TIP: avoiding dried up/blocked ink-jet carts

[N_Cook]

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.

 

On Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:20:14 UTC+1, N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.

How many cycles are the printer to cart connectors rated for?


NT

 

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 1:01:52 PM UTC-4, tabb...@gmail.com wrote:

On Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:20:14 UTC+1, N_Cook wrote:
Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.

get a cheap laser printer and stop fussing with it
best thing i ever did
m

 

[Tim R]

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 2:27:47 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:

In article <79889b83-c584-4f32-a4cd-c272aca112eb@googlegroups.com>,
tabbypurr@gmail.com says...
get a cheap laser printer and stop fussing with it
best thing i ever did
m

+100



Same here.

Me too. Black and white is plenty for 99.9% of what I print. (mostly music) The rest I email to Walmart or Staples. I'm still on the first toner cartridge and it's been several years now. Of course those aren't cheap.

When the kids were in school we needed color for projects. Not any more.

 

What about when the heads are not integral to the carts ? If this one here cleans up OK it would be nice to avoid it in the future.

Note this is someone else's printer, I have a LASER. However it is in the basement and people might not want to go all the way down there to print, or when I get it back on the network, to grab their stuff out of it.

My other option would be to move it to a more central location but space is a problem, the thing is big.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <79889b83-c584-4f32-a4cd-c272aca112eb@googlegroups.com>,
tabbypurr@gmail.com says...

get a cheap laser printer and stop fussing with it
best thing i ever did
m

+100

Same here.

I don't print much and got one of the Samsung laser printers for less
than $ 150. Don't recall the price, but it was one of the all in one
types. The HP ink is almost as much as that printer was for a set of
Black and color cartrages

Just printers are much less.

 

On Tuesday, 10 April 2018 18:37:34 UTC+1, mako...@yahoo.com wrote:

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 1:01:52 PM UTC-4, tabby wrote:
On Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:20:14 UTC+1, N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.


get a cheap laser printer and stop fussing with it
best thing i ever did
m

+100

 

On Tuesday, 10 April 2018 19:37:50 UTC+1, Tim R wrote:

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 2:27:47 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article <79889b83-c584-4f32-a4cd-c272aca112eb@googlegroups.com>,
tabbypurr says...
get a cheap laser printer and stop fussing with it
best thing i ever did
m

+100



Same here.

Me too. Black and white is plenty for 99.9% of what I print. (mostly music) The rest I email to Walmart or Staples. I'm still on the first toner cartridge and it's been several years now. Of course those aren't cheap.

When the kids were in school we needed color for projects. Not any more.

Reminds me of the times when I did 2 colour printing on a B&W printer. Quite glad they're over! Daisy wheel it was, one print in black, 2nd pass in black with italic daisywheel, 3rd pass with red ribbon.


NT

 

[N_Cook]

On 10/04/2018 16:20, N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.

I should say this is for 3 print-offs on card per month for posters. I
doubt I'll be buying a colour laser m/c. I could see myself going to a
High St print shop once a month or perhaps getting 20 or so generic card
posters done at such a print shop and then overprint with my trusty
monochrome HP laser printer, just the changing details once a month. I
doubt the so-called cheap colour laser printers will allow 300gm/m^2 or
stiffer card through them.

 

[gregz]

N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the carts.
Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with balloons dangling.

My Canon I hardly use. It just uses ink even while off. Lucky I found cheap
cartridges takes 5.

Greg

 

[Jon Elson]

N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.

The ONLY way to avoid bloced jet nozzles is to TOTALLY AVOID inkjet
printers. I CURSE the things! I curse my stupidity in rescuing some of
them from the trash at work and trying to make them work.

We had some at work, and every Monday morning I had to fiddle with them to
get them unblocked. Just 2 days idle during the weekend and they were in
trouble.

Give me a laser printer, please! (Wax jet is the 2nd choice, but the ink is
expensive.)

Jon

 

[N_Cook]

On 12/04/2018 23:52, Jon Elson wrote:

N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.
The ONLY way to avoid bloced jet nozzles is to TOTALLY AVOID inkjet
printers. I CURSE the things! I curse my stupidity in rescuing some of
them from the trash at work and trying to make them work.

We had some at work, and every Monday morning I had to fiddle with them to
get them unblocked. Just 2 days idle during the weekend and they were in
trouble.

Give me a laser printer, please! (Wax jet is the 2nd choice, but the ink is
expensive.)

Jon

I was watching the latest David Attenborough natural history series and
nature got there first. Apparently the mottled colouration on bird eggs
is due to an inkjet printer like process. The caulm containg yolk and
albumen is rotated in a chamber with multiple ducts that eject a
different colour calcium based chemical formulation at different times
building up the patterning, clever stuff. Millions of years before
Epson,Canon, HP etc

 

On Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:38:12 +0100, N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote:

On 12/04/2018 23:52, Jon Elson wrote:
N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.
The ONLY way to avoid bloced jet nozzles is to TOTALLY AVOID inkjet
printers. I CURSE the things! I curse my stupidity in rescuing some of
them from the trash at work and trying to make them work.

We had some at work, and every Monday morning I had to fiddle with them to
get them unblocked. Just 2 days idle during the weekend and they were in
trouble.

Give me a laser printer, please! (Wax jet is the 2nd choice, but the ink is
expensive.)

