How To Clean Luxury Ballpoint Pen After Ink Cartridge Explodes?

[writebyhand]

Waterman ballpoint ink cartridges are very smooth . . . but they have a fairly high rate of "exploding" and leaking ink.

 

How would you clean a twist-action, ballpoint Waterman pen after an ink cartridge goes bad in this way? I'm afraid to use anything potentially corrosive, like vinegar, but I also suspect water isn't enough to remove the copious amount of gooey, oil-based blue ink. Your advice would be appreciated . . . .

 

[Honeybadgers]

Vinegar probably won't attack it but may have a side effect of drying out resins.

 

water alone won't do much either for oil based inks.

 

SOAPY water is your best bet. Just be sure to let all components dry super well before reassembly to avoid rusting.

 

soapy water and a couple hours in a non-heated ultrasonic cleaner (the cheap jewelry ones are perfect) while changing the water every 10 mins or so for the first hour as the water gets dark should get you right as rain.

 

When you use soap, ONLY use DAWN. They use a proprietary formula that leaves zero residue (it's technically freely available as a formula, but it just costs more to make so cheaper soaps don't use it - but dawn is the only soap choice for cleaning lab glassware)

Edited November 2, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[pajaro]

What about using alcohol?

[Honeybadgers]

What about using alcohol?

 

Alcohols in general are safe for metal parts (it's great for degreasing dip nibs), but could have all sorts of hideous interactions with plastics.

 

Like dissolves like, alcohols and many plastics are both fairly polar.

 

And at best, alcohol will draw moisture out of plastic parts (since it does have the polar head that can bind to all sorts of stuff including water) possibly drying them out and shrinking/cracking them or damaging any natural oils and solvents inside them (a big danger for older plastics)

Edited November 7, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[pajaro]

I have used alcohol to clean up Cross Century and Papermate Holiday, but no others.

 

If this exploding refill thing is a problem with Waterman, you could put the ballpoint refill in a Waterman rollerball pen. It fits for Laureat and Carene anyway. These would be simpler to clean--no movement other than uncapping. I have a ballpoint refill in a Laureat rollerball and in a Carene rollerball. They work. The rollerball refills dry up too fast for my liking. A couple of months.

Edited November 8, 2019 by pajaro

[tamiya]

I use a lot of Electrical Contact Cleaner, aerosol can. It dries faster than IsoPropyl Alcohol, hasn't affected any plastics in my efforts and is great at cleaning off ballpoint ink. Also a fantastic degreaser though, if you've got moving parts with lubrication to think about.

 

Lately been having a lot of leaks from BIC 4-colours... they stand point down on my desk & they're oozing big mess

[Honeybadgers]

I use a lot of Electrical Contact Cleaner, aerosol can. It dries faster than IsoPropyl Alcohol, hasn't affected any plastics in my efforts and is great at cleaning off ballpoint ink. Also a fantastic degreaser though, if you've got moving parts with lubrication to think about.

 

Lately been having a lot of leaks from BIC 4-colours... they stand point down on my desk & they're oozing big mess

 

 

Electrical contact cleaner has petroleum distillates in them and usually some 1,1 difluoroethane. It's similarly very polar, like iso. But it could still degrade polar plastics like PVC and Nylon. Other plastics should be safe. Lacquer should be kept away from them, as it will degrade in polar solvents. So keep iso and contact cleaner away from lacquered pens.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Honeybadgers