Platinum Preppy Cartridge Refilling

[TGupta]

Hello everyone.

This is my first post.

 

I am having a problem with my platinum preppy fountain pen. After using its stock cartridge, I washed and refilled the cartridge with Pelikan 4001 ink. But the writing is not that bright and bold but rather quite pale. Is there anything that can be done to make the writing more saturated???

[PAKMAN]

If you rinsed out the nib it is likely still full of water and diluting the ink. It should clear up after you write a while.

[TGupta]

If you rinsed out the nib it is likely still full of water and diluting the ink. It should clear up after you write a while.

Thank you very much.

[TGupta]

Later I found out from other users that Pelikan 4001 inks are of the driest inks out there. And the brilliant brown is not that saturated a brown ink.

[ac12]

If your pen does not flow the ink, then that indeed is a problem. The nib could be adjusted to give you more ink flow, by CAREFULLY spreading the tines.

[Flounder]

The Preppy has quite a large volume collector that's pretty hard to dry after running water through it - lots of water stays trapped in the fins. I would stand it upright, nib down, resting on paper towel, until the ink starts running through undiluted.

[etaylor33]

I have a Platinum Preppy that writes very dry. It's a .02 (EF) nib. I thought that was the problem. I would write and the ink would fade, and fade until nothing. I'd have to squeeze the cartridge to get it to write again. I even tried to spread the tines, that was a losing proposition. I am of the opinion that even though it has a large feed it is not a very effective/efficient feed. For this reason, I have mothballed both my Plaisir and Preppy. Sticking with my Pilots that don't have that problem.

[goatgolfer]

I am faced with the 03 F and have cleaned the collector/nib with 10% ammonia/water as recommended by JetPens and Carol from Noodler's following use of Baystate Blue. I want very much to continue with BsB and that is the whole point of refilling the cartridges with that ink.

 

I was unpleasantly fooled by having the pen start righting after the ammonia/water, flush with clear water using a bulb syringe, a big snot of gel came out the nib, flush the cart, refill with BsB, diluted water ink, then Voila!.

 

Waited 10 mins to start writing again, pen was horizontal, and it writes correctly for 12 words and then runs out of ink. So, that means ink is coming from the cart, to or through the collector but in insufficient volume to sustain writing.

 

Although this pen is priced as nearly disposable it has become personal. If we FPNers put ourselves and the collective knowledge of fellow hobbyists we can solve this.

 

Scientific, Six Sigma Black Belt problem solvers UNITE!. No shallow it could be allowed. Let's roll.....

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I'm trying to figure out how to get that Preppy collector dry after a cleaning.

 

I've been able to easily take the nib and feed out of the pen, but I can't get that collector out of the section. It does fill up with water when I clean the Preppy. Leaving it on a paper towel to dry takes days and days.

 

I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get that collector out of the Preppy so that it can be dried?

 

[Flounder]

I'm trying to figure out how to get that Preppy collector dry after a cleaning.

 

I've been able to easily take the nib and feed out of the pen, but I can't get that collector out of the section. It does fill up with water when I clean the Preppy. Leaving it on a paper towel to dry takes days and days.

 

I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get that collector out of the Preppy so that it can be dried?

 

 

I used to take a small piece of paper towel, twist it into a thin line, and put it in the cylindrical hole for the feed. It *didn't* really help, I remember seeing the wet fins through the transparent section stay wet.

[graystranger]

I'm trying to figure out how to get that Preppy collector dry after a cleaning.

 

I've been able to easily take the nib and feed out of the pen, but I can't get that collector out of the section. It does fill up with water when I clean the Preppy. Leaving it on a paper towel to dry takes days and days.

 

I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get that collector out of the Preppy so that it can be dried?

 

 

I have not been able to remove the collector from the Preppy grip section at all. I think it is bonded in there permanently.

 

I have a number of Preppies, 4 or 5 fountain pens and several marking/highlighter pens, and a Plaisir. Note: you can swap the fountain pen nib with any of the marking or highlighting tips to turn your fountain pens into refillable markers or highlighters, including the Plaisir. Or turn a highlighter into a fountain pen.

 

I HAVE NEVER HAD A PREPPIE PEN WRITE TOO DRY OR GO DRY ON ME WHEN IT STILL HAD INK. I've been using Platinum Carbon Black, Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and Noodler's Blue Ghost. Probably several other pens too. No problem with any of them, including the amazing 0.2 mm EF nib (which I use with Platinum Carbon Black, a pigmented ink. No problem with it going dry or clogging, but I've only had ink in it for 11 months now).

 

I don't often switch inks back and forth between my Preppies, but the feed is quite difficult to flush out. Just for fun I tried to see if I could clear out the feed in a Preppy that had totally dried 2-year old Noodler's Kung Te Chung ink in it. Had to use an ultrasonic cleaner with some ammonia and dawn detergent in the water. Took a very long time, multiple changes of water in the cleaner, and squirting the cleaning solution into the feed/collector with an ink syringe. But, it finally came totally clean and the pen is being used now. The US cleaner even got the ink out of the tiny feed tube connected to the nib. I spent an hour or so soaking, cleaning, changing baths, etc. Maybe more, just wanted to see if I could do this.

 

I think one problem is the tiny feed tube that goes into the nib assembly. If you don't get the previous ink out of that it could cause a problem.

 

To get the rinse water out of a flushed out feed/collector, I have directed the tube of canned air (used to blow dust out of camera lenses and electronics, got mine from Staples) into the opening and made multiple blasts. Do it a while from the back, maybe some from the front. It helps A LITTLE BIT. That is why I keep the same ink in my Preppy pens and don't switch them around. Get a Preppy for each ink is the easiest.

