Looking for a squeeze bottle to use with the Top-Fill method?

[irvweiner]

***********DO NOT DO*********

3. I will be purchasing 1 liter of ink from InkTec or some other brand of ink. I will pour about 30 ml of ink into the 2 oz. squeeze bottle. After injecting ink into the ink tank I will pour the remaining ink in the squeeze bottle back into the 1 liter bottle. For now, I do not think I will be keeping any ink in the squeeze bottle. I do not trust the caps. When I have used a squeeze bottle for a while I will think about keeping ink in the squeeze bottle.
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Do not swap the inks from bottle to bottle--you are giving yourself a 100% chance of getting spores, mold and airborne bacteria into both bottles. A major benefit of this 2 bottle approach is to minimize how often the larger ink bottle is opened, even if you used syringes this is still a proper protocol. In fact, when it is time to refill the smaller bottle, wash it thoroughly and clean out potential contaminants.

irv weiner

 

[fotofreek]

To: l_d_allan

3. I will be purchasing 1 liter of ink from InkTec or some other brand of ink. I will pour about 30 ml of ink into the 2 oz. squeeze bottle. After injecting ink into the ink tank I will pour the remaining ink in the squeeze bottle back into the 1 liter bottle. For now, I do not think I will be keeping any ink in the squeeze bottle. I do not trust the caps. When I have used a squeeze bottle for a while I will think about keeping ink in the squeeze bottle.

Your thoughts.

Thank you.

No need to be so cautious with storage of ink in the squeeze bottles. You are defeating one of the major benefits of the squeeze bottles by pouring ink back and forth at each refill session. Just pour enough ink in each bottle to nearly fill it and use the ink until you have to add more. The only time I pour ink out is when I purchase a new quantity of ink. With a shelf life issue in mind I don't mix ink I just purchased with ink that I purchased a few years ago. Even though carts may be working very well, I watch the dates of the ink they are refilled with to prevent any ink from being in the carts for more than two years. I purge those carts and start over with fresh inks that were more recently purchased. I put a label on the carts and date the refills as I do them. The printhead is more precious than an hour of work every year of so to be certain that the ink in the carts isn't too old.

 

[l_d_allan]

To: l_d_allan
...
Your thoughts?

I agree with Irv and fotofreek ... I would leave the residual leftover ink from the 2 oz in the refill bottles, rather than going back and forth. You approach seems to defeat the purpose of the 2 oz bottles.

 

[The Hat]

fotofreek With a shelf life issue in mind I don't mix ink I just purchased with ink that I purchased a few years ago. Even though carts may be working very well, I watch the dates of the ink they are refilled with to prevent any ink from being in the carts for more than two years. I purge those carts and start over with fresh inks that were more recently purchased. I put a label on the carts and date the refills as I do them. The printhead is more precious than an hour of work every year.

I certainly like your approach to ink husbandry the detailed way you keep an eye on the age of your inks,
and when its time to purchase more you purge the cartridges.
I cant fault your good system in any way its brilliant and there is a caution in there for us all, beware of mixing our inks..

 

[fotofreek]

Hat - I used to keep many more refilled carts of each color in reserve as it was easy to refill lots of them at once. I finally realized that some had remnants of ink several years old mixed in with newer ink. If there would be any mold growth in the older ink it would contaminate the entire cart regardless of the new ink refill.

That is when I started putting a blank address label on the side of each newly purged cart and noting the dates of refills. I also decided to purge carts before they started to slow down the delivery of ink. I might be working too hard or being too careful, but I'd rather waste some (inexpensive) refill ink and spend a bit more (retired guy) time to save my bci-6 printheads!!!!

 

[l_d_allan]

putting a blank address label on the side of each newly purged cart and noting the dates of refills

I may incorporate that. Thanks.

I've got a bunch of quite small hobby-size ziplocks that my wife got at HobbyLobby where she works. I have half of a 3x5 index card that just fits in the ziplock, inside with the cart. On the card, I keep a running log of everything I do to that cart.

* Where it came from (original with printer, Rapid-Refill, OfficeMax, etc.) and when.
* On each line to document a full cycle:
- When it went in the printer
- When it came out of the printer
- State when it came out (empty, low, not yet low)
- Estimated ml it took to refill
- Refill date
* Purge date, as applicable
* Note of anything I did differently from my S.O.P.
* Any problems encountered, or concerns (like so-so or bad nozzle check)

Each of my carts has a sequential letter on it, of which one it is for that color, so I can (hopefully) keep something of an audit trail on it:
CLI-8Bk -- A, B, ...
CLI-8Cy -- A, B, ...
...
CLI-8Y -- A, B, ...

I may go to keeping the cart itself is in another small ziplock inside the outer small ziplock, so there are two ziplocks per cart. If the cart does leak while in storage, it won't stain my record keeping.

Each color has a quart size freezer ziplock with a Rapid-Refill box holding the refilled carts for each of the individual colors. Another quart size freezer ziplock holds the ones ready to be refilled (empty, low, part). I anticipate that I will refill in batches, typically when I run out of PM or PC, or have a lot of printing to do.

Suggestions to improve/revise/simplify appreciated. Over time, I anticipate simplifying this. Actually, I have my doubts I'll be organized enough to actually record all of the above over time.

 

[l_d_allan]

I will be purchasing 1 liter of ink from InkTec or some other brand of ink.

Your thoughts.

A liter ??? ... that's a LOT. I'm curious how much printing you do ... of what type? If a lot of it are photos, where do you get your paper?

I got my OCP ink from R-Jet Tek here in Colorado Springs, and I thought their minimum purchase quantity was a lot ... 16 oz (a pint, and ~ 480 ml or half a liter).

 

[websnail]

Just to add to the various points made above... A 20gauge needle of 1.5" would be about the best option for a few reasons:

1. It's long enough that you can get the needle tip in a ways before you start filling
2. It's thin enough that your ink stream will be slow and measured... ie: you don't have to restrain yourself from filling too quickly
3. The length is also about right to avoid potential bending/snapping damage to the needle.

An 18 gauge would also be fine but increases the volume/speed of ink pushed out so you need to be a bit more careful.

I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 21 gauge (ie: 22+) because the needle strength is low (high chance of bending/snapping) and the ink flow will have you reading war and peace while you wait...

 

[l_d_allan]

Just to add to the various points made above... A 20 gauge needle of 1.5" would be about the best option for a few reasons ....

I haven't yet tried the German refill method, but a 2" needle would give you that option. A 1.5" needle would be too short for the GRM.

 

[stratman]

An 18 gauge would also be fine but increases the volume/speed of ink pushed out so you need to be a bit more careful.

Yes, per unit force (pressure applied to the squeeze bottle or syringe plunger). As you said, a little more care when applying force is all that's needed and it's not that difficult unless you have a medical issue with hand control. People with medical issues of the hand, such as arthritis, may find the smaller gauge needles difficult and/or painful to work with compared to the 18 gauge.

Also, the velocity of the ink from a smaller gauge needle must increase for the same volume of ink to exit per unit time compared to the larger gauge needles. Therefore, if you inject ink with a smaller needle gauge compared to the 18 gauge, then you will make more frothy bubbles. Not a problem usually, but another of those tiny issues involved.

There are very few reasons to not use either 18 or 20 gauge except as noted above.