Sealing the refill hole BCI-6 BCI-3

[ocular]

ColorBat has a new spongless cartridge, which he sent to me at no charge for me try, and I was very pleased with it, but the cost is about $6.00 each, and it needs a non-standard size plug, maybe they are good for continuous flow systems, but I do not want to go mad looking for new plugs or taping them.

I hope this is of some help.

Robert

Always interesting to here where people source their accessories. Here in Australia there is not the range of suppliers.

I haven't had my Canon MP730 CFS long enough to know how long a sponge cartridge will last in a CFS. I have been told that it is much longer than when refilling as long as the cartridge remains full of ink. It may be more of issue for the black ink with pigment ink.

However I have noticed that some of the Epson CFS are now spongeless. Have yet to see a Canon spongeless CFS. But if Colorbat are reading this I too would be happy to trial spongeless cartridges in my existing CFS.

 

[Mark]

For anyone who does lots of printing and looking for a reliable, inexpesive way to reink the canon i960 (or other BCI-6 type) and hasn't been completely satisfied with anything you have tried so far, you might consider a method that I have found works extremely well:

Refilling: Temporarily cap the discharge port at the bottom & drill a small hole on the top of the reservoir side of the cartridge that will accomodate a 6x3/8 zinc-plated panhead metal phillips screw. Place a #60 O-ring on the screw and after injecting the ink, insert the screw & tighten just until slight compression to the O-ring occurs. Release the discharge port & wait until any dripping stops & pop the cartridge back in the printer. A packet of 22 screws and a box of 9 O-rings cost under 2 bucks at Lowes (the O-rings are in the plumbing section). I bought a couple of sets of filled cartridges from Wired Beans on ebay marked "AcuJet" for about $2 each, mainly because of the much larger reservoir capacity. Any decent cartridge will work with the screw/O-ring method & it is super-easy to refill again later. Be sure to refill the cartridge before the ink is depleted from the reservoir side.

MIS ink performs extremely well and is the least expensive I've found.

If some other technique is working for you, by all means stay with it; but I've seen some posts indicating sealing issues, which this reliably & easily resolves.

Best Regards,
Mark

 

[Nifty]

Mark, thanks for the post! I think the O ring is the main difference here. A lot of people suggest the screw by itself, but I don't trust that kind of seal.

Thanks again for such detail on the screw and ring sizes!

 

[ocular]

Mark,

Thanks for sharing that neat trick with the screw and O ring- a very clever way to offer a good secure seal that is easily undone. If you were really obsessional you could tap a thread into the cartridge rather tha using a self tapping screw. The cartridges being plastic are easy to tap. I have tapped a few for the right angled spigots used in CFS.

Just need some of those alotofthings acrylic cases to seal the outlet port and you would have the perfect refilling setup.

 

[Nifty]

Ocular, if you, or anybody else, are interested I've got a few of these cartridge clips and would be willing to trade a few for some different brands of BCI-3ebk cartridges. Shoot me an email if there is interest.

 

[Grandad35]

I would like to add my 2 cents to the list.
1. When you install a new cartridge, the instructions tell you to discard the plastic cap that covers the discharge hole. I figured that if this cap was good enough for the supplier, it should be good enough for me. The only problem was how to hold it in place easily solved with a rubber band. This works great not only for refilling it also allows you to store multiple set of carts without leaks. It is a good idea to rinse the seal surface with tap water and blow it dry so that you dont have to worry about residual ink on the seal surface contaminating a different color cart. Install the rubber band with one loop in front and one loop behind the hole to balance the loading on the cap, and then wiggle the cap to make sure that it is square on the cart.
2. I have seen cases where a cart that is almost full acts like it is empty. There is a small cylinder of filter material in the exit hole that must float up and down as it mates against the ink pickup in the print head. The filter in turn must press firmly against the sponge to pick up ink from the sponge. Every time that you pull a cart, even if it is only to check the ink level, you run the risk that this filter/sponge combination will not drop back down into firm contact with each other or with the print head pickup the next time that the cart is re-installed. A few light taps of the cart on any surface just before installing it is usually sufficient to drop things back into place and to give good contact between both interfaces.
3. Mark previously recommended a pan head screw with an O-ring to seal the refill hole. I use a #6 flat head wood screw without an O-ring, and the tapered bottom of the screw provides a good seal all by itself. This system also seals even if the screw is not installed perfectly straight.
4. I agree with those who drop a few drops of ink into the exit hole before refilling. If the ink just sits there, the filter is saturated with ink, so it is OK to refill normally. If the filter wicks up a lot of ink, this is a sign that the sponge is probably not saturated. I then cap the bottom, refill the cart and then let it set in a LEVEL position for 20-30 minutes with the refill hole open. This allows the sponge to absorb ink from the chamber, which is then topped off before sealing the refill hole.

 

[Nifty]

Grandad, great post! Do you have any pictures of your rubber band clip, etc. for us? Email them to me and I can post them for you, or follow the instructions here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36

 

[ocular]

I have tried the rubber band and the original cap over the exit port trick .
2 points:

1. Need to use the caps that came with the cartridge. Had some trouble trying to get the caps to seal when mixing oem caps with non oem cartridges and vice versa.

2. Also worth smoothing out the small broken pieces of plastic that originally held the cap in place, so the cap can sit squarely under the force of the rubber band without getting skewed.

 

[Grandad35]

Here are small pictures of the cap, sponge/filter and screw seal:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/img/files/Cap1.jpg#img
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/img/files/ExitFilter.jpg#img
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/img/files/ScrewSeal.jpg#img

Ocular - I agree with your points, but I have found that I can mix two "nib" (the little connectors that initially hold the cap in place and break when you first remove the cap) and 4 nib caps caps and don't have to grind down the "nibs" if I just wiggle/twist the cap so that it isn't resting on the nibs. Your way is obviously safer, but I am lazy. I have only mixed caps from Canon and InkGrabber carts, and it could be that some other caps might not be interchangeable.

I forgot to mention that the screws should be either stainless (very hard to find) or zinc plated (as noted by Mark) to prevent rusting. Since you can buy 100 of these screws for a few $$, use a new screw every time to further minimize any potential for rusting or cross-contamination of one color into another by accidentally switching used screws.

 

[Nifty]

There is a small cylinder of filter material in the exit hole that must float up and down as it mates against the ink pickup in the print head. The filter in turn must press firmly against the sponge to pick up ink from the sponge. Every time that you pull a cart, even if it is only to check the ink level, you run the risk that this filter/sponge combination will not drop back down into firm contact with each other or with the print head pickup the next time that the cart is re-installed. A few light taps of the cart on any surface just before installing it is usually sufficient to drop things back into place and to give good contact between both interfaces.

I've noticed a different type of material at the exit hole, but I didn't believe you regarding this item "floating". I pulled out a cart and pushed on it. Sure enough it moved. While "floating" may be interpreted differently (it doesn't move very easily or actually "float" but you are right, it definitely moves (floats? ).

I noticed on my non-oem carts that it got stuck in place and tapping on the top didn't do much. To get the material down I stuck the cart in my clip and tapped it onto the table forcing the filter material down.

I can't wait to try this next time I have a problem... wait... am I hoping I get a problem????

Any idea what would cause the filter to rise? Maybe it's the same magic force that seems to reverse gravity... you know, like what happens with underwear???