I always just popped the little tip off the tube, and then rubber banded them all together with a stick through the middle of the bundle so they sat just off the bottom of the jar I used. Let gravity do its thing for a day, the drop em in, seal it and give it a shake or two.
They would need to be really really small to be able to flow through a nib. There are metallic additives you can "buy" for inks as well but even they tend to gunk up nibs pretty quick. And to do it right you have to suspend them which is a whole thing
The best pens here are BIC Cristal and they have a gel thing at the top of the tube so normally you'd just snip that off and rip the nib off too. Pretty much the same as what you'd do with any other ink tube. Normally I'd let them sit in the bottom of whatever container and pour a bit of extra solvent over the top of the tubes when pulling them out to flush out any remaining ink. Stick method sounds more efficient I might try it with my next batch.
for my first inks i used the ink that goes in the bingo dabbers at dollar tree, and i mixed in a bunch of alcohol. eventually i just started doing the pen method and its pretty unbuffable. still on my kitchen sink! but how unbuffable is PVC primer and what would happen if i added dot3, alcohol or any of the OG methods?
PVC primer stains and ghosts really well. It and just pen ink works greats. I wouldn't add anything else honestly. PVC primer (the purple USA stuff) has acetone and cyclohexanone, both of which are solvents. Adding alcohol wouldn't achieve much as you probably already used it as a base for the pen ink, dot3 generally slows drying time to allow more staining/penetration, but so does cyclohexanone. I have made batches of pen ink using PVC primer as the solvent in place of 91% alcohol or acetone and it worked well. PVC primer melts some plastic (PVC go figure) though , so depending on what you put it in, it can get leaky around the nib and very messy lol this is especially true with PVC primer that contains tetrahydrofuran as that is what physically melts PVC Also as a side note, most the cheap bingo dabbers are a thin water based paint. You can catch tags with em but don't expect them to hold up
Do you find the primer melts the pen tubes? The red primer we get here is straight methyl ethyl ketone and a bit of dye (the name of the dye escapes me) but if you're making a large batch it'll just melt the pen tubes meaning you'll get poor extraction and bits of plastic sludge floating around. Normally I just use methylated spirits for the ink extraction and cut in primer later. Also, on the Plastics International website under the "Material Information" section you can find a resource to check different solvents effects on different types of plastic. In most cases an A or B rating will be safe to work with but your mileage may vary. (It won't let me post links or else I would have included it but if you search "Plastics International" it should be the first result on google)
Generally speaking I'd try to keep the number of different solvents you use to a minimum as they may have unintended side effects when you mix them and ruin your batch. For example, attempting to mix toluene (xylene) and impure alcohols (methylated spirits, isopropyl etc.) causes separation due to there being slight water content, with water being polar and toluene being non polar, these don't mix. If you were able to find 100% pure alcohol this wouldn't be an issue but such a thing is very hard to come by. Always double check your ingredients and do some research to see if anyone else has dealt with the same solvents before attempting to mix them and then test in a small batch just in case to save yourself a headache. With pen ink, I find the less solvent and the more pens you use the better. It'll be more opaque and have better stainage + hold up better to sunlight due to being less thin. You can always add more solvent later if necessary but you cant remove it if you make it too dilute by mistake. It shouldn't be super runny but you don't want it to be thick like a syrup either, sounds like you have the hang of it but always worth pointing out. If your ink stays visibly wet and tacky to the touch for a minute or so before its fully absorbed into the surface don't worry about adding dot 3 etc. as it'll never dry otherwise, it's all about finding a good middle ground. Test this on a flat painted surface for the most accurate results. If your ink does dry fast and you want to extend the drying time you can add a small amount of dot 3. I cannot stress the smallness enough (3-5ml addition to 100ml of ink max in most cases but try and use the least amount possible). If you can't find dot 3, dot 4 will be ok to substitute, its the same stuff it just burns at a higher temperature. Not sure where you're located but if you're after easy to obtain ink that has staining potential try and find some alcohol based wood stain. Generally the dark red/black option will be the best as they are the most opaque and have the best dyes in them however they will be a little bit thin by themselves, despite that, they can be put straight in an empty marker and will perform just fine. These will also make good ink additives if you want to mix them in with your pen ink (1:1 or 2:1 pen ink to wood stain would be a good place to start) but if you do this I'd suggest using the red colour instead of the black as the dye tends to be slightly stronger and even though its slightly less opaque than the black the pens should provide more than enough opacity to make up for it. Attached are stains from alcohol based Feast Watson black and mahogany wood stains which can be found in Australia/New Zealand. Expect similar results if you choose to use similar alcohol based wood stains straight. Take in to account these images are now 15+ years old and we do not know how long the stain got to soak in to the surface before being buffed but several hours would be my estimation. The chemical used to buff at the time was a roughly 1:1 pure toluene/ethanol mix.
