Another Canon Printhead Bites The Dust?

[Emulator]

That's very helpful, I was wondering where is the best place to buy one.

I also have found the turkey baster is an exact fit to the input nozzles, as suggested in an earlier posting. You can use it to suck, quite effectively as well as blow, cautiously!

 

[The Hat]

It works on Emu’s also…

 

[Emulator]

I have some 15% ammonia, in a sealed glass bottle, rather old, but I assume it doesn't deteriorate?
You suggest a 1% solution with W5. I might try that if nothing else works.

I see that a new printhead is £94.79 plus £6 delivery.

I tried the turkey baster gently on the red inlet and although red ink appeared on one of the two sets of outlets, no red appeared on the other set.

It appears that looking at the printhead from the front, the inks print Green, Red, PM, Bk, PC on the lefthand set of five, then C,M,Y on the righthand set of five. There are 10 outlet stips, but two appear to be unused.

 

[Emulator]

It works on Emu’s also…

It looks as though The Hat is killing himself with laughter. A turkey baster always had many uses! But I bought one originally to use in the home manufacture of printed circuits.

 

[MP640]

I've had a similar problem with my 9000. I am more of a brute force person. In this thread you can see how I unclogged the printhead with windex and tap water.

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/pro-9000-printhead-unclogging-video.8334/

 

[Emulator]

The Lidl W5 does not change its appearance when ammonia is added, so I have added 1.7% of my (15% strength ammonia) to 100% W5.

I think I will buy a new 1L Lidl spray bottle and add 17mL ammonia to it, as a stock solution. Do you agree the quantities Peter?

I have used the turkey baster to push some of this solution through the red channel. It started easily but then resisted, so may be there is something in there after all. As you say patience is required.

 

[PeterBJ]

Yes, as the ammonia is only 15% instead of 25%, I would add 1% x 25/15 = 1.67%, so I agree. If you want to mix pharmacist's solution, use the same amount of your ammonia, 1.7 ml per 100 ml of solution.

A metric drop is 0.05 ml per definition, so 20 drops = 1 ml. http://forum.onlineconversion.com/archive/index.php?t-618.html

That the Lidl W5 stays clear after addition of ammonia means it was made with demineralized water, so there will be no problems with lime deposits using it.

Try to also suck and blow some liquid back and forth using the turkey baster, much like unclogging a miniature drain. But be careful and don't use too much force or you risk ruining the gasket inside the print head.

To flush the cleaning fluid out from the print head only use demineralized or distilled water. Lime in hard tap water could react with the ammonia. See this post: http://www.printerknowledge.com/thr...nd-cleaning-procedures.7733/page-3#post-59788

 

[Emulator]

Thanks Peter.

I think I have discovered a new aspect, possibly related to ink feed problems. I think it was Grandad35, warned of the rubber inlet sealing washers being spring loaded.

I had been pressing the turkey baster down on the Red input sealing washer for some time, when suddenly it gave way. Further releases and presses gradually freed up the spring loaded movement of the washer. I checked the other washers and a couple were moving freely, but the rest were rock solid.

Futher pressure and release freed the remaining washers and now they all move easily.

This could be a cause of poor sealing and ink feed, when cartridges, with slightly different dimensions, are fitted. Priming could be sucking air rather than ink.

So check for free moving spring loaded inlet washers in your print heads!

Later addition: When you remove a rubber seal, the spring function is simply a short rubber cylinder moulded on the bottom of the washer.

Incidentally, I have never noticed it before, but the cleaned printhead rattles if you shake it! The piece of aluminium, which I assumed a heat sink, is free to move slightly, despite the screws being tight.

And to The Hat, see, turkey basters are useful.

 

[Emulator]

Having soaked to a depth of 5mm in W5 plus ammonia, pumped against wet folded paper towel, turkey basted, dryed in a warm environment on top of the insulated hot water cylinder and gently cleaned the electrical contacts with a paper towel moistened with isopropanol, this is the service mode printout. Red has very nearly returned and some of the others have become streaky. So it appears not to be a fatal electrical problem and the head appears to be functional.

In the above printout I have switched Red and Green to OEM ink cartridges that I happen to have.

I am beginning to suspect ink feed problems, or remaining clogging in the channels, however leaving the printer to rest for a few hours before test printing again, seems to make little diference.

 

[rodbam]

I had something similar in my pro9000 m2 PC channel although after cleaning the missing ink patterns would change giving me hope I was making progress but I didn't seem to get anywhere. I installed a new printhead & it has been fine since.
Hope you can get it sorted Ian.