Problems: green skin tone/banding, metal ball, ink leaks from sponge

[joseph1949]

To: ghwellsjr

I have the following problems:
1. Skin tone is green with vertical banding.
2. Ink leaks from sponge opening.
3. Ball is metal.

Facts:
1. Using Canon PIXMA MX870 printer.
2. Using InkTec refill kit.
3. Removed blinking yellow CLI-221Y cart from print head.
4. Filled empty yellow cart with InkTec yellow ink.
5. Removed METAL ball from cart.

Note: When trying to remove ball from cart I found it very difficult to remove ball with supplied gimlet. I removed ball with a small flat head screwdriver. I tried to crush ball with pliers. Cannot crush. Super plastic??? Used a magnet. Ball is metal!!!

Question: What is the best way to remove the metal ball? Can I just drill a hole next to the ball and leave ball in place? Note: Drilled hole will fit supplied plug.

6. Reset the chip. No problem there--I think.
7. InkTec ink leaks from sponge opening.

Question: Why does ink leak from sponge opening?

8. Made a print of a person. Skin tone is green.

Question: Why is the skin tone green?

9. Switched out InkTec ink cart for Caboodle cart. I see that skin tone now is normal.
10. Switched out Caboodle cart for InkTec ink cart. Skin tone is now slightly green and I see vertical banding.
11. Switched back to Caboodle cart. Skin tone is normal with no banding.

Question: Why is the InkTec ink cart giving me green skin tone with the banding?

Thank you.

 

[RMM]

I am not ghwellsjr but I can probably tell you what you're problem is.

You complain of highly unmatched (also banding) colors and a leaky cartridge. Those two things are related.

The cause? Most likely your fill plug is not completely sealed causing leakage.

You also could have over filled the cartridge but it sounds more like an incomplete seal.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, RMM is correct. It is very important when top-filling your cartridges to get a completely air-tight seal on the hole or the ink will leak out. You don't want to even put a cartridge like that back in your printer. This is one of the main reasons I recommend using the German method since there is no hole in the top that needs to be sealed. I also do not recommend using compatible cartridges. I recommend refilling only original manufacturer's cartridges. The German method is so fast and easy, you can get by with just the original set of cartridges that came with your printer.

 

[fotofreek]

If you were interested in doing a top fill, you don't have to take out the ball. You can make a hole between the ball and the end of the cart and use a stainless screw and O-ring to seal the fill hole. I've been doing this technique so long that I haven't bothered to try the german method. I've never had a leaking cart as the seal with this technique hasn't ever been a problem. Now that I've purchased a few printers that used the chipped carts I may try the german method. I do, however, like purging with the top fill hole as the purging goes very quickly and efficiently.

 

[joseph1949]

To: ghwellsjr, RMM, and fotofreek

Thank you for your replies.

I have some more questions. The reason I have questions is because I do not want to waste anymore InkTec ink.

First, some facts:

1. I was thrown a curve when I tried to remove the ball valve from my Caboodle cart (Canon cart with Caboodle ink). I discovered that the ball was made from metal. I had to remove the ball with a screwdriver. I then drilled a hole next to the valve hole. Well, all this work caused the plug not to seal.

2. I took another Caboodle cart and using a strong magnet I was able to ascertain that that ball valve was made out of metal! So I drilled a hole a good distance from the metal ball. I used a small drill bit to start and worked up to a 5/32 inch drill bit. If you, the reader, are doing this I suggest you test fit your plug after each drilling. The 5/32 hole was a good fit, but I wanted a very tight seal so I covered the hole with electricians tape. I punched a hole in the tape and placed the plug into the hole. This should give me a tight fit.

Note to fotofreek: If the rubber plug from InkTec leaks I will use the stainless steel screw with an o-ring. Thanks for the tip.

Questions:

1. Is it possible to fill the tank with ink and not put ink into the sponge? I am thinking that the ink from the tank will work itself to the sponge, thus, eliminating leakage from the sponge. If this will take a while I do not care. I just do not want to waste anymore ink.

2. If I have to put ink into the sponge, please tell me the best way to do this.

3. Besides using the electricians tape I thought of placing a small amount of petroleum jelly around the hole and putting the plug back into the hole. I am thinking this will give me that much better of a seal. Yes? No?

