Attention: the described method is copyrighted material. Copying or reproduction in whole or in parts without written permission of the author strictly prohibited. Permissions will be granted if the name of the method and the author is named.

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Copyright (C) Jack 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006

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Please bookmark this new link (Link changed Jan 04 !!) to find Jacks Refill Pages home entry.

(First Version written in October 02)

The Refill Method described in the following has not been developed by chance, or try-and-error. Instead it is the result of a thorougly investigation how carts work, and what the problem of  usual bad working refills is.

The first problem I found was trapped air in the chamber between nozzle plate and sieve (under the foam). (Link corrected to enlish file)

Starting from this I found a vakuum chamber priming process  (later I got to know something like this is know in professional refillers circles), which can revive  practically every cart back to the status before ink-out.

Again later a second problem was identified, when several people tried to reproduce the vacuum-process. It was found there were several inks, which simply wouldn't produce good carts.

I would like to add that just a printing cart isn't already a good cart in my opinion - I compare carts to originals and their behaviour. That means :

No occasional print problems,
no daily test charts,
no problem to cover a dense colour field on the paper ,
no drying after a few days
no problems AT ALL until ink-out.

Just print !

(I have to add that clogged nozzles and stripes to NOT belong to these, as long as this has been true already before the refill. DownUnder does not do magic, and a bad cart - say clogged nozzles -wont get better by refilling it.)

Thus, the reader has to master the down-under process, and if he can't reproduce the mentioned GOOD results - change your ink supplier.

Dont get me wrong - there are still things that can go wrong, and the reader should be aware of the possibility he still has caused the trouble by himself. BUT - as far as this method has been tested from several people - it WORKS.

Additionally, it has been proven some people can refill the normal way, then remove air down-under, or modify different other process parts of what is dseribed below - and still get good carts. I do not doubt that, but I RECOMMEND first to follow the desription - to the letter - , and only later start to modify when the feeling has developed for the success rate.

My current success rate - given the exception made above - is 100 % since is started to use the method desribed below, and that is about 25 carts or more at moment.

Addendum 10-Mar-03
Today it is a fact that down-under works, and except a real VERY few other problems carts can have down-under will revive them - or the ink causes the problem.  I should again point out that "revive" means re-install the situation before ink-out. A good cart will be a good cart.

Finished.

And for Early Refill there is just NO EXCUSE for cart failure -
it works or its caused by the ink.
(Ok, i just dont count punctured sieves or damaged nozzle plates here)

Recently I got the following mail:
Another 78 cart was "down under" refilled to night and it´s
nowdays more like an surprise if all nozzles not fireing :-)

This same pal wrote in Oct 02 :
I guess that your refillmethod is´nt much better than anyone else I
tried.
Looks like he changed his mind ...:-))), and others should give it a try and follow what I described.
 

Another one : (arrived  Mar  03)
Its been long and I had not been intouch with you. I am using your down
under filling method and it works really fine. I have problems at time with
HP C6625 (HP17) cartridges and I believe its the ink at times or bad
sponge.

continued  14.3.03:
Jack,
I have just over come the problem with HP23/78/17/41 cartridges. If the
cartridges are blocked then I just put them in Isopropyl Alcohol for some
time and then fill them up with down under. Now the ink is the major factor
here, I by mistake took the ink from *** and it seems their ink is really
bad. I have damaged more then 8 cartridges HP 6625 which are rare to find
because mostly home users use it. Now I have got ink from *****
and their ink is wonderful. I just have to fill it and just do the process
of down under filling and in the first time itself I have cartridge with
excellent results. Not even a single line of white strikes. Its all what to
do with ink. Bad ink will block the cartridge nozzle and will cause lot of
problems. You will not believe it but leaving a cartridge with bad ink in
will get blocked with in 15 minutes.

I dashed out the names of the Ink sellers - not because I am afraid to tell them,
but to have you look at whats inportant here :

You need the right (working) ink - or you will fail.

Its all ink - and down-under.

Regarding the ink sellers - I plan to have some "edge" in the forum reserved for ink type results. Stay tuned - see you there - check the forum entry page.
(Update - ink test edge is installed)

One last comment before we dive in : The following desription looks lengthy, but the process is simple and quite quick, so be patient and give it a try as described.

The Refilling Process consists of several steps :

Cart Preparation,

Ink Injection,,

Removing trapped air.

At the End of the desription i have added a chapter for the curious - how the refill works, and what the concept behind that method is.

