Odd Question: How to open stubborn ink bottle

[Bayes]

I just got a bottle of Quink washable blue. The problem is that the cap is on so tight I can't get it off. I'm reluctant to use too much force because I don't want to splash ink all over the place. Do any of you have suggestions for getting it open safely?

 

Thanks

[Inkanthropist]

I can tell you what not to do: take a pliers to the lid. When the words 'Serenity now!' failed me, I attacked a bottle of Abraxas Anthrazit in precisely this manner. I managed to get to the ink, but I also managed to crack the lid.

 

Neil (channelling Frank Costanza)

[oneill]

  Bayes said:

I just got a bottle of Quink washable blue. The problem is that the cap is on so tight I can't get it off. I'm reluctant to use too much force because I don't want to splash ink all over the place. Do any of you have suggestions for getting it open safely?

 

Thanks

Run it under the HOT TAP if that doesnt work ask someone else Bryan

 

[ToasterPastry]

Here...Let a man open it.

[gyrosan]

  ToasterPastry said:

Here...Let a man open it.

 

 

ha-ha

[Miranda]

try jar opening bit in the middle of a pair of kitchen scissors.

also good for screw-top bottles of wine!

[Marvin McMurphy]

A few weeks ago I was in a store and wanted green ink, the shopping assistant took out a bottle of Waterman Green and couldn't open it, so she asked me to open it but I didn't want to try too hard because I was afraid of spilling a lot of ink. She then handed it to a male colleague who was as hesitant as I to use too much force. They then gave it to someone in the back who returned a couple of minutes later with green hands, good thing I ended up liking the colour, because I felt that I had to buy that bottle.

 

Story aside, my tip: hold the bottle down to a sturdy table and try to open the lid with the other hand (If both hands are in the air the danger of spilling - at least a lot more than otherwise - is a lot higher). Some help with the mentioned kitchen scissors is okay, but I'd put something around the lid because I wouldn't want the teeth to show on the lid.

[lapis]

Two methods, in any order:

 

(1) Pace the bottle upside down in to hot water -- but just up to the end of the lid standing upside down, for 10 min. Then turn the bottle rightside up in a sink of ice-cold water, this time just up to the start of the lid.

(2) Put the thing in an ultrasonicator filled withwarm water.

 

Mike

 

[girlieg33k]

I had a bottle of Quink (as well) that I haven't been able to open for over a year now. It was an ongoing battle, and so, I simply gave it away. With other less-stubborn bottles, I've found running hot water on the bottle cap to work miracles. It's usually dried ink, and perhaps, weather changes, that causes the cap to get stuck. The hot water method will usually sort both out.

Edited March 4, 2009 by girlieg33k

[Chris]

Dear old Penman bottles are forever getting stuck. The hot water trick works, though you need some kitchen paper handy as the washed out ink dribbles all over your hands and you also need to clean the threads of the bottle and cap before you replace the lid or it will stick again.

 

Brute strength and metal grippers can certainly precipitate grief.

 

Chris

[someonesdad]

Definitely try the hot water/thermal expansion trick first, as it's easy and harmless. Usually the problem is trying to get a decent grip on the cap. As someone else mentioned, never use metal pliers, as you're almost certain to crack the cap. Instead, try a reinforced rubber strap wrench (Harbor Freight sells them for a few bucks). Years ago I made a tool using some 1/2" hex brass bar and some parachute cord that lets you get a grip on such things and turn them without having the metal come in contact with the cap. I can't find the dang thing to take a picture of it. Basically, it's just a chunk of bar stock with a hole drilled in it that two ends of the parachute cord go through so that a loop sticks out one side. You then loop around object to be turned and twist things up so that the cord is clamped and prevented from moving. The reason for the hex stock is so that you can put a wrench or socket on it to increase torque. I believe I made it to get out a recalcitrant oil filter once and it proved useful for other things.

[Gran]

When the rubber-like, shelf liner doesn't work, or running warm water on it, I carefully use 6" channel locks. They work every time. Sometimes I put the rubber-like shelf liner over the cap to protect it. I think channel locks are one of the niftiest inventions since Kleenex.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Gran

[Silvermink]

Run hot water over the lid as others have suggested. That works with sticky lids (ink and otherwise) in the great majority of cases.

[FrankB]

I have arthritis in my right wrist which has weakened it considerably. I have a number of rubberized jar openers (or grips) around the kitchen and they do a great job, even with stubborn ink jars. They enhance the amount of torque I can generate by many multiples. I would try the hot water over the lid, and simply use one of the jar openers.

 

Good luck. Stay clean.

[jmkeuning]

Do you have a white rug?

 

Put the bottle in the middle of the rug with a toddler. Tell the toddler not to touch the bottle. Turn your back.

 

When you turn back around, the bottle will be open.

[ShadowKlink]

  jmkeuning said:

Do you have a white rug?

 

Put the bottle in the middle of the rug with a toddler. Tell the toddler not to touch the bottle. Turn your back.

 

When you turn back around, the bottle will be open.

 

 

Fantastic!!

[ksskss]

As a last resort a vice and a monkey wrench for the cap will either take it off or break the bottle. The hot water treatment is least drastic, then a few gentle series or taps around the cap, gently denting the cap if it's metal. This will often break the seal internally. Not hard enough to chip glass or too soft to do nothing. When using a monkey wrench, NOT acrescent wrench, you loosley grip the lid and it will 'grab' the lid firmly due to the jaw design, which works equally well gripping plumbing pipes. Definitely pad the bottle if you put it in a vice and don't tighten the vice or you will surely break the bottle.

 

---

Ken

[Shangas]

I will testify to the hot-tap method of opening a stubborn ink-bottle. At one point in time, I had a bottle full of blue/black quink. I had filled it rather full and then had not touched it for months. I was terrified of the lid flying off if/when I managed to open it, and getting blue ink everywhere. The guys here suggested the hot-tap method and I can say this much - If it could open THAT BOTTLE, it can open ANYTHING!! IT WORKS!!

[WendyNC]

I think it might also be a Quink thing. I have an old bottle of Quink with Solv-X that I had open just a couple of weeks ago that was stuck tight as tight today since I had forgotten about how important it was to clean the threads. I considered using the hot water method (which works) but decided it was too much trouble. It may get delegated to the status where it gets posted in the thread about bottles of ink one is keeping without good reason.

 

 

[MDI]

Get a pair of rubber exam gloves and open the jar.