New technique to clean BCI-6 carts

[Nifty]

I guess it was bound to happen some time. I've often wondered at what point you'd toss one of your carts Grandad and go to another set. There is definitely a lot of fun to be had in reviving a cart that won't print... well, that is until you're at a deadline to print something (which is usually when mine fail).

BTW, I love your statement about "this morning's refill cycle of 33 carts"... that's awesome!

 

[fotofreek]

I had a few carts that didn't clean well and had to be discarded. As I recall, they were the old arrow carts. Has anyone had the need to purge the new Canon chipped carts yet? I'm just curious to know if special care has to be taken to protect the chips or if it is ok to get them wet during the purge. They would really get a soaking!

 

[Defcon2k]

I purged about 20 CLI-8/BCI-5 so far without problems. I left the chips on the carts and did the purging. Afterwards I let some tap water run over them and then I flushed the chips with a syringe and a small amount of distilled water and let them dry thoroughly.
I don't know if the distilled water was necessary, but I thought maybe the things which are in normal tap water could be electrically conductive or corrosive. (As far as I know, the usual procedure for electronic devices which accidentally fell into water is this: 1. remove batteries ASAP, 2. put the device in bowl with distilled water, 3. let it dry thoroughly)

The chips and carts work fine, no chip failed so far.

 

[fotofreek]

Thanks, Defcon, good news for refilling chipped Canons. If the chipped carts hold up with cycles of purging and refilling as well as the bci-6 and bci-3ebk carts these printers will be as economical to run as the older ones.

 

[Grandad35]

"When it rains, it pours." I just had another cart failure, this time on cyan. Just like the previous failure, this cart was on its first refill after a purge and was also an "Old InkGrabber" cart with two sponges. The symptoms were the same as with the previous failure. Even though I have a number of spare purged and dried carts, I wanted to understand what was causing these failures and see if I could "rescue" the cart.

The sponges appeared to be starved for ink, even though the ink chamber was almost completely full. When the refill screw was removed with the exit port blocked, over half of the ink in the ink chamber was drawn into the sponges within 15 seconds. This is similar to the problem reported by Nifty-Stuff on some Arrow carts (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=35. Once the sponges were saturated, it was easy to blow into the vent port and get ink to drip from an uncovered exit port, indicating that the problem probably wasn't a clogged filter.

It appeared that the bottom sponge was wedged into the grooves in the vertical wall that separates the sponge and ink chambers (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=769#p769), so the cart was purged to allow a clear view of this area. This confirmed that the bottom sponge was indeed pushed into the grooves - a classic case of "IYDS" - that's short for "If You're Dumb, Suffer". I obviously didn't follow my own instructions for purging, and obviously didn't make sure that the sponges were in their proper position before refilling. After tapping the cart to get the sponges into place, it was refilled and tested by placing the cart on a paper towel and allowing the ink to slowly wick out, along with a "control" cart on a separate towel. Both carts wicked ink at the same rate, and ink now flowed from the ink chamber into the sponges, as it should.

The problem cyan cart was then refilled and put back in the printer. Forty 8x10 photos were printed with no problems, then 10 additional 8x10 pure cyan test images were printed to really test how well the cart delivered its ink. A subsequent nozzle check showed full coverage in all colors. This used about 60% of the ink in the ink chamber, and the sponges weren't starving for ink as they had been. It appears that this cart has been "rescued". I strongly suspect that my previous problem cart had the same cause, but it was thrown away (you know how wives are about leaving such things lying around the kitchen).

 

[Nifty]

Grandad, great investigative work! When I originally read that your carts were not dripping as readily as before I first wondered if it was a problem with the ink chambers / sponge location, but then as I kept reading I got distracted and started to wonder if it was more of a deterioration in the sponges themselves.

What type of records are you keeping on number of total refills / flushes for each cartridge? I'm very curious how long the life span of a cartridge can be extended by following these procedures.

 

[Grandad35]

What type of records are you keeping on number of total refills / flushes for each cartridge? I'm very curious how long the life span of a cartridge can be extended by following these procedures.

I started keeping a record of the number of photos printed, the number of carts used, the number of refills and the number of purge cycles in July, 2005.

 

[Nifty]

What type of records are you keeping on number of total refills / flushes for each cartridge? I'm very curious how long the life span of a cartridge can be extended by following these procedures.

I started keeping a record of the number of photos printed, the number of carts used, the number of refills and the number of purge cycles in July, 2005.

See... that's EXACTLY why you're my favorite Grandad!

 

[lin]

Hi Defcon2k, may I know where u got this tubing?

And also Grandad35, may I know if you direct me to online place where I can purchase one of this tubing u used according to your picture. Your tubing seems to have thinner wall and more flexible as well.



I am from oversea and I couldn't find the tubing that both of you are using. I could only manage to find a 3/8 pvc tube from our local store. However I could not fit the tube to the canon cartridge ink outlet hole despite trying my best to do so. I even tried to use a bit more force but it was just impossible and end up hurting my hand as a result.

I guessed the 3/8 hole of the tube I had is just a bit too small to fit to the outlet hole and the wall is a bit thick for the tube to be flexible enough.

Fyi, I am using CLI-8 (C/M/Y/BK) series & PIG-5BK canon ink cartridges.

Looking forwards to your replies. Thanks.

 

[Grandad35]

lin,

I bought my tubing from a local home supply store where I could test how the tubing fit onto an empty cart before buying it. Since this tubing isn't standardized, it would be risky recommending an online source. Here are 3 links showing alternate setups that might be easier for you to make - the first is my current setup.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2839#p2839
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=9315#p9315
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=311&p=3