maybe a stupid question but here goes

[keastman]

I'm looking at refilling my carts for a canon 4300 since I had problems with ones that I transfered chips on and have since replaced with Canon carts. My question is, why can't you just inject the ink into the resivior through the air bleed hole on top of the cartridge. I see that most techniques require you to drill a new hole +/- plug the hole after refilling. What advantage is there to drilling a hole? Thanks in advance. Kevin

 

[billkunert]

That air bleed hole doesn't go straight into the resevoir. It is used to equalize pressure in the two chambers and works its way across the top of the cartridge. It's not a straight path. There are diagrams of a cutaway canon cart on one of these printing websites.

 

[Grandad35]

Not only does the air vent have a serpentine path - it also leads to the wrong chamber. You need to inject ink into the empty "ink chamber", not the "sponge chamber". Here is a long thread on sealing the refill hole: (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=28)

 

[keastman]

thanks for the info, I knew it seemed too easy to try it.

 

[fotofreek]

Once you get into refilling, creating and subsequently sealing the fill hole is no big deal. I make the fill hole with a hot paperclip and enlarge it with the stainless steel pan head sheetmetal screw that cuts its own threads and then becomes the sealer with a tight fitting O-ring. Some use a flat head screw that has a taper under the screw head. They rely on the taper to press against the cart and effect a seal without an O-ring. I have found that the O-rings eventually stretch out and need to be replaced.

 

[Grandad35]

I would just add one thing to fotofreek's reply - I find that the self tapping sheet metal screws that most of us use will open up their own hole without the need for a heated paper clip. Just use a power screwdriver with the proper size bit (so that the screw is held securely on the bit) and there is no need to open a starter hole. Be careful, however, to stop driving the screw before the screw head bottoms or you can easily rip out the threads just formed in the plastic. The final tightening should always be done by hand.

I use the same power screwdriver to remove the screws when refilling, but always reinstall and tighten them by hand. If a hole does get stripped, just use a glue gun (like those shown at http://www.glu-stix.com/shop/page/category/Category/d3fe541817796be55d1d2419f65b1a35.html) to seal the stripped hole and move the refill screw to another location. If necessary, it is even possible to put the screw back into the same location after it is filled.

 

[fotofreek]

Grandad - if you use a small enough screw routinely and strip out the fill hole you can then move up to the next larger screw. I had some third party carts that required a larger screw and Oring combination than the ones I was using. I now keep both screw sizes available plus two sizes of Orings.

 

[Grandad35]

Grandad - if you use a small enough screw routinely and strip out the fill hole you can then move up to the next larger screw. I had some third party carts that required a larger screw and Oring combination than the ones I was using. I now keep both screw sizes available plus two sizes of Orings.

It's not often that I strip out a hole - maybe 2-3 times/year. A larger screw would certainly work, but I refill up to 7 carts as a group and would have a problem keeping track of which screw goes with which cart if the screws and holes were different sizes.

 

[Smile]

I'm looking at refilling my carts for a canon 4300 since I had problems with ones that I transfered chips on and have since replaced with Canon carts. My question is, why can't you just inject the ink into the resivior through the air bleed hole on top of the cartridge. I see that most techniques require you to drill a new hole +/- plug the hole after refilling. What advantage is there to drilling a hole? Thanks in advance. Kevin

You can only fill like that using vacuum chamber. Home made or not you nedd at least 0.8 to 1 athmosphere vacuum. You can use a container and a 50CC syringe with exaust valve. Or try oil bleed pump. Or reverse engineer a tire pump my mod here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2193

Did I mention you can avoid the dirty route of cartrige cleaning after certain number of refill if you vacuum fill them