This weekend I finally sat down to the tedious - yet somehow satisfying - task of restoring my mom's vintage (read: really dried out) Rapid-o-graph pens back into working order. The goal was to be able to use them in a drawing for class, and it only took me an hour a pen!
Ok, thats really not a statistic to brag about. How about the fact that a new pen costs $20 at the art supply store, and I managed to get four used pens back into pristine working order? Now that's shoestring, baby!
Before starting this project I did a lot of research to try and get some guidance on how to clean one of these things. The results: pretty sparse (with one notable exception). I learned through trial and error that your pen will never work if you haven't separated your pen into all of the pieces shown above. Because if something is stuck together, it means there's a motherload of dried ink stuck in there, too. It took a soft, small paintbrush as a "scrubber," a jar of pen cleaner, a mountain of paper towels, and a steadily dripping faucet to get each part clean and like new again.
I have gone through the tedious task of cleaning one of those pens with the dried ink and it does take forever it seems. Yet, it is so satisfying and cheaper than getting a new one.
Four pens! I'm impressed! When those puppies dry up, its no easy task to get them working again!
Ugggh, i remember when i used to have those pens. what a headache. get rotring rapidoliners! they're a godsend and don't clog if you store them tip-up. they're disposable, and fairly cheap--you don't just dispose of the cartridge, you dispose the drawing tip too--keeps down the clogging. good luck with the class!
Also - micron pens do an equally good job--they're just 1.50 or so each. waterproof etc..