First time filling experience.

[diyandsave$]

Hi All, based on what I read here and elsewhere over the last few months I have started refilling. Canon CLI-8 OEM carts, German method, IS inks from Precision Colors. Here is my experience and observations. If I repeat information found elsewhere, please forgive me.

I started by gathering the supplies. Included was a few OEM carts from e_bay, just over 2 complete sets. I flushed and cut open one of the extra cartridge to see how it looked inside. The window that you have to pass the needle through is about 1/8" x 1/4" plus a shallow groove in the bottom. There are 3 parts to the sponge, the oval bottom pill/outlet, the soft center ink holding sponge and the top hard/coarse vent sponge (I'm guessing at the exact purposes). As I couldn't find the 2"+ needles for the method I have chosen, I made some. I measured the needles that PC sent me in my kit and ordered the hypodermic tubing that would fit inside, 21 gauge. 60" was about $12 from small parts via amazon. The tubing is hard and had to be cut with a dremel. I cut the larger needles shorter and glued the new tips in. The tips were pointed and then softened (rounded the keenness off) to aid in passing through the sponges. A hole was drilled through the end at an angle with a 1/32" drill and a pin vise. It was about the level of the split line between the 2 main sponges and aimed at the window into the holding tank. I flushed a set of carts and dried them by blowing through the vent and out the bottom, then wicked the sponges using the paper towel method and letting them sit in the sun. Then the carts were filled using the German method. I replaced 2 empty carts in my printer and refilled them also. All went well except for a couple of notes that follow.

Three things were observed during the refill. 1. the sponges were slow/resistant to absorb fresh ink. I believe this was because I over dried the sponges. As the conditioning fluid (by Pharm. I believe) was not on hand, I injected more ink as I withdrew the needle through the sponge. In hind sight, dripping ink onto the outlet sponge should also have worked. 2. If the needle isn't completely into the ink tank when you inject then part of the ink will go directly into the sponges. 3. One of the empty carts I pulled from the printer had just emptied the ink tank, this cart wanted to puke old ink out while being filled. This may have been from too much ink still in the sponges. In the future I will let the printer go for a few more prints after a cart shows empty to dry up the sponges a bit more. Maybe by using a paper towel to blotter test the outlet I can tell how dry the sponge is.

Any advise or comments would be appreciated.

Thank you for all the help nifty-stuff has been and will be, DIY.

 

[mikling]

What you experienced with the sponge being wet when using the German method is one of the biggest problems that many face when using this method.

Now what you might not have realized is that if you intend to use the printer a lot or hold it for a long time, you'd need to watch how much ink is dumped into the ink absorber pad. Once that absorber pad is full, the alternatives are not many and not easy.

To prolong the life of the pad, you really want to top up all the other low cartridges and reset them at the same time. This way the other low in ink level colors will not come up for refilling soon. But the German method of refilling is going to cause more work to do that because all the other low but not empty cartridges are likely to spew ink ink you experienced. On printers with as many as 8 cartridges, it is something to consider.. Each time, you open the hood to remove and replace one cartridge, the printer runs a small clean cycle for ALL the cartridges.

Say, you photomagenta comes up for refill. The photocyan might also be 90% empty and the yellow also 80% empty. Your best bet is to refill and reset ALL that are more than 50% empty or even 40% empty. To avoid successive requirements to open the hood.


Others will have other opinions

BTW. the 2" needles are available for little $ from the same place you got the ink. That would have made the experience more pleasant.

 

[diyandsave$]

Mikling, thank you for the advise. As I plan on keeping the printer as long as possible, I will limit my ink changes to any that are lower then 50% when 1 goes empty. I may even pick up a spare printer if I come across a deal.

Can the waste sponge be serviced or replaced by a catch bottle?

Thanks, DIY.

 

[The Hat]

Mikling, thank you for the advise. As I plan on keeping the printer as long as possible, I will limit my ink changes to any that are lower then 50% when 1 goes empty. I may even pick up a spare printer if I come across a deal.

Can the waste sponge be serviced or replaced by a catch bottle?

Thanks, DIY.

You have missed the point entirely on refilling, yes change out all or any half filled cartridges
when one single cartridge is showing low which will in turn preserve your ink pads.

But your problem then is how to refill your half filled cartridges without making a mess all over the place,
save your ink pad and spill the ink on your floor, thats some alternative.

Its a catch 22 situation youre in, you either change your cartridges one by one and wait till they are down to showing low ink
or change your refilling methods to the top filling way, the top fill can handle half filled cartridges without making a mess.

The waste pads can be replaced or washed and reused and a catch bottle is not a huge success on Canon printers.
Just something to think about while mopping up the latest spill..

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Each time you open the hood to remove and replace one cartridge, the printer runs a small clean cycle for ALL the cartridges.

That's actually not true of all printers. My HP C309a doesn't do that if you put the same cartridge back in. How do I know? The proof is in weighing the cartridges.

 

[mikling]

OK, now did you weigh it before or after the next print request. It is likely that when a request is sent to the printer, it will then proceed to perform the prime.

The last few days I have noticed this all the time with the Pro-100. It might not do it immediately but upon sending a file to print, it then does it.

 

[diyandsave$]

Hat, perhaps I wasn't clear. It wasn't messy, the cart would bubble up out the outlet during fill because the sponge was saturated. But only if I filled too fast, I slowed down and everything was fine. Please correct me if I am wrong, you favor top filling cli-8 carts. I have an extra set of carts and may try top filling at some time soon. I have learned a lot here and will learn more without doubt.

DYI.

 

[Tin Ho]

The waste ink tank (not really a tank but a huge spongy pad to hold up waste ink) is quite large in Canon printers. I have not had any of mine getting full. A few of my printers are from 2006 or 2007 era. I do not do cleaning cycles unless it is absolutely necessary. People who keep doing cleaning cycles are the ones with the waste ink tank full issue.

Why would people keep doing cleaning cycles? I can think of a few reasons. Ink quality is number one. If ink flow is not right due to poor ink quality there will be clogging problems and the result is excessive cleaning cycles by the owner. Another likely cause is use of problematic cartridges that result in incorrect ink flow. The other frequent cause is incorrect refill process, such as improper sealing if top filled or repeatedly leaving the sponge not adequately saturated by the German refill method. One of the reasons I like the top fill method is I can always easily make sure the sponge gets enough ink to rejuvenate its level of saturation. It keeps the sponge from drying up (on the upper portion) which prevents it from choking up the entire sponge resulting in an ink flow problem.