vacuum and centrifuge refill techniques?

[Smile]

I made my vacuum refill chamber to refill BCI-8 cartridges and not need to drill a hole etc. And to avoid bubble problems.

I also heard some people use centrifuge before refilling the carts to remove the bubbles and ink. For new carts that is to avoid mixing oem and refill ink.

Any suggestions whether these techniques should be used together are welcome

 

[ghwellsjr]

According to Mick Carlotta, the reason people use a centrifuge, is to clean a cartridge. But almost always an empty cartridge is not dirty and if it is, it will still have problems even after "cleaning". He advises against using a centrifuge or any other method to "clean" a cartridge. Read his article:

http://users.adelphia.net/~inkprocessusa/inkprocess/cleaning.html

He is mainly talking about cartridges with built-in heads but I think a lot of it applies to the BCI type cartridges.

There are some "experts" that claim that mixing ink from different sources is no problem while others advise it should be avoided. It seems to me that if you want to avoid mixing ink, you could suck most of it out with your vacuum, discard it and then proceed to introduce your new ink.

Mick has also advised against filling through the filter because the filters are not designed to handle the high flow rates that occur during vacuum filling. Also, if you vacuum fill through the filter, you may force any debris that exists inside the cartridge out through the filter, into your fresh ink and back up into the filter where it may become dislodged during use and clog your nozzles.

When I vacuum fill my cartridges, I plug the outlet ports (with G&G clips) and fill through the air vents. Any debris that gets into the cartridge will be on the correct side of the filter and never forced through the filter. After removing the clips and waiting for the cartridges to finishing dripping through the outlet ports, I gently blow into the air vents to make sure they're clear and to get a little air into the upper half of the foam. I have filled many dozens of cartridges this way with no problems.

I also don't bother to remove the residual original OEM ink or do any other kind of cleaning.

 

[Smile]

According to Mick Carlotta, the reason people use a centrifuge, is to clean a cartridge. But almost always an empty cartridge is not dirty and if it is, it will still have problems even after "cleaning". He advises against using a centrifuge or any other method to "clean" a cartridge. Read his article:

http://users.adelphia.net/~inkprocessusa/inkprocess/cleaning.html

He is mainly talking about cartridges with built-in heads but I think a lot of it applies to the BCI type cartridges.

There are some "experts" that claim that mixing ink from different sources is no problem while others advise it should be avoided. It seems to me that if you want to avoid mixing ink, you could suck most of it out with your vacuum, discard it and then proceed to introduce your new ink.

Mick has also advised against filling through the filter because the filters are not designed to handle the high flow rates that occur during vacuum filling. Also, if you vacuum fill through the filter, you may force any debris that exists inside the cartridge out through the filter, into your fresh ink and back up into the filter where it may become dislodged during use and clog your nozzles.

When I vacuum fill my cartridges, I plug the outlet ports (with G&G clips) and fill through the air vents. Any debris that gets into the cartridge will be on the correct side of the filter and never forced through the filter. After removing the clips and waiting for the cartridges to finishing dripping through the outlet ports, I gently blow into the air vents to make sure they're clear and to get a little air into the upper half of the foam. I have filled many dozens of cartridges this way with no problems.

I also don't bother to remove the residual original OEM ink or do any other kind of cleaning.

If you use air vent to fill then how one can be sure that the ink feed in the bottom of the cartrige is working? I mean to fill you turn cartrige upside down and put the maze part in the ink right?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I don't turn the cartridge upside down although that could work. I place the cartridges on end with both the air vents and the plugged up outlet ports at the bottom and the "handles" on top. When the clips are removed and the cartridges re-oriented to the correct position, the excess ink in the maze part of the air vent and at the top of the foam drips out the feed port. Actually, there are two "wells" in the serpentine maze that trap some ink, so after I cover the feed port with plastic tape I hold the cartridge with the air vent down and squeeze the sides of the cartridge many times until all the excess ink comes out of the air vent. You can tell when the gurgling sound stops that all the ink is out. It's a real mess, but it works.