 

One of the reasons I like Preppies is that they are reliable and can stay capped for several months without drying out. Again, I have never had a Preppy that required any help getting the ink started once it reached the nib. Mine never go dry, and that includes my 0.2 EF Preppy that has Platinum Carbon Black ink in it. I don't use Pelican inks. The only inks from pen companies that I use in any of my pens is Platinum (Carbon Black, Pigment Blue, and Blue-Black). My other inks are Noodler's (a dozen or so different inks), Diamine (several) J. Herbin 1670 (2), and Iroshizuku (1). None of my pens, Preppies included, ever go dry as I write with them unless the ink is running out.

 

One thing about FPN is that it is a magnet for people with pen problems. Therefore you see a preponderance of problems. From my (and many many others) experience, the Platinum Preppies (and Plaisirs) are wonderfully reliable pens that write very nicely, quite wet, and give very little problems. They may not be the best pens for switching back and forth between inks due to the very large enclosed feed, but they are so cheap that you can buy one for each ink you want to use. Like any pen, some will have problems, and those are the ones that show up on FPN. I am amazed that for $4 or $5 they don't have a problem rate of 50%.

 

I forgot to mention, the grip section of Preppies will fit the Plaisir. Therefore if you want the superb 0.2 EF Preppy nib in your Plaisir, just insert the whole grip section, cartridge and all, into the Plaisir barrel.

 

It is fun to put Noodler's Blue Ghost in a new Preppy and watch the under UV as the ink flows into the feed/collector and on into the nib. Seeing the glowing ink flowing through that convoluted feed/collector is neat. On a new pen it only took about 10 seconds to reach the tip.

Edited December 26, 2015 by graystranger

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I used to take a small piece of paper towel, twist it into a thin line, and put it in the cylindrical hole for the feed. It *didn't* really help, I remember seeing the wet fins through the transparent section stay wet.

 

I tried that too. The problem with that is that there appears to be just one tiny slit in the inner wall of that collector that communicates with the part of the collector where the fins are located.

 

I have looked down the bore of that collector using a LED flashlight and a magnifying glass and that part of the collector where the feed slips in is almost entirely solid plastic, except for that one, tiny slit. Of course my eyesight isn't all that great, so maybe someone with better eyes can see more details down the bore of that collector than I can.

 

So anything dry put in that collector will only draw out water that it can directly come in contact with there, and whatever it can draw through that tiny slit, which is not gong to be much.

 

It looks to me like the function of the fins is to trap ink, or water when we're cleaning, between that collector and the transparent shell of the section.

 

Before I realized that the finned part of the collector doesn't connect very directly to the central core of the collector I tried slamming the whole section down sideways, in an effort to get the water on the fins to go to the central core where it could be soaked up by a twisted piece of papier de toilette .

 

After I realized how that collector is actually constructed I tried to slam the section down so as to get the water to accumulate in that long, open aisle (or whatever it might be called) that runs the length of the collector. And I had some very slight success there. Once I got some water into that part I was able to whip the whole section around and get some of it to come out through the front of the section. But there were still plenty of water droplets clinging to the fins.

 

I think that water that gets up against the inner wall of the transparent section can be whipped out of the front of the section. Which must mean that ink that gets toward the nib has a chance to leak out between the inner wall of the section and the front of the collector. Seems odd, but that's what it's looking like to me, and I have been examining this assembly under magnifying glasses and a 10x loupe more than once.

 

It may just be that the only thing that can be done is to get most of the water out by whipping the entire section around in different ways, and then hoping the rest dries out before anything take root in it .

 

I must say, I hadn't noticed any of this when I was playing around the that eye droppered Preppy that Nathan Tardif had included with one of the bottles of ink.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I have not been able to remove the collector from the Preppy grip section at all. I think it is bonded in there permanently.

 

I am suspecting that this is the case. In fact I am not sure, but I have begun to suspect that the section and the collector are not cylindrical, but conical. This would mean that the collector is completely sealed into the section. Maybe during manufacture the collector goes into the section and then the part that follows it, where the cartridge gets pierced, gets glued into the section after it.

 

I am giving up on trying to get that collector out of there unless and until someone can show me how they have separated the two.

 

 

I think one problem is the tiny feed tube that goes into the nib assembly. If you don't get the previous ink out of that it could cause a problem.

 

Is that part of the feed an actual tube, or is that part of the feed a solid piece of plastic, a thin rod? I just can't see it well enough to be able to tell for certain, but I am not seeing a hole on the end of that feed which would indicate that it's a plastic tube.

[graystranger]

 

I am suspecting that this is the case. In fact I am not sure, but I have begun to suspect that the section and the collector are not cylindrical, but conical. This would mean that the collector is completely sealed into the section. Maybe during manufacture the collector goes into the section and then the part that follows it, where the cartridge gets pierced, gets glued into the section after it.

 

I am giving up on trying to get that collector out of there unless and until someone can show me how they have separated the two.

 

 

Is that part of the feed an actual tube, or is that part of the feed a solid piece of plastic, a thin rod? I just can't see it well enough to be able to tell for certain, but I am not seeing a hole on the end of that feed which would indicate that it's a plastic tube.

 

I was going to say it was a hollow tube, but I just pulled the nib on one of my Preppies and looked at it under a lighted eye loupe. It appears to be a solid plastic rod with a very thin slit running down the length and under the nib. It is very long so anything that blocks this slit would completely block ink flow. One thing to do would be to slide a piece of 2 mil brass or plastic sheet carefully down the slit. I've never removed the metal nib from the feed, not sure it can come off easily. But, the nib/feed pulls out of the grip/collector very readily.