4. On youtube, I watched a video that told me how to fill a CLI-221 cart. Here are the steps:

A. First cover the vent opening with electricians tape.
B. Then an opening was made to place ink into the tank and a plug was placed into the hole.
C. Then drip a small amount (1 ml) of ink into the sponge.
D. Wait two minutes and then place an orange cap over the sponge opening and wrap rubber bands around the orange cap to hold it in place.
E. Remove the plug, place ink into the tank (but not all the way to the top) and put the plug back into place.
F. The orange cap was removed from the sponge and the excess ink was removed by dapping the sponge on a paper towel.
G. The cart was reset.
H. Place orange cap over the sponge opening and secure with rubber bands.
I. The electricians tape stayed in place covering the vent opening.

Questions: Are the above steps correct?

Question: Should I remove the electricians tape before placing the cart into the printer?

Important Question: Should you wait for the printer to tell you that you are out of ink before filling the cart vs. filling the cart when the printer says the cart is low in ink?

Thank you.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Those are very good instructions. The reason for putting the tape over the air vent hole is to prevent overfilling of the sponge but you should remove the tape after you're all done with the refill process even if you are going to use it as a spare and won't be putting it back in the printer for a long time.

It is best to refill a cartridge when the reservoir is empty which is long before the printer will tell you that you are out of ink. With the older chipless cartridges (BCI-6), the printer would give you a yellow warning when this happened but with the chipped cartridges, it may not be exactly the same. In my experience, the yellow warning doesn't come up until significantly after the reservoir is empty.

It is also a good idea to refill all cartridges that share the same purge pad whenever you refill one that has issued a yellow warning simply because after you do the refill, the printer will (or you should force it to) do a cleaning cycle which uses up some ink and if one of your other cartridges was almost ready to issue a yellow warning, it probably will do so immediately.

On printers with a single large pigment black cartridge and several thin dye ink cartridges, the pigment cartridge uses one purge pad and all the dye ink cartridges use the other purge pad. So if you can refill just the pigment black cartridge or just all the dye ink cartridges. On printers that do not have a single pigment black cartridge, you can find out which of the thin cartridges share the same purge pad by looking at the cleaning cycle tab in the maintenance procedure where it will ask you which sets of inks you want to clean.

 

[joseph1949]

To: ghwellsjr

Thank you for the reply.

I am somewhat confused by your last reply (#6).

I have a PIXMA MX870 printer. Does this printer have a purge pad? I know that the individual carts have a pad inside them. If I have a purge pad, what should I do about it?

Here is what my printer shows when a cart is low in ink or a cart is empty of ink:

1. When the cart is low in ink the printer gives a low ink warning signal. This signal can last for days or weeks depending on how often the printer needs to use the cart in question to make a print.

2. When the cart is empty of ink the printer gives an empty of ink signal. I believe that the printer will not work until I replace the empty cart with a full one.

Question: Do I need to fill (tank only) the cart when I first get the low ink signal? Or should I wait until I get the empty of ink signal?

Question: Under what conditions should I put ink into the sponge?
1. When the cart shows a low ink signal.
2. When the cart shows an empty of ink signal.
3. When a spare cart has been empty of ink for a few days.
4. When a spare cart has been empty of ink for a few weeks.
5. When the spare cart has been empty of ink for months.

I am sorry that I am being so anal about filling the cart and especially about filling the sponge, but after wasting a great deal of ink on my first try of filling a cart with ink I am very wary of a second try unless I have covered all the bases.

Thank you.

 

[ghwellsjr]

All inkjet printers have purge pads. You can see them off to the right where the print head parks. In your printer, there is a separate one for the pigment black ink nozzles and another one for the four dye ink nozzles.

You don't need to refill a cartridge until you get an empty signal but by that time, a lot of ink has gone out of the sponge unit and air has gotten in to it. If you refill when you get a low signal or before, you will minimize the amount of air that gets into the sponge unit. Keeping the sponge units wet with ink appears to be a key factor in maximizing the longetivity of cartridges. This advice assumes that you only have one set of cartridges that you continually refill whenever any of them registers low.

