How old are your OEM cartridges, maybe to old...?

[The Hat]

With @stratman having me play around with the cartridges on the iP4500 the other day, I noticed later that the yellow cartridge was leaking and had lost the ink in the reservoir side.

I needed to investigate this most usual loss of ink quickly, because my refill holes were filled with hot glue and never leak once cooled, so this was new to me.

These are a batch of 10-year-old CLl-8 cartridges that have been filled untold amount of times and used in all my printers at one time or another, I was anxious to find the source of this pesky leak and was there more.

I intend examining all these cartridges before I reuse them in any printer again, because this cartridge chip got covered in leaking ink, electricals and liquid as you all know are never a good mix...

EDIT: I will endeavour to upload a photo when this stupid system allows me too...
** And it still wont, many hours later after trying a few tricks..

 

[stratman]

Happy to be of assistance.

 

[The Hat]

EDIT: I will endeavour to upload a photo when this stupid system allows me too...

I decided to use another post to see if I could upload the missing photo...
AND finally it mysteriously uploaded this time...

 

[avolanche]

The Hat, I don't know if this will help, But i'll post it anyway. I recently tried the top fill method (after years of successful German Method), mainly because I had very old CLI-8s that I wanted to flush through a larger hole. So I removed the ball and drilled out to 5/32". After completed, I decided to try and reseal the holes.
It has been very difficult to get a good, permanent, seal for a hole on these polypropylene cartridges. I have used various glues,screws, etc. with initial success, but eventual failure.

I just came up with a more foolproof method. I took an old Canon cartridge as a "donor". Basically, I melted a small piece of the plastic from the donor and smeared it over the hole. I used a mini-butane torch to melt the plastic on the flat surface of a small knife.Then I applied the melted plastic to the cart with the knife blade. A small screwdriver, etc. will work, too. I melts well and stays molten long enough to smear over the hole. It absolutely seals(fast and permanent!). If you can find the exact point of the leak, this might help.

Fred

 

[stratman]

@The Hat - Very tricky problem to find if small. Nice pick up! I have one or two cartridges in continuous use that have a top hole plugged years ago with a hot glue gun and never touched since. If those cartridges ever leak then now I will know to look for delamination of the cartridge. Thanks for the info.

 

[The Hat]

Nice one @avolanche, unfortunately in my case the top of the cartridge has started to come away from the cartridge body and is leaking where the LED shines through the little grey part and soaking the chip below.

I could try and reseal that section but its just not worth the trouble because it probably will leak from somewhere else then (Murphy’s Law), when I refill I reseal the refill hole with hot glue successfully for years...
Thanks Fred for the great tip..

 

[The Hat]

now I will know to look for delamination of the cartridge.

Happy to be of assistance Partner...

 

[stratman]

Ain't Clint great!

 

[avolanche]

Nice one @avolanche, unfortunately in my case the top of the cartridge has started to come away from the cartridge body and is leaking where the LED shines through the little grey part and soaking the chip below.

I could try and reseal that section but its just not worth the trouble because it probably will leak from somewhere else then (Murphy’s Law), when I refill I reseal the refill hole with hot glue successfully for years...
Thanks Fred for the great tip..

Hat,
I tried hot glue a few years ago and it peeled off. I wonder if it was just not a good glue? Anyway, we now have yet another way to seal these cartridges.

Fred

 

[The Hat]

I tried hot glue a few years ago and it peeled off.

The standard glue gun is not good to use, you need the bigger glue gun that can produce higher temperatures, works a threat...