Woot! Fixed my lovely printer. :)

External Since: Oct 27, 2007 Posts: 360

So out of the blue my Canon PIXMA iP3000 printer stopped printing black.
One day it was fine, the next - no black. I figured it wasn't a clogged
print head because that usually only occurs after a period of non-use
where some ink dries and blocks the print head. I took the print head out
and cleaned it to be certain. The ink cartridge was far from empty, but I
tried a new one just in case. Still no go.

So I took the whole printer apart. Interesting. Kind of dusty, even
though the printer doesn't really sit open. I guess the dust just gets in
there anyhow. But that wasn't the interesting part. Under where the
print head parks were these large spongy felt pads full of black ink. I
guess the ink has to go somewhere when you run a cleaning cycle. Also
there were these little tubes leading from the pads the print head rests
on down to the felt pads. I took it to the bathroom and used a syringe
and heavy gauge needle to force hot water through the tubes. Then I
cleaned all the ink away. After drying the felt pads in the oven for an
hour at 180F, I put it all together and what do you know? It works fine
now.

Yay for the $56 five year-old printer! Smile

Now my supply of ink
cartridges won't go to waste.
--
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External Since: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 449

On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:55:18 -0600, Polychromic <macecil DeleteThis @gmail.com>
wrote:

>So out of the blue my Canon PIXMA iP3000 printer stopped printing black.
>One day it was fine, the next - no black. I figured it wasn't a clogged
>print head because that usually only occurs after a period of non-use
>where some ink dries and blocks the print head. I took the print head out
>and cleaned it to be certain. The ink cartridge was far from empty, but I
>tried a new one just in case. Still no go.
>
>So I took the whole printer apart. Interesting. Kind of dusty, even
>though the printer doesn't really sit open. I guess the dust just gets in
>there anyhow. But that wasn't the interesting part. Under where the
>print head parks were these large spongy felt pads full of black ink. I
>guess the ink has to go somewhere when you run a cleaning cycle. Also
>there were these little tubes leading from the pads the print head rests
>on down to the felt pads. I took it to the bathroom and used a syringe
>and heavy gauge needle to force hot water through the tubes. Then I
>cleaned all the ink away. After drying the felt pads in the oven for an
>hour at 180F, I put it all together and what do you know? It works fine
>now.
>
>Yay for the $56 five year-old printer! Smile

Now my supply of ink
>cartridges won't go to waste.

Something I'll keep in mind if my shiny new Canon MP470 ever does the
same. Or my Pixma IP1700 in my office at work.
--
-=UDIC=-
Optician Dragon
If there's one thing in this life the years have taught, it's - That you can always see it comin', but you can never stop it.
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