How to disassemble Rotring 600/Newton?

March 14, 2011

Greetings all. I'm a new member here, but have been on and off writing with fountain pens for 20+ years. About six years ago, in a clearance sale at Levenger, I picked up a Rotring 600/Newton, a Mark I maybe? (I'm not sure of the nomenclature, after a lot of Googling). To be clear, it's this:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5526611390_96e3a354a0_b.jpg

It's not the newer model with the slanted lines etc.

So for that old model, does anyone know how to get it completely apart and remove the nib and feed? I think I need to clean out the feed, as this thing skips badly. In fact, it always fails to flow ink when I try to start up writing, even just 1 - 2 minutes after writing previously. The nib is a Fine, and has always been a bit scratchy, but this is getting silly. I've found this old posting that mentions a round hole in the bottom of the feed, and pushing in a screwdriver, but I see no such hole so I'm thinking that was a different model.

Thanks for any advice!

--Dave

March 15, 2011

Hmmm. That is indeed the Mark 1, with the knurled section and rotating cap sleeve to indicate nib size. Great feeling pens, aren't they? I have one in an EF that's nothing but reliable, though it's too fine for me to use very much.

I've seen the same advice for pulling the nib and feed, but I've also seen recommendations not to try, as the feed can be fragile, and replacing it these days could be expensive or impossible. Instead, I'd recommend one or more of these steps, assuming the problem is dried ink in the feed:

1: Soak and flush the section in cool water with a dash of ammonia. The recommended ration is 10:1 water to ammonia (non-sudsing unscented, please), but I have a small squirt-bottle next to the sink, and add a dash. This will help to dissolve any ink deposits - you can also use dish detergent, but that tends to be harder to rinse out, which will cause the next fill of ink to write very wet. I'd let it soak for an hour or two, and then use a rubber dust-blower or the like to squeeze the same solution through the section. Repeat until the solution isn't coming out darker than it went in - you may need to mix up some fresh if the first batch gets too dark. Then squeeze some cool water through, let dry, and try it out.

2: If you have an ultrasonic cleaner, or a friend with one, you can do the procedure above in an hour or less, instead of potentially days. Mix up the same solution, buzz the section for 2-3 minutes at a time, and repeat until water moved through the section comes out clear.

3: If it's still scratchy after step 1 and/or 2, you may have misaligned nib tines. It can be hard to spot without magnification, so find yourself a 10X or 15X magnifier and have a look at the nib tip. If the tines don't look even, you need to coax them back into alignment. The 600 has a pretty stiff nib, so it can take large movements to get a tine to shift a small amount. Repeat until the tip looks even. Also, check for anything caught between the tines, like paper fibers, hair, thread, etc, as this can cause skipping and scratchiness.

4: If none of the above work, you may need to enlist a nibmeister. There are a number here; hopefully a few will chime in.

March 15, 2011

Ammonia is a great thing for dissolving ink, but is it compatible with the Rotring's metal? One of the brands of technical pen cleaner might be a better idea.

March 16, 2011

Ammonia is a great thing for dissolving ink, but is it compatible with the Rotring's metal? One of the brands of technical pen cleaner might be a better idea.

I believe so - the 600 pens are brass with a coating. I couldn't find the composition of said coating, but it strikes me as an anodized aluminum. Alkaline solutions are generally not recommended for aluminum, but we're soaking it for relatively short periods, and the solution is quite dilute. Dish soap is also alkaline, but again, we're talking about a very dilute solution.

I suspect technical pen cleaners are also alkaline, but I don't have a way to test them.

If the original poster is concerned, plain water can also be used, with the understanding that it won't dissolve ink deposits quite as quickly.

March 18, 2011

Update: I did many rinses with just water, then used Koh-i-Noor tech pen cleaner (a soak of a few hours), then more rinses with water. (The tech pen cleaner seemingly did not hurt the pen.) I also passed a very thin piece of paper between the tines a few times to get out any schlock, although I didn't see anything substantial come off on the paper. Simultaneously (sorry, therefore sacrificing any chance to isolate variables), I got a very fast shipment of Noodler's ink from Goulet Pens and loaded up with that. I most recently had some other thicker ink in the pen, although in my defense, this Rotring has been scratchy from Day 1 so that ink wasn't the whole problem. Anyway, in some brief scribbling so far, the pen writes more smoothly. But it still does skip upon starting a stroke -- just less than it used to -- if I pause even 30 seconds between sentences. I'll run through this entire converterful of ink and further evaluate before I do anything else, but it sounds like dissection of the section is a bad idea. I'll next go to nib spreading if needed. Thanks all, for your advice!

--Dave

April 11, 2011

Ammonia is a great thing for dissolving ink, but is it compatible with the Rotring's metal? One of the brands of technical pen cleaner might be a better idea.

I believe so - the 600 pens are brass with a coating. I couldn't find the composition of said coating, but it strikes me as an anodized aluminum. Alkaline solutions are generally not recommended for aluminum, but we're soaking it for relatively short periods, and the solution is quite dilute. Dish soap is also alkaline, but again, we're talking about a very dilute solution.

I was curious about the finish on the Rotring 600 pens. One of my silver 600 ballpoints developed an unsightly W-shaped scratch that I was trying to remove, but need to know the paint finish. Thanks to an investigation by JetPens customer service, Rotring stated their brass bodies (at least the silver ones) are finished via electrodeposition coating (i.e., metallic painting by electroplating). Electrodeposition coating is commonly used in the automotive industry, where a car body primer and/or basecoat paint layer is applied at the factory in this manner.

Yet I still don't know how to remove the scratch or make it less visible. I don't believe car-scratch removing methods are feasible here.