Smoke_Jaguar
New Member
Managed to get ahold of a retired UJF-6042 printer and am currently having a helluva time getting the thing back up and running. The unit was left in storage with ink still in it for a couple of years and finally have most of the gelled inks cleaned out. Had a heck of a time getting more than 1 head to drop a nozzle pattern, so needing to check up what's up with that. Main thing I need now is a set of wash cartridges to get it out of the ink loading state it's stuck in. Thankfully after surfing the MSDS on Mimaki's site, it seems ethyl acetate ($40 for a gallon, sure beats $30/100mL) is the chemical used. Works great on ink and seems safe on anything but body plastics. I've seen mentions of a deflate process, but not sure that will help prime the heads. Since they have ink ports on the side of the head carriage, it's not hard to bleed and prime the system. Installed new dampers, and a low pressure hand flushing with ethyl acetate is promising, looks like a nice curtain of flow and low restriction. The Ricoh Gen4 heads are pretty easy to source and I had some in the scrap bin from another project, so I was able to test solvents on those without risking good ones. Might convert the system to tanks, as cartridges seem to be a pain in the butt to get at a decent price (especially compared to bulk ink).
The MKII on the other hand was a purchase. Got a decent deal on it, but it seems the first head is toast. It was originally set for primer/clear and was left empty for a good chunk of its life. Replaced the cap on that station, but learned that cap 1 and 2 are on the same pump. Thankfully, neither seemed to leak and getting the extra connector out of the deal came in handy. The solenoid valve on the primer channel was completely toast. Seems the primer caused the little tube gasket to swell to the point of ripping a locking tab off the plastic housing. $30 part for the valve, so not bad compared to the $8 slice of tubing they call a gasket. The coolant was a fun mystery orange substance, so flushed that all out. Just grabbed Sierra PG antifreeze from the local Napa and mixed it with water at recomended concentration. Lifetime supply of coolant for cheap, but it's simply green instead of pink. The wipe tray had its pad removed, and the 20 hour drive with the printer in the back of the truck resulted in a helluva mess. Next big job is the filters (M022219), as they're looking pretty swollen and there are splits and cracks in the foil caps. Been doing some printing with the unit as-is and had some really good results. Got some cheaper $120/L LH-100 type aftermarket ink and seems to work great. Primer channel is about 80% working, and it seems to do a great job on metals like aluminum. Probably going to put Lc/Lm in those channels, since both the primer and clear are somewhat cursed when it comes to clogging heads. Oh, dang table isn't level, need to find a service manual to see if I can shim out the 1.2mm of play.
Another fun toy that came with the MKII is an InkControl chip simulator. Interesting little gadget, but the software is rough. After messing with the virtual chips and figuring out the software, I couldn't help but laugh when it asked me to buy more magic ink refills. For some reason the serial number is tied to the old account. Just loaded up Cheat Engine and found the 'remaining charges' field and gave myself a few thousand magic ink tokens. Not sure the price on the unit, but, seems like a pain. Totally functional, but a silly business model. The Mimaki chips are super simple 1-Wire chips and I just started interrogating and copying them with a Bus Pirate chip reader. Since the hashes the DS2430/DS2431 chips Mimaki uses are well-cracked, I am just using an Arduino Mega to play chip emulator. Lacking some keys, like from the 440mL cleaning carts though.
Anyone else messing with these much? Pretty cool bastards, and, in spite of the project status on both, I am loving them. Probably going to try and find a bad MKII CE4N head or two to mess with and get a flushing solution working out for them. Used to do Epson heads, and if you can fix a TFP, you can unclog anything.
The MKII on the other hand was a purchase. Got a decent deal on it, but it seems the first head is toast. It was originally set for primer/clear and was left empty for a good chunk of its life. Replaced the cap on that station, but learned that cap 1 and 2 are on the same pump. Thankfully, neither seemed to leak and getting the extra connector out of the deal came in handy. The solenoid valve on the primer channel was completely toast. Seems the primer caused the little tube gasket to swell to the point of ripping a locking tab off the plastic housing. $30 part for the valve, so not bad compared to the $8 slice of tubing they call a gasket. The coolant was a fun mystery orange substance, so flushed that all out. Just grabbed Sierra PG antifreeze from the local Napa and mixed it with water at recomended concentration. Lifetime supply of coolant for cheap, but it's simply green instead of pink. The wipe tray had its pad removed, and the 20 hour drive with the printer in the back of the truck resulted in a helluva mess. Next big job is the filters (M022219), as they're looking pretty swollen and there are splits and cracks in the foil caps. Been doing some printing with the unit as-is and had some really good results. Got some cheaper $120/L LH-100 type aftermarket ink and seems to work great. Primer channel is about 80% working, and it seems to do a great job on metals like aluminum. Probably going to put Lc/Lm in those channels, since both the primer and clear are somewhat cursed when it comes to clogging heads. Oh, dang table isn't level, need to find a service manual to see if I can shim out the 1.2mm of play.
Another fun toy that came with the MKII is an InkControl chip simulator. Interesting little gadget, but the software is rough. After messing with the virtual chips and figuring out the software, I couldn't help but laugh when it asked me to buy more magic ink refills. For some reason the serial number is tied to the old account. Just loaded up Cheat Engine and found the 'remaining charges' field and gave myself a few thousand magic ink tokens. Not sure the price on the unit, but, seems like a pain. Totally functional, but a silly business model. The Mimaki chips are super simple 1-Wire chips and I just started interrogating and copying them with a Bus Pirate chip reader. Since the hashes the DS2430/DS2431 chips Mimaki uses are well-cracked, I am just using an Arduino Mega to play chip emulator. Lacking some keys, like from the 440mL cleaning carts though.
Anyone else messing with these much? Pretty cool bastards, and, in spite of the project status on both, I am loving them. Probably going to try and find a bad MKII CE4N head or two to mess with and get a flushing solution working out for them. Used to do Epson heads, and if you can fix a TFP, you can unclog anything.