i will prob do this after school today, go rack some PVC primer and wood stain, but what color pens should i use with the PVC primer?
Half black half blue if you want a good balance between opacity and staining strength would be my suggestion. Double check what ingredients are in your pvc primer, if its only methyl ethyl ketone i would not use it for the extraction for reasons mentioned in my other reply. If you cant find alcohol based wood stain don't bother getting any of the other types (water/oil based) as they'll just water down your ink.
Seems like it depends on the primer, one of the ones I found near me didn't, and another brand/type did. I think what worked the best for me was doing like you said, making pen ink the standard way with as little solvent as I could then adding some primer. I did have it melt a few mops though, not completely but the nibs and end of the mop got super soft and unusable. As for racking wood stain I always just bought it lol it's like 8 or 9 bucks for a small can here. I'm sure it's doable though.
You have to know how the store/chain you plan to rack from works regarding security and you need to memorise the layout including your entry and exit points. Some have cameras in every aisle, some don't. Some have live feed cameras with someone monitoring them at all times, some don't. Some have LPO/security, some don't. My advice would be to familiarise yourself with the layout of the store first on a separate visit before you try doing anything. Walk around and take note of where the cameras are (if they have them) in relation to supplies you wish to obtain and if they have LPO/security and how you can bypass them if you need to, but make it appear like you are genuinely browsing. You will need to come up with an exit plan, depending on the layout of the store it may be better to take certain exits over others or it may be better to buy a decoy item, something cheap, and go through the self check outs if they have them. This is up to your discretion but I wouldn't overthink it. When you enter the store planning to rack make sure you appear confident but not in a hurry and don't dress in a way that will draw unnecessary attention to yourself. If you get asked by a worker how they can assist you, you're just browsing. Do not ask any workers where x is located or any other questions Do not leave the aisle with the item you plan to rack visible to eyes or cameras Do not rack if the store is too quiet Do not stop for anyone (even LPO/security/police) Do not return to the same store in the same clothes for a reasonable period of time Do not park your car near the store, in the car park, or anywhere it may appear on cctv If you get caught you run If you get detained you don't answer questions
yeah, i follow these, 5 markers each sock, 2 paint refills in my coat, caps in my friends hoodie, oil markers in my bag upright. i ran into the employees several times but the store has zero cameras on the cans, so i could just cram like 10 in my bag. they also have a very wide selection and wouldn't be able to tell which were stolen. they have at least 10 of some of the cans. it is often empty in there tho, what advice? last time i stole like 20 items in total for at least $200, so i bought a bunch of caps. do you know any art supplies that might be cheap? like under 4 dollars?
Generally its best to buy something unrelated. If its usually quiet there and it works for you I wouldn't stress about it.
do you think there is any substances out there i could just use as straight ink or paint without any additives? i already know that wood stain is good from this thread, props to david
Black shoe polish comes to mind lol but it on its own wont last very well at all. I used to jack the squeeze mop bottles of it though. It does stain okay but fades to a ghost hella quick
Solvent based leather dyes (fiebings etc.) could work but like the wood stain they will be a bit thin. Purple, red and blue are generally the best for stains but they'll fade pretty quick, black will be best for longevity.
do any of yall kings know a good recipe for a homemade hobo or sakura? cant get hobos or sakuras near me. thanks
There isn't really one that I'm aware of, they are not easy to emulate. Some people have tried shit like crayons and chapstick and stuff but it's messy and complicated. I would search for industrial solid marker and see if that yields anything in your area.