New technique to clean BCI-6 carts

[DavoC770]

Wow! Grandad, what a great post about cleaning Canon BCI-6 carts!
I have a Canon that uses them and the cleaning method you have posted knocks my socks off!
Yes, it's not about saving money in a lot of cases, it's the challenge of tinkering and finding a solution.
I don't really use enough ink to justify refilling but I do it anyway and your post gives me more things to try.

One question though, hot water in my house is really hot, is there a limit to how hot the water can be?

Thanks again to Grandad, and everyone that has posted such useful info!

 

[Grandad35]

Dave,

I'm glad that you found this information useful.

I have previously experimented with some dissected carts and separately placed the sponge and body in boiling water - neither was harmed. I have also dried carts in the oven with the temperature set as high as 210 degrees F with no ill effects. Finally, I have dried carts in the microwave by boiling out the trapped water with no ill effects. So, the short answer is that any hot water in your house should be OK.

This is a good time to make sure that everyone knows that there are dangers in setting the temperature on the water heater too high (http://www.tap-water-burn.com/). It is common for dishwasher manufacturers to recommend temperature settings of up to 160 degrees F to optimize their cleaning abilities, but this is obviously extremely unsafe, especially if there are children in the house.

 

[DavoC770]

Thanks for your reply, Grandad - good news about water temp not harming carts.

A very timely reminder about the dangers of hot water.

 

[ejaf]

Question...

Afetr purging, how does one tell when the carts are dry enough to receive ink? After there are no signs of condensation above the sponge (which I still have)? Or is there another method to tell?

TIA...Eric

 

[Grandad35]

Eric,

If there is still condensation inside the carts, they are still not completely dry. However, don't be too concerned about getting "every last drop" out:
1. After vacuuming, I typically only had about 1 CC of water left in the cart (measured by weight difference after the carts dried).
2. The last traces of water can take a while to come out. Do the sponges look dry (are they a uniform color)?
3. Ink is typically about 90% water, so a little water only slightly dilutes the ink - a little water won't affect how the ink prints.
4. Here is a link looking at the effects of dilution on color. Low levels of dilution only have a very minor effect on the color. You will be adding about 13 CCs of ink to the cart when you refill - even with 0.5 CC of residual water (the carts would still appear wet), it will only dilute the ink by 4%.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=498

The long and the short of it is - don't worry if there is a little residual water in the carts.

 

[ejaf]

Great...thanks once again for your wisdom.

 

[cef710]

Hi, I'm new here. I have a canon ip8500. I've started a small photocard business and the cost of ink is driving me crazy! Which of the offbrand inks has shown consistently good results? Or should I go the refill route? If I go with refilling I'll need to purchase and easy to use "kit"-any suggestions?

Thanks!!!

 

[Nifty]

cef710, there is a wealth of info on this forum regarding this very subject. Please look at this post here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=316
and also search / read through the forums. If you still have questions I suggest you start a new topic here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/post.php?fid=4

 

[jackson]

The image shows a BCI-6 tank that I had occasion to clean after noticing contamination on the outlet hole.
It's merely a variation on Grandads technique and I post it only because I had the parts laying around waiting for installation in a garden fountain.
No cutting, welding or measuring was required.I took a little pump which had the vinyl hose attached and connected it to the exit hole of the cart, turned on the pump and waited until it had flushed the tank.This pump has a sliding adjustment to regulate flow and had no problem running water through the tank.
Lacking an air pump, I applied my lips to the exit hole (no remarks please) and though not skilled in this technique, blew out a lot of the residual water.
I expect I will have to wait awhile for complete drying.

####Update:Refilled tank and it works ok.

 

[panos]

Some users have reported problems in refilling completely dried cartridges. The reason is the formulation of the ink itself: high quality ink is formulated so that it spreads on a surface as little as possible (creating small drops instead) but that also means it is more difficult for the ink to penetrate the sponge. (Viscosity is not directly related to this).

One solution, as most of us found, was to add some alcohol; however any solvent destroys the formulation and degrades the quality of the ink, especially the pigmented black.

I think I found the best solution to this problem: fill the ink reservoire 1/4 full, squeeze the sponge area and release: Almost all the ink will get drawn into the sponge and you can repeat this as many times as you wish, but most probably you'll be able to refill the rest without further squeezing after the first time.

I just tried it and it worked nicely! Here is a photo (to satisfy Rob's voracious apetite for photos) of a "before and after" case: