Refilling cartrdiges vs using a converter

[A Smug Dill]

29 minutes ago, Waltz For Zizi said:

Yes there is, if you have a low level inkwell and a pen with a big nib.

 

Nothing really stops a user from employing a device such as an ink miser, though.

[ParramattaPaul]

55 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Nothing really stops a user from employing a device such as an ink miser, though.

Exactly. The Pneider one holds 10ml. I suspect it would work satisfactorily enough for Waltz's unique needs.

[Inkysloth]

2 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Exactly. The Pneider one holds 10ml. I suspect it would work satisfactorily enough for Waltz's unique needs.

I wouldn't say Waltz has unique needs - I don't use particularly big pens, but still find I prefer to fill converters by taking them out of the pen and sucking ink direct from the bottle, or filling with a needle & syringe because a lot of my inks are in bottles that I find awkward to use with the converter in situ. It's not just Diamine, but Rohrer & Klingner, Troublemaker, and ESSRI.

I haven't found an ink miser that fits a Diamine 30ml bottle, and even if I do, I'm not going to fit one to every such bottle I have. That means using one involves getting the ink miser, popping it in the neck of the bottle,  filling it, filling the pen, then removing the miser, rinsing it, putting it away... quicker to just open the bottle, syringe up some ink, squirt it in the converter, recap the bottle, rinse the syringe, job done. 
 

[A Smug Dill]

7 hours ago, Inkysloth said:

I haven't found an ink miser that fits a Diamine 30ml bottle, and even if I do, I'm not going to fit one to every such bottle I have.

 

That wasn't quite what I meant; I was thinking of something like this:

https://www.penboutique.com/products/luxury-brands-ink-miser-ink-shot-inkwell-clear

 

7 hours ago, Inkysloth said:

That means using one involves getting the ink miser, popping it in the neck of the bottle,  filling it, filling the pen, then removing the miser, rinsing it, putting it away... quicker to just open the bottle, syringe up some ink, squirt it in the converter, recap the bottle, rinse the syringe, job done. 

 

Nah, just pour a small amount of ink fron the 30ml bottle into the ink miser that's standing on the desk, table, bench, or counter top; then fill the pen through its nib and feed; and return any excess ink from the bottom of the ink miser back into the bottle. That takes away the need for unplugging the converter from the gripping section for filling.

 

I almost always fill the converter directly by drawing ink up with the piston motion while the mouth of the tube is submerged; but that's out of personal preference, and neither need nor observance of the pen manufacturer's filling instructions.

 

[fools_top]

I usually prefer converters, except for Kaweco Sport, it's converter is too small.

Cartridge is not much bigger, but in this pen it makes difference.

[Inkysloth]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

That wasn't quite what I meant; I was thinking of something like this:

https://www.penboutique.com/products/luxury-brands-ink-miser-ink-shot-inkwell-clear

 

 

Oh I like that! I'll still stick with my syringe for now, I'm too good at sloshing things when I pour - I'm dyspraxic, and although there are some fine motor skills I've got sorted (basic calligraphy, for example), pouring liquid is a bit too dynamic for my brain to reliably cope with! 

[inkstainedruth]

10 hours ago, Waltz For Zizi said:

You must surely mean you tried to fill a converter through the feed with an eyedropper cause I'm fairly certain it is close to impossible to refill a cartridge through the feed that way unless you posses some alien technology.

Nope.  I mean filling through the feed.  Had seen a video on how to do that on Goulet Pens a few years ago.  Only it didn't work right for me, and I have the Kung Te Cheng stains on my grandparents' old dresser to prove it.... 

Not a mistake I will ever make again, BTW....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[ParramattaPaul]

This is the little gem from Pineider that I mentioned earlier.

 

[Waltz For Zizi]

9 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Nope.  I mean filling through the feed.  Had seen a video on how to do that on Goulet Pens a few years ago.  Only it didn't work right for me, and I have the Kung Te Cheng stains on my grandparents' old dresser to prove it.... 

Not a mistake I will ever make again, BTW....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I'm so confused right now... what draws the ink into the cartridge? Is this the video you are talking about? cause he is demonstrating on a piston pen. 

 

How does the process work?

