Make ink thicker?
- Thread starter hseeng
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That's what Colorbat has suggested if your Inks are too thin. Mix 10% glycerin or more until it is thick enough for you to be comfortable with.
He also suggested mixing 10% distilled water to make the inks thinner, if it is too thick.
I don't know how true this is though.
He also suggested mixing 10% distilled water to make the inks thinner, if it is too thick.
I don't know how true this is though.
Hi I use the search engine to find if there is any solution to my problem with ink being too diluted and runs out from nozzles too readily and came upon this thread. As this question had already been asked, so I post my similar question here. So sorry had to bring up this thread which was originally posted on 03/19/2005.
I bought a bottle of Glycerin from the pharmacy as suggested by this thread hoping that I could try to thicken the ink a bit. But I am wondering if I had purchase a wrong one. The one I bought is strictly Glycerin BP (don't see any other ingreditents on the bottle). The bottle say it's for moisturising dry and chapped skins on hands. I tried to add a bit of the Glycerin to ink and increment it slowly to get the thickness required. However, no matter how much I add the Glycerin into the ink, it didn't really thicken the ink much. As such I kept adding the Glycerin and my ink appeared to increase! The more I add the glycerin, the more emollient it gets. This will eventually give me the problem of slow drying. I pickup a bit of the ink with the added Glycerin and rubbed the ink with fingers just to access the thickness. Too emollient like I said. And having added so much Glycerin, the ink still remained quite 'liquidity'. But if I add just a tiny bit, it will not getting any thicker, but just emollient.
To see a picture of my problem with the ink being too diluted, refer to post #50 at this thread : http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5
I think pharmacist had tried to use glycerin to prevent rapid evaporation of moisture during cleaning the clog printhead according to this thread at post #4, http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2564
Can anyone who tried glycerin to rub a bit of this on your finger and describe how is the texture of the glycerin. My Glycerin is too emollient.
And also if anyone who has Original Canon Pigment PGI-5BK ink, can kindly also rub a bit of the original pigment black ink and tell me how does the consistency of this ink feels. So that I can thicken my 3rd party Compatible Canon Pigment Black ink to achieve similar consistency like the Original Canon Black Pigment.
Thanks.
I bought a bottle of Glycerin from the pharmacy as suggested by this thread hoping that I could try to thicken the ink a bit. But I am wondering if I had purchase a wrong one. The one I bought is strictly Glycerin BP (don't see any other ingreditents on the bottle). The bottle say it's for moisturising dry and chapped skins on hands. I tried to add a bit of the Glycerin to ink and increment it slowly to get the thickness required. However, no matter how much I add the Glycerin into the ink, it didn't really thicken the ink much. As such I kept adding the Glycerin and my ink appeared to increase! The more I add the glycerin, the more emollient it gets. This will eventually give me the problem of slow drying. I pickup a bit of the ink with the added Glycerin and rubbed the ink with fingers just to access the thickness. Too emollient like I said. And having added so much Glycerin, the ink still remained quite 'liquidity'. But if I add just a tiny bit, it will not getting any thicker, but just emollient.
To see a picture of my problem with the ink being too diluted, refer to post #50 at this thread : http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5
I think pharmacist had tried to use glycerin to prevent rapid evaporation of moisture during cleaning the clog printhead according to this thread at post #4, http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2564
Can anyone who tried glycerin to rub a bit of this on your finger and describe how is the texture of the glycerin. My Glycerin is too emollient.
And also if anyone who has Original Canon Pigment PGI-5BK ink, can kindly also rub a bit of the original pigment black ink and tell me how does the consistency of this ink feels. So that I can thicken my 3rd party Compatible Canon Pigment Black ink to achieve similar consistency like the Original Canon Black Pigment.
Thanks.
canonfodder
Printer Guru
Lin,
You should be measuring the viscosity of the ink, not just rubbing it between your fingers.
