What is this? A couple of ballpoint pens, both not working.
No need for photos, we all know what a ballpoint pen looks like. In this case one was a freebie from Barclays Bank and the other is marked The Inn At Penn (no idea how this arrived). I know they are disposable, what isn't these days? But it's still not very environmentally friendly to chuck stuff out if it can be repaired. However in this case the amount of time I'm willing to spend on resurrecting them is very limited. WikiHow has an in depth article on what to try basically heat, pressure, solvent, or combinations thereof.
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| Parts of a ballpoint ink pen |
The Barlcays pen first. On opening it and holding the white ink chamber up to a light bulb it appears most of the ink has gone (not that it would have had much in it in the first place). I tried scribbling furiously to get some heat into the nib in order to make the ink flow and that gave a few streaks of colour, then I tried bending over the ink chamber in order to pump the ink down towards the nib, no effect. Finally I pulled off the nib and dipped the end of the ink chamber in some acetone to get the ink moving. Still nothing, so into the pens parts bin for that one.
Next was the Inn at Penn pen. More ink was visible in this one, in fact it looked almost full. Scribbling did nothing, but bending the ink chamber over did the trick. Result.
OK 50% success rate, not too bad.
JOB DONE
Time taken: 5 mins
Cost: nil
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