The difference in the two main refill methods

[l_d_allan]

I'm a little confused about the two most popular ways to refill a cartridge.

Something I did that I believe "works for me" was to get a batch of virgin, empty carts from an online vendor such as eBay. For three sets or more of carts, works out to be about $1.00 USD per cart, including s&h.

With what might be considered an excessive surplus of carts, I'm less reluctant to play around with carts and try different things. With a situation of one set of carts in use and the other set in "warm backup" to replace a low/empty cart, I felt reluctant to try things with my "precious inventory".

(but mea culpa ... I have yet to fully implement this by trying out German refilling ... so "full disclosure" would be "try as I say, not as I've done ... so far.")

 

[slocumeddie]

l_d_allan

The images you linked to, in post #9 of this thread, were OUTSTANDING!

The second of the two images was a real "grabber" !

 

[NothingSoStrange]

OT?
For me, once you can refill confidently, printing goes from something you do rarely for only your best prints because of the ink expense, to something you can do casually as a friendly give-away.

...

Big Fun.

EXACTLY!

 

[NothingSoStrange]

I suppose some trial & error is to be expected but I must say I'm surprised the poster had so much trouble using the German method. I haven't done my first refill yet & my IS inks are in the post, I was really looking forward to my first refill until I read the strange ones post. I'm feeling a bit nervous about it now.
Regards Rod

I've one more thing to add: I tryed another german method cartridge with another blue cartridge. Drilled a hole, injected the ink in the reservoir, removed the needle, and ok, this time the ink stood inside the cart.

I printed a page full of blue and light blue to pump the new ink through the printhead and was satisfied by the result.

The next mornig.. I had to print some documents (powerpoint slides) with some nice blu area and gradients, but to my surprise when I was looking at the prints there was no blue, instead it was substituted by light black and gradients of gray!

Eeerkkk!! - I thought I could have mistaken the refill bottle the night before, so I opened the black and blue ink refill bottle, soaked both of the inks on some paper as reference (the blue was rightfull blue), than I took the cartridge and let some ink to be absorbed by the same paper: it was definately black..

- what.. impossible! the sheet I printed the night before was blue! and blue is the color I see when I look throgh the cart with a light in the reservoir.! ah-ha, gotcha, to my surprise, it's the ink in the sponge area that turned.. black!

Has anything like this happened to any of you before? I suspect the front hole let the air react with the ink in the sponge area overnight but.. I'm not definately sure. I sucked the remaining ink from the reservoir and it looked quite dark too

However, refilled a new cart with the same blue, ran some cleaning and deep cleaning of the print head to flush all that darkness away and everything is fine again. Oh, and the blue papers I printed are still blue, as my hands

I think something happened when the head was parked, somewhat some black ink must have found it's way up to the blue cartridge.. it's the only think I can imagine.

*UPDATE
After inspecting, the black ink tank was empty! and I refilled it the night before but the seal tape must have failed - the black cli-8 and the blue cart are on opposite side, it's a mistery why yellow and red didn't get contamined with the suspected black leak.

Do you think I should remove the printhead and see if there's ink to clean up under it? is there some procedure to perform a light cleaning of the printhead or it's better not to mess with it? like soaking it in water (distilled) letting it rest overnight over absorbing paper - I'm not confident using detergents/soaps/windex because there are no clogged nozzles (triple checked) but the first 2-3 sheets came out with some black spots on their edges.

Thanks again, and thumbs up to the friendly environment by with experts welcomed a noob in the refill game

 

[rodbam]

I'm not nervous any more...... I getting really scared I've watched the videos & read the posts, I was full of confidence but now I'm having my doubts whether I should just do the top fill method. Then again I suppose there are horror stories about that way too. Anyhow from another noob welcome to the forum Strange one
Regards Rod

 

[NothingSoStrange]

I'm not nervous any more...... I getting really scared I've watched the videos & read the posts, I was full of confidence but now I'm having my doubts whether I should just do the top fill method. Then again I suppose there are horror stories about that way too. Anyhow from another noob welcome to the forum Strange one
Regards Rod

Wait!

The black leak is MY mistake, having hands full of colors is again my mistake of not wearing gloves, and the supposed failure of the German method (the long needle) is again my mistake, I think I did it somewhat wrong, so, absolutely do not get nervous, after all, I just lost some (cheap) ink and some already empty cartridge!

But I'm happy, because I'm finding my way, sometime with failures, but I tryed, and to now, it's working quite well (hot glue sealant). I'm not thinking "gosh, I lost some ink and 2-3 empty carts", but in this moment I have on my desk another empty cartridge that I'm observing and waiting for some idea to pop up in my mind - this empty magenta CLI-8 it's kind of puppy I'm taking in my day to day activities and sitting on my desk; I think if you look at it for enough time, I'll collect tiny bits of materials to assemble a reliable refill system (yes, I have an empty transparent enveloce along and a pen filled with silicone waiting for it to dry and try it as a cap).

Search youtube videos about refilling methods, they all look quite easy and will help you regain confidence

Cheers.

 

[l_d_allan]

The second of the two images was a real "grabber"

You're too kind ... and that lady in the second picture is somewhat camera shy. The lady in the first picture practically lights up when the camera is pointed in her direction. They're both pretty cool people, and my wife and I find it fun to give them pictures as an expression of friendship.

Don't tell my wife, but those pictures were taken with my original DSLR, a sub-Rebel 1000D and an inexpensive lens, if you are familiar with the Canon DSLR models. I haven't really taken better pictures with a much more expensive f.f. and "L" lenses ... mea culpa. Let's keep that our little secret.

 

[rodbam]

My inks have arrived from Precision Colors so I will soon find out what's involved., I'm really looking forward to it & can't wait for my OEM inks to run out
Regards Rod

 

[rodbam]

All has been done & all is well. I refilled two BCI6 cartridges for my IP 5000 using the top fill method & not long after that my PM ran out on my pro 9000 so I used the German method & it went really well so I think I will stay with that. I did try & tape the hole I made but it didn't feel secure & I was worried the tape might fall off in the print head so I just left the hole uncovered as some have suggested. My next refills will be much more relaxing now I've tried both ways. Thanks for all the great advice from this forum.
Regards Rod

 

[Redbrickman]

Try and find thin aluminium adhesive tape.

I bought a roll in a local DIY for another hobby, but it is the best thing I have tried for sealing. It is as thin as the thinnest tinfoil you can find, but has very strong adhesive and can be rubbed down to create a good seal. Getting it off is somewhat more difficult!