I get small air bubbles in my gel pens as well sometimes, and it’s probably due to some air that sneaks up insidiously through the tip when writing… but definitely NOT to the extent of your picture!! That looks like a manufacturing defect since there’s like 25% ink missing

What I do when I have small air bubbles (not sure if it’ll work for one this large) is to have the refill in the pen body itself (the coleto in your case). Hold the pen upside down in the air (tips point upward), then flick the pen downward quickly (tips now point downward); repeat as desired. This is kind of like flicking the water out of a fountain pen nib when you’ve just cleaned it, using centrifugal force. Alternatively, do the same as above, but hold the pen the other way around and flick madly.

I’ve fixed the problem roughly once before for a pen I just couldn’t bear to lose, and didn’t know where to get refills. Note though, that you might want to try other suggestions first, as if this goes wrong, then the refill is pretty well stuffed (and it’s also a bit of work). What I did was to file the barrel down in a ‘v’ shape, until there was a tiny hole in the ink chamber, at the end of the bubble closest to the tip of the pen. From there I just blew (with my mouth) the ink down the chamber, forcing the air to escape through the hole. It took a while, and made my cheeks go all tingly, like blowing on an egg. Then once the air was all gone, I sealed the hole with a small amount of low-melt hot glue. (though if the hole’s small enough, sticky tape should work fine, just to stop leaks.) The pen I did this on had a pretty large and sturdy ink chamber, so naturally YMMV.

As far as I can remember, I lost the pen about a week later, so I have no idea how long it would have lasted like that. Also, it has just occurred to me that if the air is actually getting in there from somewhere (i.e. the bubble wasn’t a manufacturing defect), then no matter how you remove the bubble, it might keep coming back.

However, if you know where to get refills, I’d suggest you just buy one. It’ll be a LOT easier than anything that gets suggested here.

A lot of my Coleto refills get a small air bubble in them, but towards the end of the cartridge, not close to the tip like yours, and not anywhere near that size. And for all of its simplicity, try shaking it, or flicking it with your finger. That has worked for be before to bring the ink back down.

Try gently warming the refill gel ink above the air bubble. This may make the gel ink flow easier, down past the air bubble. You can try hot tap water.

i’ve heard that blowing on the end helps but haven’t tried it. i would think you could contact the manufacturer and get a replacement because that is BIZARRO.

Happy holidays hun!

If you have access to a centrifuge you would be hooked up!! Other wise trying to replicate that is about as close as I can get you.

Sometimes my gel ink pens get those bubbles in them (and that size!) too, and it always works for me to stick it into a centrifuge at 4000 rpm (I’m a research chemist, one of the perks!). Although I don’t use the Coleto personally, so I’m not sure if it would work with such a skinny tube, I think something similar would work.You could try flicking them by holding the end of the tube and making a very quick semicircle with the nib outwards, this would replicate the centrifuge’s force and maybe force the ink down.

Another thing I tried in the past is to use a very long and thin needle and actually shove it down the tube, through the gel and ink, to the bubble. Once the tip is there, use it to drag a small line of ink through the bubble that connects the top and bottom ink sections while holding the pen nib-downwards. Hopefully the capillary action will cause the top section of the ink to flow down into the bottom. This could get messy though and again, I’ve only used these with signo DX-es, so YMMV.

PS: my biologist friend over on the next bench just told me to say: get an injection needle and syringe (he says, pharmacies have them for diabetics, although I know he just uses those in the supply room!) and simply inject the needle into the bubble and draw out the air. I haven’t tried this personally, so if this kills your Coleto, it’s HIS fault! although it does sound like it would work.

Oh regarding why it happens: I’ve noticed it happens to me if I place the pens upside down for an extended period of time. I had a DX in blue and I’m a black pen type of gal, so I didn’t use it much, and it was stored cap-up in my pen holder. After a couple weeks it developed a large bubble, but in my experience, they appear further up the barrel, not so near the tip. Also, in past experience, if there is damage to the refill tube (e.g. bent or dented) bubbles tend to form around it.

I’ve heard that bubbles near the tip (like yours) are because of a slight manufacturing defect in that the nib is leaking air into the body, but ink isn’t leaking out because of its higher viscosity. Haven’t really had that happen to me though, so.

Put the refill in the pen and let it rest point down and hope gravity will do the trick. If you are patient enough (more patient than I) eventually the ink will settle.

(And they say panes of glass flow over time as well).

Tie the center of rubber band to the center of the pen. (Make sure it’s on there tight!) Hook either end of the rubber band to both of your index fingers. Keep rotating the pen until both ends of the rubber band are coiled up tightly. Release it, the pen will spin, hopefully knocking out the bubble. The inertia that the rotating rubber band causes will be stronger than trying to shake it out by hand, but you might have to repeat it a few times for it to squeeze out the entire bubble.

If nothing else works, just try blowing the bubble out. It’s helped when the ink flow of my pens hasn’t been very smooth.

I had it one and solved it by blowing on the end of the refill. But the problem reappeared several times before I finally emptied the refill. My take it is that it is a manufacturing defect.

I too thought of the centrifuge idea. Don’t have one? No problem!

1) Tape/zip-tie the refill to a spoke on your bicycle tire (have the tip pointing outward, of course).
2) Go for an intense ride! I mean really go for it.
3) Done.

Send the picture to the manufacturer and ask for THEIR advice, and I bet they’ll send out one (or more!) replacements. No fuss. No muss!

I’m closing the comments on this thread because one of the above comments actually succeeded so Ill be taking pictures tonight and posting the results tomorrow. Hopefully the winning commentor comes back to see the results of their idea tomorrow.

tape the refill to your bicycle spoke, nib towards the outer wheel, then go cycling. the centrifugal force would push the ink down.

or u can try pulling out the nib, gently blow from the back to push the ink towards the nib end, when there is no more air bubble, push the nib back in.

rgds
weemeng