Tools
Ink,
Syringes
long needles
tool to open the ink holes
a piece of silicon (or plastic) tube
 

One end of the plastic tube has to be cut diagonally - this is the mark for one tube end to be put in the mouth.(this way some funny lipstick colours can be avoided :-)
The other end of the tube has to be cut straight - pressing it on an ink hole has to seal it there to put some pressure on the cart ( only with the mouth )

Preparation of the cart
Best is to choose a cart which has been proven to be ok just before ink out.
If necessary, i do the cleaning with cold water, exclusively. However, feel free to use hot water, chemicals, agressive chemical, air pressure, milling,  a hammer and a steam catapult :-) - and be aware the more agressive a method is, the greater is the risk of a damaged cart.
I use to print with every cart after cleaning and before refill - in most cases at least one colour works, and gives good impression about the status of the cart, and it helps to adjust the cleaning to the right amount.
(There is no risk of burnout - that is a fairy tale !!!)
(remark - i had fallen prey to my bad english, and had called that "tell tale" - sorry. Thanks for pointing that out to me)

Dry the cart and have some paper towels handy for the following:

Fill the syringes, use only 5-6 ml - for a 19 ml cart.
(Current experience shows that using more than 6 can cause cart failure until the excess of ink is removed. This is under investigation at moment. )

Have trust that you can be succesfull with the next refill as well, and thus there is no need to overfill the cart - which can/would cause additional trouble.

Push the pins in the refill holes in.

Dont use the nozzle plate as a stand ! Very delicate !!!!!)

Ink Injection

PLEASE start with the yellow chamber, let the red one follow, and finish with the blue one - otherwise the danger of colour mixing is even increased.

Insert (yellow) needle, as deep as possible, and directly beneath the sieve ( look for the pictures ), compare the needle length with the cart.
 

And now - turn the whole thing "Down-Under", the syringe openings downwards, the nozzle plate on top.
Dont turn the carts again until you read to do so .

Now insert the ink, dont hesitate, there is NO NEED to slow down. But - observe the nozzle plate! If ink appears, slow down, wipe the ink with the towel, and continue injection - slower this time. If necessary, retract the needle 1/2 inch, and continue. If the ink appears again, slow down, retract again - repeat until the ink is in.
If a chamber had been still printing, probably the ink will appear (i had one chamber where th ink appeared after 1 ml), if the chamber was totally empty, all ink will simply vainsh.

Dont forget to wipe the nozzle plate in time when ink appears - the danger of ink entereing a wrong chamber is present.

In summary:
Dont hurry
dont hesitate
wipe the ink in time.
just fill the ink in.

Remove the air out of the nozzle chamber
Now the real game starts! if the ink is in, put the syringe aside and fetch the tube
(I DIDN'T say to turn the cart !)
(see here what i call the "nozzle chamber".

This is a clean nozzle plate .

Press the tube at the opening of the ink hole, seal it air-tight. ( hey, don't turn !) and blow - smooth. Just as hard as it is necessary that the ink appears ( means just the liquid surface appears) on the nozzle plate. If the ink creeps to the other nozzles, wipe it (Dont turn !).
Hold the cart a little sideways to hold the ink apart from the other nozzles.

-----------------------
update 28.1.03
Finally a picture of my tube connector. It is a standard pneumatic tube connector, one side milled to matcg the refill opening.

Update 5.3.03 more fine tools at   Gruftklingels Refillsite - everybody can find ideas there !!

----------  end updates   ----------

Now blow a little bit harder, until half a drop of ink appears. And just a liitle bit more - FOAM will appear. Let a blop of foam appear -

( about a  quarter of a drop), (that is too much ),

- and stop blowing. The ink will sink back into the nozzles , the foam will stay .

Wipe the foam with the towl, take time, you have to wait about 15 sec, then repeat the whole.
( take the time to calmly clean the nozzle plate)
Blow a blop of the ink out , repeat blowing until a little bit of foam apperas, stop. Let the ink vanish, wipe the foam.

Important ! Dont start to increase speed or amounts ! Take time now !

Sometimes it may happen to blow  too much  - then you have to start all over.

( if you want to experiment - let the cart print. It will fail soon !! Btw - you can restart here again then.)

If everything works as intended you will realize - after 3 -10 turns perhaps - that the first amount of ink - before foam appears -  increases .
Wonderful ! you are on track !

When the ink amount grows to an extent, that you cant "protect" the other nozzles anymore - stop.
( You havent ever turned the cart, uh ??)
So blow only a little bit ink out ( much less than before - just the liquid surface again), let it vanish again. Blow it out, let it vanish. Take time between each repeat. It should take longer and longer for the ink to vanish.
If the ink hardly vanishes - you have scored.

(Addendum 2.12.02 : Occasionally it happens that the ink doesnt vanish. So keep it as enough if it slows down vanishing)

Important :
It may happen, that hardly any foam appears. That is especially true if the colour of the cart was still ok printing before refill. So print a testchart before refill !
If that happens, just play the above "ink vanish" game - ok after that.

