[mrbigjack50]

Well, I cleaned printer after I dunno 2 month Lol. God I am lazy, didn't finally clean because head issues, just figured, damn been a while. gone through prob 3 big black carts.

Anyways, thing was pretty nasty, fibers all over, ink all over, reminded me of my bathroom when I was in relationship. so I figured I clean heads lightly as there were fibers all over them, something I done a million times.

Well, go figure, if you are a righty and you just had your shoulder dislocated, don't attempt this, I clean heads, and start printing, notice on some designs a very faint banding, so did test print and bam, cyan and black head acting up slightly, did a head clean or two and zero change.

Figured head was still a little dirty from wipe so, wiped a bit more, badddd idea, all of a sudden head were dead, nodda, did initial head clean ect. nothing, scrubbed it with clean solution nodda.

Figured I had nothing to loose, did the simple green trick, where you dilute with water scrub head and do a head soak, held my breath as I figured this wasn't gonna work, wll go figure, heads were back and firing YAY. but ah there is always that but. next day black head wasn't working, so did another cleaning and bam was working.

Padded myself on the back, went along with day, Saturday had to print a tee, again, sigh black head not working right, did two head cleans worked fine...

Now Sunday here, and head wasn't printing anything, I was ready to jump off balcony, soo this time I scrubbed it really good and doing a much longer head soak, what is causing these issues? Cyan head same issue initially and now works fine but good old black want daddies attention.

 

[dazzabling]

Daddy issues? Love it

You said you went through 3 black carts. I would say it may have gotten some residue from the ink floating around in the line. I would flush out the black line until it was clear and try again.

I found the more ink you go through back to back needs more attention then the others. You don't know for sure how old the ink is and how long it sat before you got it. Unless you do then discard the previous statement..haha

Also, you don't which batch it came from or if one of the three carts was in a bad batch. Yeah, life isn't prefect you may have gotten a bad batch of ink and it need to be pushed out.
Its a waste and it sucks but if you can salvage your head. Its all good

 

[mrbigjack50]

She is like my baby over 4 years never an issue till now, I guess the neglect came back to bite me in butt. Well, when i said 3 black inks without cleaning, I meant it as in, you are suppose to clean machine after every black ink cart, cleaning is performed on all the heads, so I highly doubt ink issue.

Issue is I am an idiot, well, most girls who has dated could tell you that, for some reason, I got some sorta clog that comes and goes, doubt is the cap, def. head, cleaned it again today working fine, tomorrow will be true test to see what happens when I do a test print.
Uh I do not wanna get a new head, I will milk it till head blows up.

As of now I tech need new head on three printers Lol. Thank God for cleaners and Macgyver on Netflix, I will take a rubber band, paper clip and lint to refurbish heads or in his case make a bomb

 

[Diver86]

You should never use Simple Green "in" the heads. It's made for scrubbing floors, not delicate print heads. It is not a filtered product and may contain various contaminants and foreign bodies.

You can introduce dirt or other particles into a head, causing permanent damage. You MUST use an inline disc-filter as recommended by Brother to prevent foreign objects being injected into the head. Or use "Triple Filtered" inkjet cleaning solution, which is made specially for injecting into printheads and inktubes.

In my experience, 90% of head issues are caused by the internal filters getting clogged. I've had great success with what I call a "reverse toilet plunger action".

You must also address where those clogs came from... you also need to aggressively flush or replace your ink supply tubes.

PM me and I'll give you the links to a few good "GT Series Maintenance Kits" that may help you.

 

[mrbigjack50]

It is working beautifully now, 3 was a charm : )

Umm I diluted so wasn't full force and print heads are far from delicate, I have had 100's of head strikes on all my printers and never has caused any major issues, have had brother head, slam in button, jammed shirts, sweat shirts, and no issues after a simple head clean.

Also, on my Roland printer I clean head with a solvent that melts plastic, so doubt heads again are to delicate.

I tried using Brothers cleaning fluid didn't work, I do agree simple green is a last idea for recover but work perfectly and save me 2 grand.

Key was scrub the living hell out of it and do head soak for 30min.

I never listen to what a manuf. says, Roland tells me never ever touch print head and I scrub them heads all the time, 4 years and heads are going strong, and I use printer 8 to 10 hours straight a day

 

[spiderx1]

Congrats on success. You ate scrubbing the bottom plate on head??
What are you scrubbing with??

 

[Diver86]

Here's a pic of my printhead workbench. You can see the various tools I use

For some reason, I don't have much success.

How does that saying go? ..... "Don't try this at home"

 

[dazzabling]

How they have little faith in you Sean??
Wth don't they know who you are? Geezus people they don't call him MRBIG for nothing.

Its ok Sean..its all good

Scrub a dub dub all you want

 

[mrbigjack50]

Lol ah yes awesome nick name to pick up girls well worked when I was 14 haha.

Yes I learned scrub them from mom when she complained I didn't scrub myself enough when I showered because I still looked filthy : )

 

[dazzabling]

You should You Tube your techniques

 

[mrbigjack50]

scrubbing my back in shower? well I guess youtube does have a 18+ section

 

[dazzabling]

hahaha

I meant your printhead techniques. Why not both?

 

[skdave]

Share us you Rubber duck shots on you tube. smile

 

[NeoCop]

Could you send me the links for the GT541 maintenance kits?
Thank you

 

[FulStory]

You should never use Simple Green "in" the heads. It's made for scrubbing floors, not delicate print heads. It is not a filtered product and may contain various contaminants and foreign bodies.

You can introduce dirt or other particles into a head, causing permanent damage. You MUST use an inline disc-filter as recommended by Brother to prevent foreign objects being injected into the head. Or use "Triple Filtered" inkjet cleaning solution, which is made specially for injecting into printheads and inktubes.

In my experience, 90% of head issues are caused by the internal filters getting clogged. I've had great success with what I call a "reverse toilet plunger action".

You must also address where those clogs came from... you also need to aggressively flush or replace your ink supply tubes.

PM me and I'll give you the links to a few good "GT Series Maintenance Kits" that may help you.

how about this simple green?
Simple Green Extreme Motorsport Cleaner

so if not clean the head, can I clean other place like capping station?

 

[Diver86]

That looks better than regular simple green. You'll still need to filter it because it is made for "surface" cleaning, not "internal"

 

[FulStory]

That looks better than regular simple green. You'll still need to filter it because it is made for "surface" cleaning, not "internal"

thanks for the reply. so maybe I just use to clean the outer part.

by the way, how to filter it? by filter paper?

 

[Diver86]

........
by the way, how to filter it? by filter paper?

It's called a "disc filter" and it fits on the end of a syringe. It has to be fine enough to catch particles that may clog the actual nozzle openings in the printhead.
Disc filters should only be used in one direction, so take note of the direction it is attached.

 

[KevinTSM]

"reverse toilet plunger action".

Hi Driver 86 the reverse action is that the syringe and filter method that you describe in your post?
Always interested in new fixes and ideas here.

Cheers,
Kevin.

 

[Diver86]

Hi Driver 86 the reverse action is that the syringe and filter method that you describe in your post?
Always interested in new fixes and ideas here.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Sort of... What you do is push fluid in sharply, then draw rack sharply. What you're trying to do is break up the 'gelled ink' that is clogging the internal filters.