If have spare cartridges and you prefer to refill them all at the same time to minimize your refill activity, then you can run each cartridge until it registers empty and replace it with a previously refilled cartridge. It doesn't really matter how long a cartridge has been empty before you finally refill it, but it is best to cap the outlet port with the orange cap held on with rubber bands, just like you need for the cartridge after you refill it.

The point is that there are a lot of different schemes to refill and you will find that different people do different things. It's nice to have spare refilled cartridges so that any time you have a problem with one, you can pop another one in and continue printing without interruption.

 

[joseph1949]

To: ghwellsjr

Thank you for your reply.

Here are following steps that I will take to (re)fill a cart:

1. Check on ink tank of cart to see if the tank is nearly empty or is empty. I will do this before I get a low ink warning message. Or I can wait to get a low ink warning message.
2. If tank is empty or low ink warning message is visible, take out cart and make entrance hole to place ink into tank.

Note: After I have used-up my InkTec ink from my refill kits I would like to buy the InkTec ink in bulk. I have not been able to find bulk bottles of InkTec ink here in the states. ghwellsjr, can you suggest where I can found the bulk bottles? How about a box of ten-20 ml ink container? I will only buy the ink in bulk when I know how to refill the carts with no waste, the ink will not harm my printer, and the prints come out looking O.K.

3. Cover vent hole for sponge opening.
4. Place ink into tank. Seal hole with electricians tape, plug, and a small amount of petroleum jelly.
5. I will NOT put any ink into the sponge.

Note: Do I need to place orange cap over sponge at any time during this process.

6. Remove the tape covering the sponges vent opening.
7. Place cart into the printer.
8. Repeat the above steps as each cart becomes low on ink.

Note: Should I wait for a time before placing the cart into the printer?
Do I need to put the printer into a cleaning cycle or whatever?
Is it O.K. to mix Caboodle carts (Canon carts with Caboodle ink) with the Canon carts with InkTec ink?

Please make comments.

Thank you.

 

[l_d_allan]

it is best to cap the outlet port with the orange cap held on with rubber bands, just like you need for the cartridge after you refill it.

I've noticed a number of threads mentioning the use of a rubber band on the orange cap. My understanding is that the orange cap being referred to is the "thingy" that comes with the Canon cartridge on the bottom that covers the outlet port. You spin it so it seems to "break off" to open the access to the outlet so ink can flow into the heads.

When I got my refiller's starter kit from R-Jet Tek with OCP ink, it came with a number of "#469/1813 outlet caps" that I've found fit much more snugly on the bottom of my CLI-8 cartridges than the orange cap. Here's a link to them:
http://www.rjettek.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/469
(R-Jet Tek part #1813)

These caps have four indentations that mate up very well with the four ridges on the outside of the outlet port of the cartridge. The fit is Much More Snug than you get with re-using the original Canon orange break-off cap. The #1813 part seems to have been specifically designed to seal the outlet port. My speculation is that the Canon orange outlet cap really isn't intended to be re-used once you've broken it off.

Based on this refilling newbie's admittedly limited experience, the fit of the #469/1813 cap is quite snug so nothing leaks out when I'm refilling using what I believe is called the "top fill method". So far, I've been pushing the plastic ball through so it falls into the reservoir, then using that hole for refilling.

I then close off the refill hole with these "recessed plugs" from R-Jet Tek that also came with the starter kit:
http://www.rjettek.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/58_62/products_id/1081
(R-Jet Tek part #1916)
These #1081/1916 plugs fits quite snugly in the hole that the plastic ball was sealing. It also seems fairly easy to remove and reuse, but "time will tell."

With those #1081/1916 plugs installed in the top hole, nothing ... at least so far ... has leaked when I take off the #469/1813 outlet cap and install in the printer. I do dab the opened outlet port once or twice on a paper towel for any ink excess, which may or may not be necessary or appropriate.

Based on only refilling about 10 cartridges so far, the #469/1813 cap seems to work much better than the orange cap with rubber band ... for this refilling newbie. So far, no leaks. However, only "time will tell" if I experience leaks when I re-use cartridges that I previously refilled. Then "the error of my ways" may catch up with me.