spongeless carts

[mrelmo]

i hope this post reaches grandad, i have some bci-3 carts that i was ready to throw away until i read the post about flushing, they were sold as colorjet, i have refilled them maybe 40 times, so i tried flushing them this is the results, the sponges (solid 1 piece) retained full color while clear water was running thru, i increased the pressure and the top blew off the cart, now basically i have spongeless carts, i am going to put them back together and glue the top back on and refill with water to test for leaks. the question that arises is the material at the exit port "cigarette filter" appears to need the sponge in place to hold the "cigarette filter" in place. besides holding the filter in place what other purpose does the sponge have, there is also a small piece of sponge between the holding tank and the sponge section, to maybe wick the ink from the holding tank to the sponge area(is this needed) final question does anyone have any expereince with spongeless carts as i have seen them for sale on several sites

 

[hpnetserver]

I have seen spongeless carts for Epson. I have heard about it for Canon. There is one reason that makes sense to avoid the spongeless cart fo Canon printers. The sponge retains the last few drops of ink when the printer declares it empty. That last few drops of ink keep the print head from burning out the heaters in the nozzles. If you use spongeless cart there would be no such few drops of ink.

If you have refilled a cartridge 40 times you should have saved more than enough pocket change to get a new one with a new cigarette filter in it. Not the pocket change matters. It is your print head that matters the most. BTW, I have not been able to find any glue that can glue the top of a cartridge to a cartridge and stay together. The cartridge will 100% leak. The top was originally heat welded to the cartridge.

 

[Grandad35]

mrelmo,

I believe that these carts are made from polypropylene, and (as hpnetserver said) you'll have trouble gluing them back together (http://www.cityplastics.com.au/gluing.html). Things like this are normally welded using an ultrasonic welder that creates a lot of heat at the joint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_welding).

Some sponges retain color and don't flush clear - don't worry about not getting the sponge back to white. I am impressed that you got your purge rig to seal well enough to develop enough pressure to blow the tops off the carts.

You definitely need the sponge back in place for the cart to work properly.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Not only does a good cartridge need a sponge, it needs two sponges of differing materials. This post explains it all:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=9993#p9993

 

[mrelmo]

thanks for the information, i think rather than recondition carts myself, when the OEM carts will no longer take refilling i may just buy the OEM, i hate to give in to canon but buying their carts once every 9 or 10 months won't be that bad

 

[fotofreek]

mrelmo - Canon OEM carts are the ones that do best with purging and refilling.