Mixing Isopropyl Alcohol to dye ink

[chirantha7777]

Is it ok to mix a few drops of Isopropyl Alcohol to dye ink to make it more smooth for the Epson print head...

 

[tyamada]

I use it in my Canon cartridges to keep bacteria from from growing in them. I have no idea if adding alcohol to any dye ink will smooth the flow out.

 

[d1hamby]

In all inks there should be a bacteriocide so adding alcohol is not necessary or advisable. Alcohol also lowers the pH of the ink and can cause some strange reactions with the ink and the rubber seals in the printer. Pure water would be a better way to dilute most inks. If you want to be safe here is something for Epson ink:

http://www.inksupply.com/partnumber.cfm?action=search&search_part_number=ESC-BASEPT-UC

 

[chirantha7777]

In all inks there should be a bacteriocide so adding alcohol is not necessary or advisable. Alcohol also lowers the pH of the ink and can cause some strange reactions with the ink and the rubber seals in the printer. Pure water would be a better way to dilute most inks. If you want to be safe here is something for Epson ink:

http://www.inksupply.com/partnumber.cfm?action=search&search_part_number=ESC-BASEPT-UC

No credit card. Anyway I think its safe to put a few drops for like 50ml of ink coz 1000ml only costs 34 USD.

 

[pharmacist]

d1hamby: alcohol does NOT change the pH, but tends to lower the surface tension of the ink (side effects: more crawling on cheap papers). And if you want to stop germs from growing in your inks: the minimum effective concentration would be 15 % of the total amount, so a few drops is useless. Powerful germicides are phenolic compounds (phenol, thymol), quaternary alkylammonium salts, phenoxy-ethanol and these are effective in 1/10th of a percent and even less.

 

[leo8088]

Isopropyl Alcohol will dry up from the cartridges in a few hours. It won't do any good to your ink.

 

[qwertydude]

If your ink has some trouble flowing you can always add some surfactant. Triton X-100 can be used, it probably is being used in the ink but at too low a concentration, but it's kinda tough to get, Kodak Photo Flo has been used with pigment based fountain pen inks so it should work also. A single drop in a whole bottle should do, if you can't get a hold of that then a tiny drop of dish washing detergent will have a similar effect.

 

[chirantha7777]

If your ink has some trouble flowing you can always add some surfactant. Triton X-100 can be used, it probably is being used in the ink but at too low a concentration, but it's kinda tough to get, Kodak Photo Flo has been used with pigment based fountain pen inks so it should work also. A single drop in a whole bottle should do, if you can't get a hold of that then a tiny drop of dish washing detergent will have a similar effect.

, thats putting soap into ink? I hope it won't create bubbles

 

[qwertydude]

It's always a trade off, if you want fast flowing ink you gotta deal with bubbles. I do notice my stratitec ink foams less than MIS ink made specifically for canon. It could explain why it is not compatible with the dense foam in the oem carts, it also tends not to coat the plastic of the cartridge like the oem ink and the oem compatible refill.