Written by Anonymous,

New UV inkjet cartridge hacking tutorial

Hacking and refilling inkjet cartridges with UV inks is not a difficult task for most people. The
cartridges are little more than a plastic box filled with a sponge or a bag. The basic goal is to
clean the cartridge and refill it with UV ink. All that is needed to clean most cartridges are distilled
water, rubbing alcohol,(Isopropyl alcohol 70% minimum)a razor, a sink and a minimum of
patience and effort.

First, we need to clean the inkjet cartridge so that no visible color residues remain in the
cartridge.

We do this by removing the top of the cartridge. (Solid color plastic on most cartridges.) Remove
the top by gently prying it off with a utility knife from the back. Work your way to the front and
remove the lid.

Now, make a 50/50 mix of distilled water and 70% Isopropyl alcohol.
Use this mixture to thoroughly wash the inside of the cartridge clean.

You must thoroughly clean/wash the sponge/bag and rubber flap assembly or screen assembly
on the bottom vacuum regulation or ink feed hole if present.

This might require partial removal of parts from the cartridge itself. Use your judgment and
common sense to determine this.

Once everything is clean, we need to flush the feed reservoir on the cartridge itself. Reassemble
your cleaned parts if necessary.
Fill the cartridge with the alcohol/water mixture. Cap the top with the lip and secure with duct tape
for now.

Insert the cartridge into the printer and prime if necessary. Then print about ten pages or so until
there is no visible ink pigment present on the paper. Just a light clear misting. You can also run
the printhead cleaning utility that came with your printer if applicable.

After this has been successfully completed, empty the cartridge and let it air dry overnight.

Now, we need to get the UV ink into that sponge or bag in a way so that the cartridge won't leak
too fast (causing a mess) or too slow (causing no printing.

Use an inkjet refill syringe filled with UV ink to refill the cartridge
using the instructions provided with the regular inkjet refill kit as a guide on how to do this.

Cap and seal the cartridge with duct tape or silicone, if necessary.
Insert cartridge into your printer and your ready to print.

In some cases, the manufacturer of the cartridge provided a hole to refill through. In other
instances, the manufacturer does not. This would normally require us to drill a small hole
ourselves.
In this instance, we don't need to worry about this since we can remove the entire top cover.

But before we go any further, there are a few suggestions which should be observed if you've
never cleaned cartridges out before:

1. Always work over or in a clean sink! Cleaning out ink from cartridges always makes a mess.
2. Always wear gloves when cleaning out the cartridges or handling UV ink. RESPECT THESE
CHEMICALS. Even if labeled non-toxic. The regular visible ink is not considered a toxic
substance. It is mainly water, with a bit of ethylene glycol, pigment/tint and sometimes up to 3
percent alcohol added. But your UV ink may not be non-toxic. Being safe is definitely better than
being sorry.

Now let us get into the more technical aspects of cartridges.

Inkjet Cartridges can be classified by the several most commonly used designs:

1. Sponge-filled or Vacuum-retained

2. Uni-color or Multi-color

3. Reservoir-only or Combination Reservoir/Printhead

Sponge-filled Cartridges

Sponge-filled cartridges are the most common. These cartridges are little more than a plastic box
with an internal sponge. refilling these cartridges consists of getting the UV ink to saturate the
sponge and in particular, to get ink to the bottom of the sponge where it can then seep out to the
printhead.

The most common problems associated with refilling sponge filled cartridges are caused by too
rapid filling. If the sponge is filled too quickly, the ink will not chase out all of the air in the sponge.
This will result in 'air dams' being formed inside the sponge. The common symptom of this
problem is that the cartridge prints for a while and then stops, since the air dam has blocked the
ink from flowing toward the printhead.

A related problem is when air bubbles form between the sponge and the printhead. The symptom
here is that the cartridge has difficulty printing as soon as it is installed.

For both problems, the key is to get rid of the air. There are several suggested ways:

Inject ink from the bottom of the sponge and slowly fill the cartridge in this manner. The idea is
that the air will rise to the top.

Tap the side of the cartridge repeatedly for several minutes. This is done to try and move the air
bubbles to the top.

Let the cartridge sit for a night or a weekend. In many cases, the air will remove itself.

Remember, the best cure for this problem is prevention. This is why these instructions advise
refilling the cartridge with UV ink very SLOWLY.

Vacuum Retained Cartridges

Vacuum-retained cartridges are a bit more complex in design, but are not much more difficult to
refill. These cartridges are most commonly made by Hewlett-Packard.(932c)

Refilling these cartridges always involves putting an air-tight seal somewhere in the process.
Depending upon the cartridge, you have to seal it with some sort of hot glue or silicone cement.
Hot glue is good, since it seals quickly and is easy to remove if necessary.

The important things to remember about these cartridges are the following:

Always squeeze the cartridge before sealing to set up the vacuum.

Some of these cartridges (such as the 51645A) have a filter screen just above the printhead.
Make sure that this is thoroughly cleaned if you don't want print problems to develop.

Uni-Color(Single chamber) and Multi-color(multiple chamber) Cartridges

Multi-color cartridges have multiple chambers which each hold a different color of ink. The printer
software sprays out the appropriate combination of dots of Magenta, Cyan, Black, and Yellow to
create all of the colors of the rainbow. Here are some of the things to be aware of:
Multi-color cartridges rarely run out of ink in each chamber at the same time.

So you'll probably only fill one color at a time. Remember to tape over the openings to the other
chambers while you are filling one color, or you may contaminate the other chamber with the ink
you are injecting.

If you don't do this, you'll get some really interesting graphical colors and effects that you do not
want.

