Home made ultisonic cleaner?

[Craig Ross]

Well not quite
after recieving an email from inkdoodle about how good his new ultisonic cleaner worked, 2 to 3 secs to
clean a head and after I was stuggling with a couple of stubborn hp 57 carts refusing to ink even after
half a dozen re-soak re-steam re-prime efforts I was thinking maybe their not such a bad idea but I
needed to do these carts now so I looked around my junk pile, opps spare parts collection and came up
with an aquarium pump with a tray on top full of alcohol it was humming away nicely for 30 minutes
on these carts and low and behold in my test printer they arced up straight away thinking this may be
just coincedence given the work already done on them I got an old cart probabably 12 months or more older
that I didn't refill because it,s case was marked, same procedure and it worked fine.
I think I might add this $2 piece of equipment next to my second hand $5 steam humidifier as standard
refilling procedure. But an utrisonic cleaner still sounds good despite the claims of ink desolving fluid
resellers.

 

[tyamada]

I have a one gallon ultasonic cleaner by Branson, I've had limited success with cleaning Canon printer heads. I cleaned about 10 heads so far with a succes rate of 50%. The ones I cleaned required more than 2-3 seconds, they were in the cleaner for over 1/2 hour. Thats when the ink stopped coming off the print head. You would be supprised how much ink is actually in the print head. I Haven't had to clean any print heads recently because using the printer software to clean the heads has done the trick.

 

[Grandad35]

Craig - That's the ultimate in recycling used parts.

This question may be a little OT, but I've noticed that the print head for my i9900 has something loose inside that rattles when the head is shaken. Does anyone have an idea what this is, and is it normal? It doesn't seem to affect the printing.

One time I tried the "suck cleaning fluid through the nozzles instead of pushing it through" technique using my hand vacuum pump. There must be a check valve in each ink passage that will not allow reverse flow, as I could pump a high vacuum that only dropped VERY slowly. Is it possible that the rattling that I hear is the check valve assembly? Has anyone ever take a Canon print head apart to see what is inside?

 

[Craig Ross]

Grandad I have pulled apart a Canon head and there are no moving parts or parts that can get loose
just ink channels leading to the thermal printhead which also has no moving parts and far as I can
see no valves involved

 

[Craig Ross]

tymada
On ultrasonic cleaners cleaners I can get a cheap jewlery cleaning unit for $40 dollars on ebay
but these operate at 45 hz and I,ve been advised that cart heads require a gentler 80 hz less than this can
damage the head but are much more expensive $500 plus
any posts on ultrasonic know how would be good

 

[Craig Ross]

yes! I made it from inkjet newbie to participator thats going on my bussiness card

 

[Nifty]

LOL!! That's a good one Craig. If you are wise and trusted maybe someday you can advance to the level of "InkJet Guru"

Actually I think I may switch the "rankings" around a bit, add new ones, etc. any suggestions? NOTE: Since Craig started this topic he can take us off course if he wants.

 

[tyamada]

Craig:

If you do a search for Branson on Google you will get a listing for their ultrasonic cleaners.
I saw a couple for under $100.00, however I didn't check on the specifications.
Branson used to sell direct to the public but, now I only see e-tailers selling their products.
Here are some links:
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82413
http://www.bestlabdeals.com/SearchResults.asp?mfg=Branson+Ultrasonics+Corporation