(drum roll) the salad spinner centrifuge

[bsenn]

 

How does it do on arugula?

I'm not sure, it sort of disappears after a few seconds...

[Inky.Fingers]

I have three girls...one with a twirlimg baton, one with a nunchaku baton, and the other with a staff. Each is very skilled at their skills.

 

I have installed multiple pen slots in each stick on both ends. At the end of their practice, i checked to see if any ink is left behind in each pen. She who did not fully empty their pen, needed to practice more...

 

Each day, I can completely dry about 10 pens. That is my maximum.

[Scarfman]

Ive made my own pen centrifuge with some twenty-four inch bolt croppers, an old fan and a pair of socks which definitely werent a Christmas gift, I promise. Surprisingly, it does the trick. More surprisingly, without killing anybody.

[readytotalk]

Great idea,

I usually remove the rest of the water from the pen, shaking it like a mercury thermometer (the section is wrapped with a paper napkin, оf course).

[djmaher]

This is one of those posts that you just can't unsee.

 

EVERY time I'm at a store, and see a salad spinner, I think of it again.

 

Just yesterday, I was at Marshalls, and saw a small spinner, about half the size of the "standard" model, made by Sharper Image. It was on clearance, and I ALMOST bought it. I don't know why. Almost like a compulsion. .

 

I wonder if I'm suffering from some kind of Post Traumatic Salad Spinner Stress. I swear, this thing would probably spin a couple of salad leaves, max.. Perfect size for a fountain pen, though.

 

Maybe I'll go back there today, and see if it's still there......

[Ron Z]

This is one of those posts that you just can't unsee.

 

EVERY time I'm at a store, and see a salad spinner, I think of it again.

 

Just yesterday, I was at Marshalls, and saw a small spinner, about half the size of the "standard" model, made by Sharper Image. It was on clearance, and I ALMOST bought it. I don't know why. Almost like a compulsion. .

 

I wonder if I'm suffering from some kind of Post Traumatic Salad Spinner Stress. I swear, this thing would probably spin a couple of salad leaves, max.. Perfect size for a fountain pen, though.

 

Maybe I'll go back there today, and see if it's still there......

 

I still have and use the one at the beginning of this thread. I have a motorized one that I made that is a copy of the one Parker sold, but the salad spinner holds the big pens that can't fit the motorized unit's trumpet. Go back - you'll be happy you made the centrifuge.

[mariom]

http://www.mainstreetpens.com/pix/centandpen.jpg

 

 

Hi Ron

 

I'm just re-visiting this after a recent pen change-over and cleaning session.

 

Given that the nib is unsupported and pressing against the basket during the spin, is there absolutely no risk of nib damage, particularly to fine and flexible nibs?

 

Thanks

[JonSzanto]

 

Hi Ron

 

I'm just re-visiting this after a recent pen change-over and cleaning session.

 

Given that the nib is unsupported and pressing against the basket during the spin, is there absolutely no risk of nib damage, particularly to fine and flexible nibs?

 

Thanks

 

I'm not Ron, and I don't even play a Ron on TV, but I'm going to jump in: the tube holding the pen is cut from a funnel, so it gradually tapers to the outside. The inner sides of the tube, as they narrow, grip the pen around the section and prevent it from going any further. The tip of the nib is prevented from touching anything because it is held back from the (small, outer) opening of the funnel tube (and away from the side of the spinner, as well). That is the beauty of the narrowing funnel: it will fit most any pen, though I'm certain some very petite or slim pens would not be taking a ride in this particular setup. It would be quite easy to have two or three of these holders mounted, with varying inner diameters/tapers.

 

Ron can jump in and correct me if I'm guessing wrong.

[Ron Z]

Jon is right, but even so, the nib won't be damaged pressing against the plastic of the basket.

 

Note that you always want something solid at the end of the pen holder. In this one I positioned the holder against a wide rib, in V 2.0 I wove a piece of acetate through the ribs as a barrier, and glued it in place. If the nib slipped through the slits in the basket and scraped the bowl as the basket rotated, you could have a problem, but not with the nib just pressing against the basket You don't get the centrifuge spinning all that fast! The force is I suspect, less than that used by many people when they put nib to paper.

 

FWIW, I'm still using the centrifuge shown at the start of the thread in the shop for larger pens, and V 2.0 travels with me to shows. I've never had any problems, and they get used quite a bit.

[mariom]

 

I'm not Ron, and I don't even play a Ron on TV, but I'm going to jump in: the tube holding the pen is cut from a funnel, so it gradually tapers to the outside. The inner sides of the tube, as they narrow, grip the pen around the section and prevent it from going any further. The tip of the nib is prevented from touching anything because it is held back from the (small, outer) opening of the funnel tube (and away from the side of the spinner, as well). That is the beauty of the narrowing funnel: it will fit most any pen, though I'm certain some very petite or slim pens would not be taking a ride in this particular setup. It would be quite easy to have two or three of these holders mounted, with varying inner diameters/tapers.

 

Ron can jump in and correct me if I'm guessing wrong.

 

Thanks Jon.

[mariom]

Jon is right, but even so, the nib won't be damaged pressing against the plastic of the basket.

 

Note that you always want something solid at the end of the pen holder. In this one I positioned the holder against a wide rib, in V 2.0 I wove a piece of acetate through the ribs as a barrier, and glued it in place. If the nib slipped through the slits in the basket and scraped the bowl as the basket rotated, you could have a problem, but not with the nib just pressing against the basket You don't get the centrifuge spinning all that fast! The force is I suspect, less than that used by many people when they put nib to paper.

 

FWIW, I'm still using the centrifuge shown at the start of the thread in the shop for larger pens, and V 2.0 travels with me to shows. I've never had any problems, and they get used quite a bit.

