tubetime, 2 months ago

Marc has a video about his technique. i tried it with one pen but it's a bit labor intensive, and a commenter on his video found a better way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-oj4HrTH14

tubetime, 2 months ago

this commenter has a really simple technique, so let's try it out!

grnch, 1 month ago

@tubetime this totally worked for me too thanks!

tubetime, 2 months ago

go in with side cutters very close to the part where the fiber tip meets the plastic. very gently grip the fiber tip and start to pull it out, changing the position of the side cutters as needed

tubetime, 2 months ago

and the fiber tip is out! notice all the crusty dried ink.

tubetime, 2 months ago

poke in a small Allen wrench (like this 0.050" one) all the way to the back plastic plug

tubetime, 2 months ago

secure the Allen wrench in a small vise around 2-3mm from the pen. then give the ring around the pen a push, and the cap pops right off!

tubetime, 2 months ago

then you can fish out the ink reservoir with a dental pick or something.

tubetime, 2 months ago

put the fiber tip back in by just holding it with a Kim wipe and pushing it gently back in place.

tubetime, 2 months ago

these are pretty dried out so i am soaking the entire plastic pen and fiber tip (with the reservoir removed) in water. we'll see if that works.

niclas, 2 months ago

@tubetime

Another idea; Isn't the tip soft enough to poke a syringe through it? If so, it should be less messy and probably allow for more refill cycles. Just an idea.

tubetime, 2 months ago

@niclas it's not that soft and I'd worry about damaging the fibers

tubetime, 2 months ago

ok next step is to take apart a fine tip sharpie and remove the internal ink reservoir. then cut a short length off.

tubetime, 2 months ago

take that little stub of a new ink reservoir and jam it into the cleaned pen, and then snap the cap back in place.

tubetime, 2 months ago

i've found that it actually helped if i didn't clean the fiber tip too thoroughly. just enough to loosen up the existing ink. i suppose you'll need to clean it out completely if you're changing the color or whatever.

jhaluska, 2 months ago

@tubetime This sounds messy.

tubetime, 2 months ago

@jhaluska it's not that bad, i wore one glove and only got one drop of ink on my fingers.

jhaluska, 1 month ago

@tubetime Maybe when you do it, if I were to try this it would look like somebody attempted to kill me with a sharpie.

bricklearns, 2 months ago

@tubetime know of a good source on how hook one up to a modern computer? I have a big old HP plotter but I’m not really sure where to start

tubetime, 2 months ago

@bricklearns mine has a serial port on it, so I'll just use a USB-serial adapter.