First try at refilling

[mccoady]

I finally got around to trying the HC kit I bought awhile back but I'm not sure things went as smoothly as I hoped (alot of ink mess). Besides the HC kit I also used clip holders as some had mentioned and I printed off the the instructions from Dave and all the other suggestions I was given in my thread in the Non OEM ink forum. I followed the instructions by filling 8cc to the sponge chamber and then putting tape over the top of the vent near the end of the cartridge (wasn't sure where but made sure I covered enough) and then filled the reserve tank with 6cc.

I guess the two main concerns I had was (besides my ink mess) I would only end up filling the reserve chamber to only about 70% and I didn't want to overfill so I left it that way. The instructions say you should end up with about 90% filled which mine certainly wasn't.

The other concern is that all my cartridges would consistly drip ink for awhile and I didn't think this should be normal. I would take them out of the clips to check them and ink would be dripping out, although they did quit dripping. I wondered whether the clips was squeezing them or something. Anyway I guess I'm ready to try them in my ip5000 but I wanted to get your opinions on what I might of did wrong before I tried them.

 

[Osage]

To mccody,

At least on the sponge thing, your experiences with the hobbicolors instructions not being in congruance with reality is something I and other have experienced--see various threads on that subject in this forum sub section--refilling inkjets.

But to make a long story short, inject the inital 8cc of ink--wait a few minutes--the sponge will 100% color infuse. Then tape the air inlet hole and inject another 6 cc of ink--which should leave you with a cartridge with about 80% ink in the reserve tank. Then quickly cap the ink inlet hole with the 6-32 nylon screw--snug up so that screw thread head is bottomed to the cartridge top. Ink dripping from ink outlet hole should stop fairly rapidly.

Until the ink inlet hole is sealed its normal for the outlet hole to drip and continue to drip.

As long as no liquid ink shows in the air gap between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge,
there is no reason to fear the cartridge is overfilled.

You were probably wise to break off the wing nut before the first fill--but you should have temporarily
replaced it during the filling process--which minimises the amount of ink that drips out the ink outlet port. As long as your clip did not create an extra cartridge squeeze during refilling, that can't be a problem.

As to making a mess, I did it in a stainless steel sink and had little mess anyway--but any mess washes easily away from stainless steel.

And look also to the grandad 35 answer to the hobbicolors thread-I dare say grandad35 has filled a few cartridges and knows what he is doing----he uses a different method--and if he isn't worried neither am I.-----but I now have my homefilled hobbicolors cartridges in two printers--and they work great.

From what I can see your only mistake is in putting too much faith in poor instructions.--something Dave said he would rewrite when he has time. Next time concentrate on making less of a mess. Having good holders for the ink bottle and the cartridge helps.
And syringe technique is also something hard because there is also a stick slip possible unless you hold the syringe with both hands and exert steady pressure.

 

[fotofreek]

Good advice from Osage. with new HC carts, break off the orange cap, cut off any little "nibs" of plastic left from where the orange cap was plastic-welded to the cart, and immediately rubberband it back onto the ink outlet hole in preparation for filling. I have found that simply filling the cart slowly through the fill hole works just fine. I haven't bothered to fill in two steps. Replace the nylon screw and tighten down adequately to seal the fill hole, remove the orange cap from the bottom and let the cart drip til it stops. Blot the ink outlet on paper toweling that is on a flat surface so you don't blot the filter in the outlet hole. Replace the orange cap with a rubber band to hold it on and apply some tape over the vent hole if you are storing it. Very little mess this way. I usually refill like Osage over a sink, but mine is a white porcelain one. I sometimes put several layers of newspaper on the drainboard, work over it, and then throw the paper away. Any ink that gets into the sink will easily wash off, or you can use some straight bleach for any spots that remain.

