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how to unclog print heads

whgjettdesigns

New Member
here is a photo of my nozzle check.....
 

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whgjettdesigns

New Member
By the look of the nozzle check would you say that is what is wrong? And if so how often should I do this? And also is it going to be hard to get my heads back in the right place? Thanks for all the help!!!!
 

heyskull

New Member
I personally think it would be a mircale if you can bring that back to anywhere near acceptable.
How did it get this bad?!
Time for a new head and capping/cleaning station in my opinion.

SC
 

AUTO-FX

New Member
Try some aggressive cleaning. Pull the dampers off and connect a syringe w/ tubing to the nipple on the head. Gently Gently inject cleaning solution into the head. Be very gentle. And / or fill your capping stations to the top with solution, drape a lint free cloth over it and park the head. Check / add more fluid in a half hour. Continue soaking for several hours. Do a couple of power cleans after this.
 

signage

New Member
Look at the underside of head am make sure not ink build-up.

I was told you are better off drawing the cleaning solution up through the damper connectors.
 

whgjettdesigns

New Member
Try some aggressive cleaning. Pull the dampers off and connect a syringe w/ tubing to the nipple on the head. Gently Gently inject cleaning solution into the head. Be very gentle. And / or fill your capping stations to the top with solution, drape a lint free cloth over it and park the head. Check / add more fluid in a half hour. Continue soaking for several hours. Do a couple of power cleans after this.

will this be better than ultrasonic cleaning?
 

randya

New Member
head soak is the best place to start as Auto-FX describes.

Personally I have not had much more luck with ultrasonics over soaking, but some have.
 

artbot

New Member
i just saved (think i've saved...haven't put the heads back in the printer) two dx4's that have been soaking out of the printer for days. put (hung them) in an ultrasonic cleaner and in just five minutes cleared up. and get this..., one of the heads was purchased from a tech as an electronic proxy head (mechanically broken electronically good. used for diagnosing data issues). so one up for the ultrasonic over here. also plopped my capping station in the cleaner too. looks brand new... before i'd clean them by putting solution in an hvlp gun and blast them.
 

FatCat

New Member
i just saved (think i've saved...haven't put the heads back in the printer) two dx4's that have been soaking out of the printer for days. put (hung them) in an ultrasonic cleaner and in just five minutes cleared up. and get this..., one of the heads was purchased from a tech as an electronic proxy head (mechanically broken electronically good. used for diagnosing data issues). so one up for the ultrasonic over here. also plopped my capping station in the cleaner too. looks brand new... before i'd clean them by putting solution in an hvlp gun and blast them.

What type of ultrasonic cleaning system are you using artbot? I might invest in one if the price isn't stupid crazy like some of the specific units for cleaning printheads that go for $2000 or more....
 

artbot

New Member
it was $24 from harbour freight (take out the basket, but the stainless steel base was great for solvent). i put pump tube on the manifold and used a spring clip to hang the head just the right height in the fluid. the head will attempt to rotate a bit while hanging, i just kept rotating the cleaner with the head until the whole thing equalized. the two heads that it cleared up was one that had white ink clogged in it (almost impossible to fix because white ink residue isn't miscable in solvent) and a head that i put waterbased into during an experiment (it wasn't as clean as i thought it was and the solvent mixed with water and locked up the head... no lines). so i was impressed. and possibly soaking for so many days helped too. i had all my heads sitting in a cupcake pan with solvent just to the right height to kiss the bottom of the heads. occasionally i would jet solution into the head but they just wouldn't come clean with that method).
 

whgjettdesigns

New Member
ok i have done head soak and changed all dampers, along with put an oem capping station on it. now im getting eyebrows, what causes that?
 
I used those ultrasonic head cleaning equipment, ultrasonic can be effective getting ink to flow through the print head but it also damage the print head nozzles, now the nozzle are all cleared with really bad nozzle deflections. The ink shoots out like spray gun. I might have left it in the ultrasonic bath too long. My printer is VJ1604 DX5 Print Head.
 
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