How to clean a cartrige.

[Asteris]

I am refilling cartriges. Is there a way to clean them?

[Inkysloth]

Flush with a syringe & blunted needle. 

[agaric]

What Inkysloth said. My step-by-step:

1. use a blunt-tip syringe to draw (= suck up) as much leftover ink as possible
2. inject clean water into cartridge
3. draw the now-murky water from the cartridge
4. inject clean water up to three quarters and shake cartridge vigorously
5. draw, then repeat 4 (maybe more than once)
6. draw and leave to dry

Sometimes ink remains on the lip, so fold up a tissue paper and use its sharp corner to soak up any ink on the lip.

[Buzz_130]

Agree with the blunt syringe method for cartridges, and I use the same method for converters. If you're in the US, GouletPens has a pair of them for $5.

[Asteris]

5 hours ago, Inkysloth said:

Flush with a syringe & blunted needle. 

Thanks, I thought it 10 mins after the post

[Asteris]

5 hours ago, agaric said:

What Inkysloth said. My step-by-step:

1. use a blunt-tip syringe to draw (= suck up) as much leftover ink as possible
2. inject clean water into cartridge
3. draw the now-murky water from the cartridge
4. inject clean water up to three quarters and shake cartridge vigorously
5. draw, then repeat 4 (maybe more than once)
6. draw and leave to dry

Sometimes ink remains on the lip, so fold up a tissue paper and use its sharp corner to soak up any ink on the lip.

Thanks for the advice.

[Asteris]

2 hours ago, Buzz_130 said:

Agree with the blunt syringe method for cartridges, and I use the same method for converters. If you're in the US, GouletPens has a pair of them for $5.

I just use a normal syringe and then put the cap back on.

[dipper]

17 hours ago, agaric said:

...... Sometimes ink remains on the lip, so fold up a tissue paper and use its sharp corner to soak up any ink on the lip.

Agreed. Even after pipette flushing, traces of ink can hang on tight in the corners of the lengthways ridges inside some cartridges, and especially in the corners at the far back-end.

A piece of paper towel sucks them up well.

 

I cut a rectangular piece of towel, matchbox size, roll it up tight, push it all the way down to the back end of the cartridge, and spin it around a bit.

The little agitator-ball in some cartriges can be a problem, but my main use of cartridges does not have those (Sailor Kiwaguro).

 

A problem the Sailor cartridges do have though is the annoying dangling flap of plastic, originally sealing the cartridge, and pierced by the pen section when first used.

I always cut off that flap, but have not found a good way to do so with a smooth clean cut and without danger of damaging the nose part of the cartridge.

 

[Asteris]

9 hours ago, dipper said:

Agreed. Even after pipette flushing, traces of ink can hang on tight in the corners of the lengthways ridges inside some cartridges, and especially in the corners at the far back-end.

A piece of paper towel sucks them up well.

 

I cut a rectangular piece of towel, matchbox size, roll it up tight, push it all the way down to the back end of the cartridge, and spin it around a bit.

The little agitator-ball in some cartriges can be a problem, but my main use of cartridges does not have those (Sailor Kiwaguro).

 

A problem the Sailor cartridges do have though is the annoying dangling flap of plastic, originally sealing the cartridge, and pierced by the pen section when first used.

I always cut off that flap, but have not found a good way to do so with a smooth clean cut and without danger of damaging the nose part of the cartridge.

 

Thanks for the advice on drying.

[txomsy]

On 1/22/2022 at 1:24 PM, agaric said:

Sometimes ink remains on the lip, so fold up a tissue paper and use its sharp corner to soak up any ink on the lip.

It (washing out the water) is a lot simpler.

 

Just fill the cartridge with water. Then fill the syringe with air. Turn the cartridge upside down. Inject air in the cartridge. The air will go up and push all the water inside down out.

 

As for corners... Well, once you get a five cartridge package, that shouldn't be a problem. What I do is, after cleaning, if there are remnants, I fill the cartridge with water and leave it soaking until I remember or need it again (I use a small jam bottle, so I can close the lid tightly and not care about it tumbling). Meanwhile I just use other cartridges. With five cartridges (or more) to rotate anything can dissolve before you run on all of them.

 

BTW, maybe I have always used intramuscular needles 'as is'. A lot cheaper to get at a pharmacy than a blunt-end needle at a specialty store. Just have to be careful.

[Mysterious Mose]

41 minutes ago, txomsy said:

BTW, maybe I have always used intramuscular needles 'as is'. A lot cheaper to get at a pharmacy than a blunt-end needle at a specialty store. Just have to be careful.

Of course, this is only feasible if such needles are legal and available where you live.

[amberleadavis]

The only suggestion I would add, is that I also use pipe cleaners.  The pipe cleaners seem to clean away the stuff that sticks.

[DvdRiet]

43 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

The only suggestion I would add, is that I also use pipe cleaners.  The pipe cleaners seem to clean away the stuff that sticks.

