Just the Magenta clogged, what to do??

[winkjet]

I don't want to disassemble the whole thing, if i just want to fix the magenta, what do i have to do? Do I have to wait until the cyan and yellow to go bust first?

Please see picture of what i mean.

If i print a block of magenta, the picture has lines and stripes on it. But for blue and yellow it's fine.

And what does the figure next to the red arrow mean? Is it suppose to be zero? Sometimes it never even shows.

My printer is Canon Pixma MP140 series, MP 145 to be exact.

TIA

 

[Token]

Welcome to the forums!

Well, from what i can tell, it looks like that its a cartridge flow problem, as it appears to have suddely appeared, and looks like too many to be just a single clog. Do you refill your cartridges, or do you use brand new canon (or generic) cartridges? If you've just put in a new cart, check to make sure that you have removed all the required tape, as blocking the holes that that tape covers can stop ink flow, and that the cartridge is seated properly in the printer, so that all the contacts touch.

I trust the magenta isnt out of ink, but, if it was, that would also cause this problem.

The "D=0.196" is just the percentage that your waste ink pad is full. Don't worry about it now, but, when it gets higher, the printer will tell you that it's full. You can either take it to a service center to get replaced, or just reset the counter. But be careful: if you reset too many times, the waste ink pad CAN overflow.. but thats not a problem most users will ever face.

 

[winkjet]

Hello Token,

I use the original cartridge with holes punched into them to support the InkJet Continuous Flow Systems. It was working fine for some time but then...

Every time i do a deep head cleaning i can see other inks move relatively faster towards the cartridge but not the magenta. So i took it out and manually inject it using a syringe about 1ml into it. But before manually injecting it with magenta ink the problem already occurred. At first i also thought it must have run out of ink.

So, what do i have to do to fix the cartridge flow problem? I am now a millionaire if i get a dollar for every time i perform deep cleaning.

 

[Token]

winkjet:
Is the air intake on the CISS/CFS blocked? If the air cannot get in, then the ink cannot get out (ie, move into the cartridge).
Is the tubing blocked/kinked?

Also, have a look at your ink: if its getting a bit old, there might be some microbial growth in the ink, and this could plug up the nozzles. I personally havent experienced this, but other members of the forum have.

Can you post some photos of your ciss setup? That might make it easier for us to find any problems.

 

[pharmacist]

The best way installing the tubing of a CISS is to place it directly into the breathing hole. This will constantly replenish the sponge with ink, when the ink is sucked out from the cartridge: so instead of air, ink is sucked into the cartridge. Installing into the ink compartment does not work well to me: the ink level lowered, but the ink is not replenished from the external bottles.

 

[jflan]

Never heard of CISS adapted to one of these....
http://www.databazaar.com/SiteImages/Products/Canon/PrintImage/CL41.jpg
Pictures would indeed be interesting.

 

[winkjet]

No worries I'll upload the pictures, fair dinkum, but forgive the quality, I snapped them using my mobile phone:











As you can see Token the air is not blocked since all covers are open nor tubing kinked. I've had it literally for only a couple of weeks.

Regarding the rear view picture, I'm using two bottles to catch the color and black inks separately. I recycle the black ink back into the CISS when the bottle gets half full. As I have mentioned already i do the head cleaning heaps of times so i feel bad wasting the inks that way. I do have reservations doing this fearing microscopic size wastes may block the minute holes in the head cartridge. But what the hey, I'll let you know the next time i refill the black ink if doing this will create an adverse affect on the whole black printing system.

Oh and yes, the holes are punched directly into their respective breathing holes...

 

[jflan]

Very clever to do this with a 3-in-1 but I suspect it will be difficult to maintain with that class of cartridge.

Back to the clog....most first thought would be the quality of the ink that you are using.
Are you using a known, reliable brand of ink such as Image Specialists, HobbiColors or Inktec ?

 

[Smile]

Read the second post here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4175

I have cleared my clog with this stream method. Even commercial cleaning fluid soaking over a period of few days had no results.

 

[winkjet]

I don't know about the quality but before buying it I had a look at the printing samples created using the ink I used and its pretty decent quality.

Smile,

That method seems reasonable. I would give it a go.

I should mention. I think, this all started after discovering the slow movement of the magenta ink, I decided to force this movement by applying pressure on the the magenta container using a syringe. I applied it through the open hole where it isn't covered by the rubber plugs.

During the head cleaning process, when you start to see the ink move towards the cartridge, that's when i start to press on the syringe. After the movement stops i likewise stop the injection. Despite doing so there were air "kick backs" meaning air bubble recoiled from the cartridge back out to the magenta tubing, resulting in about 30cm/11in of air being filled inside the tubing. I had to do a lot of head cleaning the get rid of this pockets of air. And never do that again ever since.

So I guess there are micro bubbles stuck around the magenta head? Extracting these bubbles using your method would perhaps do the trick. Will find the ammonia first though. Thx