Warning: My 'quick' ink mix with a drop of dish soap almost killed a pen

I was trying to make a shimmer ink flow better in my TWSBI Eco last week, and a forum post from 2019 said a tiny drop of clear dish soap would work. I used Dawn, literally one drop in a 5ml sample vial. It flowed great for a day, then the feed got totally gummed up with shimmer and a weird film. Took me two hours to fully clean it out with an ultrasonic cleaner. Has anyone found a SAFE surfactant that actually works long-term for this?

2 comments

2 Comments

val2231mo ago

Try a tiny bit of photo flo instead of dish soap. That stuff is made to break surface tension without leaving any film behind. I use it for my airbrush paints and it works great. Just one drop in a whole bottle of ink is more than enough. Dawn has other stuff in it for grease that can mess up a pen over time.

elizabeth_williams1mo ago

Photo Flo's the real deal, saved a couple pens myself.