Jon


I was watching the latest David Attenborough natural history series and
nature got there first. Apparently the mottled colouration on bird eggs
is due to an inkjet printer like process. The caulm containg yolk and
albumen is rotated in a chamber with multiple ducts that eject a
different colour calcium based chemical formulation at different times
building up the patterning, clever stuff. Millions of years before
Epson,Canon, HP etc

That is so cool. I had no idea that was how the eggs got that look.
Thanks for posting.
Eric

 

[N_Cook]

On 13/04/2018 17:42, etpm@whidbey.com wrote:

On Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:38:12 +0100, N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote:

On 12/04/2018 23:52, Jon Elson wrote:
N_Cook wrote:

Printer only used monthly , perhaps when new then parking in the cart
dock at the side perhaps works, but not when years old.
A bit of a bind, but less of a bind than squirting air-duster etc to
unblock an ink cart etc etc. At the end of each session remove the
carts. Grab a couple of couple of large party balloons with the neck
cut off.
Stretch over the active face of each cart with a drop of
meths/denatured-alcahol in each balloon and store on a ledge with
balloons dangling.
The ONLY way to avoid bloced jet nozzles is to TOTALLY AVOID inkjet
printers. I CURSE the things! I curse my stupidity in rescuing some of
them from the trash at work and trying to make them work.

We had some at work, and every Monday morning I had to fiddle with them to
get them unblocked. Just 2 days idle during the weekend and they were in
trouble.

Give me a laser printer, please! (Wax jet is the 2nd choice, but the ink is
expensive.)

Jon


I was watching the latest David Attenborough natural history series and
nature got there first. Apparently the mottled colouration on bird eggs
is due to an inkjet printer like process. The caulm containg yolk and
albumen is rotated in a chamber with multiple ducts that eject a
different colour calcium based chemical formulation at different times
building up the patterning, clever stuff. Millions of years before
Epson,Canon, HP etc
That is so cool. I had no idea that was how the eggs got that look.
Thanks for posting.
Eric

If it was anyone else other than Attenborough saying that, I'd have
disbelieved them. I've never seen an egg with streaks on it, so
difficult to believe that mechanism.

 

[pedro]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 17:52:20 -0500, Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu>
wrote:

Just 2 days idle during the weekend and they were in
trouble.

That sounds rather like Epson with separate heads/carts. Got so tired
of trying to revitalise those that I swore off Epson completely.

Still have an olde HP900 series inker that seems to fire up fine about
every six months, and a Canon that rattles/clunks/whirrs for about 90
seconds at every power-up. Good thing nearly all our printing needs
are mono and met elegantly/economically with an HP Laser.

 

[Bob Engelhardt]

I had a rarely used Lexmark (yearly cartridge replacement, more or
less). I had it for years and never had a blockage. Only got rid of it
because there was no driver for Windows 10.

 

[John-Del]

On Friday, April 13, 2018 at 2:37:30 PM UTC-4, N_Cook wrote:
I've never seen an egg with streaks on it, so

difficult to believe that mechanism.

That's because Epson doesn't print eggs...

 

[N_Cook]

On 15/04/2018 16:31, John-Del wrote:

On Friday, April 13, 2018 at 2:37:30 PM UTC-4, N_Cook wrote:
I've never seen an egg with streaks on it, so
difficult to believe that mechanism.


That's because Epson doesn't print eggs...

Another thing Epson failed to deal with - generating the substrate at
the same time as the image. You have to supply your own paper, how
stupid in comparison to nature.

 

I just cleaned a Brother.

Has separate ink cartridges, the head stays. It wasn't the head, the tubes were clogged up. The black was actually what was clogged up, the others had air pockets in them. Probably got run too low for too long. I looked around the internet and found out that apparently Windex is safe to use. So I took some tubing, removed the feed (and lost the clip) and blew Windex through the tube. then I fashioned a spring thing to hold what the clip used to hold and let er rip with a bunch of black only cleaning cycles to purge the cleaner and get ink in there.

The ink in the black tube actually looked dried out. I guess that;s what happens when there is air in it.

It works now. The colors don't come out absolutely perfect on the test page but we'll do a bunch of color printing with the new ink in it and that should take care of it. They are obviously not dried up because they work.

My last two jobs, at what they billed my labor you could have bought at least four of these printers with a fresh set of cartridges each, and then some. They would definitely never take another one in once they found out how cheap they are. But I am in frugal mode right now.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <0d2f9d3f-3a12-408e-9594-2cad12859c8a@googlegroups.com>,
jurb6006@gmail.com says...

I just cleaned a Brother.

Has separate ink cartridges, the head stays. It wasn't the head, the tubes were clogged up. The black was actually what was clogged up, the others had air pockets in them. Probably got run too low for too long. I looked around the internet and found out that apparently Windex is safe to use. So I took some tubing, removed the
feed (and lost the clip) and blew Windex through the tube. then I fashioned a spring thing to hold what the clip used to hold and let er rip with a bunch of black only cleaning cycles to purge the cleaner and get ink in there.

The ink in the black tube actually looked dried out. I guess that;s what happens when there is air in it.

It works now. The colors don't come out absolutely perfect on the test page but we'll do a bunch of color printing with the new ink in it and that should take care of it. They are obviously not dried up because they work.

My last two jobs, at what they billed my labor you could have bought at least four of these printers with a fresh set of cartridges each, and then some. They would definitely never take another one in once they found out how cheap they are. But I am in frugal mode right now.

Unless you have a heavy duty printer, it is often better just to get a
new one. With printers less than $ 70 and some less than $ 50, just get
a new one and the ink cartridges for less than $ 150. A repair bill
will cost a lot and then you still have to pay for the ink.

Company my son works for got talked into a deal with Canon for their
printers. It is a large company,but they have 3 men just for office type
printers. Most of the time they just sit around. For what they pay for
that conract, they could probalby buy everyone a new printer every year.