Friday, December 23, 2011

Converting Monteverde Refills to Fit Retro 51 Tornado

A few days ago, I dragged Kevin to Office Depot. I just like to look. But then he found a little clearance section that had a bunch of Monteverde refills that were priced at $1.00 and $2.00! Not too long ago, I acquired a Retro 51 Tornado Bamboo pen and had noted the names of refills it would need in the future. So I whipped out my notepad from my purse where I had written the names of the Monteverde and Parker refills that would fit the Retro 51, and pointed them out excitedly. Once again, he looked at me like I’m crazy, probably wondering how weird and convenient it was that I had the exact refills on the "to get" list that were in store and he said, “well, we might as well get one.” So I grabbed six packs.
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Unfortunately, I didn’t get the correct rollerball refills and very sadly presented Kevin with the pieces of the pen and refill that didn’t fit. He went about finding a fix for it because it was so sad to not be able to use all the colors! Knowing I am fairly incapable at wielding a knife and Krazy Glue (I would likely glue the knife to my tongue or something), Kevin took matters into his own hands to ensure a trip to Urgent Care or Emergency would not wrap up our fine evening. He assembled a few materials, took all the Monteverde ceramic rollerball refills away from me, and got to work.

What he ended up doing was the following:

- Measured the proper refill against the too-big refills to find out what length he would have to cut it to.
- Trimmed off extra length from the back end of the cartridge (including a tiny bit of the ink sponge...sad, but a sacrifice I was willing to make).
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- Popped out the plug from the cut off piece, trimmed it to fit the new edge of the cartridge and Krazy Glued the modified plug into the end.
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And now, it works perfectly! What kind of savings did I get on this awesome deal? Epic savings.

Monteverde Gel Refills for Parker Pens (Purple/Pink)
    Regularly $ 8.29 each
    Sale $ 0.84 each
Monteverde Ballpoint Refills for Parker Pens (Purple/Pink)
    Regularly $ 6.29 each
    Sale $ 0.64 each
Monteverde Ceramic Rollerball Refills (Fashion Colors)
    Regularly $ 15.49 each
    Sale $ 1.94 each
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AHAEHAEAHE I have so many colors!!!
I bought two of each and my total was just over $7! Now that I have many colors of ink, I can get one of each Retro 51 Tornado. Muahahahah! No, I’m kidding. ... Kinda.

4 comments:

Okami said...

Awesome hack!! Kevin may not understand, but he's very understanding.

GourmetPens said...

Yeah! Awesome savings hehe. Kevin's a good one. He lets me be crazy ;)

lilardie said...

I use the Ceramic gel refill (middle package) in my Tornados... I have a lot of them, and match the ink to the barrel color. I was devastated to see them discontinued at Office Depot... then thrilled when they were $.80... I bought them all! Hope they'll last a while. I might have to go back and get the rollerball refills and try your hack! Thanks for that.

GourmetPens said...

I want to do the match inks to barrels thing too :D Such a good sale. I'm heading back myself!!

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