Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Corll" <briancorll@...> wrote:

> I guess it doesn't matter now. My trusty old 2200 is now shot - 

Brian, I'm not sure how similar the 2200 is to the 1800 but, I Inherited an 1800 with a CIS that was massively clogged and given up on.  The bottom line was a leaking poppet valve on 
one of the dummy ink cartridges.  Ink drained into the parking pads, gummed up the pads, gummy ink was pushed up into the nozzles each time the head was parked, etc., etc.

The parking pads were cleaned by finding the drain tubes from the parking pad (they are on the right side looking at the front on the 1800)  I repeatedly shot windex onto the parking 
pads with a syringe and then sucked the pads dry with another syringe with a bottom fill adaptor inserted into the tubes.  Probably two cups of windex were used  at that point.

For the head itself, I cleaned it by releasing the head so that it could move back and forth manually.  I then folded a paper "shop towel" into an accordion fold that would fit down into 
the trough (roughly 1-1/2" wide) and the fold would spring it up toward the bottom of the print head.  This I sprayed the top with  Windex and then ran the print head back and forth.  
I probably went through six or so towels before the print head stayed consistently clean.

Yours sounds very recent so you may not have the clogged nozzles yet from the impacted evaporated ink but they were cleaned out with cleaning carts from MIS.  Usually three 
cleanings and an over night soak.  That took about four days.

The  printer had maxed out the wastepad counter and had to be reset with the SSC uitility but I don't think you are anywhere near that yet.

I don't know what the specific problem with the CIS was as I threw the entire mess away, but what I have found with many of MIS's carts that leak through the poppet valve is that the 
rubber insert that makes up part of the poppet valve had been inserted at a slight angle.  I found that by inserting a small punch just slightly smaller than the OD of the rubber insert I 
could push the insert in slightly and re-align the rubber seal.  I haven't taken a cart apart yet but I surmise the rubber seal is symmetrical in that the two sealing surfaces (the inside 
for the spring loaded ball component of the poppet valve and the outside for the conical male insert that would lift the ball are the same.  If the seat is cocked the ball will not seat 
when the cart is out of the unit, and, the seat will leak around the probiscus when it is inserted.  I bring this up because from memory the CIS dummy carts had the same type of 
poppet valve.  I also would think, coming from a manufacturing background many years ago, that there could easily by one manufacturer of the poppet valves for many, many cart 
manufacturers and the leak is caused by poor installation and/or poor quality control at assembly.  I know what to look for on any new carts now (the angle in the bad alignment is 
easy to spot with good eyes or a small glass/loupe, but I'm very familiar with the mess it makes in the printer.  Good luck!