 

[mccoady]

Well since I'm using the compubiz clips I'm not using the orange caps at all, I remove them and then insert the cartridge into the clips and the begin my filling process. I just now removed the ink cartridges from the clips and installed them in my printer one by one and noticed that even then ink dripped some so I had to blot the outlet hole a few times before it quit dripping. I kind of got the impression that at this point in the process I shouldn't be getting any ink dripping at all? I also had to run several deep cleanings to get it to prime, actually all the colors were fine after the first deep cleaning but the smaller black cartridge (it took several deep cleanings).

 

[on30trainman]

Mike,
Sorry to hear that you are having some trouble getting the HC to work, especially since I was one of those who pushed you to trying it.
Interestingly in the last couple of fills/refills I have gone to a different system, actually only different amounts. I only fill about 6 cc initially - the sponge doesn't get completely colored that way. Then after putting tape over the vent maze opening, I inject what ever it takes to fill the spongeless chamber to about 90%. Your dripping problem may be too much ink in the sponge chamber. I have had little, if any, dripping. I do touch the outlet opening to a paper towel or tissue before inserting the cartridge, but don't have ink dripping problems.
BTW I do my filling at the kitchen table with several layers of newspapers and a sheet of waxed paper over it. My messes are now very little. The drilled block to hold the open bottles made it much easier to fill - no worry about knocking over a bottle of ink. I also use those cheap rubber gloves from Home Depot or Lowes - keeps my fingers clean. Actually can reuse them several times.
As far as nozzle cleanings - the first time I tried the HC inks I did have to do several cleaning cycles - but since I have changed my filling procedure the printers don't seem to need that cleaning, or not nearly as much. Maybe the heads are getting saturated with ink and need several cycles to get a good flow - maybe or maybe not. Just my thoughts.

Steve W.

 

[fotofreek]

A few little suggestions -
Trainman - try putting the waxed paper under the newspaper as the newspaper will absorb any ink that drips instead of the ink sitting on top of the waxed paper per your routine. I also use a drilled block with the squeeze bottles that have syringe needles attached. This technique was posted on the forum a few months ago by a very clever participant. Before that I had a refrigerator carton in which all the ink containers fit rather snugly. There was no way one could tip over. Another person said that he kept the ink containers in a large coffee mug that they all fit in snugly.

Mccoady - Having a few drops of ink and the need to blot (paper towel on a flat surface to avoid blotting the filter at the outlet) the ink outlet port just before installing the cart is a good sign as far as I'm concerned. I've even loosened the fill hole screw a bit or blown lightly in the air vent to get a few drops to be sure I have a wet surface at the ink outlet filter. Just be sure you have a secure seal at the fill hole. When a person using OEM inks prints til the ink tank empty warning and then replaces the empty cart with another OEM cart the printer automatically does a cleaning cycle. When you refill a cart before you get a warning from the ink monitor, that cleaning cycle doesn't necessarily occur. As far as a cart not working properly, especially if it is a new one (or if it has just been purged ala Grandad) the first test is to remove the fill hole screw and see if ink drips out. Then you can put the screw back in and blow gently on the air vent hole. You should get some ink dripping out. If not, you have a feed problem. If both blowing lightly into the air vent and removing the fill hole scew produces some ink drops the next thing to check is if the sponge and outlet filter have somehow gotten displaced upward and the filter isn't making contact with the intake port in the printhead. You can cap the outlet and give it a few taps on a table to be sure the filter is down far enough to make contact. Compare it to a cart that is working ok to see how far down the filter should be.

 

[mccoady]

Thanks Steve I don't blame you or anyone else for talking me into trying refilling I guess everyone should try it once, now whether I continue to refill after my HC kit is gone I'll just have to see if things get easier for me. I really don't think I overfilled the sponge chamber because it looked like it just covered the sponge (but who knows because it drips) I might try to only fill to 6cc in the future though. I read that Dave said to not overfill and in my case the reserve chamber is definitely not filled to 90% and I tried to not to exceed filling 14cc altogether so maybe too much was in the sponge chamber because it does drip and you said yours didn't. I also found it a little difficult using the syringe because it took both my hands and constant pressure to load it but maybe it will get easier.

fotofreek I guess your saying it's good for it to drip some is a good sign I will try to smile when it's dripping on my hands (lol) but I do understand what you're saying. At least you know that your cartridge is working right.

