[GunnyJeeves]

Hi all,

I use a Nikko DTG V1 printer made from a 1430. I know that the worst thing is to have ink (esp. white) dry in the head. I also know you avoid this by popping in a set of cleaner filled cartridges.

Ever forget to do that? I did.

So share your DIY horror stories that ideally still turned out ok. Important is printer model, ink and how you fixed it.

Mine - 1430 Firebird ink (including white)
I printed some shirts, and had another order expected the next day, so I didn't change to the cleaner cartridges like I should. The order came, but colors and sizes were out and I had to order all of them.

I thought I had swapped to cleaners, but two and 1/2 weeks later, oops!

Symptom - You could not get it to recognize non empty cartridges. (One would be ok, and another would light up empty. Change that, and a different one would light up.)

This took two days to fix.

Day 1 - swapped in cleaners. Soaked a paper towel in windex, placed under the head.
Day 2 - Removed cartridges, re soaked paper towel, and sucked (syringe) each color up through the head.

Then it took all 6 cartridges and I ran two head cleaning cycles and one more after putting the ink back in. 100% success! Perfectly printing again!

I'd be curious how far gone a printer was that it was successfully recovered. Please share.

My printer is a V1 1430 based DIY built by http://www.nikkodtg.com

 

[rom3ro]

Does have something to do the ink brand? to avoid clogging?

 

[GunnyJeeves]

Does have something to do the ink brand? to avoid clogging?

No. I think that any ink will clog. White ink has titanium in it so it clogs much worse than others, but any ink will clog.

I think the windex maybe the ammonia in it helped unclog my printer.

I think at a certain point, in time, there is no return. I see it like this:

Ideal - Print today or swap cartridges to cleaning solution.
Generally OK - Print after two or three days or swap to cleaning solution. (You will need to shake the cartridges and do a head clean)
Bad - Longer than that. (You will need to soak and fix the head)
??? (A month ???) - Bad and you will need to replace the head.

How far gone can various printers get and still be fixed without buying a head?

 

[rom3ro]

I think we will live on the edge with that problem at least for people that the intention is to barely start the business on this, but the trick about swap the cartridges with clean solution it's the ideal, I can't thing on loose my printer just for clogging head the replacement would be expensive!

 

[GunnyJeeves]

Yes. That's it.

If you can, swap out to cleaning cartridges after every job unless you have another job "ready" to do right after it.

I am curious about the different models like 600 or 800 printer conversions to see if they are more sensitive, less sensitive or the same.

I can go on record at least that a 1430 model sitting 2 weeks is clogged but recoverable back to 100%... (and I had a new print head in the shopping cart... expecting to need it.)

I don't ever want to go 2 weeks again though.