Need Help Mimaki CJV 30 60 Left unused for a year. Test print shows nothing now :(

[Myster Enigma]

So the title explains it I bought a lightly used Mimaki on December 2017. Used it for a few days and the print was great. I got really busy and ended up using my Roland instead and haven't turned on the Mimaki basically since January 2018. Today I turned it on and did a test print. There was absolutely nothing. I manually cleaned the print head twice with a foam swab and solvent cleaner. Still nothing. I ran several different cleaning procedures and so far there isn't a drop of ink coming from the printhead.

As a noob can someone explain the first steps I should take and what you think the problem is.

Thank you

 

[ewded]

Check ink tubes, if they look good (not dried up) soak the print head overnight, do a LOT of power flushes, if you see some progress change dampers, capping station and continue with power flushes, overnight soaking.
If there is no ink after the overnight soaking and 3-4 power flushes you need to buy new PH.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Check ink tubes, if they look good (not dried up) soak the print head overnight, do a LOT of power flushes, if you see some progress change dampers, capping station and continue with power flushes, overnight soaking.
If there is no ink after the overnight soaking and 3-4 power flushes you need to buy new PH.

Thank you so much for your response. Is the ink tube the one that hangs directly about the capping station? If so then this tube looks completely clear. Also do you have a link on how to soak the printhead and should I soak it with the same solvent cleaner I dip the foam swabs into? I really hope I don't have to buy a new Printhead because this machine was working perfectly before I left it unattended. Also it was only used by the previous seller for a month beforehand and the condition looks amazing Thanks for your reply I really appreciate it

 

[Myster Enigma]

Check ink tubes, if they look good (not dried up) soak the print head overnight, do a LOT of power flushes, if you see some progress change dampers, capping station and continue with power flushes, overnight soaking.
If there is no ink after the overnight soaking and 3-4 power flushes you need to buy new PH.

I was reading around and decided to use the "Fill Up Ink" function. After doing this once I did a test print and the Cyan Nozzle was half firing. Does this mean that I can somehow prime the printhead instead of cleaning it? Is there air in the tubes? So far cleaning has done nothing.

 

[ewded]

Just search for print head soaking here on the forum, it was explained many times. You need to check the ink tubes that goes from the ink cartidge to the printhead. No matter how old your PH is, or how heatlthy it was before, if you let it dry it's probably dead by now. You should have made a custody wash before unplugging the machine.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Just search for print head soaking here on the forum, it was explained many times. You need to check the ink tubes that goes from the ink cartidge to the printhead. No matter how old your PH is, or how heatlthy it was before, if you let it dry it's probably dead by now. You should have made a custody wash before unplugging the machine.

Thanks I'll have a look at that. It was my fault I really should have done more research last year but there wasn't much information about the CJV 30 when compared to Roland machines so I didn't bother. I will try and prime the dampers somehow before I do a head soak and see how it goes. Thanks again

 

[Myster Enigma]

Just search for print head soaking here on the forum, it was explained many times. You need to check the ink tubes that goes from the ink cartidge to the printhead. No matter how old your PH is, or how heatlthy it was before, if you let it dry it's probably dead by now. You should have made a custody wash before unplugging the machine.

Also an unrelated problem, is this normal:

The pinch rollers are moved by the index head almost every single time and I have to manually move them back by hand.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Check ink tubes, if they look good (not dried up) soak the print head overnight, do a LOT of power flushes, if you see some progress change dampers, capping station and continue with power flushes, overnight soaking.
If there is no ink after the overnight soaking and 3-4 power flushes you need to buy new PH.

So I just checked the ink tubes. They are dried up and the dampers have no ink in them. Can you suggest what I should do next.

Thank you

 

[ewded]

Order some new ink tubes, dampers, capping station and 8 cleaning cartridges, no matter if you keep the PH or replace with a new one you'll need these items anyway. In the meantime do the overnight soaking. Change the tubes and do 2 custody washes when the cartridges arrive (you need to wash the tubes anyway no matter if you keep the PH or replace it) then do ink fill up and pray.

 

[ewded]

Also an unrelated problem, is this normal:

The pinch rollers are moved by the index head almost every single time and I have to manually move them back by hand.

That's just a rubber piece missing from the pinch roller assembly, I'd be more concerned about the PH for now

 

[Myster Enigma]

Order some new ink tubes, dampers, capping station and 8 cleaning cartridges, no matter if you keep the PH or replace with a new one you'll need these items anyway. In the meantime do the overnight soaking. Change the tubes and do 2 custody washes when the cartridges arrive (you need to wash the tubes anyway no matter if you keep the PH or replace it) then do ink fill up and pray.

Thank you once again. I'm going to order them now as you say it's best to replace the old ones no matter what. I'm somewhat hopeful because as the cyan did come back a little bit after the ink fill up I'm hoping that it's because the dampers were dry. Thank you for your help I'll report back in a few days whatever happens