Sponge problems & flushing cartridges

[ThrillaMozilla]

As far as I know ThrillaMozilla was using the HP Opaque cartridges which have a totally different single sponge setup inside them than Canon use and are probably more susceptible to this happening in their type of cartridges.

They are opaque, but it's also a two-sponge setup, VERY similar to Canon cartridges. I don't know if the sponge is the same material, though. As I recall, there are some Canon users who have reported moved sponges, but sorry, I don't have any references. I did reseat the sponges by giving them a good rap.

 

[fotofreek]

I use to have one with the big horn on it and a handle to wind it up with, eventfully I got a pickup..

don't forget the steel needles that did a great job of degrading what sound quality these old disks had. I don't remember anyone ever changing a needle.

 

[mrelmo]

i have seen non-oem sponges that are 2 piece like canon OEM, but the after-market sponges were a foam material where as the canon are more of a fiber, and yes i still have not found an after market cartridge that performs as well as a canon. i know i have mentioned this before, i use a wet dry vac to suck the moisture out of a cartridge very quick and efficient method for drying

 

[PeterBJ]

I have also seen compatible cartridges with two part sponges, but it is years ago. I think these cartridges were banned as they violated a Canon patent.

As mentioned by mrelmo they are not the same the quality as Canon OEM cartridges. Out of curiosity I have tried cleaning some of these cartridges. Some of them were totally clogged in the one or two part sponges and impossible to force water through. Using window cleaner, alcohol and other chemicals in some cases caused the sponges to swell when wet and shrink to less than original size after drying.

 

[pearlhouse]

Seeing as how I didn’t get any comments on my last post in “My way for flushing cartridges #15”. I decided to post this as a new thread to see what you guys think? After looking at a older post from ThrillaMozilla, where he posted some radiographs of carts showing the sponges separated from flushing or inserting a needle for filling..??? He was looking for a reason for ink starvation

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/cartridge-radiographs.6681 (#17 #18 #19)

Grandad 35’s idea of using a makeshift centrifuge came up to move the ink to the exit port.

I also think the idea of making a centrifuge by using a stocking and whirling it around with the cart in it might be a good test idea for carts that have been flushed just to make sure the sponges are in full contact with each other. I think whirling them around just before you finish wicking them with a paper towel might be just the right thing. Now that I think about it you might even be able to remove enough of the water or conditioner to just go ahead and start refilling the cart and forget the wicking??? I think I might just weigh one before and after to see how much water I can get out. If that works then maybe building a small make shift centrifuge might be worth it. As soon as the weather gets a little bit better outside I guess I'll give this a try.

Anybody out there think this idea might just work or want to add their 2 cents to this??

OK now using a centrifuge seams to have been a reasonable idea. I just finished flushing out two full sets of carts (225s and 226s). Using my method with the clips I made up and a hose rigged up from my faucet. See this link http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/my-way-for-flushing-cartridges-top-fill-or-german-fill.8608.... I then re=flushed and conditioned the carts with Pharmacists conditioner. I used a 60 ml syringe and drew out as much of the solution as possible through this same clip from the exit port. Then finally I blew through the ball hole on top and the vent forcing as much solution as possible out the exit port as well as the German fill hole that was drilled on the side. These actions of removing the solution were also done with the intent of pulling or pushing the sponge back in place against the exit port just in case they had been displaced from previous German fillings or from the pressure of the flushing procedure through the clip. After I had removed as much solution as possible this way I then weighed each cart. All of the 226 carts weighed in at 15.5 - 16.1 grams and the large 225 carts weighed in at 19 - 20 grams. Now for the fun!!!! My wife thought I was crazy for doing this but I just had to find out if the centrifuge idea would work for expelling the remaining conditioner out of the carts. So I did one complete set at a time, lining up all five carts with the exit ports all in the same position and used two rubber bands one on each end to hold them all tightly clamped together in the form of a pack. Then I took a paper towel and folded it in half and then made three folds all in the other direction so I ended up with a narrow band about 1 1/4" wide with 16 layers. This band was then formed around and over the exit ports and held in place with another rubber band. I then used an old sports tube sock from my sporting days and placed the pack into the opening of the sock with the exit ports of the whole pack facing out away form the opening. Then I slid them in all the way to the bottom of the sock. Then I took them out into my garage where I had some room to swing them around in a vertical plane probably about 20 revolutions. Right away I knew I was on to something because the conditioner water was spraying out through the paper towel band and the bottom of the sock. I stop ed and removed the pack and replaced the soaked paper towel band with a fresh band, and then repeated the whole procedure a second time. This time there was no spray but the bottom of the sock was definitely saturated more than before. I removed the pack and all the rubber bands and began weighing each cart. My results were more than satisfying as all the small 226 carts weighed in at 10.9 - 11.3 grams and the large 225 carts weighed at 15.7 -16.1 grams. These were almost the same exact ranges that I had gotten when I weighed a set of carts I had used the paper towel method to wick out the moisture for about 8 hours. This whole procedure took less than 30 minutes and I had two sets of flushed, conditioned, and dried carts ready for refilling. The added benefit to this procedure is the g-forces achieved probably also helped push the sponges back in place against the ink exit port.

 

[stratman]

@PeterBJ :

Who doesn't like a good sock story? And it is good cardiovascular exercise whilst saving a paper towel tree. The pictures were good too, especially the last one that reminds me of grandpa's hammer toes.

Congratulations on your new socktrifuge!

 

[PeterBJ]

Assuming a length of 31.5" or 800 mm from the shoulder joint to the tip of the sock and a rotational speed of 20 rpm, the centrifuge formula gives a g-force of around 3.6. Much safer than hundreds of g from a home-made drill driven centrifuge.

 

[pearlhouse]

Assuming a length of 31.5" or 800 mm from the shoulder joint to the tip of the sock and a rotational speed of 20 rpm, the centrifuge formula gives a g-force of around 3.6. Much safer than hundreds of g from a home-made drill driven centrifuge.

I probably did about 25 revs in 15 seconds. or 100 rpm. I rotated the sock from my wrist and the distance was around 20 inches. Don't know how you calculate the g s for that speed and distance but I'd be interested in the formula. I gotta say this is a much faster way to dry the carts then rubber banding each one to a paper towel and then setting them up at a proper angle for wicking into the towel.

 

[PeterBJ]

Perhaps you missed that the underlined words in post #17 are links. I tried to make the text colour for the links blue, but the link feature seems not compatible with other text colour than black. "Mousing over" the links makes them change colour from black to brown. This reveals they are links and not just underlined text.

You find the centrifuge formula in here: http://clinfield.com/2012/07/how-to-convert-centrifuge-rpm-to-rcf-or-g-force/ and the reference to hundreds of g's in this post by Tudor: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/cli-526-topfill.7696/page-6#post-59396

The centrifuge formula is G = 1.12 x R x (RPM/1000)² , R is the radius measured in millimetres, so inches are converted to millimetres by multiplying by 25.4. 20 inches equals 508 mm. We then get G = 1.12 x 508 x (100/1000) x (100/1000) = 5.7

To avoid converting inches to mm you can use this modified formula: G = 28.448 x R x (RPM/1000)² where the radius is inserted in inches.

 

[The Hat]

Boy wasn’t I glad I wasn’t wearing my good glasses because I never understood a word of it.

It looks good Peter whatever it was..