Today’s blog post will teach you how to make your own long-lasting highlighter pen that can be refilled with ink and reused many many times. We will talk about two ways to do this, both methods using pen parts from Platinum Pens.
You may wonder why we are doing this since the Platinum Preppy highlighter pen is designed to be refilled and reused and the felt tip can even be replaced when it wears out. Preppy pens are very economical, but they are not meant to last a life time. Sooner or later, the cap and/or the body of the pen will crack making the pen useful only for parts. In contrast, both the cap and the body of the Platinum Plaisir fountain pen are made of durable anodized aluminum that will not crack. As a bonus, the Plasir has an attractive pearlized finish that comes in seven different colors.
(1) The first pen mod is the easiest, most foolproof way to create your highlighter. You will need both a Platinum Preppy highlighter pen and a Platinum Plaisir fountain pen.
Take both of the pens apart by removing the caps and unscrewing the grip section from the pen barrel.
Take the grip section of the Preppy highlighter, screw it into the barrel of the Plaisir fountain pen, add your ink cartridge and you’re done!
(2) For the second pen mod you will need a Platinum Plaisir fountain pen, a Preppy highlighter replacement tip and something rubbery and soft that gives you a good grip. Preppy replacement tips can be purchased separately in a package of 2 tips. For this demo I used a wide rubber band to give me a good grip, but other things can be used such as that rubbery drawer liner stuff etc.
First remove the pen cap. Using the wide rubber band or rubber drawer liner, get a good grip on the base of the fountain pen nib and carefully pull it out of the grip section along with the skinny plastic piece that it is attached to. A couple of notes about this: the amount of effort it takes to remove the nib seems to vary from pen to pen, and be warned that this may or may not remove some of the color coating that is on top of the Plaisir fountain pen nib.
Firmly insert the highlighter replacement tip into the Plaisir grip section, add your ink cartridge and you’re good to go. Voila! A good looking, durable and refillable highlighter pen. The felt tip can be easily replaced if it wears out using Preppy highlighter replacement tips.
What kind of ink should you use to refill this pen? Highlighting ink that is designed for use in fountain pens would be an excellent choice. A very light color of fountain pen ink would work as well.
What kind of ink refills does it take? You can use the Platinum brand of ink cartridges or you can use a Platinum ink converter if you would like to use bottled ink. Another idea is to rinse out your empty Platinum ink cartridges and use a blunt-tip needle bottle to refill them using bottled ink. This pen is not suitable to be eyedropper filled since the barrel of the pen is metal and may cause a negative reaction when it is in constant contact with ink.
What kind of refillable highlighters do you use? Do you have any highlighter pen mods you’d like to share with us?
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