Ultrasonic Cleaner - Damaged My Pen

[ImolaS3]

Hi all

 

I recently purchased an ultrasonic cleaner after seeing lots of people say how good they are on here.

 

I tried to clean the ink out of the top of my gorgeous, translucent Visconti Opera pen - some purple ink stains on the inside. Put the pen top in the cleaner, ran it and found some of the gold plating on the clip had been removed!!! Nooooooooooooo!

 

None of the ink was cleaned out

 

So, I am wondering how others use these devices? Just the nib? nib and section? their parts?

 

 

[OakIris]

Sorry to hear about the plating on your pen cap clip. Ultrasonic cleaners are pretty powerful, as you have found out the hard way.

 

I have only used my cleaner for nibs and nib sections, and only as a last resort, as most pens don't need the extra cleaning power. I knew that it is advised not to put inlaid nibs in an ultrasonic cleaner (or any materials that shouldn't be soaked in/cleaned with water (casein, celluloid, hard rubber) of course) but didn't realize that the force of the bubbles could also remove plating. I am sure others with more experience with these cleaners than I have will be able to tell us what other pen parts should not be placed in an ultrasonic cleaner due to potential damage.

 

Hindsight is often clearer, isn't it? Soaking the pen cap in a water/dish soap mixture or a bit of ammonia and cleaning it out - and thoroughly drying it out - with Q-tips would probably be a safer solution.

 

Holly

[warblerick]

Sounds like this speaks more to the quality of Visconti pens than the ultrasonic cleaner. I had a gorgeous Visconti Opera in Honey gold/green, that I loved. It started to leak inside the cap, which was visible through the pen. I took it back, got a replacement, it happened again, so I simply returned it (then it was discontinued). Since then I have had several Visconti pens, some fountain pens, some rollerballs, some ballpoints, all with QC issues. I still have a couple of them, but I will no longer buy one.

 

Seems to me that a pen (especially the gold plating) should stand up to ultrasonic cleaning, though I would personally never take that road.

[Nonsensical]

That's strange, and a different experience from what I've had. I've placed regular gold-plated nibs in my ultrasonic cleaner with no problem. They just come out looking much shinier.

[OldGriz]

Have to agree with some others... not the fault of the USC but poor quality of the pen....

I have never had my USC remove gold from a clip or any other part of a pen

[OakIris]

It is unfortunate to learn that some people have experienced quality control issues with Visconti pens and that a poor job of plating on the OP's pen probably led to the plating loss during cleaning. On the other hand, it is good to hear that the ultrasonic cleaner was unlikely to be the problem.

 

I know that purple inks can stain pens because of the red pigment the ink contains, but even knowing this, I am using PR Ebony Purple in my only clear demonstrator. I figured that if it does - or when it does - stain, I won't mind the plastic having a nice purple tinge. ImolaS3, however, wanted to remove the stain. It is disappointing that the cleaner was able to remove the plating on the clip but didn't even touch the ink stain; would even soaking the cap have helped with this or has the plastic "absorbed" the color?

 

Holly

[Yoda4561]

While an ultrasonic cleaner generates powerful enough cavitation to poke holes in aluminum foil, if the gold plating was bonded to the thicker clip metal there shouldn't have been any removal. Even thin paint coatings aren't removed as long as they're bonded to the surface right. Likely inadequate plating quality. Regarding the ink stains, plain water doesn't usually get rid of those unless they're fresh and just sitting on the surface, even with an ultrasonic cleaner. A very mild ammonia or simple green solution in the ultrasonic greatly increases its effectiveness at ink removal. I recommend a mild solution of simple green, as the ammonia fumes aren't very indoor friendly.

[penmanila]

Never had a problem with gold plating on my USC, either, and I've used this regularly for years now. I do make sure not to let it run for more than a few minutes per cycle, and I give everything a visual check.

[rockspyder]

Did you have the pen in a secondary container, or in direct contact with the USC's metal walls? It will inevitably chafe unless it is suspended, like on a soft mat or in a plastic basket.

[tonybelding]

While an ultrasonic cleaner generates powerful enough cavitation to poke holes in aluminum foil...

 

As soon as I read that, I had to try it on a foil candy wrapper. That's something I haven't seen before. It looked like it was being nibbled away by tiny ants!

