Pictures of the inside of a print head from an i960.

[danford1]

I recently had print head problems on my Canon i960 printer. It was clogged real bad and my clean out attempts with water and 409 didn't work. I ended up buying a used head from eBay. That one didn't work well either but I was able to clean it with hot tap water and it works great now.
I tried cleaning my old one with hot tap water and it started to work better, but still had nozzles and colors that wouldn't print. I thought I don't have anything to loose so I put the head in a pot of water and boiled it on the stove for 15 minutes. I dried it off and tried it in the printer. It didn't work at all. I got 5 orange light flashes and a green light flash. That meant I ruined the print head. Sooooooo, I decided to take it apart to see whats in there. I took pictures and I posted them below. It was fairly easy to take apart. Just 2 screws and 4 melted over posts to cut off. I used an exacto knife to cut the melted nibs or rivets off of it. It came apart easy then. There is a rubber gasket that fits over the print body that pulls right off easily. You can see that the head is clean in the pictures. The back of the circuit board was wet so I dried it off with a heat gun set on low. I was hoping it would work again so I put it back together with some hot glue dots in place of the plastic rivets. I put in it the printer and still get 5 orange flashes then a green flash so it is indeed ruined. BUT. I learned it is easy to take apart and if my current head clogs bad, I'll take it apart to clean it. You can see things pretty good when it is apart and will have a better idea of where to clean and how it should look when clean. Just don't boil it like I did
Here are the pictures.
Danford1

Cutting off melted rivet heads.

Take out 2 screws.

Take off little rubber gasket between head and plastic body.

This picture shows clear passages in print head.

I used hot glue to put in back together. Just some glue dots where the rivet heads were cut off.

 

[The Hat]

They are amazing pictures altogether and you did a marvellous job of cleaning out all the ink.

But and there is always a but in most cases, so all the things you did too your print head
are all the things that shouldnt be done, despite your lovely pictures.

Hot water (Hand hot) is one thing but boiling water is a complete no no and then putting the print head back into your printer
expecting it to work is another, you could have easily fried your logic board into the bargain, i.e. a whole new printer needed.

I hope you have learned one thing form your experience and that is not to do the same thing with your current print head,
by take it apart I mean and most certainly not cooking it again either.

There is no problem in taking a completely damaged print head apart to see inside it but as you have found out
there is no reason to as there is nothing inside that can go wrong that a simple soaking wont cure.

Most if not all printing problems (Clogs) are usually cause in some way or another by inadequate ink supply i.e. Ink starvation
and that is the best place to start diagnosing the first signs of any print problem
after a quick normal head clean and nozzle check is preformed to confirm there is problem.

Canon print heads are totally different in the way they operate to a Epson print head in that
if you continue to print while there are visible signs of poor ink flow
then you run the risk of damaging the print head beyond repair,
so it is imperative that only nozzle checks are printed till the problem is resolved..

 

[stratman]

Agree. Great pics. Thanks for your sacrifice.

 

[turbguy]

Too bad you didn't remove the electronics, THEN boil just the plastic carrier. Oh well. Good pics.

 

[danford1]

I couldn't remove the electronics , they are attached to the ribbon cable ;-(
Just don't boil them. Use the recommended procedures instead.
Lesson learned for everyone here.
Danford1

 

[turbguy]

Pop the Printed Circuit Board of (as you did) with the nozzle plate/heat sink/gasket attached, then boil the body (the black plastic part).

Wayne

 

[danford1]

Sounds good

Danford1

 

[The Hat]

Sounds good

Danford1

I still wouldnt recommend boiling any part of a printer let alone parts of the print head.
Not unless youre trying to promote Print head soup..

 

[stratman]

Not unless youre trying to promote Print head soup..

Long lost sequel to the Marx Brother's 1933 movie Duck Soup?