Anyone can do a comparative measurement of viscosity. What I mean by comparative is that you don't have to have a standard calibrated piece of expensive equipment. You can compare the viscosity of an ink to the viscosity of water with only a little effort. You will have a real measure, not just a feel.
Go to this post by Grandad35 where he explains how to do an easy measurement of ink viscosity. He also gives some guide information as to what viscosities he found some inks to exhibit.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195
Since you don't want to waste the ink, be catching it in a clean container while you do the measurement.
You should be measuring the viscosity of the ink, not just rubbing it between your fingers.
Anyone can do a comparative measurement of viscosity. What I mean by comparative is that you don't have to have a standard calibrated piece of expensive equipment. You can compare the viscosity of an ink to the viscosity of water with only a little effort. You will have a real measure, not just a feel.
Go to this post by Grandad35 where he explains how to do an easy measurement of ink viscosity. He also gives some guide information as to what viscosities he found some inks to exhibit.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195
Since you don't want to waste the ink, be catching it in a clean container while you do the measurement.
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If the Glycerin if of BP quality (British Pharmacopea), than it is of the highest possible quality, but it contain's some water. This should not be a problem. The best product to sharpen the printouts on plain paper is adding glycol (poisonous !) to the ink, about 5 % maximum.
Hi Tin Ho, I wanted to reply your comment on one of the reply here, but it seems you have deleted the comment which was originally supposed to be #6. Anyway, below to answer all your question on that comment which u deleted.
I understand what you meant about aftermarket cartridge. Some of the 3rd party ink cartridges, they are not really designed to be refilled and sponge is really of poor quality despite the manufacturer claims that their cartridges is of the highest quality...etc.....
But how do you come to the idea and assume I was using aftermarket cartridge??? As I am only using aftermarket compatible ink for canon and refilled them to Original Canon Cartridges and not refilling into 3rd party cartridges.
I usually tried to buy a bulk quality 100ml each to get more saving. Because it's bulk and it will be really a waste to discard away.
Fyi, I have never refill cartridges to the full. Usually I refill about only 75-80%.
See that the bottom of the sponge is well saturated with refill ink but the top sponge is not totally or too fully saturated. Note that the ink in these photo has been used during printing. However even when the ink reservoir area is initially fresh refilled with 75% of ink, the top and bottom sponge looks quite like the photo below. Hope this help to address your assumption that I might have possibily refill too much ink into the cartridge.
And the ink is not leaking from the Canon Cartridges. And it does not leaks on the printhead when u install the refilled Canon OEM cartridges. I usually test them by placing the refill cartridge on a glass for half an hour to see if there is any ink leaking out. Usually if a cartridge is leaking (depending on the amount of ink being refill), all it takes is about 2 hrs for the small dye cartridge and slightly more for Big pigment Black cartridge to see all the ink leak to the bottom of the glass.
But my problem is that my ink is a bit diluted such that it leaks/runs too readily at the based of the printhead whenever after a print. I wouldn't say it's dripping out of the printhead like a leaky water tap. If you didn't see the photo of the post#50 at http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5 which I had mentioned above.
Below are more photos of my problem with ink being slight more diluted than it should be.
I understand what you meant about aftermarket cartridge. Some of the 3rd party ink cartridges, they are not really designed to be refilled and sponge is really of poor quality despite the manufacturer claims that their cartridges is of the highest quality...etc.....
But how do you come to the idea and assume I was using aftermarket cartridge??? As I am only using aftermarket compatible ink for canon and refilled them to Original Canon Cartridges and not refilling into 3rd party cartridges.
I usually tried to buy a bulk quality 100ml each to get more saving. Because it's bulk and it will be really a waste to discard away.
Fyi, I have never refill cartridges to the full. Usually I refill about only 75-80%.
