Need to flush Precison refillable compatible 250 pgbk cart.

[pearlhouse]

Bought a set of 250 compatibles from precision colors. Ive only refilled each of them about 3 times. All of the sudden the pgbk started streaking and missing on a text doc I was printing. The cart was half full when I pulled it to take a look at it. Put it back in and printed a nozzle chk it appeared aok. Printed a second nozzle chk and the vertical black blocks on each side pgbk were scattered and weak in color.

Drew all the ink out of the cart and then forced air into the vent on top with the fill plug inserted. Did this a couple of times to force ink out of the sponge. Then refilled. First nozzle check was aok. Second one was also ok. Tried to print text doc first page was aok and second was back to blotchy.
Im thinking Ive got what precision colors calls foam in the sponge. So I would like to purge this cart and start over. Since the bottom of this cart is different (oblong) then my other carts from older printers my flushing device does not match up. Without making up another flushing device (I don't have extra clip for this cart to convert) Is there some other way I can flush this cart. I know this is different sponge material then Canons so do you think I can use pharmacists solution to rewet the sponge after flushing.

 

[websnail]

You could use a luer slip syringe and push that into the original fill hole in the top of the cartridge. It's not the outlet but it's still a reasonable access point to force then vac' cleaning solution in and out.

Electrical tape is sufficient to stretch across the opening outlet if you don't have a spare orange clip to seal it up and also works to seal vent hole.

It's not perfect by any stretch but it's better than nothing and you always flush cleaning solution out with the outlet open but the vent hole sealed.

 

[mikling]

One of the forgotten aspects of compatibles versus OEM is that they are never quite as good, reliable and consistent as a Canon OEM. However faced with the aspect that only compatibles appear practical on some models, we must deal with their shortcomings.

This occurrence demonstrates the shortcoming of the compatible but these shortcomings can be dealt with if we understand what the problem is.

Beyond the easily verifiable aspects of the fit and finish of the Canon OEM cart, there are some hidden things which we might have overlooked. Dual layer sponges, Sponge that are fibrous with oriented strands, deep slits on the reservoir separation wall and ink tunnel/bridge cut on the bottom of the cartridge feeding the sponge. Finally...probably not a factor in this situation, is the air serpentine tunnel on the top.

Compatibles:
First, what is likely causing the problem is that the cartridge is choking itself. What? you say? There is ink and sponge has been flushed. The sponge is not letting air into the reservoir chamber and thus ink is not coming out properly leading to ink/flow starvation. The sponge is fitted snugly into the chamber and it thus presses on the sides. If it presses on the sides a little too much and there is ink in the sponge, it seals the sides and it will not allow air through. Canon has two solutions to this. They have a much more porous upper layer sponge which easily lets air through to feed the slits on the wall and it also has deep cut slits on the separation wall to allow air past the sides to enter the ink reservoir. It does not end there though. The orientation of the fibres are longitudinal or horizontal and this is less likely to block the cuts. Furthermore, consider how a beaver dam is built, now think why the beaver does not line up the logs the other way.....too porous. This is exactly what Canon does...they want air porosity. It does not end there. The ink bridge tunnel at the bottom of the Canon cartridge....that thing German method refillers use to guide their needle also prevents the sponge from blocking the exit of the reservoir. Not there with the compatibles. If the sponge is pushed in a little too hard towards the bottom, it can choke the reservoir.

OK, that was the bad news about compatibles. How to live with their shortcomings now. We just need to shift the sponge away from the reservoir wall and shift the sponge and tilt it back to the top a little as well. We need to create a tool. A special tool.

A paper clip.

Take a paper clip, bend one end out at 90 degrees. We are going to use it to accomplish the two things we described above.

Now invert the cartridge. From the outlet opening, slip the bent end under the body and get it towards the reservoir. When the end is near the ink exit hole of the reservoir, we are going to push the bottom of the sponge away from the ink opening. This will both shift the sponge away from the wall to allow air to pass as well as get the sponge away from pressing against the outlet at the bottom. All we want is a tiny gap. Remove the paper clip and refill and all will be good again.