 

Thanks Ron. The next salad spinner I see in a goodwill will get snapped up!

[Alan-Marshall]

 

How does it do on arugula?

Hmm, I just ordered "Arugula" ink. I wonder....

Edited October 19, 2020 by Alan-Marshall

[Mattematical]

Another salad spinner repurposed! 

[awaking]

Best use of a salad spinner I ever heard of, although part of me thinks that the ink spraying out could be part of the excitement if you used the back wheel of a motorbike while riding.  Like fireworks!  Or the computer game roadrash if you didn't secure them well...   

[Lexus77]

On 7/2/2006 at 7:35 PM, amh210 said:

I usually berate and bribe my son into mowing our miniscule backyard lawn on Sunday mornings.

 

When I moved into this house I bought him an electric lawn mower to keep him from playing with gas, oil, and other flammables. SWMBO is in Kansas City for the weekend and the son is off in camp.

 

That gave me the opportunity to actually implement the rotary mower pen centrifuge. Electric Mowers are much less messy upended on the dining room table. I was able to affix the pen, a green Phileas (not yet ready to try this with the green Pelikan Souverain 1000) on the presumption that the grass might stain the pen but if it were green I would hardly notice.

 

I strapped the pen to the blade with 3 of those plastic tie thingies and went out to mow the lawn. Took me about 30 minutes, but the actual mower-on time is about 8 minutes (the other 22 minutes spent wiping brow, sipping iced tea, and getting the power cord out of the way of the mower blades).

 

There was no noticible impact on the grass (I did a lousy job, as usual) and when I upended the mower on the dining room table again and cut the plastic tie thingies I learned that while it is effective removing ink from the pen, I now face the chore of figuring the best way to remove grass from the pen. I dumped the whole thing in a cup of tepid water and it quickly turned to green soup.

 

After 10 minutes of soak time I fished the pen out and rinsed it and set it to dry. While drying I thought about the green soup and decided to see if chlorophyll is a good dye for ink. I boiled down th soup to a few ounces, strained the soup through a coffee filter and admired my green ink.

 

I usually fill the green Phileas with Levenger's Always Greener so I found a spare converter, a sheaffer school pen (yellow, if you must know) and sucked up some ink.

 

Yup, it wrote. :bunny1:

 

Here are some of the things I learned:

 

Chlorophyll based green ink realy stains. Not pens, shirts.

Chlorophyll based green ink has nice yellow highlihts

Chlorophyll based green ink fades as it dries.

It is really hard to clean the dining room after upending a lawn mower on the table, twice.

Multitasking is a good thing (mowing and pen cleaning).

Boiling grass soup stains aluminum pots.

Boiling grass smells like overcooked cabbage.

Use a mulching mower. If your fixation system fails, you destroy the evidence.

The mower is not affected by the imbalace in blade weight when you affix the pen.

I have other speedy rotary devices that might be susceptable to use for cleaning pens:

String Trimmer from Lawn

Cuisinart

clothes washing machine (spin cycle, only)

old LP turntable (really old; remember 78's?)

Kitchenaid stand mixer

Hubcap attached to my Chrysler Concorde

Computer Hard Disc Drive (if I could figure out how to get it open)

 

Hmmmmmmmmm there is really some dissertation material here.

 

All good wishes,

 

Andy (4/01 on my calendar)

Well, these are definitely some of the most amusing antics I ever read on this forum. My hat's off to you.

[amberleadavis]

On 10/31/2018 at 7:35 PM, Inky.Fingers said:

I have three girls...one with a twirlimg baton, one with a nunchaku baton, and the other with a staff. Each is very skilled at their skills.

 

I have installed multiple pen slots in each stick on both ends. At the end of their practice, i checked to see if any ink is left behind in each pen. She who did not fully empty their pen, needed to practice more...

 

Each day, I can completely dry about 10 pens. That is my maximum.

 

 

You are very smart!

[TrueBlue719]

I solely use the salad spinner centrifuge with cotton at the end of the pen tube ever since I was flick-drying my Lamy 2000 (only a few days old) and it slipped out of my hand (yes, I clean my pens in the basement, and yes, the pen landed on the uncarpeted section of the basement floor). It was one of those slow-motion moments, and I'm sure you all can imagine the rest...

[dipper]

On 4/30/2019 at 1:29 AM, Ron Z said:

The force is I suspect, less than that used by many people when they put nib to paper.

 

The force can be surprisingly large.

 

Based on max rpm of my spinner handle, its internal gearing, and basket radius, the calculated maximum "g force" in my spinner is around 200 "g". That means everything acts as if it "weighed" 200 times its normal gravitational weight.

 

Excellent for water removal.

But also ... a 10 gram pen's grip section will develop an apparent "weight" of 200 x 10 gram = 2kg, or nearly 4 1/2 pounds weight.

Yikes!

 

 

[Ron Z]

I've been using the things for over a decade and as built does not damage pens.  Never has, never will.  The cotton at the end is not needed.   In most cases the section catches the inside end of the section and the nib never makes it to the barrier.

[TrueBlue719]

8 hours ago, Ron Z said:

I've been using the things for over a decade and as built does not damage pens.  Never has, never will.  The cotton at the end is not needed.   In most cases the section catches the inside end of the section and the nib never makes it to the barrier.

My "machine" is a bit crude compared to others on the thread.  My pens go in a section of 1" PVC pipe CA glued to a piece of wood to make it fit in the spinner. I just use the cotton (and sometimes wrap in paper towel too) as a safe-net for my own mind's sake after what happened to my 2000.  I'd rather do the extra work protecting a pen than risk damaging it, even if the risk is minimal.