Platinum Preppy Eyedropper

[Denver]

One other refinement that I do with a Preppy eyedropper conversion is to remove the ugly white barcode label. Sometimes I also remove the Platinum Preppy part of the label too and leave a clear pen body with no markings. I've tried various methods to remove labeling but the very best is with a soft buffing wheel on my drill press armed with green buffing compound. I don't know the exact RPMs, but it is one step up from the slowest speed. You don't want to overheat the acrylic or you may get some melting or changes in clarity. I have had no problems with this method, and the end result is a crystal clear clean pen body. This technique can also be helpful in restoring clarity in older acrylic pens that have a lot of scratches.

[mcorrea]

We want pictures! Please.

[Denver]

The first photo shows permanent bonding and sealing of the threads between the body and nib section using 2-stage 5-minute epoxy. The nib/feed is easily removed with fingers by gentle pulling (no tools needed), and a syringe with a 1.5" needle is passed through the collector. The second photo is a view through the feed hole in the collector passing into the sealed ink cavity within the body. The third photo shows the sealed acrylic body with all markings removed. This was accomplished with about 2 minutes of buffing with a 4-inch buffing wheel at 900 rpm using green chromium oxide compound. The acrylic looks perfectly clear.

[Omaslover]

Thanks for the images.

[AnnaSt]

I have found a "magic eraser sponge" (UK name, not sure if same in us) very effective for removing preppy text without scratching barrel.

Edited February 2, 2017 by AnnaSt

[EagleLobes]

I just jumped on the Preppy bandwagon and ordered one of the 7 packs. So far I've used the platinum converter with a green preppy and I got bold with the yellow preppy, thinking if I ruined the pen, it would not be such a terrible loss. Luckily, it seems, everything turned out okay. Having heard horrible things on this site and elsewhere about the yellow cartridge, I opted to forego using it and convert the yellow preppy into an eyedropper. Not having any extra o-rings around, I swiped the one off my Ahab since I use the Noodler's refillable cartridges in my Ahab anyway (fantastic for having a multitude of color options available wherever and whenever, highly recommended!).

 

And, having recently moved, I couldn't tell you where my little tube of silicone grease went, I decided to throw caution to the wind! In all prior eyedropper conversions, I've used silicone grease. Usually I only use silicone grease, not bothering with an o-ring, (because usually I've no idea where I've put them) and I've found the silicone grease more than sufficient in keeping ED fills from leaking. But I've never only used o-rings before. Scaaaaary.

 

And then, I really went and pushed the envelope. Even though I knew there were numerous and tightly placed fins surrounding the feed that collects ink, I decided that it would look awesome to have some glittery ink sloshing around the barrel. Recently, I purchased some de Atrementis pearlescent inks, and boy, those Germans don't mess around with their glittery inks. They're all like, 'you want a glittery ink? Here's some glitter for you' The 35ml bottle of ink probably has 10 times the amount of glitter in a j.herbin bottle of glitter ink. The colors are lovely, and I'm with the fine folks at deAtrementis. If I'm going to put glitter in my ink, I want all of the glitter. But there's also some instances where enough is enough, so thinking that the Whiskey brown with some Yama Budo plum would be lovely against the gold flecks, I mixed about a 50/50 ratio in the Platinum Preppy barrel. It was an immediate success!

 

But then, I forgot about the pen for a couple of days and all the glitter clogged up the collector. And the pen would barely write. I shook it about a thousand times.

 

Finally, the glitter isn't completely covering the sides of the section and the pen's writing again. And I've learned to keep the preppy upright when not in use. I would like to try a broader nib on the Preppy. The one I have is an 03. Perhaps I'll try an 05 and see how well it works at not getting clogged when not in use. I would like to put a broad nib in here though. It's silly, I know. Why replace a nib on a $3 pen? I really like the way the preppy feels and looks. It would be cool to find out I have a broad nib lying around that would fit.

 

Thank you for suggesting the magic eraser for getting rid of the label! I'm excited to try, and hopefully the pen body will remain clear.

 

The writing sample is post clog. You can't really see it in this picture, from my scratched up camera lens creating less than optimal picture quality, but there is a nice even layer of glitter across the letters irl. I know that there are purists who don't want to have anything to do with glitter, but for me, a little sparkle here and again is fantastic, especially since the papers I have are somewhat sheen prohibitive so I'm often left with sparkle or plain shading (which is also lovely).