Cartridge dries out! I think?

[gfreed]

I have a old HP 2410 and I refilled the color cartridge and got it working perfectly. After a day or two the color will not print correctly. Tests indicate that some of the ink jets are not working. I then talk the cartridge out and pressurize the tanks having the problems expelling a drop or two of ink from the malfunctioning jet arrays. I then clean the ink jet head off and reinstall the cartridge and do an alignment and it works great for another couple of days. When the cartridge parks is there something that is supposed to seal the heads? I looked with a big bright flash light and found that when you turn the printer off with the carts removed a tray slides forward with what look head seals used when the heads are parked. I cleaned then with cotton swaps and water. I also found that if you leave the printer on all the time it takes a long time for the heads to PARK and seal so I turned the printer off after using it. Anyone got some more ideas? I would sure like to get some new rubber head sealers. I would also like to give that printer and good cleaning but I would have to disassemble the printer to do that and I need a manual.

 

[tigerwan]

Ok, those would be the 56 & 57 cartridges, the color cartridge has to be primed after filling, to remove any air lock which would do exactly as you described. Also these cartridges can only be refilled 3 or 4 times before the sponge inside won't accept any more ink, when this happends, you either have to buy a new cartridge or flush out the old one. You can purchase a purging tool online at Atlantic Inkjet, I beleive they are around $5-$10.00. Pressurizing will not do the job properly.

 

[gfreed]

Oh wow I've refilled these cartridges, what, maybe 15 or more times! I put the ink in and my wife uses it all up! I had no idea there was a limit! No wonder I've been fighting with them all this time! Probably need that purge tool!

 

[tigerwan]

Have you noticed each time you try to refill the cartridge seems to take less and less ink? The color should take 5-6cc each color, and the black should take 16-18cc. If the don't, then they need to be replaced, or flushed out.

 

[gfreed]

No so far it seems to swallow lots of ink! I give it a shot and let it sit for awhile then give it more. Then I let the head drip, it likes to drip for a bit. Then I give it just a little pressure to get out a couple of drops more. I found the primer tools, don't see anything that cleans the sponge inside the cart! So far I've left the fill holes open so the cart can get air as the ink level drops. Are you supposed to leave the holes open or should I tape them up? Oh, BTW this cart is the one that came with the printer its got to be 5 years old or more. I looked at an MSDS sheet and flush consist of 75% DI water and 22% isopropyl Alcohol and blue dye to make it pretty! I guess you just shoot it in and then pull it back out again until it cleans up. I'm guessing here but I bet you can use the primer to run some of the flush through the heads.

 

[tigerwan]

5 years old eh, could be it's just on it's way out, the print head may be going. Yes leave the vent holes open. The reason it drips is from over filling it, good thing you leave it to drip for a while. Another way is to suck 1cc of ink back into the syringe, that is if you don't want to wait for the dripping to stop. And lastly, there is no tool for flushing the cartridges, there are machines for that, but usually they are used by professional remanufacturers. It is very time consuming to take the cartridge top off and take out the sponges, wash them, flush the inside of the cartridge, dry the spnges, and re-insert them, refill the cartridge, then glue the top back on, and test. That is why I thought it best for you, to replace the cartridge, just buy a remanufactured one, it's cheaper.

 

[gfreed]

Its the challenge to see just how long I can keep this wee beasty working. Right now its working great, it just doesn't last more then a couple of days. I've always had problems with the color carts. The black carts always run forever and run great. I think when this printer dies I going to go LASER! Who needs color anyway? That's part of my problem I never use color so the cart clogs up. My wife tells me the printer is about seven years old and I've never replaced those carts. I really would like to clean all those rubber parts I see in the printer as they are just covered with ink. Looks like they maybe removable. If I can get then out a little hot soapy water would do wonders for them. Like every printer I've ever seen this one also has a drip pad but it doesn't come out. I got some long needle nosed pliers and I tried gently pulling on the pad to see if I can extract it for cleaning. The pad doesn't seem to want to come up. The last printer I worked on was an ASR-35 when I was in the Navy. Look it up they were fun machines to play with and very mechanical!

 

[tigerwan]

HP considers these printers "disposable" so there are no service manuals for them. If you want to take it apart to clean it, you'll have to wing it...lol. I was thinking on your colour cartridge problem, what ink are you using for refills? Who makes it? or where did you buy it? And how long have you had it?

 

[gfreed]

HP considers these printers "disposable" so there are no service manuals for them. If you want to take it apart to clean it, you'll have to wing it...lol. I was thinking on your colour cartridge problem, what ink are you using for refills? Who makes it? or where did you buy it? And how long have you had it?

Ok my wife got the refill kit at Office Depot. Its the Automatic Refill kit by Dataproducts http://www.dpc.com/airs.asp and the ink is Dye based. I called the manufacturer and they said the ink comes from either one of two sources. Ink Station or I Print are the two ink providers she mentioned however I don't think they make their own ink. Its probably some kind of Chinese product as every thing is from China these days. I base this on the price of the product, good photo quality ink is expensive and this stuff was like $14 dollars. Each tank contains 84ml of ink enough to refill the cartridge a number of times. I've had this ink for a year or so! Its totally sealed up to the point where I can not use this product as intended. It will not fill a cartridge all the way. What I do is to use a needle and suck the ink out through the rubber primer devices on the top of the unit. I then inject the ink directly into the cartridge and that fills it then I let it sit and drip.

I really don't like the idea of DISPOSABLE printers! Wasteful to the extreme in my opinion. I mean the idea of tossing a printer because a rubber roller needs replacing is absurd. We used to get this stuff called Rubber Revive to help keep the rollers soft enough to pick up the paper. Can't find Rubber Revive anymore! We also used to use this stuff called "Blue Shower tech spray" This stuff was just great for cleaning pots and variable resistor packs or whatever you wanted to clean but alas it contained 1,1,1, trichloroethane, good stuff for electronics, bad stuff for people!

I love and miss vacuum tubes!

 

[mikling]

I think rubber revive fumes are a carcinogen.......causes cancer. I used to use that for my older cassette recorders. Remember those?