Hot bath and/or alcohol fix for tired carts

[fotofreek]

Sorry to start a new thread, but I couldn't find where this info left off. I have some Canon BCI 6 carts that have been refilled seven or eight times that are not feeding as well as they should. When you do the hot bath trick do you first seal the exit port or do you submerge the cart in water with the port open? I was going to simply put it in a zip lock baggie before submerging it.

 

[Grandad35]

Fotofreek,

I have recently tried the microwave, as suggested by Craig, and it is a lot easier than using hot water.
1. Put 5-10 drops of alcohol onto the filter of each cart to be conditioned (with the cart turned upside down for this step).
2. Seal the exit port, but leave the vent (and refill hole, if there is one at this time) open.
3. Put as many carts as you want to heat right-side-up in a food container with a lid that is not completely sealed to contain any mess - just in case.
4. Put a large glass of water in the microwave along with the container of carts - the large mass of water in the glass absorbs most of the energy so the carts will heat more slowly. Also, you can damage the microwave tube if the "load" is very small.
5. Start with a 10 second heating cycle, then test the carts to see how warm they are.
6. Repeat with short bursts of heat until you get the carts to the desired temperature (about 150 degrees F - 65 degrees C), .
7. If some carts get hot faster than others, just remove the hot carts and repeat with the cooler carts.
8. Once the carts are at the desired temperature, let them set in the food container until they cool - they will stay warm longer in the food container.
9. Be sure to let the alcohol that was put in the filter drip out before using the carts. Normally, you can do this by leaving the exit port open for a short time while you are refilling. You can also blow into the vent if you aren't refilling the carts.

BTW - can you describe your symptoms that indicate that the carts aren't working as well as before? Are some colors more of a problem than other colors?

 

[fotofreek]

This happened a few weeks ago and I posted my problem on another long thread. After removing, quickly refilling and replacing the whole set of carts I got banding After a cleaning cycle, good print head check, and purge print, the banding actually got a bit worse (as I recall.) I removed the whole set and put a full set of newly MIS filled MIS virging carts which are working perfectly. I then blew through the air vent holes of the old carts as you suggested to see which carts flowed less freely than others. As it turned out, the only one that flowed with not much air pressure applied was the Magenta cart. The other five flowed less easily. This test didn't serve to isolate the one cart that is probably the problem. Possibly some ink that had dried in the exit filter area so that there is more resistance to ink flow. Possibly from being in and out of the printer to be refilled. These carts have been used continuously for about six months with MIS refill ink and have worked flawlessly until the banding started. I'm certainly not reluctant to discard one or all of them and start over with either someone's virgin carts, filled carts which can then be refilled, or a new set of OEM carts to start the cycle over again. Would be nice however, if I could, with little time spent, get these going again, but not essential. I also have a dozen Alotofthings carts, but I haven't opened the boxes yet due to Rob's report about some of them not feeding properly when first installed. I haven't seen him post a followup to see if, after opening the fill hole and watching the ink level in the reservoir drop, they worked ok. I followed your thread on the dissection of these carts and the smaller air vent channels. I have also seen posts to the printer newsgroup from people who have used the Arrow carts with no problems at all and excellent color balance (Formulabs inks).

 

[Nifty]

fotofreek, I answered your question here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1092#p1092

I'd really appreciate it if you opened up one of these sets to verify my statements and compare your experiences to mine.

 

[fotofreek]

Sorry, Nifty, so much information, so little gray matter to hold it all! I'm planning to use the Arrow carts on my wife's printer and her printing volume is so little that it may be a while before I use one. The reason I will use these carts on hers is that I am continuing to use MIS inks on mine but don't want to get into refilling for her printer. I will, however, open some of them in the next few days and pull the fill plug to see if the reservoir level drops. I'll report back.

 

[fotofreek]

Nifty - I opened two arrow carts - a black and a magenta. Opened the air vent and the fill hole and the reservoir ink level did drop. Looks like a little more than an eighth of an inch. I peeled the label back just enough to get to the fill hole plug and the label wouldn't stick back down after replacing the plug. In your experience, does the plug in these carts create a good seal without tape over it? I put some duct tape over the plug and the vent hole to store the carts till I need them. It seems that messing with the label might eventually loosen it enough to expose the air vent. I'd appreciate your feedback. I do have drc023's pdf file on refilling and he suggests not using the factory fill hole. He makes his own and seals it. I bought stainless #6 screws that have a small drill tip. I may try them to make their own hole and then use the "O" ring/screw trick to seal.

 

[Nifty]

Do you have the arrow carts with the tapered rubber translucent plug in the fill hole? I've found that putting this tapered plug back into the fill hole creates a pretty good seal and then some duct tape for insurance.

BUT... if you have the screws and o-ring, you are in luck. The #6 screw and #60 o-ring fit perfectly into the arrow cartridge refill hole once the plug is removed. This refill hole is smaller than the refill holes in the OEM carts, so the screw doesn't fit in those and you need to create a new hole in the OEM carts.

Hope that helps!

 

[fotofreek]

Forgot to mention that when I removed the magenta arrow cart from its holder some ink did drip out of the exit port - that is before I opened the air vent or fill hole. I blotted it a few times and it didn't drip anymore. I then put it back into the holder and opened the fill hole and removed the vent seal strip and watched the ink level drop about 1/8 inch. I didn't remove the black cart from its holder when I opened the vent and fill holes. Got the same ink level drop.

These arrow carts do have the tapered translucent plugs. I will probably use the screw/O ring seal as I wear gloves for the entire process and duct tape sticks very tenaciously to them.

 

[fotofreek]

Granddad - I did the whole treatment on my 8 month old set of OEM carts that had many MIS refills. Before doing anything I opened the exit port and blew into the air vents. The ones that had been removed and filled the most, light cyan and light magenta, were also the most free flowing! I was surprised. Perhaps that is due to their having lower dye loads and therefore less dye material to harden in the filters. I steamed and alchoholed the filters, microwaved, refilled with some dripping to purge the alchohol-thinned ink in the filter. All were improved substqntially (the least improved, oddly enough, was the PM cart) and will be used when i need to refill the MIS virgin carts with MIS inks that are currently in the printer. Thanks for pulling all the info together in one post for me.

Nifty - I mentione months ago that the Computer Friends plugs worked as Neil said for OEM carts, but that one kept creeping out of the fill hole. You mentioned that the hole was probably too small. When I was working on the carts today I got my drill bit set out and checked the fill hole sizes of the six OEM carts. Two of them were constricted at the bottom. Apparently, when you drive the plastic ball into the cart to permit refilling there is a little shelf that must usually break off to give you a full diameter hole that seals well with the CF plugs. A 5/32 drill fit all the holes except the one that the plug didn't work well with. I used the drill to ream the bottom of the errant fill hole and now the plug works just fine. These are great for OEM carts. Too bad the MIS and Arrow cart plugs don't have a tab on top like the CF blue plugs do. They would be easier to manage. Even easier than the screw/O ring.

 

[Nifty]

They would be easier to manage. Even easier than the screw/O ring.

BLASPHEMY!!!

I may have to have somebody send me a couple of these in the mail to test out... <HINT HINT>