See that the bottom of the sponge is well saturated with refill ink but the top sponge is not totally or too fully saturated. Note that the ink in these photo has been used during printing. However even when the ink reservoir area is initially fresh refilled with 75% of ink, the top and bottom sponge looks quite like the photo below. Hope this help to address your assumption that I might have possibily refill too much ink into the cartridge.
And the ink is not leaking from the Canon Cartridges. And it does not leaks on the printhead when u install the refilled Canon OEM cartridges. I usually test them by placing the refill cartridge on a glass for half an hour to see if there is any ink leaking out. Usually if a cartridge is leaking (depending on the amount of ink being refill), all it takes is about 2 hrs for the small dye cartridge and slightly more for Big pigment Black cartridge to see all the ink leak to the bottom of the glass.
But my problem is that my ink is a bit diluted such that it leaks/runs too readily at the based of the printhead whenever after a print. I wouldn't say it's dripping out of the printhead like a leaky water tap. If you didn't see the photo of the post#50 at http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5 which I had mentioned above.
Below are more photos of my problem with ink being slight more diluted than it should be.
Lin, I deleted my #6 because I thought I was wrong in giving my suggestion to you. This could happen naturally because I only based on limited information from your post to make the suggestion. Since there was no response following my post I thought it is OK to just remove it and let the thread going the direction from the previous post. I should have left it alone had I known you were about to follow up.
I looked at the Pic 1 you posted in the post #50 of this thread : http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5
It showed ink on the bottom surface of the print head. On a normal working printer it would be fairly dry there. So I guessed that you may be refilling after market ink cartridges. I had this problem myself before. It makes sense that if there is ink on the print head outside of the nozzles those nozzles will not be able to shoot out ink normally. Ink droplets are so tiny (1 - 2 pl) that they can be blocked if there is any ink outside of the nozzles. It is the ink cartridge (or the ink of course) that originates the problem to leak ink out of the nozzles. Diluted ink is of course one possibility. But refilling after market cartridge can create leaking problems too. It is in fact more likely because it is tricky to reseal the ink tank after refilling. The sponge is also likely overfilled and cause the same problem.
We use OEM stuff at work on most our printers but I have tried some after market products and refill inks. I have not seen ink being too thin to cause leaking from the nozzles. If there is leak it is always problem in the cartridge. I have experienced leaking caused by cartridges improperly resealed. Ink will not leak from the ink outlet on the cartridge. But still ink will leak out from the nozzles when it is plugged in. This is a little strange but I have seen this before. A refilled cartridge that looked perfect no leaking yet ink leaks out of nozzles when installed.
Now that you only refill OEM cartridges and you know very well that you should not overfill the sponges the only likelihood of problem is if you reseal the ink tank correctly. I feel that you know that very well too but it is a possibility. If you do see ink on the surface of the print head always check if the ink tanks are resealed correctly. If you do not see any ink on the print head then it is probably a completely different story.
Trying to thicken the ink is a far more complex business. It brings up some risk of causing damage to the print head. Why not try different inks?
I looked at the Pic 1 you posted in the post #50 of this thread : http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630&p=5
It showed ink on the bottom surface of the print head. On a normal working printer it would be fairly dry there. So I guessed that you may be refilling after market ink cartridges. I had this problem myself before. It makes sense that if there is ink on the print head outside of the nozzles those nozzles will not be able to shoot out ink normally. Ink droplets are so tiny (1 - 2 pl) that they can be blocked if there is any ink outside of the nozzles. It is the ink cartridge (or the ink of course) that originates the problem to leak ink out of the nozzles. Diluted ink is of course one possibility. But refilling after market cartridge can create leaking problems too. It is in fact more likely because it is tricky to reseal the ink tank after refilling. The sponge is also likely overfilled and cause the same problem.
We use OEM stuff at work on most our printers but I have tried some after market products and refill inks. I have not seen ink being too thin to cause leaking from the nozzles. If there is leak it is always problem in the cartridge. I have experienced leaking caused by cartridges improperly resealed. Ink will not leak from the ink outlet on the cartridge. But still ink will leak out from the nozzles when it is plugged in. This is a little strange but I have seen this before. A refilled cartridge that looked perfect no leaking yet ink leaks out of nozzles when installed.