Okay so now that I've filled all my cartridges for the first time I assume anytime I need to refill the reserve chamber I just tape the air inlet hole and refill to 90% not paying any attention to how many cc I put in, correct?

 

[fotofreek]

Right about 90%, but I would leave the vent open to let the pressure equalize in both compartments. About the ink on the hands - buy some cheap ambidextrous latex exam gloves. They are available at home depot, Walgreens, etc. Any ink you get on your hands will come off easily with a bit of bleach like clorox. Refilling gets much easier after the first few times, so don't get discouraged. At this point you are worrying through each step and overthinking the process. Just try to recall learning how to ride a two wheel bicycle. You had to fall several times before you got it and then it became second nature. I would also make a suggestion that will make the HC carts easier to use. The nylon screws are difficult to handle, especially when wet with ink. It is a bit difficult to line them up properly with the hole and catch the first thread. I bought short stainless steel pan head sheet metal screws and tight fitting o-rings and replaced the nylon ones before I refilled the carts. Bigger and easier to handle, and they align themselves in the fill hole as they are pointed.

If you think you made a mess, I first tried refilling with Epson carts that required bottom fllling with an adaptor to the syringe. Ink dripped down on my gloved hands and all over my workbench. You had to really measure the ink as the carts were not transparent. These Canon carts are a piece of cake to refill. You just need to know a few little tricks that you can pick up on this forum.

 

[hpnetserver]

My understanding of refilling HC cartridges is a little simpler. The sponge chamber should only be half filled. This means the sponge is filled with half of what it can absorb. Then the reserve tank should be filled as full as you can.

The reason the sponge should not be allowed to absorb ink fully is it will be too saturated and it will cause the print head to leak. Just think of a partially used ink cartridge's sponge. It is partially empty. So if you only allow the sponge to absorb ink about half of what it can absorbe it will be just like a partially used cartridge. It has to work like a partially used cartridge too. Half really means anywhere from 50% to 90%. It does not need to be exact just like a partially used cartridge.

To achieve this you fill ink in two steps. The first is to inject 6 to 8 cc of ink. The sponge must be able to absorb much more than that but you only let it have 6 to 8 cc. Then you block the vent. The purpose of blocking the vent at this point is so that you inject more ink (the 2nd step) the ink will not continue to saturate the sponge. If you fial to block the vent you will over saturate the sponge and you will have a leak from the print head.

When the vent is blocked and the ink exit hole is also securely covered any more absorbtion of ink by the sponge will cause internal pressure to build up. The building up of pressure will prevent ink from further saturating the sponge. So then you can inject as much ink into the reserve chamber (the 2nd step) as you want then seal the ink hole. If it is more than 90% full it should be fine because after the ink hole is sealed vacuum will prevent ink from flowing into the sponge even after the vent is unblocked. You see you won't need to care how much ink you should inject in the 2nd step. Just fill up the reserve chamber.

I have repeatedly refilled my cartridges this way successfully. To be sure that the sponge is not over saturated I will squeeze the cartridge to force some ink out from the exit hole. A few drops out of the exit hole finishes the entire refilling process. The reserve chamber is always more than 90% full and the sponge is never over saturated. It worked every time. I believe each refilling took me less than 5 minutes. HC cartridges work reallly well. I did overfill the first time because I did not read the instruction. The resulted leaking and banding scared the hell out of me. It really wasn't pretty to look at the banding.

 

[fotofreek]

HP - I've just refilled without the concern you show for oversaturating the sponge and I haven't had leaks in the printer in almost two years of refilling. I will heed your advice and watch this carefully. You certainly can't go wrong doing it your way! Maybe I've just been lucky. I always let the carts drip as much as they want to before putting them in the printer or storing them. Might even give them a little squeeze to be sure they've finished dripping completely.

These HC carts do work well for refilling. So do the MIS virgin carts and Arrow carts. My favorites for refilling, however are OEM carts. Canon did figure this one out pretty well!