Interesting take on the Freedom Method Rig from Rjettek Video

[The Hat]

I had a lot more fun and eventually I got it right (with my contraption) - the cartridge filled almost full, in one go, no foam, no wasted ink, no ink left in air maze and upper sponge.
However it needs some physical strength, also the cartridge is under considerable mechanical stress because of vacuum.
If anybody is interested, let me know, to post photos and description.

Thank you very much for your great pictures, and sharing your refilling method with us, its really appreciated.
Your contraption doesnt look very study but it obviously is and thats what counts well done.

What we need now is for more guys to have a go at making up the own contraptions or copying an excising one
and we could possibly make the two oldest refilling methods redundant.

Growing popularity can only be a good thing..
What are you going to call it, The .......refilling method ?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Nice, gigigogu. The plunger lock is probably quite helpful. I was thinking of making one. Opening the vent with the syringe still attached was a good idea.

I have a couple of suggestions. 1. If you have foam in the large syringe, the plunger lock will allow you time for it to collapse, so you can inject the ink back into the cartridge. You may (or may not) find it helpful to attach both syringes simultaneously. There may not be any particular reason to detach the large syringe, and it might save an operation not to do it.

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi gigigogu

Thank you very much for your report and photos. Excellent job

I wonder what makes your method work and the Rjettec device fail. Is it the level of vacuum or the orientation of the cartridge or maybe something else? My guess is that the higher vacuum allows the ink chamber to be filled almost completely. I don't know if gravity has an effect on where ink goes when filling the cartridge.

Instead of avoiding the oversaturation of the upper sponge, as i have tried in my tests, I think it is a very clever idea to allow it to happen and then remove the excessive ink afterwards.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

You don't need to worry about the dreaded oversaturated sponge. In this video by ghwellsjr you can see it drain in seconds. Then you just remove a little more -- maybe 1-2 mL -- and you're safe. If you're worried about the "oversaturated" upper sponge blocking the flow of air to the ink chamber, mikling disposed of that notion clearly when he opened the top and poured as much ink in there as he could get, and the cartridge still performed normally.

 

[gigigogu]

The Hat
You are too kind. I do not think it deserves a separate name, as it is only a small variation of vacuum filling.

ThrillaMozilla
The plunger lock is essential, as it is not possible to keep the plunger pulled and to operate the stopcock with only two hands...
If the cartridge is empty before refill, there will be only a small quantity of ink/foam drawn in vacuum syringe, not worth the complication to inject it back, but can be recovered, by detaching the syringe.
I tried with both syringes attached, but it is clumsy, the vacuum syringe still needs to be detached to pull out the air removed from cartridge, and one should be very careful how is turning the stopcock, to avoid unwanted connections.

PeterBJ
I think it is the vacuum, 5 to 10% of normal atmospheric pressure. Also the position helps, as I got a better filling of ink chamber with the cartridge in normal position than upside down.

 

[barfl2]

I have just had another go at the Freedom method using Octoinks excellent 520/521 clips and used OEM carts and luer female/1/8"barb fittings plus a 3way stopcock idea borrowed from Gigigogu device. I just araldited the luer barb to the clip clipped off any excess length inside, punched a hole in the clips seal.

To originally started to do it like Gigigogu did with the 2 sringes 60/12ml but cold'nt find a syringe with a lock so modified one but was not stiff enough, the effort to pull a 60ml syringe right out is considerable and did'nt help my dodgy shoulder. Anyway when I turned the stopcock to closed and removed syringe and replaced it with the smaller one nothing happened. I tried several times but could'nt get his original method to work. leaky valve? So I built the simple item mentioned above and it worked fine with the 521 C/Y/M the addition of the stopcock is useful if your syringe is nearly fully extended, you can rotate to close off the cart and CAREFULLY push syringe plunger in till you have full capacity available again, this is particularly necessary with the larger PGBK needing about 18ml. I tested it under water for leaks (none) but also noticed a considerable increase in vacuum and was able to complete the PGBK cart easier.

No doubt the scientist's among our Forum members will be able to tell why.

I did get the original arrangement working but with both syringes connected pull large one out and lock it( difficult) turn valve and ink flows in BUT only about 3/4 full I repeated the experiment several times but got the same result. The effort needed was really too much for me as the plunger lock was not very good and I had to hold it in with 1 hand whilst turning the valve with the other. whereas the simpler connection method with Octoinks excellent clips worked with a lot less effort. Perhaps Gigigogu valve was different type.

I now have a set of undrilled original OEM carts filled and ready to go.

 

[The Hat]

I think congratulations are in order here and a well done,
it may not be 100% but youre getting there and thats what counts.

Now that you have half filled your carts dont be afraid to use them in your printer they will work just as good as new ones,
youll just get the low ink warning that bit sooner that is all.

Again good on you..

 

[barfl2]

Thanks for your kind comments 1 pic attached. To clarify I have now completely filled and using C/M and a Y ready to go with this method. But I did it with the single 60ml syringe on its own for C/Y/M/BK but needed the valve on the PGBK so that you can make repeated attempts to fill the cart completely. On weighing the PGBK I was about 1.5grams down near enough.

What interested me was that everybody commented about the video that the cart was not full and had enough ink been put in the syringe. Well obviously not because my double syringe attempt with 12ml in the smaller syringe behaved exactly the same,only 6ml went in. It is then extremely difficult to pull main plunger back again and hold it with one hand whilst you change the valve to put any more in. Plus they had a powered pump helping them.

Next phase would be to make some power operated vacuum pump like the example. There are ideas out there about converting portable tyre inflators, but how you would stop old ink/fluids flowing back into the pump I am not sure.

I wanted to have a set of original undrilled carts refilled which I have achieved but think the majority of re-fillers will stick to the easier 2 methods available it is hard work.

 

[The Hat]

Because you and other have invested you time and intelligence into these contraptions that has led us to where we are today,
without them we would have to use OEM inks or worse cheap compatibles, remember it all started with just one idea originally.

The Holy Grail here is to be able to refill the cartridges and keep them in perfect condition just like new,
with no holes or anything else done to them, it is possible as you are now finding out.

It doesnt matter if your invention takes a little longer to fill the cartridge
its be able to succeed without altering the cartridge in any way thats the most satisfying part..