Digital BW, The Print

Tom,

>Paul, do you refill your carts?

I fill empty, virgin carts.  But, that is because I'm constantly trying new
ink formulations.  If I were interested in just printing and not tinkering
with the inks, I'd have a CFS with UT2 ink it.

> If so do you follow the MIS guidelines exactly? 

I think they have instructions that are good.  My ideal would be vacuum
filling, but the color carts often do not seem to work well with this fill
method.  Bottom filling is easy.  I've never had any trouble with it, but in
theory it's better to vacuum fill or use a CFS so that you have the 1 micron
screen at the bottom of the cart to catch any over-size particles or other
un-wanted junk.

>I've had terrible nozzle checks with the UT ink and MIS carts using their 
>bottom fill method.

Hmm, I've not had that problem.  What I do is pull only about half the ink
into the syringe.  Then point the syringe up, pull in air, tap the syringe
hard a few times with a finger nail to dislodge bubbles.  Then I take a
paper towel that is folded over several times.  With the syringe pointed up
still, I press the syringe into the paper towel and press the plunger.  The
paper towel lets the air and foam out easily (you can hear the foam fizz).
When all the foam is out, it's obvious.  Then I fill the syringe the rest of
the way (to 15 cc).  (I have 30 cc syringes from MIS but prefer 20 cc.  I've
suggested MIS get some.) 

When I'm filling the cart, the first half of the ink goes in (slowly) with
the cart tilted back away from the outlet.  The second half goes in with the
cart level.  I watch for any bubbles at the end and don't push them in if I
see any.  I withdraw the bottom-fill adapter slowly and tape the bottom of
the outlet.

That's about it.  I usually have a near perfect nozzle check immediately.

>  I would expect clogs on the second or third 
>refill but not on the first.

I agree.  Air and foam are the big problems.  Most clogs are air from what I
can tell.

>If I remove the UT carts and put the OEM Epson carts in the clogs
>immediately disappear. 

Epson appears to have a superior vacuum fill system.

> I bought some filled MIS UT carts and, while better, they still clogged.

I think the 3rd party carts and filling systems are just not as good as what
Epson has.

I do recommend CFS systems for those who do not change inks.  UT2 looks like
it's going to be a stable platform for a while.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

For UT2 information and settings see:
http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/