[inkstainedruth]

No, that's not the video I'm talking about.

In theory, you use an eyedropper to drop ink onto the feed and move the piston (or the piston in a twist converter while installed in a pen) up a little at a time, to draw ink into the pen without getting ink on the nib itself.  In practice?  Not so much. 

And yes, I was using a Noodler's Konrad, so, a piston filler.  After that little fiasco?  I decided it was just easier in the long run to dip the nib and feed into a bottle or sample vial and then wipe them and the section off with a tissue.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

8 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

No, that's not the video I'm talking about.

In theory, you use an eyedropper to drop ink onto the feed and move the piston (or the piston in a twist converter while installed in a pen) up a little at a time, to draw ink into the pen without getting ink on the nib itself.  In practice?  Not so much. 

And yes, I was using a Noodler's Konrad, so, a piston filler.  After that little fiasco?  I decided it was just easier in the long run to dip the nib and feed into a bottle or sample vial and then wipe them and the section off with a tissue.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I remember that video.  Looks like a very slow fill. 🙂

[inkstainedruth]

13 hours ago, USG said:

 

I remember that video.  Looks like a very slow fill. 🙂

IME, it was also a very clumsy and messy fill.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ideamos]

RE: Sealing refilled cartridges:

[I only discovered this joyous forum yesterday. Hello!]

I just saw this YouTube video and have ordered some Elmer's White Glue (not so common here in Norway). When it arrives, I'll try out her solution -- on my less expensive pens first! Would be great if it actually works.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN96dtbAF_A

 

Thanks for so much for useful shared experience, e.g. about converters vs. cartridges.

 

"That which is not imagined, sometimes exists." John Galsworthy

[Inkysloth]

8 hours ago, ideamos said:

I just saw this YouTube video and have ordered some Elmer's White Glue (not so common here in Norway).

Elmer’s white glue is just branded PVA, there’s nothing particularly special about it.

[OCArt]

34 minutes ago, Inkysloth said:

Elmer’s white glue is just branded PVA, there’s nothing particularly special about it.

I watched the video, seems like a pain to run the cart under hot water and squeeze it to open.  I've never done it but many have used hot glue and I believe that can be pried off easily...

[ParramattaPaul]

5 minutes ago, OCArt said:

I watched the video, seems like a pain to run the cart under hot water and squeeze it to open.  I've never done it but many have used hot glue and I believe that can be pried off easily...

I haven't watched the video and I wonder about the glue (Elmer's or otherwise) clogging the post and ink channel over time.

 

I'm still of a mind that reusing cartridges is more work than simply filling a converter through the nib.

[inkstainedruth]

3 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

I'm still of a mind that reusing cartridges is more work than simply filling a converter through the nib.

You and me both.  

If you're refilling the cartridge with the same ink, it's one thing.  But if you want to use a different ink, you have to flush the cartridge out and THEN let it dry somewhat (unless you want to dilute the ink a bit) and THEN fill it and (in theory) seal it unless you're going to put it into a pen right away.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Monophoto]

Elmer's glue is a polyvinyl acetate (PVA), and I would expect that any PVA glue would work.  The one sort of unique thing about Elmer's is that it is white, and dries to be essentially colorless.  A yellow carpenter's glue (eg, Titebond) would be yellowish when dried, and that might be better because it would be an indicator that the cartridge is sealed.

 

The other thought is that most cartridges are made of polyethelene, and PVA won't stick to polyethelene.  What the person in the video is doing is using enough glue that it dries to make a plug that seals the end of the cartridge.  I suspect that it isn't necessary to use hot water to dissolve that plug, but rather it could probably just be picked off, perhaps using tweezers.  Essentially, that is what the folks who use hot-melt glue to reseal cartridges are doing - the glue won't adhere to polyethelene (I'm not aware of any regularly-available glues that stick to polyethelene), but it does cool to form a plug in the opening that can subsequently be pulled out.

[Gloucesterman]

10 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

you have to flush the cartridge out and THEN let it dry somewhat (unless you want to dilute the ink a bit) and THEN fill it

In fact, one can use the syringe to draw out all of the moisture you use to flush out the previous ink.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hot glue works to seal a cart, even though I hate hot glue.