resurect old printer and carts??

[chas045]

I have been refilling canon printers with the German technique. I originally had a mp printer using cli8 carts but ~3 years ago needed a replacement and got a MX860 with 221 carts and when its purge unit seemed to get disconnected last fall I had to get a MX712 with the dammed black 226 carts. I have several refilled sets of 221 carts that have been sitting around that are more or less sealed on the bottoms but are generally not sealed on the tops. I had been planning to swap some 226 chips over to them but so far had just been refilling the 226's blind until I saw wet sheen on the upside down 226 carts.

However, a couple days ago, I found another MX860 at our local free swap shop (a place where people put unneeded stuff that they think would be useful to someone else). It still has carts loaded in it. It looks like it could have been taken out of service recently, but who knows. I need to know if there is a smart approach to attempting to get this new (old) mx860 working with less chance of damage or clogs. When I began this post, my optimistic mind had thought I had found a duplicate printer of my 3 yr old MP6xx for which I have lots of old sitting refilled cli8 carts. Now that my brain is semi working, I am tempted to just fire it up and see what happens. Perhaps I could throw my old print head in it etc. The old carts have only been sitting for 6 months or so, rather than three years.

I see that there are some current posts about new methods of purging carts (I never bothered before). Would that be a good idea even if the carts are full of ink? Perhaps I have some that were not refilled. Should they be treated differently? If I should ever find an old MP for cli8 (less refilling!) what should I do with those 3 yr old carts (some with and some without refilled ink)?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I can tell you this. I have found quite a few cartridges in a recycling bin, and now they're good as new.

I assume they were old and dried up, so I cleaned them a little and used them. I Freedom filled the sponge with Pharmacist's cleaning solution (without ammonia), and then emptied them by wicking onto a paper towel. Then I filled the sponge with ink and emptied again, to rinse out residual cleaning fluid. In some of them the sponge lost contact with the exit port (which happened either when they dried up or during filling). Once I knocked the sponges back into position, no more problem.

Your cartridges sound a lot fresher. If the outlet port isn't dried out, heck, maybe just use them. (You can test by touching with a Kleenex. It should immediately start to wick up ink.) It wouldn't hurt to blow on the vent to push a few drops of ink out the exit, and then soak up the excess ink at the exit with a Kleenex.

On the new printer I would start with a deep cleaning and then a nozzle check and head alignment. If all is well, I think that's all you need.

 

[chas045]

Thanks for the testing procedure. I will have to look up the freedom fill and cleaning soln. I remember reading about both, but its been a year or more. If you are still around, isn't the freedom fill a top fill hookup but pulling in from the exit port? I'll see how good my searching skill is these days.

Search skill not too bad. I see I was right about vacuum but wrong on top fill. I may try to clean an old cli8 for some experience. I guess I would have to seal the german method hole too?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Freedom filling
There are lots of different devices for the purpose. Here's mine, which is probably the simplest.
Here are my current recommendations.