Twsbi Eco hack to use ink samples

[LiquidInk]

Wasn't sure where this went but since I did it with a Twsbi ECO, I put it here. It's a temporary "ink filler", hack works with other pens where cap liner seals around the front of the section.

 

1) Hack is to take advantage of the cap liner in the cap by putting the ink sample inside the liner

2) Then capping the pen with the piston extended (ready to go)

3) Turn pen down and operating the pen piston to suck the ink from the cap liner into the pen

 

 

[LizEF]

Does this not create a vacuum?  What happens when you unscrew the cap?  Also, when you insert the nib and feed into the cap, does it not displace the ink, causing it to spill over the edges of the inner cap before the outer cap is fully screwed down?  (Or in other words, isn't it necessary to balance the ink volume vs the nib and feed volume to avoid the spill, thereby giving you very little ink per iteration?)

 

It does look like you managed to balance it out well, and the trick is pretty cool.  I would suggest that anyone who wants to try it practice with water first, to determine volume and master the technique with minimal frustration.

[LiquidInk]

I didn't fill the cap liner completely to the brim so displacement doesn't cause it to spill out (the picture shows how far I filled it). You can see a small air bubble in picture showing that there's a little room left after the cap is screwed on. Not sure about the vacuum effect from unscrewing it but it could be that the ink goes far enough down into body that there's too much distance for it to suck ink back out of pen.

 

There's a little "edge" on the cap liner where it matches to the pen section, I filled it to the bottom of that. I didn't measure how much ink was there, but what it shows in picture is how much fits in the cap liner if you can estimate off of pen, I can't do that. I think it's around 1-2 mL but I can't say for sure.

 

It's mostly for ink samples once it gets too low for the pen to get on its own, so there isn't much ink left anyways to "overfill" the cap liner. It's a "clean" way to use up the entire ink sample without needing much else.

[LizEF]

41 minutes ago, LiquidInk said:

It's mostly for ink samples once it gets too low for the pen to get on its own, so there isn't much ink left anyways to "overfill" the cap liner. It's a "clean" way to use up the entire ink sample without needing much else.

Yes, excellent solution for this use case, and cool regardless.  Thanks for sharing your invention!

[Doc Dan]

That is pretty cool. I wonder if this will work with a Go? I imagine that the plunger will have to be held all the way down and then the pen capped. Upon capping one releases the plunger. I need to try this the next time I change inks. 

[LiquidInk]

I don't have a Go to try with, but for vac fillers, instead of pushing the rod forward to create the vacuum, you can pull the rod back (out of pen) and that suction will draw in the ink (there isn't much ink so a large vacuum isn't needed, gravity does a lot of the work), slowly push the rod in after uncapping to get it back inside pen, again not enough ink to be pushed out of pen. No pictures with vac filler, don't have that pen anymore.