Epson printheads Usage History Sheet and poor nozzle check

[PeterBJ]

Could we have the recipe for your cleaning fluid, please?

 

[guymark]

At this stage I am VERY happy to give the product away totally free to anyone on here in exchange for an SAE but as it has outperformed pretty much everything else I have tried in the past and I have spent around 150-200 hours in trying different ratios to clean dried ink, heated dried ink, stale ink and so on over the last few months, I thought I may end up selling it online directly and via Ebay / Amazon etc. As such, really do not want the full details to become available publicly.

As I say though, anyone on here who would like some totally free - only has to pop me an SAE to get some. I thought that was a reasonably fair deal. I mentioned the concentration of NH4OH so people would know it was a low level - and could take a view on whether to use it or not. Interestingly, increased levels of ammonia did NOT have a significantly improved cleaning effect overall - though were better for "non-contact cleaning" - using vapour as you might imagine.

Hope that seems reasonable

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

is it with NaOH or Ammonia as one/the active ingredient ?

 

[guymark]

Sorry, long day already. AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE - NH4OH, not NaOH !!!

Will confirm ZERO sodium hydroxide present - I will edit other post to clarify

 

[PeterBJ]

And isn't the alcohol the more common and less expensive 2-Propanol AKA Isopropanol AKA Isopropyl Alcohol?

 

[guymark]

I don't understand you.
Are you asking if propan-1-ol is the same as propan-2-ol ?

 

[PeterBJ]

Propan-1-ol is another name for Propyl Alcohol. The OH group is attached to the first Carbon atom. Propan-2-ol is another name for Isopropyl Alcohol which has the OH group attached to the second Carbon atom. Propan-2-ol is more common and less expensive than Propan-1-ol, and its properties are similar to those of Propan-1-ol.

 

[guymark]

Yes, they are similar (very in many ways) and I know most companies use the cheaper prop-2 in their formulation because of that.

For that matter, as you know, methanol is similar in many ways to ethanol - but is a grim compound if ingested due primarily to its metabolites (and I do not use any methanol before you ask).

When I used to supply nitrous oxide to folks running performance vehicles for track use at Santapod (local race strip), I used to blend octane booster for people depending on the PN they required, the fuel injection system they had and any other requirements they had. These vehicles were "dual fuel" - and used super unleaded" fuel most of the time and whatever they required from a race tank on track days. It is true that toluene and xylene are similar in many ways -(assuming mixed isomers with xylene) - as are the aforementioned methanol and ethanol. But they are all different in some ways and have contrasting properties. Even cautious use of acetone (and more besides) all have their uses in raising octane. BUT although many of them are similar, some of the compounds (all solvents of course) would attack different parts of the fuel system above a given percentage, others would make the engine harder to start above a given percentage (toluene esp), others would help to mitigate that due to being more volatile - so would be added to the blend and the RON or R+M/2 recalculated.

We had some folks with fuel blended with little more than just toluene, others wanted to lean out their engine a little as well as increase octane so we would add something with a lower energy density like methanol or ethanol. Alas these were not compatible with some fuel system depending on the pipe work etc. Many similar(ish) products, were blended to get exactly what was needed. We even did two-part boosters - both at the same PN rating BUT one with a lower energy density so they could blend their octane booster to suit a leaner burn - but still maintain the same PN value.

But yes, bog standard toluene "would have done" for most people I guess - "it's all similar insofar as it raises octane". We *could* have just handed it over to everyone and many people would have probably never known the difference - but they paid for a custom blend to give them the edge - got it and came back for more.

Same with head cleaner really, I spent a LOT of time trying different amounts of different solvents on dye ink, pigment ink. All of them will remove a "mini clog" caused by a little dot of semi-dried ink. Not all will do much to a surface where ink has been (literally) baked on to simulate a thermal printhead that has part blocked and then dry fired.

I wanted to try for a little better than "average mix = average results".

Clearly if someone wants to mix up some "rubbing alcohol, steam iron water and Windex", that is absolutely their choice - and it will probably work as well as most of the head cleaners around in fairness - at a push people often get away with standing a head in tap water!

But I used prop-1 deliberately - not because I wanted to spend money