Now about that air serpentine. The compatibles are missing this and it show up in time. Ink will dry up in the sponge much faster than the OEM one. Typically after about a year of use....flushing is required even if air flow is good. This will vary depending on climate and humidity.

Keep the paper clip handy. Over time, the sponge tends to shift back again.

 

[pearlhouse]

Ok mike I tried the paper clip and to be honest I could not tell if I was moving the sponge away from the vertical separator. Im pretty sure I was able to push the sponge away from the bottom of the cart. I did this with the cart over half full. When I re-tried it I got the same results. It would print out a nozzle check that looked great. Then I tried to print a small text about 5 lines. First line was ok and then the rest were broken up again. So I flushed the cart clean and was able to see that the paper clip was moving the sponge away from the vertical and the bottom. I treated them with pharmasist solution and then refilled the cart. Now all is well and Im getting good solid black text the way it should be.

 

[john kervin]

I used to have a refill business (not starting with the letter "I")
I still have my cartridge spinner.

Find yourself a small piece of 1/2 inch wide (very thin) flat-bar.

drill a hole dead center and attach a very long bolt.

When you're sure you're close to balanced when it spins, bend 1/4 to 1/2 inch of each end upwards 90 degrees. Put your cartridge flat against the bar, bottom against the bent portion, ink port to the back of the rotation direction.
A couple wraps of electrical tape will hold this in place. You'll need another cartridge on the other end for balance.

Find yourself a small barrel, (I used an empty 5 gallon drywall mud pail)

Chuck up the center bolt in your drill, with the ink tanks on the "up" side of the flat bar.

Hold the drill so the tanks are in the bucket. Turn it on slowly at first & increase speed to Wide open. There's the old ink removed from your ink tank.

If you're going to be doing that a lot, use the zip ties, pull them on firmly, then slide them back off when swapping out tanks.

You can fill your cartridge with warm water to clean it out & redo this to your heart's content.

 

[The Hat]

That is certainly a way I have not seen before, very novel indeed..

 

[john kervin]

I originally used it to wash out - printhead cartridges, spin the ink/water/cleaning solution out the vent holes, then flip the cartridge back around to reseat the sponges. Worked on everything from the Canon BC-02 through the big HP's like the 78.

I needed to be able to purge crap ink from a cartridge filled by those guys whose business name started with the Letters "I" & "I"

Works great for me, you'd have to decide if it would work for you.

I had a machinist make up a cradle for me to fit in the large (41, 23, 17, 78) HP cartridges.
Used it once in a medical centrifuge, and I found out I didn't secure a cartridge properly, it launched and bent the motor shaft. (Live & Learn).

I was given a Cartridge spinner (centrifuge) by an old gentleman who was retiring and that is my main tool now. It really does help when you find you have a cartridge that wont print properly, to spin out all the old guck.

Not all suggestions will necessarily work for everyone.
And if you do try this, you need to remember the direction of rotation so the waste ink can exit rather than pool against the edge of the tank.

John

 

[PeterBJ]

If you consider building a cartridge centrifuge you should calculate the G-forces involved. They night be larger than you think. See this post and this.

 

[john kervin]

I have a "professionally built" cartridge centrifuge.

Works well for production work, but in a pinch I'll use the hand drill & my "illustrated" piece of flat bar.

 

[pearlhouse]

Well I still like my method (whirling sock with carts wrapped with a paper towel).
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/sponge-problems-flushing-cartridges.8632/page-2#post-69058
Ive been using this for quite a while now with no problems. Although I wouldn't use it to empty ink out of a cartridge. This could get quite messy.
Hat: Ive got a good supply of these socks washed and ready to go. I just load them up in sets of 5 and take them out in the back yard and start whirling away. Im sure my neighbors think I a little whacky but they don't really know what Im doing.