 

This sounds like a great idea. I'll have to try it. Regular cartridges are never a problem (I don't use IGs, permanent or 'difficult' inks regularly) and I try to use converters as much as possible in my pens anyway, but I do save all the old original proprietary cartridges from the 60s and 70s that I sometimes find in the Diplomats that I collect. Some of them have gunk in them that just will not come out, but I haven't tried an ammonia solution on them yet because I knew it would be messy. Maybe I can avoid that with pipe cleaners. 🤞

 

And btw, I also use a regular (intramuscular?) syringe that I happened to have gotten from the veterinarian once for some reason, no idea anymore why but it was still in the plastic wrapper. You do have to be careful but I've only poked myself (barely) with it once.  Just saying a local vet might be another good place to get a syringe cheaply and easily. They may even have blunt ones for drawing sample fluids.

[amberleadavis]

1 minute ago, DvdRiet said:

 

This sounds like a great idea. I'll have to try it. Regular cartridges are never a problem (I don't use IGs, permanent or 'difficult' inks regularly) and I try to use converters as much as possible in my pens anyway, but I do save all the old original proprietary cartridges from the 60s and 70s that I sometimes find in the Diplomats that I collect. Some of them have gunk in them that just will not come out, but I haven't tried an ammonia solution on them yet because I knew it would be messy. Maybe I can avoid that with pipe cleaners. 🤞

 

And btw, I also use a regular (intramuscular?) syringe that I happened to have gotten from the veterinarian once for some reason, no idea anymore why but it was still in the plastic wrapper. You do have to be careful but I've only poked myself (barely) with it once.  Just saying a local vet might be another good place to get a syringe cheaply and easily. They may even have blunt ones for drawing sample fluids.

 

Syringes are easy to buy over here. I use the luer lock ones and buy blunt needles.

 

Hope that helps.

[Arkanabar]

The regulations as to whether syringes are prescription or OTC do vary quite a bit from state to state here in the US, and it is in the hope of not tripping over such regulations that Anderson, Goulet, et al., do not offer medical syringes. 

 

Given the willingness of IV drug abusers to grab any syringe they can, and the self-harm that may ensue, I'm not going to come down on one side or the other as to what the proper level of regulation should be.  In a hospital setting, it's important for nurses to leave nothing with a luer-lock tip laying around where an IVDA patient can get it.

[Asteris]

19 hours ago, txomsy said:

It (washing out the water) is a lot simpler.

 

Just fill the cartridge with water. Then fill the syringe with air. Turn the cartridge upside down. Inject air in the cartridge. The air will go up and push all the water inside down out.

 

As for corners... Well, once you get a five cartridge package, that shouldn't be a problem. What I do is, after cleaning, if there are remnants, I fill the cartridge with water and leave it soaking until I remember or need it again (I use a small jam bottle, so I can close the lid tightly and not care about it tumbling). Meanwhile I just use other cartridges. With five cartridges (or more) to rotate anything can dissolve before you run on all of them.

 

BTW, maybe I have always used intramuscular needles 'as is'. A lot cheaper to get at a pharmacy than a blunt-end needle at a specialty store. Just have to be careful.

Agree and always put the needle cover back on.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Pilot cartridges are easy. They have a wide open mouth and just blasting hot water, into them from a faucet clears them out easily .

 

For others I tend to use the blunt needle, but I put the needle only in the cartridge, and then I blast the tap water into it. This provides an effectively unlimited water supply and the force of the water hitting the interior of the cartridge is quite good enough.

 

And I also put any cartridge that still harbors a bit of ink in it after this treatment into a soak where the water in the cartridge is in contact with a larger body of water. If that doesn't work then it's time to break out the chemistry set. Polyethylene is pretty robust stuff, and most corrosive chemicals are even packaged in it these days.

[Mysterious Mose]

7 hours ago, Ink Stained Wretch said:

Pilot cartridges are easy. They have a wide open mouth and just blasting hot water, into them from a faucet clears them out easily .

 

For others I tend to use the blunt needle, but I put the needle only in the cartridge, and then I blast the tap water into it. This provides an effectively unlimited water supply and the force of the water hitting the interior of the cartridge is quite good enough.

 

And I also put any cartridge that still harbors a bit of ink in it after this treatment into a soak where the water in the cartridge is in contact with a larger body of water. If that doesn't work then it's time to break out the chemistry set. Polyethylene is pretty robust stuff, and most corrosive chemicals are even packaged in it these days.

Soooo, what do you use from your chemistry set?

[txomsy]

Just start with vinegar, ammonia, alcohol or bleach. More advanced chemistry should be better left to "pofessionals".

[Ink Stained Wretch]

9 hours ago, Mysterious Mose said:

Soooo, what do you use from your chemistry set?

 

I start with ammonia. For a cartridge I use it full strength. If that doesn't do it I flush the cartridge with water and then hit it with undiluted chlorine bleach. In some cases there can still be a bit of ink left, it shows up as a faint coloration in the walls of the cartridge. This happens because of the nature of high density polyethylene, the ink's non-soluble particles can get worked into the spaces between the polymer strands. In such a case I just leave it 🤷‍♂️.