Some graphics software has setting for 'R/G/B' and 'C/Y/M/K'. If your colors being printed look
strange, try changing these settings.

Be careful when filling multi-color cartridges to avoid printhead based contamination.

Here's how it works:

The solution is to keep the cartridge on a paper towel while filling. If you still get the cross-
contamination, you may need to flush out that chamber with more ink, or by printing several
pages of heavy graphics of that color.

Reservoir-Only Cartridges

Reservoir only cartridges only contain an ink reservoir. These cartridge can be refilled many,
many times.

Combination Reservoir/Printhead Cartridges

Combination Reservoir/Printhead cartridges contain both an ink reservoir and have a printhead
built-in to the cartridge. These cartridges will eventually wear out the printhead through simple
erosion, but should give good printing for about 3 refills in most cases.
Common UV refill problems and solutions.

This is a listing of common refilling problems and their cure.

Prints odd colors

Prints green as blue or orange as red.

You are out of yellow ink or the yellow ink isn't flowing. Check your yellow chamber and refill if
necessary.

Prints orange as yellow or violet as blue.

You are out of magenta ink or the magenta ink isn't flowing. Check your magenta chamber and
refill if necessary.

Prints green as yellow or violet as red.

You are out of cyan ink or the cyan ink isn't flowing. Check your cyan chamber and refill if
necessary.

Everything is a shade of brown.

You have accidentally injected one ink into the wrong chamber or the inks have over-flowed and
mixed.

You can either trash the cartridge or simply re-hack another one. Then refill your cartridge
properly this time.

Colors are dirty.

You have accidentally injected one ink into the wrong chamber or the inks have over-flowed and
mixed.

You can either trash the cartridge or simply re-hack another one. Then refill your cartridge
properly this time.

Strange colors are printing.

You have accidentally injected one ink into the wrong chamber or the inks have over-flowed and
mixed.

You can either trash the cartridge or simply begin printing out a heavy page of graphics
repeatedly to flush out the ink. Then refill properly.

It is also possible that your printing software is set up wrong. Certain sophisticated graphics
packages allow you to select between R/G/B and C/Y/M/K (or another arrangement of those
letters) printing. Change your setting and see how the printing behaves. If there is no
improvement, remember to change the setting back to the original setting.
Prints with streaks of some parts of letters printing, some parts not printing.

This means that your print head is partially clogged.

Use the printer's cleaning routine.

If this doesn't work, try soaking just the printhead in simmering distilled water to which up to 50
percent isopropyl alcohol has been added. However, only do this on cartridges with disposable
printheads such as HP or Lexmark. Don't do this if your print head is a permanent part of your
printer like Epsons or most Canons.

Stops printing on long horizontal lines, but prints again on next pass.

This indicates that the print head is not getting enough ink. This is common on the first refill in HP
51645A cartridges because of foam generated by the original HP ink. (contamination) This foam
forms at the exit filter just before the printhead and is caused because the original HP ink foams if
mixed under suction with air -- such as what happens when you refill the cartridge.(HP
Photosmart 1000 series)

With other cartridges like the Lexmark ones, this symptom simply means that not enough ink is
getting to the printhead. Look for partial blockages of the ink path, including blockages caused by
small air bubbles.

Started to print fine, but then stopped after a couple of pages.

This problem is almost always caused by air dams in sponge-filled cartridges. Check the
suggestions under Types of Cartridges for sponge-filled cartridges.

Cartridge Won't Print Anything.

This condition is very common with certain cartridges, particularly with reservoir-only cartridges
such as provided by Canon and Epson. The symptom is one of the following:

Plug in cartridge and it won't print anything.

Cartridge prints for a while and then won't print anything.

Plug in cartridge and it won't print anything.

This often happens with the reservoir-only cartridges. Here are the two most common problems:

The ink has not made it to the bottom (exit) of the cartridge, and thus, there is no ink for the
printhead to use. The solution is to take the cartridge, turn it upside down and inject some ink into
the sponge through the ink exit hole. (if it is large enough to do without modification)

There is an air bubble between the bottom of the sponge and the printhead which is blocking ink
flow. Be sure that there is a bit of ink in the top of the printhead, and be sure that there is ink
slowly dripping from the exit hole of the cartridge.

Cartridge prints for a while and then won't print anything.

This often means that there is an air blockage which has formed in the middle of the sponge.
Check the suggestions under Types of Cartridges for sponge-filled cartridges.

It's Leaking

It's normal for all cartridges to leak a couple of drops when first filled, and may continue for 5
minutes or so. Remember, if there isn't ink at the exit hole of the cartridge, the printer can't print.
So expect a bit of a drip or so.

If your cartridge is one of the HP vacuum-retained cartridges, then continued leaking tells us that
the cartridge has an air leak. Air leaks are caused by:

Poor sealing: check the sealing that you did.

Tiny cracks: visually inspect the cartridge for tiny cracks or leaking points. Try sealing the holes or
discard the cartridge.

Punctured top center hole or bag: Not much you can do except toss the cartridge.

Now, if your cartridge is a simple sponge-filled cartridge, then it should stop leaking after a few
minutes unless it is overfull. Let the cartridge sit overnight where it can make a mess and check it
in the morning.

The Canon BJI-201 is a special case. (BJC-600 and 2300 series) This cartridge is half sponge-
filled and half vacuum retained. If you get a continuous leak, it is because of poor-sealing or tiny
cracks. Remember that the hole through which you filled the top of the cartridge must be sealed
air tight with hot glue or you will get a leak.

These issues cover the basics of hacking and refilling inkjet cartridges for use with UV inks. This
basic tutorial is by no means complete and any positive input is welcome.