 

[Smile]

I don't turn the cartridge upside down although that could work. I place the cartridges on end with both the air vents and the plugged up outlet ports at the bottom and the "handles" on top. When the clips are removed and the cartridges re-oriented to the correct position, the excess ink in the maze part of the air vent and at the top of the foam drips out the feed port. Actually, there are two "wells" in the serpentine maze that trap some ink, so after I cover the feed port with plastic tape I hold the cartridge with the air vent down and squeeze the sides of the cartridge many times until all the excess ink comes out of the air vent. You can tell when the gurgling sound stops that all the ink is out. It's a real mess, but it works.

Could you please post some pictures?

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you want pictures of the filled cartridges, they look just like OEM cartridges, except that the ink is almost completely filling the reservoir and the foams are solid with ink color. I have never posted pictures so I will have to learn how to do it, but what is it you want pictures of? Not me, I hope.

 

[Smile]

If you want pictures of the filled cartridges, they look just like OEM cartridges, except that the ink is almost completely filling the reservoir and the foams are solid with ink color. I have never posted pictures so I will have to learn how to do it, but what is it you want pictures of? Not me, I hope.

I just wanted pictures of how you orient things in the vaccum jar, because it acctualy matters the elevation angles etc.

 

[ghwellsjr]

As long as the air vent remains submerged in the fresh supply of ink with the outlet port plugged, it won't matter what orientation the cartridge has as far as filling goes. If you are trying to drain the residual ink from the cartridge prior to filling, then the orientation matters a lot; you have to make sure the ink can flow under gravity out of the cartridge.

Keeping in mind that I do not try to drain ink from the cartridges, here is what I do:

I have a somewhat square shaped plastic container with rounded corners that fits inside my vacuum jar. While it is still outside the vacuum jar, I place fourteen BCI-6 cartridges with G&G clips on them with their clip handles sticking up in the container. I pour in about two inches of ink. I take a smaller plastic container with some water in it (for weight) and place it on top of the array of cartridges. The purpose of this is to keep the air vents submerged when the vacuum is pulled, otherwise, the cartridges will just float up out of the ink allowing their air vents to take on air instead of ink when the vacuum is released. I place this ensemble inside the vacuum jar, put the lid on it, pull a vacuum for a couple minutes, slowly release the vacuum, and proceed with the process of cleaning described in early posts. Sometimes, some of the cartridges do not get a full charge of ink, so I just redo them in the next batch.

I hope that helps better than pictures would because it is very difficult to see through all the plastic containers.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Here's a report on the time it took me to vacuum refill 82 BCI-6BK OEM cartridges from a 1-liter bottle of Inktec ink:

The first night I spent three hours filling the cartridges, washing, blowing out excess ink, and setting them on the edge of the sinks in my guest bathroom turned ink refilling lab.

The second night I spent two hours doing a final clean on the cartridges, taping over the outlet ports, cleaning up the mess and putting everything away.

This comes to three minutes and 40 seconds per cartridge. Now if only I could get half of what Canon charges.

Oh yes, and previously, I had filled 34 BCI-3eBK cartridges from a 1 liter bottle of Inktec ink but I don't remember how long it took.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you want pictures of the filled cartridges, they look just like OEM cartridges, except that the ink is almost completely filling the reservoir and the foams are solid with ink color. I have never posted pictures so I will have to learn how to do it, but what is it you want pictures of? Not me, I hope.

I just wanted pictures of how you orient things in the vaccum jar, because it acctualy matters the elevation angles etc.

OK, here's your pictures:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/vacuum-fill-canon-cartridges.php

They are not actually of the technique I described above, but rather a simpler, but similar technique that is clearer to photograph and allows you to use a cheaper hand vacuum pump. It takes advantage of the suggestion made by Smile, namely to place the cartridge up-side-down in the fresh ink. That way, the ink in the reservoir is not pumped out when you apply the vacuum a second time to get a more complete fill.