CX 6600 waste ink tube

[HankG]

Has anyone routed the tube out to a waste ink collector? I read where some
Epsons have a trap door on the back where the tube is located and can easily
be routed to the outside, but this unit doesn't seem to have one. If indeed
there is no trapdoor, is there a relatively painless procedure for making
this mod?

Also, lifting up the scanner (not the lid), where the carts traverse back
and forth, there is a perforated piece of plastic (or metal) which has foam
underneath its entire length. At the right-most end of the foam, there are
3 bands of (ink) about and inch and a half long corresponding to each color
(probably some black mixed in also). There is not a lot of ink, as I barely
mark my finger when I press it. Is this a normal situation. The printer
prints flawlessly and will be a year old this summer.

I notice also, that to the left of the foam, there is a slot about one inch
long and 1/4 inch wide. Beneath the slot there can be seen an inky sludge
(apparently waste ink). The 'reservoir' is about 2 inches deep but
contained relatively little sludge, which I cleaned out. There are no pads
in there. Are there more than 1 waste receptacle?

Thanks for your info.

HankG

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Has anyone routed the tube out to a waste ink collector? I read where some
Epsons have a trap door on the back where the tube is located and can easily
be routed to the outside, but this unit doesn't seem to have one. If indeed
there is no trapdoor, is there a relatively painless procedure for making
this mod?

Also, lifting up the scanner (not the lid), where the carts traverse back
and forth, there is a perforated piece of plastic (or metal) which has foam
underneath its entire length. At the right-most end of the foam, there are
3 bands of (ink) about and inch and a half long corresponding to each color
(probably some black mixed in also). There is not a lot of ink, as I barely
mark my finger when I press it. Is this a normal situation. The printer
prints flawlessly and will be a year old this summer.

I notice also, that to the left of the foam, there is a slot about one inch
long and 1/4 inch wide. Beneath the slot there can be seen an inky sludge
(apparently waste ink). The 'reservoir' is about 2 inches deep but
contained relatively little sludge, which I cleaned out. There are no pads
in there. Are there more than 1 waste receptacle?

Thanks for your info.

HankG

Regular C models, like the C88 require that you practically 'rip off'
the right hand panel of the printer (looking at it from the front) in
order to find the waste tube and route it out. I think the all-in-ones
are even more difficult to modify this way.

The waste ink tank runs the entire length of the bottom/back of the
printer, some waste ink drips down during printing, especially when
doing borderless prints, where it will keep putting out ink past the
edge of the paper. It all goes down to the same place. The ink that
comes out during printing is miniscule compared to the ink that is
used during cleaning cycles, cartridge changes, etc, that's done at
the head cleaning station on the right hand side of the printer. So
re-routing the waste tube clears up most of the problem, you shouldn't
have to worry about an overflow from ink from the rest of the printer
functions.

---

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

In an attempt to reduce mid-print clogging, especially with the
Durabrite inks, there was a "spittoon" installed on Epson inkjet
printers on the left hand side. This area is where each head color is
activated and a very brief squirt of color takes place to keep the head
clear. This activation occurs once for each color, all nozzles, about
three to four times per page. Yes, it makes a puddle of sludge. On
most printers that spittoon has a small hole in the bottom which is
supposed to allow ink to drip into the waste ink pads below. Yours may
have a clog at the base of that "spittoon" keeping the ink from flowing
into the waste in pads.

The waste ink pads usually extend to include most of the base of the
printer, so the "spittoon" ink is supposed to drip into it passively.
However, the main waste ink collection takes place on the opposite side
at the cleaning station the heads rest on when not printing. It uses a
vacuum purge pump, not dissimilar to a cows milking machine. The unit
builds up vacuum by pushing air out of a flexible tubing. In a properly
working one, the heads park there and are sealed by a rubber dam, so the
vacuum remains, and this acts upon the nozzles to pull excessly dry ink
or other dirt from the heads. That ink then drains down a tube, or the
same tube and into the waste ink pads below.

Hope this helps,

Art



HankG wrote:

 

[Martin]

In an attempt to reduce mid-print clogging, especially with the
Durabrite inks, there was a "spittoon" installed on Epson inkjet
printers on the left hand side. This area is where each head color is
activated and a very brief squirt of color takes place to keep the head
clear. This activation occurs once for each color, all nozzles, about
three to four times per page. Yes, it makes a puddle of sludge. On
most printers that spittoon has a small hole in the bottom which is
supposed to allow ink to drip into the waste ink pads below. Yours may
have a clog at the base of that "spittoon" keeping the ink from flowing
into the waste in pads.

The waste ink pads usually extend to include most of the base of the
printer, so the "spittoon" ink is supposed to drip into it passively.
However, the main waste ink collection takes place on the opposite side
at the cleaning station the heads rest on when not printing. It uses a
vacuum purge pump, not dissimilar to a cows milking machine. The unit
builds up vacuum by pushing air out of a flexible tubing. In a properly
working one, the heads park there and are sealed by a rubber dam, so the
vacuum remains, and this acts upon the nozzles to pull excessly dry ink
or other dirt from the heads. That ink then drains down a tube, or the
same tube and into the waste ink pads below.

Hope this helps,

Art



HankG wrote:

I picked up a bargain (yet to arrive) from eBay the other day so I'll be
finding this out myself when I try to fix this "faulty" model.

Along the way, I'll see if I can spot where the waste ink tube sits and
see if there's an easy way to modify the printer to create the waste
tank as you requested.

Done it all before with the C84/86 but like Fenrir says, it's likely to
be a whole lot more complex and I'm guessing a drill will be required as
per the C84/86 models.

What's annoying me more though is that I've got to fork out for another
reset utility so I can reset the waste ink on the one I'm getting.. SSC
still hasn't caught up..