Servicing a Bob Moore lining pen

The recent build of a corpse van required me to perform quite a lot of lining. Since I'm rubbish with a bow-pen, it was applied with my Bob Moore Lining pen. A nice device but you do have to look after it.

I'm a bad boy and hadn't. All but one of the heads were bunged up with dried paint. I managed with the available nozzle but I could have done with a finer one. Anyway, I thought I'd better do something about this. Bob Moore pens are expensive and even though I acquired mine second-hand, they are too valuable to be treated like this.

First step was to leave the heads in some cellulose thinners for a few days. Not a lot, you can see the little jam jar, acquired from one of the last days of the Wrexham and Shropshire Railway, with less then a centimetre in the bottom. Enough to cover them.

Once I felt the paint would have softened sufficiently, each head was removed and the nozzle poked with a cleaning wire. After a bit of prodding, this worked its way through each one. After that I squirted more thinners through using the glass syringe. This is a messy job as if the nozzle isn't clear, the stuff can backfire on you. Don't wear good clothes is my advice!

Finally, the try and keep the incredibly fine paint nozzles clear, I shot some WD40 through them. Well, I did for the first two and then I realised airbrush cleaner would be even better so I repeated the exercise with this.

With a bit of luck, next time I do some lining, I won't have to struggle with the tools.