, but it had only been inked a couple of times from a new bottle. Maybe it's just some substance that they use in manufacture.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. -Carl Sagan

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regularly flush them after 2 weeks of use

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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If you're worried about residual wet AND dismantling, after flushing leave the cap off and the piston at full retraction for a day or so. Evaporation will see to your troubles.

 

The downside to this is finding a place to leave it where no one will trip on it.

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Oh, good heavens. He's got a blog now, too.

 

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