Kevin BFeb 4

I'm seeing unverified claims that alcohol hurts plastic. I can believe that it hurts /some/ materials, but a petroleum product doesn't sound like one of them.

So it's experiment time! Mr. Preppy, here's your glass of Conundrum.

btw, even red wine is /very/ pale.

(The cracks were already there. Because it's a brand new Preppy.)

Show threadKevin B

I just noticed that I didn't hashtag the first post. oh well.

2 months later, I'm not seeing any effect from the alcohol on the plastic. Maybe I should say *this* plastic, as there are many different types.

So anyways, if you wanted to try adding pure alcohol to ink, perhaps to help it dry faster, there are at least *some* pens that it won't hurt.

#fountainpens

Apr 3 at 10:56pmWeb
Show threadStarSloth2d ago
@keraba twsbi pens can't handle it (maybe no instant effects but increases the risk of cracking), but it also depends on the alcohol. Some places in Europe at least there's sneaky acetone added to rubbing alcohol and yea, that'll hurt any plastic.
Show threadKevin B2d ago

@silhelm

I would have thought that anything you did to a TWSBI would only decrease the risk of cracking ;-) but good to know.

Show threadStarSloth2d ago
@keraba there's a warning label on the clip of the eco when it arrives. I don't actually personally know anyone with cracked pens (and I have a dozen myself, not being extra gentle with them either), though it's a wellknown phenomenon by word of mouth. Since it's a fixable issue, I guess it's rare enough it costs less (replacements plus customer dissatisfaction) than actually changing things for twsbi, which means it's not a big percentage.
Show threadJigme Datse1d ago
@keraba I've had a pen shatter due to something akin to "alcohol hurts plastic" sadly, I don't know what it was that hurt it. Alcohol could be an issue, but it does depend on the plastics. #chemistry #fountainpens. My suspicion is that the pen would likely have failed relatively quickly no matter what I did. It could have been something like UV causing issues.
Show threadSteveg581d ago
@JigmeDatse @keraba
Not all alcohols behave the same as solvents.
Show threadKevin B1d ago

@Steveg58 @JigmeDatse

Hi Jigme,

The purpose of my experiment was to see if I could safely add a little of a strong off-the-shelf whisky to ink to have it dry faster. For fun, not serious.

My TWSBI cracked without any alcohol or UV present. Heck, the Preppy in question *arrived* cracked (but got no worse.)

I assert that we should see clouding of the surface of the pen if alcohol reacted with it. I saw none. Did you? If so, what pen?

Show threadJigme Datse1d ago
@keraba @Steveg58 I did have clouding. I'm pretty sure it was a "discontinued" pen, but I see no marking to indicate what the pen was.
Show threadSteveg581d ago
@JigmeDatse @keraba
Historically the big reason for keeping alcohol out of inks is the ink sacs were glued to the pen using shellac which is alcohol soluble. That, of course, does not apply to modern pens, however, lubrication may be diluted and o-rings might be damaged. there are a number of o-ring compounds that are perhaps dissolved but usually most are embrittled by the presence of alcohol. As far as I understand, low molecular weight alcohols are more significant for embrittlement and high molecular weight alcohols are more significant for dissolution.
Potable alcohol is going to be very pure for most purposes because human bodies do not tolerate very light or heavy alcohols well.
It is highly unlikely that most body materials will be affected by alcohol but that does not exclude some manufacturer using some special compound that might be affected.