Cleaning Cartridges

[midnightmadman]

Getting my 48 prismjet back in operation after its been sitting from my move for about 2 months.
I have a set of cleaning cartridges and am wondering if its going to do anything? I did a power clean today and got some ink to start coming through.
Also, once I run the carts through, do I just pop the ink back in and print again or is there anything else I will need to do?
Thanks

 

[midnightmadman]

Any help is appreciated fellas.

 

[RG]

Hi, midnightmadman. Looks like everyone else has the weekend off, so I give it a shot. Luckily, I have not had to do this yet. I have a Falcon Outdoor Junior 4-color printer. I'll tell you what the user's guide says. My printer has 2 heads (K, CMY). When prompted with the cleaning carts, it will wash the K head first and tell you to remove the K cleaning cart only. Then it will wash the color head and tell you to remove the remaining cleaning carts. The cleaning fluid in the printer unit is discharged when the cleaning carts are removed. Empty the waste ink box from the printer. Insert the 4 ink carts one by one into the correct slots. Ink is being loaded into the ink supply system (tubing & heads). Wait for about an hour after loading the ink before starting to print. The printer is now ready to print.
In short, looks like your original plan is a go, according to my user's guide. Good luck.

 

[shadi75]

Hi

I just bought a mutoh junior and after the move, the printer stoped printing , i thought i needed a cleaning cartidges but i found out after reading alot of threads that the ink was cloged inside . So if you dont see any ink droping in the wast ink bottel after few powerfull cleanings, then that could be the problem , i got a small suringe and uncloged the two small waste exit tubes. and the printer works fine now.

But my printer wasnt sitting around for a few month , i am not sure if the heads are dried out .

 

[randya]

What does your nozzle check look like?

Cleaning carts probably will not clean a bunch of clogged nozzles.
You will want to do a head soad.

 

[midnightmadman]

Well, it has some slight lines of each color but nothing like it should yet. The thing is, the heads are pretty much BRAND new before I had to let it sit from moving.. so I am trying to at all costs avoid having to replace them.

 

[randya]

Search the forum for head soak.

You wet a non-shedding cloth with cleaning solution and place it over the caps on the capping station to soften up plugs.

 

[Jackpine]

All the above is right on. I would soak the heads and then do a regular cleaning....if it showed a good nozzle check you would be good. If not another cleaning and/or soak a little longer.

 

[midnightmadman]

Thanks guys. I just locked down the heads with some coffee filters soaked in cleaning solution. Then in a couple days I will run my cleaning carts. through and hope for the best! I have them so I figure I will just do it all

 

[randya]

Coffee filters is not the best choice, you want a clean room wipe with heat sealed edges.
Coffee filter may be a bit rough on the teflon coating on the head.

The solvent will try up after a short time.
So rewet after about 30 minutes - do this a few times and run a strong clean (with ink).
You can repeat this as long are you continue to get more nozzles clean.

I still dont see any advantage to run cleaning carts.

 

[midnightmadman]

Coffee filters is not the best choice, you want a clean room wipe with heat sealed edges.
Coffee filter may be a bit rough on the teflon coating on the head.

The solvent will try up after a short time.
So rewet after about 30 minutes - do this a few times and run a strong clean (with ink).
You can repeat this as long are you continue to get more nozzles clean.

I still dont see any advantage to run cleaning carts.

What about something like a baby wipe (soaked in solution)? its soft and absorbs very well.
So, dont use the cleaning carts?? what are they for?

 

[midnightmadman]

ok guys, I just did another nozzel check after locking the heads down soaking over night. Then doing to reg. cleanings
It looks like im pretty good on every color except yellow...there is no yellow printing.

 

[randya]

What about something like a baby wipe (soaked in solution)? its soft and absorbs very well.
So, dont use the cleaning carts?? what are they for?

It is very important to use a soft non-shedding wipe.

Soft as to not damage the nozzle openings, and non-shedding so that you dont put fibers into the nozzles and damage them.

The cleaning carts are for flushing the machine, for storage over a couple weeks or shipping.

You should have flushed your machine BEFORE letting it set for 2 months.
With a proper cleaning, you could have done an ink fill and been ready to print.

You can rip one of the carts open and cut a corner on the innner mylar bag and pour the cleaning liquid into a poly bottle for cleaning the capping station wipe and bottom of the carriage.....and for head soaks when needed.

The problem is - if nozzles are clogged, the cleaning solution will not go through the head properly, and not through a plugged nozzle in particular.

If you soak for an hour adding a few drops of cleaning solution every 15-20 minutes and see nozzles returning - then you might well be able to completly recover.

 

[midnightmadman]

I know I messed up with not cleaning it out before the move. I was supposed to get right into the new place within 2 days, but everything got messed up and we had to put everything in a hot storage unit for a month... it sucked.

I am comparing some other nozzle check images and am questioning if mine look any good now. Besides the yellow missing, I do have a lot of lines in the other colors...
Could the lines be full of dried ink at all from sitting?

 

[randya]

Depending on the condition of the capping station and your environment, it doesnt sound like you are in that bad of shape.

It is possible to get dried ink in the feed lines, but not likely.

You can verify this by CAREFULLY removing the ink lines from the top of the dampers and putting a syringe on it and pullling ink through. Dont overtighten the lines when you reinstall, you can damage the o-ring. I seriously doubt if dried ink in the line is your issue.

You want all nozzles to fire in a nozzle check, if you have most them already, or almost all of them - then the head soak is by far the best option for you.

Try and take a couple of good pics of your nozzle check and upload them here so we can look.

 

[midnightmadman]

Its from my phone so its a little blurry. but here is what I got for the first check.

 

[randya]

This is a two head machine and it looks like you have most of one head, and almost none of the other.

Definitely get some clean room wipes and do the head soak.


You should closely examine the caps and the alignment on the head that is mostly plugged.

 

[midnightmadman]

"You should closely examine the caps and the alignment on the head that is mostly plugged."

Do you mean that its not sealing, so its not soaking?

 

[kirkbedtelyon]

I did a head soak on my valuejet and the inks all mixed together and back flushed into the lines....I had to print a lot to get the colors to print correctly....

 

[benjercorp]

The more you print the more you likely to see all nozzles unclogged, Knowledge is the key to success Get a little bit more educated (No Offense) but do you know that everytime you run solvent through your heads is most likely the membrane inside the print head is to get exhausted that's why most of the print shops owner must replace print heads every 2 years when a print head is made to last at least 4 to 5 years... Take them out use a sirynge run solvent and the air and leave them soak in solvent for 10 minutes and then run clean solvent and the air 2 more time and you'll see how the printhead will be a good to go....