Now that you only refill OEM cartridges and you know very well that you should not overfill the sponges the only likelihood of problem is if you reseal the ink tank correctly. I feel that you know that very well too but it is a possibility. If you do see ink on the surface of the print head always check if the ink tanks are resealed correctly. If you do not see any ink on the print head then it is probably a completely different story.
Trying to thicken the ink is a far more complex business. It brings up some risk of causing damage to the print head. Why not try different inks?
Hi
I understand about the cartridge leaking you had described.
As mentioned at post #6 that my cartridges is not leaking. My cartridge is well-sealed and does not leak out from the outlet hole at all. I have tested my sealing method after refilling the cartridge with plain water, place it on a glass and let it sit for 30mins, 1 hr, 2hr, half a day and to the extreme of overnight and even 2-3 days prior to adopting such sealing method. I even test my cartridges after refilling with ink by placing them over glass for 30 mins and sometime 2 hours before inserting them to the printhead cart.
Beside, I had 2 complete set of cartridges. One set, refill at the top of the ink reservoir and then seal the refill inklet hole. Another set using the German method where there is no hole being drilled at the top of the ink reservoir. Both sealing methods, the ink does not leaks from the cartridge outlet hole.
Like I mentioned before, the ink does not leaks/drips from the base of the printhead nozzles at idle. The ink seems to look a bit too runny at the base of the printhead (refer to photos from previous replies) only when ink is being drawn out from the nozzles during printing.
Look at the below picture on the left which the base of the printhead had been wiped clean few days ago and printer was left unused. I had parked my printhead at the center and forgot to move it back to the side where the printhead usually park itself on top of the absorber pad. Picture on the right shows that the base of the printhead remained rather clean without any runny ink as the printer was left unused for about 2 few days.
Now look at the printhead inklet holes where I removed the refilled canon cartridges, you will see there is no pool of ink puddle that leaks out from the refilled canon cartridges outlet hole. You only see ink at the printhead inklet filter which is normal.
I hope all the above addresses the suspicion of the possibility associated with the leaking to my refilled canon cartridges.
I understand about the cartridge leaking you had described.
As mentioned at post #6 that my cartridges is not leaking. My cartridge is well-sealed and does not leak out from the outlet hole at all. I have tested my sealing method after refilling the cartridge with plain water, place it on a glass and let it sit for 30mins, 1 hr, 2hr, half a day and to the extreme of overnight and even 2-3 days prior to adopting such sealing method. I even test my cartridges after refilling with ink by placing them over glass for 30 mins and sometime 2 hours before inserting them to the printhead cart.
Beside, I had 2 complete set of cartridges. One set, refill at the top of the ink reservoir and then seal the refill inklet hole. Another set using the German method where there is no hole being drilled at the top of the ink reservoir. Both sealing methods, the ink does not leaks from the cartridge outlet hole.
Like I mentioned before, the ink does not leaks/drips from the base of the printhead nozzles at idle. The ink seems to look a bit too runny at the base of the printhead (refer to photos from previous replies) only when ink is being drawn out from the nozzles during printing.
Look at the below picture on the left which the base of the printhead had been wiped clean few days ago and printer was left unused. I had parked my printhead at the center and forgot to move it back to the side where the printhead usually park itself on top of the absorber pad. Picture on the right shows that the base of the printhead remained rather clean without any runny ink as the printer was left unused for about 2 few days.
Now look at the printhead inklet holes where I removed the refilled canon cartridges, you will see there is no pool of ink puddle that leaks out from the refilled canon cartridges outlet hole. You only see ink at the printhead inklet filter which is normal.
I hope all the above addresses the suspicion of the possibility associated with the leaking to my refilled canon cartridges.
