Fixing a Broken Wacom Pen

Two weeks ago, I accidentally drop my Wacom Pen. It happened several times before but this time, the pen stop working 🙁 The tablet could not detect the pen tip but the eraser tip was still working.

It’s an old model which I bought on 2002 (Wacom Graphire 2) and the replacement pen cost around 40 Euro 😯

Now I am using a mouse.

Three years ago, I decided to stop using computer mouse and rely 100% on my Tablet. Actually, I was training my eye-hand coordination using the tablet. I found it’s more natural to use a pen so since then, I stick with it. It’s also good for your wrist since I read somewhere that you could reduce the risk of getting Carpal Tunnel.

I plan to buy a new tablet later (maybe the Wacom Bamboo) so it’s worth it to try repairing the pen 😛

Click more to see my step-by-step instruction (with photos) how to fix a broken Wacom Pen 🙄

Disassembling the Pen

Just pull the part which has erase tip on it. Do not twist it coz the pen will break. If your hand is sweating you can try to use rubber glove for a better grip.

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In order to pull out the electronic board, you have to take off the pen buttons. Just carefully use a screwdriver to peel off the button.

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Now pull the board slowly and put it on a safe place. The electronic part looks fragile so you might have to handle it with care.

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Fixing the Broken Black-Iron-Thingy

As you can see from the photo below, the black iron near the pen tip is broken. This fragile part is easily broken if you drop the pen. Luckily, I found on the Internet that someone has successfully super-glued that part and the pen works 🙂

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Super Glue Saves the Day

Unplug the pen tip (the pointy white plastic part) before you superglue the iron part. Just put a few drops on the crack and push the iron thing with your thumb so the crack is close together. Hold that position for 40 seconds until the glue is dry. (Note: Please be careful with the glue. Later in this post, you will know that I’ve messed up the glue)

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Is It Working?

After I put all parts together, I tested my Wacom Tablet. It worked :)) !!! The cursor moved responding to my pen tip position.

However, when the pen tip touch the tablet surface, the tablet failed to detect a mouse click.

There was still a problem with the pen tip 😕

When I unassembled the pen, I realized that the pen tip plastic part was accidentally glued to the iron part. I think, the glue wasn’t dry enough when I put the pen tip back. The result, the pen tip was glued to the iron part and get stuck. The pen tip cannot detect the pen pressure since it cannot move anymore 🙁

Lessons of the Day

  • Be careful when gluing the broken part. Make sure you are not gluing unnecessary parts 🙄
  • If you rarely use the erase tip (like me), have a lot of time and soldering skills, you might try to unsolder the erase tip part (including the black iron part) and solder it back to the pen tip side. It seems that the iron parts from pen and eraser tip are the same. Maybe they’re interchangeable?
  • Never drop your Wacom pen 😛

Update (May 2009): I add a new post about soldering the erase part to the front , replacing the pen part.

173 thoughts on “Fixing a Broken Wacom Pen

    • WELL, i succefully opened a pen from genius but i have no ideea what i should fix.
      if you have the same kind of pen, get out the buttons with something sharp,get out the batery aand the plastic end,where you have the tip,and then you got just the main part,is a metalic thing where you pulled out the batery,now you have to take it and pull it out and all the circuit will come out.

  1. Okay, so on mine the small buttons that are on the microcip lookin’ part of the pen have fallen off, but I still have all of the pieces, but I need to figure out a way to re-attach them

  2. The broken part is actually a weak magnet. Once it’s broken, it’s done for.

    I actually have exp on this since my graphire 3 pen broke. I used super glue to reattach the two parts, it did work but the sensitivity is “crippled” for good. The only way to fix it is to replace the whole magnet. I’m not sure if there are stores that sells that specific part but hey, there’s always a way with internet. Or for quick remedy, you can transfer the eraser part to the front but you’ll loose the eraser function in the process.

  3. Greetings from the distant future date of 2015- just thought I’d say that your post here is still helping people fix their wacom pens all these years later. ^_^
    Fortunately the magnet core on the pen for my intuos 4 wasn’t broken, but you did help me figure out the problem: the core had popped loose from its mounting somehow, so that it was bouncing around like it had been broken. Firmly reseating it (and making sure it stayed that way as I put the case back together) seems to have done the trick.

  4. 2016 – great fix although I think Intuos have changed their model making taking it apart a new challenge. They appear to have pressed the two sections together. I don’t know if I’ll be able to disassemble it.
    2008 – otherwise a fabulous post

  5. Hi! I looked at this and I tried it. My pen works fine when drawing, but the lines are coming out weirdly and the buttons only makes it stop in it’s tracks while it should be moving the canvas around so any tips/ways to fix it?

  6. thank you for this information. Im not sure if my pen broke or my software broke. I opened up the pen and checked it, everything looks fine. I restarted and the pen started to partially work again. Not sure if it was the restart or opening it up 🙁 Now the pen works but the buttons on the side don’t. Could I have broken the buttons when I opened it up? They look fine but Im not sure.

  7. You gave me the bravery to open up my pen and find that one of the plastic pieces had cracked… just wrapped some tape around it, and now the nib is working fine!!

    Thanks for all the photos to show your process, that really helped!

  8. Greetings from the distant future of 2017!
    I had a slightly different problem: my old nib broke (on an old black and green Bamboo pen circa 2014) and was so flush with the pen that I couldn’t remove it. I thought I would have to buy a new pen, but then found out that I could open up the pen and remove the nib like that. I tired to find out how to open it up without breaking the pen and this article helped! Thank you!

  9. В процессе длительной эксплуатации планшета Wacom Intuos3 у прежде ладно сбитого пера Grip Pen мало-помалу начал разбалтываться грифель.

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