Cleaning or Replacing Your Stylus Nib?
If you are experiencing issues with your digital stylus, we have prepared an excellent guide to clean and restore the performance as it were then.
Some of the possible issues that you can have are dust or debris on the stylus or damage to the record, which means that you need to firmly clean the tip of the stylus.
In this post, we will focus on the most common issue, a dirty stylus.
The tip of the stylus is the only part of the pen that actually regularly touches the record which can attract dust or debris impacting the performance of the pen.
You can always change your tablet pen nib, if cleaning doesn’t cut it.
Related : When Should you change your Tablet Pen Nib
If you don’t have a replacement tip for your stylus stick around to reveal how to clean it using a magic eraser.
Why Should I Clean My Stylus?
Cleaning your stylus regularly not only ensures a longer life for your pen tip but also prevents permanent damage to the tablet’s surface. Here are some of the issues you might experience, that are certainly signs of a dirty pen nib.
Performance Issues – It is well known for styluses tips to get dirty over time, which impacts the performance, especially for designers ( Source : Stack Exchange).
Whenever the tip got full of dust or debris, the stylus might not be able to draw perfect lines as before. In fact, due to recent research, it turns out that debris is one of the main issues for designers to make mistakes.
Damage to The Display/Tablet Surface – The duts interfere with the surface that the stylus touches, which can lead to permanent damage. Also, you might hear a scratchy sound, which is the first sign of a dirty stylus tip.
How Do I Clean My Stylus With a Magic Eraser?
There are many different ways to clean a stylus the most effective of which is to replace the nib, however, we magic erases you can restore a damaged nib to its previous performance. The only important thing to remember is that the styluses are extremely fragile so you have to treat them with care all the time.
The Magic Eraser is an inexpensive DIY method that has become popular lately for cleaning styluses and here we will reveal how to do it. First of all, you will need to acquire a magic eraser, which can be found in the nearest hardware store. Once you get the magic eraser cut a 2-inch square and then place that square somewhere that your arm can reach easily without any pressure. Then gently lower the stylus onto the eraser several times until the nib stops to leave residue behind.
TIP: Some magic erasers have a blue side which is treated with cleaning agents. Make sure to use only the white side for your stylus.
If your stylus nib continues to leave residue behind even after several light touches from above, feel free to gently rub it across the magic eraser surface, adding some circular movements to clean the whole surface of the stylus nib.
Whenever the nib stops leaving residue behind you can go ahead and test it on a certain surface to identify if the issues were resolved. You might notice that your stylus performs better, and the scratching noise is gone. At this point, you have successfully cleaned your stylus nib and you are ready to use it.
How Often Should I Clean My Stylus?
The answer to this question really depends on how much you are using your stylus. Digital artists are the ones that often encounter dirty stylus nib issues, but it is highly possible to happen to you also if you have been using your pen for a long time without cleaning it.
The recommendation here is to clean your stylus nib, once per month, regardless of how much you are using it to prevent dust or debris embedding into the stylus nib. If you pay close attention to your stylus you will be able to identify yourself how often dust builds up and how the performance changes after cleaning. In other words, cleaning your stylus once a month is a good way to keep the nib clean even if you are using the stylus a lot.
Conclusion:
Now when you know the common issues that dust and debris cause to the stylus and touch surface, you can observe the pen performance and understand how often it gets dirty under your workflow. If you have been using the same pen nib for a long time and all the issues persist even after cleaning it with a magic eraser, the dust might not be the issue hare, instead, you most probably need a pen nib replacement.
We hope our post was helpful for you to clean your stylus or at least identify the right issues and if you are interested in replacing your stylus nib, here is how.