Filling our pens
Filling your Ackerman pen is easy:
- Unscrew the pen in the middle so you can see the reservoir.
- Remove the reservoir.
- Fill the reservoir with ink or paint.
- Insert the reservoir back into the front of the pen.
- Screw the pen back together.
If you have trouble filling the reservoir, here are a couple of tricks:
- When you remove the reservoir, wiggle it first to dislodge the mouth of the reservoir from the seal. Ink and paint can dry out and make the reservoir stick.
- Take care where you lay pen after removing the reservoir. The pen still contains ink or paint, which can leak out. If you leave the pen horizontal, for example lying flat on a desk, you might have enough time to fill the reservoir and re-insert it before any ink or paint leaks out.
- When you fill the reservoir, don't fill it to the top. Leave a quarter inch of free space. If the pen is full of ink, the burp might come out of the front end.
- When you insert the reservoir back into the pen, twist the reservoir to seat it. You should feel the reservoir stop snugly inside the pen.
Make sure you replace the back cap and seat that correctly.
Shake the pen a couple of times to get the flow going. Tilting the pen back and forth can also work. Sometimes have to have to flick your wrist.
Keep a backup reservoir filled and ready. We provide two reservoirs with every new pen, one inside the pen and an extra covered with a cap. Fill the capped reservoir with the ink and paint you want to use. This way, when your pen runs out, you can remove the old reservoir and insert the new quickly. Switch the cap from the new reservoir to the old reservoir so the old reservoir doesn't leak.