[Ron Z]

I agree with Tom. More of an issue with the pen than the ultrasonic, though it could also be related to the solution that you put in it as well. I use one on just about everything that comes through the shop. Mine is more towards the professional end of the scale, quite powerful. Damage caused by the ultrasonic is quite rare. When it does happen, it is more likely caused by a pre-existing condition than by the cleaner itself.

 

In most cases you should use some kind of container, like a basket, in the ultrasonic. I often put a stronger cleaning solution (like Rapido-Eze) a plastic pudding cup and drop that in the water in the tank. I also tend to put sections, breather tubes and other ink loaded items in the cleaner, rarely a whole cap or barrel, and never the body of a lever filler.

 

In cases like yours, a good cleaner and a test tube brush might have been more effective.

[pen2paper]

Shouldn't imola be discussing this plating issue with Visconti?

[OakIris]

Shouldn't imola be discussing this plating issue with Visconti?

 

I think that would be worth a try, though could they claim that the plating loss is due to misuse? Not that I imagine they have anything in their warranty saying their pens/pen parts should never be placed in an ultrasonic cleaner, but you never know what excuse a company may come up with!

 

I don't know anything about Visconti customer service, however; perhaps they will replace the pen with no questions asked.

 

Oh, and I like Ron's tip to use a test tube cleaning brush to clean out pen caps - much better than using a Q-tip, but I hadn't even thought of using a small brush - .

 

Holly

[rhodialover]

I don't know if it would work, but have you ever thought of trying to remove ink with the JB's Perfect Pen Flush? I had an Ahab I thought was gone, and Diamine Oxblood was baked on. ( This was a clear Ahab ) I soaked everything in that stuff (I think its ammonia and some other things, ask Richard Binder) and it was clean the next day with no damage to the pen.

[ImolaS3]

While an ultrasonic cleaner generates powerful enough cavitation to poke holes in aluminum foil, if the gold plating was bonded to the thicker clip metal there shouldn't have been any removal. Even thin paint coatings aren't removed as long as they're bonded to the surface right. Likely inadequate plating quality. Regarding the ink stains, plain water doesn't usually get rid of those unless they're fresh and just sitting on the surface, even with an ultrasonic cleaner. A very mild ammonia or simple green solution in the ultrasonic greatly increases its effectiveness at ink removal. I recommend a mild solution of simple green, as the ammonia fumes aren't very indoor friendly.

 

Hi

 

i m unfamiliar with simple green, could you enlighten please. I would very much like to remove the stain.

 

As many have stated, the problem is likely to be the plating on the clip as the rest of the plating on the pen top is fine. Just unlucky

[bluejay]

People throw in gold watches and comes out clean (no gold flakes in the water) Visconti is an experimental company that pushes the limit on all its pens. As well as the costs

[pokermind]

i m unfamiliar with simple green, could you enlighten please.

I assume it's readily available in the UK.

 

http://www.simplegreen.com/

[UK Mike]

I quite regularly dunk my Visconti pens in an Ultrasonic cleaner and I've never had a problem. Unless the OP is using a powerful industrial cleaning unit or some corrosive cleaner I can't see how the gold plating was removed. I'm assuming the gold was removed by the Ultrasonic bubbles and not by the cap fretting against the cleaning bowl?

[kps]

 

I assume it's readily available in the UK.

 

http://www.simplegreen.com/

 

The interesting stuff is under the MSDS link at the bottom. It's a pretty plain mild household cleaner. The notable thing there is that they just changed the composition, taking out the solvent and leaving only a surfactant, so you might find your next bottle does no better on ink than a drop of dish detergent.

 

Disclaimer: I am not a chemist, let alone a cleaning-stuff-up chemist. I don't even like cleaning stuff up.

[OcalaFlGuy]

I contend it's not so much the cleaner as yes, the thin plating on the Visconti And what the pen was sitting On inside the cleaner.

 

Look at the plastic tray that's probably what you put the pen on inside the cleaner.

 

Mine looks fairly similar to a plastic cheese grater. Which could be getting rubbed over that thin plating a brajeelyun times per second.

 

IMO, That's what ate the plating up.

 

I too use El Zorn's plastic cup inside the cleaner idea and even then, if I'm using it with plated parts I'll put a piece of inner tube on the bottom of the cup for the plated parts to sit on. That seems to have worked for me.

 

I have had my cleaner take the thin plating off of a nib once. That's why I thusly adapted.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL