German Durchstich refill method for Canon carts with pictures

[pipinof]

which are the best inks those of the hobbicolors or those of the precision colors?
which can they be mixed with the inks original canon?
I stamp a lot of photos.
thanks

 

[pharmacist]

Both can be used and are completely miscible with the original Canon ink. Hobbicolors UW-8 ink has a wider gamut than the original Canon CLI-8 ink, so you are able to print a wider colour range in comparison to the original Canon ink. But to obtain this goal, you have to make a personalised printer profile for the specific photo paper you are using.

 

[pipinof]

you are really very kind.
I live in Italy.
Where can I purchase inks hobbicolors?
www.producers.it/dettaglio812.html Can I use this type of cartridges?
thanks

 

[Trigger 37]

Now that many of the Master have cast their votes for this process, I felt it was my turn to offer my own opinion. I read each and every post as close as possilbe, looking for information that would help me decide about this process. It is hard to change something you are doing when you've done it so long and it has worked everytime for you,..but I'm always looking for something better. I've been looking very hard since I'm about to modify all the ink carts in about 15 printers and this is no time for me to make a mistake.

The German approach has a lot going for it, mostly it is truly very simple and seems easy to do. There has been a couple of exception where people first had problems that almost ruined the ink cart by moving the inside sponge material where it should not be. Another key factor to me in finalizing on a method to refill Canon ink carts (I've been doing it the standard way for about 3 years) was the acknowledgement that each ink cart will some day need to be cleaned and flushed. I have used my own process, which was adapted from "Grandad's" method and It has worked so well I have not wanted to change it.

To flush my Canon ink carts, since I have always removed the plastic filler ball and used that hole to refill, and re-sealed the ink cart with plugs, screws, and sometimes just good masking tape, this fill hole has become an important part of my cleaning process. Grandad has gone to the trouble of getting special adapters to fit onto his sink and the bottom of his ink carts and flush them out that way. He has had great success with his method. He has however pointed out some problems of shifting the sponge position and possible ablatement of the exit pad. Since I needed to get the job done one day, and I didn't have his tools, I just did it a different way. I removed the screw from the filler hole and sat the ink cart in my laundry room sink and let a medium stream of water hit directly on the filler hole. It is not as fast as Grandad's process, but it has the same result. The water immediatley forces the old contaminated, dry, ink out of both the bottom exit hole and at the same time it forces it out of the air intake hole. Because it is not very high pressure it never has any change of damaging anything. To move things along I also turn the ink cart over and direct the water to the exit port and this moves the last bit of colored ink out of the air intake hole. Within a resonable amount of time the ink cart is devoid of any color of ink, but is full of water. I take it to my garage and use my air compressor to blow air into only the fill hole and the air intake hole. This very rapidly removes all water from the cart. I then have tried letting it dry for a day and sometime I have gone right ahead and refilled the ink cart with good ink. It will absorb the new ink into the sponge so fast it take virtually no time to refill. My tests afterwards have proven to me that it's as good as a NEW ink cart. Again, I do it this way because it is simple, I have the necessary tools, and it works.

Now getting back to the German method of refilling, like everyone else I have always been unsure about the new drilled fill hole being left open. I've read dozens of posts that exclaim just how safe this is and that no spilling or leaking ever occurs. This is established as a fact because of all the successful results that so many people have posted. There has even been several posts attempting to explain in SCIENTIFIC terms why the air pressure will not allow ink to leak from this hole, and how it does not change anything about the printing process because everyone's printer is working just fine.

I'm afraid that my 33 years working as an Engineer in Development causes me to have a lot of doubt about that conclusion. As someone else has indicated, "if an extra hole in the ink cart has no effect, then why did Canon Egnineers go to so much trouble to design the current ink cart, including the specific air intake hole. If I go back and look at the micro details of the 1-2 pico liter print nozzles, plus the science of Bubble Jet technology, the entire creation of one bubble and the ejection of it is one continuous flow of liquid from the top of the air intake, through the sponge, througn the exit filter, the stainless steel filter screen, all the ink paths inside the printhead and down to each nozzle. The exit of 1 picoliter bubble creates a vacuum at the nozzle that has to be immediately replaced with the same amount of ink. This is past all the way back to the air intake hole and it must supply an equal amount of air or nothing will work. Many of us know that if you get just a tiny air leak anywhere in the top of the ink cart, you have all kinds of problems. The air intake at the top is way above all of the sponge, and imagine there has been all kinds of engineering work to achieve the correct air pressure balance so the process will work under all kinds of conditions, Temperature, Humidity, atomosphereic pressure, alttitude, etc.

As an Egineer, I just can not accept that drilling a hole near the bottom of the ink cart near the exit port has no effect on the entire process. The reason the air intake port is at the top is so that as new air is SUCKED into the cart from the top, ink is SUCKED down from the top to push more ink out the bottom. If you add another air intake hole, the top air intake port will become non-operative. So who cares about this. I think this will cause the ink to never move from the top of the sponge and the primary flow of ink will be from the reservior along the bottom of the sponge and out the exit port. Will it work, absolutely. How long will it work,...who knows.

So my answer is,...I'm going to continue to fill the same way I have always done, and seal the fill hole, and therefore restore the ink cart to the original conditions for ink flow, and airflow. This also allows be to continue to do a full purge cleaning of any ink cart without changing anything that I know works.

Well that's all the news from Lake Woubegone, where all the women are good looking, all the men are strong, and all the children are above average.

 

[pipinof]

So my answer is,...I'm going to continue to fill the same way I have always done, and seal the fill hole, and therefore restore the ink cart to the original conditions for ink flow, and airflow. This also allows be to continue to do a full purge cleaning of any ink cart without changing anything that I know works.

they fully agree with you.
instead of washing the cartridges, would not it be better to replace her with those rechargeable?

 

[Trigger 37]

pipinof,... Because I have so many printers to work on, I buy ink in large quantities. I do all of this as a hobby so I don't want to spend money on extra ink carts when I have many dozens of them, and the Canon ink carts are made so good it is just to easy to flush them when they get old. I have right now about 20+ Canon printers and most of them came with ink carts and are in various stages of abuse. If a chipped ink cart won't function, I flush it and then refill it and believe me it is as good as new. The nice thing about Canon is that you can do this. I have just about as many, maybe more, Hewlett Packard printers and while I can refill them, I still don't have a successful way of cleaning them that is repeatable. Epson is the same. Ink carts for those printers are a different story.

 

[avolanche]

Trigger,
I have had the same questions as you about the open "extra" hole for the German method.Does it upset the "balance" of the cartridge regarding air flow...So I have stuck with filling through the reservoir and sealing it with a screw.Recently I decided to try the German method and I really prefer it.I am using a small piece of tape over the small fill-hole.So the cartridge is returned to the same state as an OEM(no openings that are not sealed with tape/screw/hot glue) except those open in the original.

One thing I'm still not sure about:It seems to me that any air leakage through the reservoir is more likely to cause a problem than the small fill-hole use for the German method.If I fill a cartridge and replace the reservoir screw,but don't get a *really good* seal,it's much easier to get the excess ink out(too easy it seems!).I'm referring to the excess ink if I fully fill a cartridge(maybe overfill) that I usually remove by firmly squeezing the cartridge sides.As long as I get a very tight seal on top of the reservoir,it's not a problem.

So,to eliminate all variables:
(1)I still remove the small ball and purge the catridges every 10 refills or so.
(2)I put a screw in the hole where the ball was....and further seal with hot glue(I can remove the glue for the infrequent purge).This gives me a really good seal of the reservoir.
(3) I cover the small fill hole used in the German method with a small piece of tape(friction tape or the Aluminum duct tape used on HVAC systems).
(4)I firmly believe Canon OEM cartridges are easily the best way to go.
(5)So using the German method is still very easy with the additional step of removing/replacing a small piece of tape.

 

[binkie]

To flush my Canon ink carts, since I have always removed the plastic filler ball and used that hole to refill, and re-sealed the ink cart with plugs, screws, and sometimes just good masking tape, this fill hole has become an important part of my cleaning process. Grandad has gone to the trouble of getting special adapters to fit onto his sink and the bottom of his ink carts and flush them out that way. He has had great success with his method. He has however pointed out some problems of shifting the sponge position and possible ablatement of the exit pad. Since I needed to get the job done one day, and I didn't have his tools, I just did it a different way. I removed the screw from the filler hole and sat the ink cart in my laundry room sink and let a medium stream of water hit directly on the filler hole. It is not as fast as Grandad's process, but it has the same result. The water immediatley forces the old contaminated, dry, ink out of both the bottom exit hole and at the same time it forces it out of the air intake hole. Because it is not very high pressure it never has any change of damaging anything. To move things along I also turn the ink cart over and direct the water to the exit port and this moves the last bit of colored ink out of the air intake hole. Within a resonable amount of time the ink cart is devoid of any color of ink, but is full of water. I take it to my garage and use my air compressor to blow air into only the fill hole and the air intake hole. This very rapidly removes all water from the cart. I then have tried letting it dry for a day and sometime I have gone right ahead and refilled the ink cart with good ink. It will absorb the new ink into the sponge so fast it take virtually no time to refill. My tests afterwards have proven to me that it's as good as a NEW ink cart. Again, I do it this way because it is simple, I have the necessary tools, and it works.

Trigger,

Thanks for a thorough explanation of your method of flushing a cartridge. Simple and less hazardous to the sponge than most other methods. Sounds like a winner!

Binkie

 

[jackson]

(3) I cover the small fill hole used in the German method with a small piece of tape(friction tape or the Aluminum duct tape used on HVAC systems).
.

I covered up the hole with that adhesive putty that kids use to stick papers to the wall.
It's easy to apply and peels off no problem.

 

[alexandereci]

Hello! I've tried to read this thread from start to finish, but it's late and my mind's overloaded with all the new info, so can someone please be patient and gentle with me and answer a few things:

1. I know the needle needs to be 2 inches long... but what gauge is the needle supposed to be? I'm a nurse and that's how we "size up" needles. Ga16 and 18 needles are the big ones (and long ones) used for blood transfusions and Ga20 and higher are the really fine but short needles for minimum pain. I'd like to use a bigger gauge (fine needle) if possible but I don't think they come in lengths longer than 1 inch.

2. What's this about purging ink tanks? Do I have to? Why?

Thanks!