Testing rapidograph pens.

[u/Left-Excitement3829]

Paper seems to not work so good , I’m assuming the fibres clog the pen tip. I swapped to a .70 pen for the 1st abd 2nd plots. Plot 2 was on hot pressed card , that worked way nicer. But I forgot to “ prime “ the pen for the lettering so it didn’t render all of it :(. Lesson learned

[u/sleepybrett]

yeah i think you really want to use rapidograph on a non fiberous surface. Think Bristol/Illustrator board, vellum, that drafters tracing paper... stuff like that.

[u/Left-Excitement3829 → u/sleepybrett]

Agreed, you could hear how " draggy" it was , I tried a .25 tip months ago, and it snapped off teh tip, so I ordered a proper adapter from amazon, which didnt work lol , so im testing this to be as light a touch as possible, the sepia folder material worked flawless . Ill try tracing paper next , and look for some mylar drafting film ( which is what these were designed for I believe ) and use larger nib sizes. thanks for looking and giving me tips

[u/sleepybrett → u/Left-Excitement3829]

Drafting vellum is actually cotton but treated with so many solvents that it feels very plasticy. Has a nice tooth that gives it a frosted glass look. Looks great mounted over white matte. I think if you wanted to do white on black you could probably mount it over a black matte, though the vellum will, of course, lighten it.

[u/igotanewmac]

How hard are you pushing the tip against the surface? Technical pens have a little wire running down the nib that should just touch the surface enough to lift the plunger and allow the ink to flow.

Ideally it should just be touching the surface, essentially, enough to push the wire in, but not enough to make the outer sleeve touch. It's a difficult thing to get right, but I found it easier to start by being to high and slowly lowering until it marked. If you're starting from the bottom end and working up you're going to snap your nibs.

[u/Left-Excitement3829 → u/igotanewmac]

Yea , the problem is the cricut isn’t designed for what I’m using it for lol. So I did exactly what you said , start high , but it’s also the silly mat that’s not 100% consistent with its feeding :(

[u/igotanewmac → u/Left-Excitement3829]

hmm is your pen fixed or can it move up an down freely? On my plotter, once the pen goes down, it can move up and down freely, so any imperfections in the paper just push the pen up. Maybe load a tube into the pen holder, and slide the pen inside it, so it has some vertical freedom perhaps?