Sealing the refill hole BCI-6 BCI-3

[fotofreek]

Glad you got the plugs, Rob. When you drive the plastic ball that seals the fill hole in an OEM cart into the reservoir area this plug is designed to fit perfectly. I guess that the constriction toward the end ot the plug (rather phallic) is supposed to engage the plastic seat that the ball was on. One of my OEM carts wouldn't hold the plug. It kept creeping up. I checked all my OEM refilled carts with a 5/32 drill bit and found that all of them except for the errant cart had a clear 5/32 fill hole. When I hand reamed it out with the drill the plug then worked fine.

 

[panos]

OK, I think I have a new addition to this thread.

The method involves the rubber plug coming with the sponge-less (and in my case, use-less) Jetyoung.com cartridge:

(Occular's photo)

My pig black was empty. So I took it out, pushed the plastic ball with a small star headed scredriver and then inserted a Jetyoung rubber plug. I tested for vacuum and found it made a perfect seal. An advantage of the rubber plug is that it is made for syringe injections; so I block the sponge air escape and use a withdraw/suck technique making sure that I was replacing air with ink.

First observations: perfect; I didn't have a single drop of ink out of the cartridge when I removed the plastic cover from the ink exit hole. I inserted the cartridge on the printer:

(The refilled original 3eBK sealed with a rubber plug which does not need to be removed for refilling)

And then I was quite happy to see that my printer reported the black ink as full (the front display apparently uses a different detection algorithm from the software driver panel and a full level is hard to catch)

(MP750 reports full again!)

I am quite happy now! With this trick, refilling is now much easier to my old HPs. Things are finally getting smooth. I only hope it works

Added: YES! It works great!!! Printed many pages today without a single problem. At last....

 

[Nifty]

O-RINGS GALORE!

I'be been meaning to print info I've gathered on these guys. I found them at:
Home Depot $0.24
Yard Birds: $0.40
Ace Hardware: $0.20

Fotofreek just told me about the following company: http://www.mcmaster.com/

I did some calling / searching and it turns out that I can get a pack of 100 for $2.17. Shipping is $4.00

They are "AS568A Dash #006" Go to the site and enter in this number in the search: 9452K14

I'm wondering if it would be better to get ones with a fraction smaller inside diameter that would sit really tight against the screw? What do you think?

 

[fotofreek]

Nifty - I don't know how many of us are using the screw/O ring seal technique. I am going to order some O rings, but they come in bags of 100 and the minimum shipping cost, from what they told you, is $4. Certainly not a budget breaker. I only need around 25 O rings and would have 100. I hate to be wasteful. Anyone want to get together to buy some? Cheapest would be to buy 4 packs (same $4 shipping cost) and divide them between 8 or more people. I would guess that 50 would fit in a #10 envelope with one or two first class stamps. Easy to distribute. At the very least, you and I could split a pack.

four packs @ $2.25 plus $4 shipping = $13. split out to 50 per person with two stamps = about $2.25 for the 50 or 4 1/2 cents apiece. What a deal!

 

[Nifty]

I'm game.

I may try some other sizes as well... for $2.00 a bag it is a steal compared to what Home Depot's selling them them for.

fotofreek, how long until you put in an order? May be a good idea to wait a few days if possible to get more people to go in on a group order.

 

[Nifty]

REGARDING GROUP PURCHASE PROCEDURES:

A "Group Purchase" or "Group Order" is a great way to get quantity discounts among a group of friends and not have the super overhead of lots of shipping fees.

It is quite a bit of work for the person putting together a group purchase. It can be an effort to organize the purchase, make the purchase, and take the time to separate, count, package, address, and mail the items. This being the case it is customary procedure in group purchases that the person doing all the work be compensated, at least a little, for their time and trouble.

So, if fotofreek, out of the goodness of his heart, is going to do this, I'd be more than willing to put in a little extra to help pay for his "bits".

 

[Nifty]

Regarding Screws:

I first got the ZINC screws at Home Depot which seemed to work fine. I went to Ace Hardware for more screws and all they had were Stainless Steel screws. I was glad because they were cheaper and, from what I understand, don't rust.

Well, I've got goo, bad, and worse news:

GOOD:
Screws and o-rings are still working VEEERY well.

BAD:
I removed a screw to refill my yellow and it looks like the screw may be rusting. I'm going to look more closely to see if it is really rust or just caked on dried yellow ink... but it really looks like rust.

WORSE:
I don't know if it was one of my zinc screws or stainless screws. I thought both materials weren't suppose to rust.

Anybody out there know more about zinc and stainless?

 

[Nifty]

I'm 99% sure that it is the zinc screw from Home Depot. Either
1) The package was in the wrong spot and I didn't get zinc.
2) There weren't really zinc screws in the package
3) Zinc isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Looks like rust to me:

 

[fotofreek]

Nifty - first of all, if people want to do a group purchase of the O rings it is no big deal for me to do it. Very kind of you to suggest a little remuneration, but the approximate $13 expenditure is no big deal. Glad to do it for the group. I probably wouldn't take the time to be absolutely accurate in the count, but it would be close. Now on to the zinc vs. stainless. Dude - ain't no such thing as absolutely, positively stainless. There are several alloys that are regarded as stainless, but each has its potential for staining. There is zinc coating and ZINC COATING! Some's better than others. The quality of coating on a 4 cent screw may be marginal in protecting the underlying steel. Ultimately areas of zinc coating break down and permit rusting of the steel to occur. I don't know what might be in the inks that would cause rapid deterioration of the zinc coating that your pic shows. Zinc is used on boats as a sacrificial material to avoid metal components under (salt) water to be eaten by electrolysis. It is also has been used as a scavenger in dental silver/mercury amalgam to prevent deterioration or expansion of the amalgam from the moisture in the mouth. I expect that stainless screws would fare better in the continually damp environment of an ink cartridge. On the other hand, if the corrosion doesn't affect the ink there's no problem. They are cheap enough to change periodically.

 

[bobglen97]

Regarding Screws:


BAD:
I removed a screw to refill my yellow and it looks like the screw may be rusting. I'm going to look more closely to see if it is really rust or just caked on dried yellow ink... but it really looks like rust.

WORSE:
I don't know if it was one of my zinc screws or stainless screws. I thought both materials weren't suppose to rust.

Anybody out there know more about zinc and stainless?

The "zinc" screws are not "zinc". They have a thin coating (pating) applied that serves to inhibit rust in "normal" environments. Contsant or continual contact with moisture will find and imperfection in the plating and cause the steel underneath to rust. This is similar to the old galvanized steel used for mufflers in older cars. (back in the days when mufflers rusted out). They are now made of stainless steel, which is designed for contant and continual contact with moisture, and will not rust.