If you like, you can insert the cart in a printer and print a test chart. Yellow will print, take my word.
----------------

update 27.Jan.03 No Ink Appears
Occasionally there will - surprisingly - no ink appear at all. Logically, you will blow harder and harder. WRONG!
This may happen if the nozzle chamber is completely empty (no ink at all), and it may take awhile until the pressure has transported enough ink up. (so it will often happen on chambers which have failed printing).
If you are suspicious if the latter is true, or if the nozzles are blocked, dive the nozzles into a transparent water glass and give a blow. If air bubbles appears out of the nozzles, everything is fine.
Stay tuned, return to following the blowing procedure of blowing 2 sec - pause 2 sec - blowing 2 sec - pause 2 sec, until ink appears. (Obviously, nozzles are blocked, if no air bubbles appear)

additional comment from 7.Feb.03
Following this procedure, I got to know that the ink sometimes seems unable to enter the nozzles itself - even if the nozzle chamber already has been filled by the "pulsing". But - in the glass, when the water has covered the nozzles, the ink can freely flow out, very easily. It looks like capillary forces hit a last attack against us.

So, recommendation: follow all the above procedure, try pulsing when no ink apperas, and maybe after 10 cycles try the water trick - give her just a short blow - the ink will show up to be waiting just behind the nozzles.

-----------------------
update 12.9.02
If somebody has problems dealing with the tube he may use " mechanics vakuum syringe "! But be careful, work slowly, take very small amounts as above. Find your own way to succes, because  you cant see the nozzles.
---------- end updates -------------

Now, wipe all clean, and start all over with the red chamber.

BTW, with the red chamber you have to care for the  length of the needle,  don't puncture the sieve !! )
Now the game turns serious - you have to repeat the above process, but prevent red ink floating to the yellow and blue nozzles.
OK, when it happens, and it will happen - just change  the tube to the other colour an blow a blop of ink out . You will in fact see, that first red ink comes out, then again yellow ( or blue.). wipe everything clean, and continue on red.

( and dont turn the cart ! !)

Finally, do the blue colour - and be again more careful preventing the blue from entering other nozzles.
Even small amounts of blue ink have strange effects then.....

if you go through that all, your cart is READY. And works.
And if everything worked as desribed it will work in the evening, the other day and the other week - like an original one. ( until ink-out.....)

Ok, one last word.
I am skilled now in that procedure. I have made that thenth of times during finding the right way. It might be that you have some more difficulties for the first time. So, play around with the procedure. Take time, until you understand the ink, and see the ongoing of the process. It SHOULD go on as described - and if it DID - the cart will print. It is that simple.

Remark - (later written. )
It has been found out that here are inks around which wont work. If you did everything as desribed, and everything behaved as desribed - it is the ink. I have had an ink which i never got to run. and other inks work without any failure.
---------------------
addendum 27.1.03
I can tell there is significant reason the down-under process is reliable. If you follow its idea, and it wont work - its the ink (or a defective cart which wouldnt work anyway)
--------------------
Addendum 8. Feb 03

One commen serious cart trouble seems to be a loose nozzle plate. So make printouts before refilling, and just have an eye to the cart during refilling. And, - dont blame ink neither refill process for it.
----------- end updates ---------

Some remarks to the above process - how does it work, and why ??

What happens in the cart ?

I think, the down-under position of the cart has great advantages for the refilling process.due to the gravity effects.

You have to be aware of the fact, that most problems of refills are due to air in the room between  nozzle chamber and sieve.   I don't speak of air in the foam chamber.
( "Air in the Foam Chamber" is a fairy tale)
I speak of the little room in the bottom of the cart - just before the nozzles.
This room is completely filled with ink - if the cart is perfectly working (demount a working one - there is still ink after removing the foam. or open an ink-out cart- then it is empty.)
The problem is - during ink-out air will enter into this room- and you dont get it out again. You won't get it out of the nozzles (due to capillary forces - except under very special conditions - which are created by down-under process), and you won't get it out through the sieve - its TASK is to prevent air from coming through - and unluckily - that works in either direction.

( I consider all stories of air bubbles in the foam chamber to be tell tales. There has been made a test filling a cart with INK FOAM - and the cart could be brought to work again, with just a little effort following down-under)

When you inject the ink from the bottom, air tries to raise in the little chamber to the nozzle plate - where we want to get it out. And ink is pressed ( by capillary forces and just pure pressure) through the sieve and raises in the little chamber - raising the air as well.
When the sieve has got "wet" again all chnace is gone to penetrate it by air - except by extreme forces.

The following "tube process" shifts the air piece by piec to the top - and INK is delivered from the bottom to replace it.
But how can the ink be forced to enter the chamber through the sieve-- from the bottom ??

Its the capillary forces, which hold the sieve wet sourcing ink from the foam - as long there is ink enough.
Thus it is the same process which holds a cart work.

The only thing is - the transport takes a little bit of time, and there is the reason for not working too fast. When some ink has "blown up" into the chamber - the foam has to deliver ink to the sieve. Let it do its work by taking time.... and the capillary forces will deliver the ink - even against gravity (the capillary forces are in fact more powerful than  gravity - otherwise plants couldnt grow - its the same playground)

And if finally no air is left in that little chamber - the cart is back to its original state. An will work.

Thats all.....

Later remark:
Again I have to point out the amount of the refill is crucial. I had a working cart with a 5 ml (per colour) refill, which failed after additional refill of another 4 ml. I got it revived after i removed about 2 ml with the syringes, so be warned.
 
 

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