Lin: I agree that you have sealed the cartridges sufficiently, if you refilled from the top. I agree that a possibility of a leak from improper sealing is unlikely now. You apparently know what you are doing. So you can rule out the sealing problem now. However, I do not see you mention any thing about the sponge. Did you allow the sponges filled with too much ink? This is another critical thing to look into.
I remember an experience almost 2 years ago refilling some after market cartridges. I refilled carefully and sealed the holes and made sure no ink would drip from the outlet. But when the cartridges were installed I was shocked to discover that the printer got a lot of banding and white lines. I thought the ink had screwed up my print head. I thought the print head was badly clogged. I had no clue what had happened. Did a lot of cleaning cycles and nothing changed. But I discovered a drop on ink had fallen on the paper when the printer was printing. That was strange. I unplugged all the cartridges and took the print head out. I discovered that there was some ink on the bottom of the print head. I wiped it dry and printed some more. Same thing. I took the print head out and the bottom was still wet. I did a lot of cleaning cycles and same thing still.
I tossed the cartridges and put all the ink aside. I went back to OEM. Everything was back to normal. You can guess how I cursed the after market stuff. I think it took at least 6 months before I tried refilling again. I then read from this forum that you should be careful not to fill up the entire sponge. If the sponge is too full of ink it will cause problems. With some doubt in mind I experimented again. I carefully make sure the sponge is filled only partially. Guess what, it worked great. I could not believe it so I tried again to allow a sponge to be full of ink again. It immediately screwed up. I found ink on the bottom of the print head again.
I am not sure if you are having this same problem or not. I do not see you mention about this. If your spoges are full of ink you may want to experiment to see if it is the cause of the leaking problem. If you see ink on the bottom of your print head you do want to make sure the sponge is not too full. You can blow into the vent of the cartridge to blow out some ink from the large outlet and try the cartridge again. I can never forget about that experience. Anyway, just thought this may be the problem of your printer. Good luck.
I remember an experience almost 2 years ago refilling some after market cartridges. I refilled carefully and sealed the holes and made sure no ink would drip from the outlet. But when the cartridges were installed I was shocked to discover that the printer got a lot of banding and white lines. I thought the ink had screwed up my print head. I thought the print head was badly clogged. I had no clue what had happened. Did a lot of cleaning cycles and nothing changed. But I discovered a drop on ink had fallen on the paper when the printer was printing. That was strange. I unplugged all the cartridges and took the print head out. I discovered that there was some ink on the bottom of the print head. I wiped it dry and printed some more. Same thing. I took the print head out and the bottom was still wet. I did a lot of cleaning cycles and same thing still.
I tossed the cartridges and put all the ink aside. I went back to OEM. Everything was back to normal. You can guess how I cursed the after market stuff. I think it took at least 6 months before I tried refilling again. I then read from this forum that you should be careful not to fill up the entire sponge. If the sponge is too full of ink it will cause problems. With some doubt in mind I experimented again. I carefully make sure the sponge is filled only partially. Guess what, it worked great. I could not believe it so I tried again to allow a sponge to be full of ink again. It immediately screwed up. I found ink on the bottom of the print head again.
I am not sure if you are having this same problem or not. I do not see you mention about this. If your spoges are full of ink you may want to experiment to see if it is the cause of the leaking problem. If you see ink on the bottom of your print head you do want to make sure the sponge is not too full. You can blow into the vent of the cartridge to blow out some ink from the large outlet and try the cartridge again. I can never forget about that experience. Anyway, just thought this may be the problem of your printer. Good luck.
Hi Tin Ho, if you read the post #6 and see the pictures of the sponge of those refilled canon cartridges, you can tell if the sponge was filled with too much ink. A refilled canon cartridge that not only does not leaks and the top sponge is not saturated only the bottom sponge is saturated with ink, does that look like the sponge was filled with too much ink?
