Digital BW, The Print

Henrik,

>...
> -One uses a syringe to draw ink from the bottles and injecting into the
> cartridges. Now, does one just use the same syringe with all inks? Or
> does one need a separate for each?

With the C86 EZ system, if there are all EZ-N inks in the color spots, you
can use the same syringe without rinsing it.

I notice MIS sells a 1280 UT2 kit with only one syringe.  I use different
ones for each different ink, but I suppose if you rinse the syringe there is
not enough water left in it to matter.  I find the needle needs the water
blown out of it.

 
> -When drilling the hole into the cartridge,

You have an old one with no stopper in the top of the reservoir?  I received
some of these as early beta versions, but I thought all the easy-refill
carts that were sold had a stopper on the top of the spongeless reservoir.
It can be pushed in so far that it is flush with the top, but a small
jeweler's screw driver gets it out OK.

>one does not have to worry
> about getting stuff from the hole into the cartridge itself? The sponge
> acts as a filter? No?

That is the theory.  If you have an easy refill cart with no stopper, then
you can drill into the reservoir top, apparently without concern.  The
sponge that is over the outlet and between the 2 sections of the cart will
catch any debris.   

> -There's been recommendations to have extra carts. Which can be
> practical of course to be able to continue printing with the least
> dealy. But the carts are colour (or rather place) sensitive, are they
> not?

Yes, the carts are the same, but the chips are specific to each spot.

> So in order to have extra carts one would have to get a full extra
> set?

You can also just switch chips.  I use a small piece of tape at the top of
the chip to hold it in place.  I can easily pull the tape and chip off and
put it on another cart.

> Ie, the resetter does not reset the colour position just the ink
> level sensor?

That's right.  It just sets the chip back to the full position.


> -There seems to be a high capacity black cart. Would that be the
> recommended cart to get?

I wish I had one.  I'm not sure if MIS has re-fillable versions of this or
not.

> ... I'm still hazy about how exactly the bottom fill
> adapter/priming thing actually works. ...

When a cart is vacuum filled, there should be no air in that cart to cause
problems.  A good vacuum will result in the ink being right at the outlet,
so that no priming is necessary.

When there is a problem is if one fills an empty cart from the top.  An air
bubble tends to sit right at the outlet.  When the printer tries to pull in
new ink, all it gets is air.  So, a syringe with a bottom fill adapter is
used to pull that air out of the outlet before the cart in put into the
printer.

I think MIS might be selling special bottom fill adapters with little rubber
tubes on the end.  I took one that did not have a tube on it and cut the end
down to 7 mm.  I think it might work better than the tube.  The idea is to
be able to get the adapter to seal well enough that you're not just pulling
air in around the adapter.  With a snout on the adapter that is long enough
to open the poppet valve, but short enough to allow the flange on the
adapter to seal against the bottom of the cart seems to work fairly well.

Good luck with the system.  I still think it is the easiest and cheapest way
to get into high quality B&W printing.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com