Rotring Rapidograph Cleaning & Unclogging

I've been using Rotring Rapidograph technical pens for about 35 years and technical pens in general for close to 40. I don't use mine year round and sometimes can go a year in between usages so they do dry out on me and clog. I used to use tech pen cleaning fluids, have ultrasonic jewelry cleaners, and ball syringes but I stopped using them about 30 years ago as a good water soaking/cleaning works fine for me using the standard Rotring ink (cartridges). This is a video (warning: amateur quality!) on this simple process which just dissembling the pen, soaking the nibs in water, shaking the nibs to get the mechanism moving, and soaking/shaking more. For those looking for options, I hope this video comes in handy and your pens start working again.

FAQ:

Does this always work? It does for me but the drier the pen and larger the nib size the longer you might want to soak the nib as I'm guessing there's more space in the larger nibs for dried up ink to reconstitute and or loosen for removal. If the pen's yours and you know it was working before it dried/clogged, I would think you can get it working fine. It's when someone picks up a used one when you don't know if the pen was damaged where cleaning might not help. If you go through the cleaning process, add a new cartridge, shake the nib like crazy and the ink still isn't feeding, give it more time as that new ink might help to loosen up some last bits of dried up ink. Give it a day or two and try it again.

Do you ever take your nibs apart to unclog them? I used to have to take apart other brands of tech pens to get them clean but haven't needed to do that with Rotring. When I took other pens apart, it was a last ditch effort to get them working which usually resulted in making things worse as I almost always bent that thin wire trying while rethreading it.

Would using distilled or purified water help? I don't bother.

Does hot water help in removing the ink? I haven't done that as I usually just soak my nibs for a couple days but quite a few have commented that hot water's worked for them so it's probably a good idea.

3 pack black ink cartridges: https://amzn.to/3cBq0OP

Do you refill your ink cartridges? I find the Rotring brand refills cheap enough to not bother with refilling.

How do you store your pens? I just leave mine out but you might try a Ziplock style bag with a moist sponge or paper towel in there to keep the pens from drying out as fast if you're not using them all the time. This idea is like the Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph multi pen caddy that came with a plastic lid that had a slot made for this small sponge that you were supposed to add some water to before inserting it into that slot. It would keep the environment a little more humid so the pens wouldn't dry out as fast. The biggest thing you can do is to just use your pens a little every week. Draw a few lines to keep the ink flowing when you're not actively using them for a project. I don't do that as I'm busy doing other things and I might go a year or two w/o using them so I just come back to this nib soaking process as the ink's often completely dried out inside.

NOTE (2014-01-03): I haven't been paying attention to the availability of Rotring Rapidograph pens as I purchased a lifetime supply of them when I thought they were being discontinued years ago. But, I just took a look around and noticed that they're not listed on the Rotring website anymore and see that large pen sellers like jetpens isn't carrying them anymore. I'm assuming they've been discontinued? Isograph is still around but not Rapidograph.

#Rotring #Rapidograph #Cleaning