Refilling BCI-8 cartridges??

[ghwellsjr]

You are thinking of applying a vacuum to one hole and supplying the ink at another hole to suck the ink into the reservoir. What we are talking about is putting the entire cartridge into a chamber with the hole(s) submerged in a pool of ink. When you pull a vacuum on the whole thing, all the air is sucked out of the reservoir (as well as any other place there is air) and then when you release the vacuum, the vacuum that is now present in the reservoir sucks the ink into it (as well as every other place inside the cartridge, like the sponge.

 

[fotofreek]

Tin Ho - Canon carts have two holes - the ink outlet and the air vent. I don't know anything about vacuum filling. I can see, however, that filling through the sponge might have the added benefit of disolving any ink that has dried in the sponge area. I fill thorugh a fill hole over the reservoir area and purge the carts periodically to revitalize them. Works for me. With the Howard squeeze bottles refilling this way is really fast and neat.

 

[fotofreek]

Tin Ho - Canon carts have two holes - the ink outlet and the air vent. I don't know anything about vacuum filling. I can see, however, that filling through the sponge might have the added benefit of disolving any ink that has dried in the sponge area. I fill thorugh a fill hole over the reservoir area and purge the carts periodically to revitalize them. Works for me. With the Howard squeeze bottles refilling this way is really fast and neat.

 

[mikling]

Unless you have access to a good vacuum pump, vacuum filling for most people is impractical.
A good pump even used will set you back upwards of $100 to start. For most people, refilling some sort of way with a syringe is the most practical.

Now a consideration is that the CLI-8s will likely mostly be refilled partly full. This means that the ink in the upper sponge area will be pretty close to stagnant most of the time. Thus the requirement to refill though the sponge with the CLI-8. With the BCI-6, you have a prism to work with that alllows you to run the cartridge/tank down without danger.

 

[Xalky]

Tin Ho: Heres one way to do it. http://www.nifty-stuff.com/docs/inkrefill.php

 

[Grandad35]

I wrote (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/docs/inkrefill.php) over 18 months ago, and it contains a few low quality film clips about vacuum refilling of BCI-6 carts.

I experimented with vacuum refilling because I misunderstood what was causing my ink feeding problems at that time, and I thought that vacuum refilling might be a cure for my problems. Subsequently, I determined that my problem was the ink that I was using, not the refill technique. I now refill with a different ink in the more-or-less standard manner, and find refilling to be faster and easier than the vacuum technique that I was using. I cannot comment on the efficiency of any other vacuum techniques, as I have never tried them.

As has been stated previously, I now "hot water purge" (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/docs/canon-BCI-6-cartridges.php) my carts after 5-7 refills, as I have determined that the vent pressure required to push ink from the exit port has started to increase after this many refills (so the suction required to pull ink from the cart has also increased).

 

[KnightCrawler]

I wrote (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/docs/inkrefill.php) over 18 months ago, and it contains a few low quality film clips about vacuum refilling of BCI-6 carts.

I experimented with vacuum refilling because I misunderstood what was causing my ink feeding problems at that time, and I thought that vacuum refilling might be a cure for my problems. Subsequently, I determined that my problem was the ink that I was using, not the refill technique. I now refill with a different ink in the more-or-less standard manner, and find refilling to be faster and easier than the vacuum technique that I was using. I cannot comment on the efficiency of any other vacuum techniques, as I have never tried them.

As has been stated previously, I now "hot water purge" (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/docs/canon-BCI-6-cartridges.php) my carts after 5-7 refills, as I have determined that the vent pressure required to push ink from the exit port has started to increase after this many refills (so the suction required to pull ink from the cart has also increased).

What ink are you using now ?

 

[panos]

I refilled my cartridges using vacuum with a syringe and an elastic plug:

1) I insulated both the ink outlet and the air vent and then inserted an elastic plug on the reservoire hole

2) I inserted the needle of a large 100 ml syringe (with 20 ml of ink) and pulled as much air as I could.

3) Slowly I have allowed the syringe to retract and the cartridge was hafl full with ink (remember while air is removed from the tank, it is ink that goes in)

4) I turned the cartridge and the needle upside down keeping the needle as much on the "top" as possible and pulled again. Since the cartridge was upside down it was air that was pulled again and not ink.

5) I turned the cartridge and the needle again and allowed the syringe to retract slowly. The cartridge was now full of ink.

The results were good, but the process was difficult and in the end I found I was getting better results by simply purging the cartridges and refilling them in the normal manner.

 

[Grandad35]

What ink are you using now ?

I have been using Formulabs from (http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/products.php?category_id=267), but I understand that others have had similar success with IS ink from MIS as well as Hobbicolor (ink supplier unknown). I use Kirkland paper for my day-to-day photo printing that doesn't require a high degree of fade resistance, but Ilford Classic Pearl (13x19 sheets) for photos that will be framed or otherwise need improved longevity. Anything that needs to last for >20 years is printed at Costco on Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

For most applications, the ink colors are a reasonable match for the OEM ink. However, if you are fussy about your print colors, you will need a custom printer profile for any of these inks. You also need to calibrate your monitor with a colorimeter or spectrophotometer so that you are sending good data to the printer if you expect to achieve good results from images that you take/edit.

HTH