Like may others I have been attracted to these forums by the excellent advice with a personal stress on printing economy. I had been using prefilled bulk third part Canon cartridges from a reviewed vendor. But recent favorable posts prompted me to try ordering a hobbicolor kit so I could try refilling. I had tried refilling HP and Lexmark cartridges some years back and made a total botch of it.
So I was motivated to get things right----and ordered a 4&5 color kit from Hobbicolors for my two Canon
printers.---which Hobbicolors promptly shipped---with all ordered components there--so no complaints there--and each kit had a printed intruction manual which I read and re-read as I wanted to get things right.
I had been waiting to get a low ink warning on one of the bulk ink cartridges that were working well in my printers to provide the motivation to actually take the plunge but had the time on my hand s yesterday so I decide to get some of the virgin cartridges prefilled so I could have them ready.
While the Hobbicolors instructions says "Please observe the clear plastic tape and the tiny air vent underneath the tape towards the rear end of the tape and on top of thecartridge"------a somewhat vague sentence that says observe (why?) but does not say remove tape---nor is the sentence accurate because the tape is inboard of and does not cover the air vent----and hence the air vent is not underneath the tape. But I did not remove the clear plastic tape and Dave at Hobbicolors has conformed that is correct.
A very brief synopsis of the hobbicolors instructions for a virgin BCI-6 cartridge is as follows (1) Leave inklet inlet cap on, remove ink inlet screw above the reserve section. (2) Without sealing the air vent inject 8 cc of ink into the reserve tank-----wait some time and the ink should self transfer to the sponge section---with the sponge being "70-80% saturated at that point." (3) Using tape or thumb pressure seal the air vent---and inject about 6 cc of ink--or until the the reserve tank is 90% full.---but don't put a total of more than 15cc of ink into the BCI-6 cartridge (4) Replace the screw above the reserve tank----and the virgin cartridge refill process is complete. Except for removing the tape blocking the vent---but I'll leave the air vent sealing tape on until I get ready to use the cartridge.
But ideally the instructions seem to say you will have a reserve tank 90% full and a sponge section about 80% saturated.-----which is how some of my unused third party cartridges appear.
In practice I got different results------I injected the initial eight cc of ink into the reserve tank without sealing the air vent------in about a minute or so-------the reserve tank completely emptied as the ink
was wicked into the sponge---and the sponge was completely infused with color---no visable off white sponge was to be seen from a top or side view.-----I then sealed the air vent with scotch tape and injected another 6 cc of ink which filled the reserve tank about 80% full--and it took another 1 cc to get the reserve section to the recommended 90% level. So I replaced the screw and repeated the process with the identical results for the total of 7 BCI-6 cartridges in the kit-----in all cases the sponge 100%
color infused after the injection of the initial 8cc-------a later inspection shows no liquid ink
in the small air gap between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge --and all dye based colors--cymk --behaved basically the same.
The larger BCI-3eblk virgin cartridges behaved in a somewhat similar manner---injected an intial 16cc
with an unsealed air vent---sponge showed 100% ink saturation from a side view but some white sponge could be seen from a top view------took almost 28cc to get the reserve tank up to even 80% after the air vent was sealed----again no liquid ink shows in the air gap between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge.-----and the sponge now looks black from the top view.
Emailed Dave at Hobbicolrs noting the sponge saturation anomoly---he found no fault in my technique but basically recommended some slight squeezes to the cartridges when I do remove the ink outlet cap. And over the correct ink bottle so I can reuse the what if anything that drips out.
But I write this somewhat longish post to alert some that all may not go as indicated or for any who do critque the technique used.
So I was motivated to get things right----and ordered a 4&5 color kit from Hobbicolors for my two Canon
printers.---which Hobbicolors promptly shipped---with all ordered components there--so no complaints there--and each kit had a printed intruction manual which I read and re-read as I wanted to get things right.
I had been waiting to get a low ink warning on one of the bulk ink cartridges that were working well in my printers to provide the motivation to actually take the plunge but had the time on my hand s yesterday so I decide to get some of the virgin cartridges prefilled so I could have them ready.
While the Hobbicolors instructions says "Please observe the clear plastic tape and the tiny air vent underneath the tape towards the rear end of the tape and on top of thecartridge"------a somewhat vague sentence that says observe (why?) but does not say remove tape---nor is the sentence accurate because the tape is inboard of and does not cover the air vent----and hence the air vent is not underneath the tape. But I did not remove the clear plastic tape and Dave at Hobbicolors has conformed that is correct.
A very brief synopsis of the hobbicolors instructions for a virgin BCI-6 cartridge is as follows (1) Leave inklet inlet cap on, remove ink inlet screw above the reserve section. (2) Without sealing the air vent inject 8 cc of ink into the reserve tank-----wait some time and the ink should self transfer to the sponge section---with the sponge being "70-80% saturated at that point." (3) Using tape or thumb pressure seal the air vent---and inject about 6 cc of ink--or until the the reserve tank is 90% full.---but don't put a total of more than 15cc of ink into the BCI-6 cartridge (4) Replace the screw above the reserve tank----and the virgin cartridge refill process is complete. Except for removing the tape blocking the vent---but I'll leave the air vent sealing tape on until I get ready to use the cartridge.
But ideally the instructions seem to say you will have a reserve tank 90% full and a sponge section about 80% saturated.-----which is how some of my unused third party cartridges appear.
In practice I got different results------I injected the initial eight cc of ink into the reserve tank without sealing the air vent------in about a minute or so-------the reserve tank completely emptied as the ink
was wicked into the sponge---and the sponge was completely infused with color---no visable off white sponge was to be seen from a top or side view.-----I then sealed the air vent with scotch tape and injected another 6 cc of ink which filled the reserve tank about 80% full--and it took another 1 cc to get the reserve section to the recommended 90% level. So I replaced the screw and repeated the process with the identical results for the total of 7 BCI-6 cartridges in the kit-----in all cases the sponge 100%
color infused after the injection of the initial 8cc-------a later inspection shows no liquid ink
in the small air gap between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge --and all dye based colors--cymk --behaved basically the same.
The larger BCI-3eblk virgin cartridges behaved in a somewhat similar manner---injected an intial 16cc
with an unsealed air vent---sponge showed 100% ink saturation from a side view but some white sponge could be seen from a top view------took almost 28cc to get the reserve tank up to even 80% after the air vent was sealed----again no liquid ink shows in the air gap between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge.-----and the sponge now looks black from the top view.
Emailed Dave at Hobbicolrs noting the sponge saturation anomoly---he found no fault in my technique but basically recommended some slight squeezes to the cartridges when I do remove the ink outlet cap. And over the correct ink bottle so I can reuse the what if anything that drips out.
But I write this somewhat longish post to alert some that all may not go as indicated or for any who do critque the technique used.