New technique to clean BCI-6 carts

[Subarub4]

I have a crazy question any need for a syringe for a refill? what happens if you just fill the ink side on a flushed cart?

I do own a vacuum pump but I was just curious, the ink I ordered has a tip that allows you to pour from the bottle.

I was reading this here about sealing the carts

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/sealing_canon_bci6.php#more-3

those screws in that size and being nylon might be a little hard to find, in a pinch can I use a glue gun?

 

[The Hat]

Refilling a Canon cartridge for the first time is not that difficult but with a little practice it gets extremely easy.

But a word of caution the more a refiller tries to take shortcuts
the greater chance he has of making a pigs ears of the whole refilling procedure.

Resealing the refill hole with a glue gun is not recommended simply because the hole is too large which makes it difficult to remove the glue later,
you would need to drill a much smaller hole to use the glue gun more effectively..

 

[fotofreek]

I have a crazy question any need for a syringe for a refill? what happens if you just fill the ink side on a flushed cart?

I do own a vacuum pump but I was just curious, the ink I ordered has a tip that allows you to pour from the bottle.

I was reading this here about sealing the carts

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/sealing_canon_bci6.php#more-3

those screws in that size and being nylon might be a little hard to find, in a pinch can I use a glue gun?

The Hat answered the glue gun question. You only need to inject ink into the reservoir section with top filling. The two sealing approaches I've been successful with are 1)stainless steel phillips pan head sheet metal screws with O-rings or 2) silicone plugs that are presently available from Precision Colors or Octoink. My experience is with bci-6 and cli-8 carts.

To use the SS screws/O-rings, I've heated the end of an opened paper clip red hot and melted a starter hole between the factory fill hole (with the ball intact) and the end of the cart. I've then screwed the SS screw into the hole. No need to drill or tap the hole as these sheet metal screws are self tapping. Grandad35 uses a tapered head screw and no O-ring as the taper underneath the screw head enhances seal by itself. I tried the nylon machine screws but didn't like them because they are not pointed and tapered - the small pointed end of the sheet metal screw aids in starting the screw after refilling, a much appreciated aid considering the fact that I wear latex exam gloves when refilling. Using a phillips head screw facilitates the use of an electric drill/screwdriver to remove and replace the screws. When replacing a screw with O-ring be careful to not screw it down with the power screwdriver so tight that the O-ring is compressed too much as the overcompressed O-ring will squeeze out from the pan-head and loose the seal. I scew it down with power to barely contact and then give the electric screwdriver a slight manual twist to further seat the O-ring.

To use the plugs you simply remove the factory seal ball. I've followed the instructions from Precision Colors except that I've had difficulty using a push pin to make a starter hole in the ball so I use my trusty opened, heated paper clip to melt a small hole in the ball, insert a screw-eye until it is secure in the ball, and pull the ball out.

Although I've had no leak problems with the SS screw/O-ring technique for the ten years I've been refilling, I've set my cli-8 carts up with the Precision Colors plugs to see if I like that approach better. When I first started refilling I had purchased some plugs from a company called Computer Friends. They did work well except that they suggested pushing the ball into the cart. One cart did have a chipped rim as a result and it didn't hold the plug well. Pulling the ball out is a better approach. The Precision Colors instructions with the plugs includes the suggestion that you might have to slightly drill out the fill hole after removing the ball to accomodate the plugs. Of the two plugs they sell the one that looks most convenient is with a tab for easy removal, but the clear ones with a "mushroom" shaped head are easier to seat after refilling. The have a slight chamfer at the end that aids in insertion, and the head is larger then the plugs with a tab for an easier push to seat it.

 

[Subarub4]

Wont know until the ink comes tomorrow.

 

[marceltho]

Here are my 2 cents and system of closing the purge hole
I close the purge hole with hot glue, but to be sure I have no problems in the future if I want to re-purge, I use electrical tape over the hole, when taken off later with a knife, the tape comes off easy, and I have a clean hole, this system has never failed me..


The hole in the images below is 3.4 mm, but I have done this with even little bit bigger holes.

I like a good and easy purge, here is my video on Youtube doing that.

I start with a hair blower on the hole, to be sure that the cart is really dry, and then I cut a small piece of electrical tape, just the size of the hole with a Stanley knife or box cutter.

I position the tape over the hole, if I think it is too big, I re-cut another piece.
After that I put the hot glue over it, and with my WET thumb, I push the glue down. If there will be glue residue over the side ( I push it almost flat ) I cut that away with the Stanley knife if the glue is not hot any more.
The glue is perhaps hard to see, but it is almost a perfect circle D), you can see it a bit under the word " push "

Here is a better side view:

Again, this has never failed me, but still, after filling a fresh purged cart, I always set it aside for 15 minutes, just to be sure.

 

[emerald]

Subarub4 You might want to read this post: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=29082#p29082

 

[Subarub4]

Good good link! About the over saturation of the ink pad on the cart, I ended up using my vacuum pump which goes down to 75 microns/10 Pascal a great deal of water came right out and this is after a few days and being in a oven for about an hour or so.

One had so much water that ice started to form where the ink outlet was.

 

[fotofreek]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/SubaruWRX/Photos/IMAG0512.jpg

Wont know until the ink comes tomorrow.

Subaru - check out the bulging of the o-rings on some of the carts. Looks like they may be overtightened. They should not extend past the head of the screw as you can lose the seal from a gap caused by the overtightened o-ring being squeezed out to the point where there is a gap between the o-ring and the head of the screw.

 

[Subarub4]

It's because the O-rings are still a tad too large and I could of went one size smaller it does not leak or anything like that when put under a full vacuum but I'm going to have to get the correct size.

 

[Subarub4]

just finished up refilling the tanks, looks like the vacuum pump helped as removing water out of all carts I'd say I had about a tablespoon worth of water I sucked out, the ink I'm using is for a Epson Artisan 730 but since it's dye ink it's the same for both Canon and Epson.

Also it's pretty generic ink so I'm not sure how the color will be, my i960 at the moment is low on black and photo magenta, I will be doing a few prints (about 50) so I get to see how things are going, and as each other cart on the printer now (non-OEM with sponges) go empty I will dump them and stick with the refilled OEM carts.

The first fill

done

One question I noticed this.. the OEM carts you know the pad on the print head with the cart sits they seem to put more ink on the pad with the OEM cart then the aftermarket..


OEM cyan on left and aftermarket photo cyan on right, I noticed the same when switching out the black with OEM