• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

No Yellow

Signguy100

New Member
Hey folks, I have not used my Roland SC500 or esx 500 as it was called when I bought it for a week or so and now I can't seem to get the Yellow to print. I have tried powerful cleaning, manual cleaning and cleaned hoses around capping station and still no Yellow. Might be a dried slug of ink but not sure how to safely remove the yellow line without breaking some of the plastic parts...Any ideas? Thanks

Forgot to mention it is Red Giant Ink...
 
Last edited:

artbot

New Member
if clogged, you first have to determine if its pumps or supply.

first get a syringe hooked up to the pump line that prints yellow. pull the carriage to the side, away from the capping station, and pull a strong vacuum on that pump line. do you feel resistance. there should be none at all.

if so, get a partner to syringe cleaning fluid into the cap while you pull a vacuum on the other side. keep going until the line is clean. if that doesn't do it, get a small wire and feed it up towards the pump. try to free the clog and repeat the vacuum/solution routine. if that doesn't work, take the pump apart a bit and work the clog through the line.

(also keep in mind that many clogs can be directly beneath the cap, right where the tube begins).

on the supply side one way to determine if you have a clog is to remove the damper and pull a strong vacuum. if you don't get a good amount of ink, there might be a clog. also pulling on a vacuum and having the damper stay concaved after the syringe is removed is a sign of resistance in that line. you can also feed a wire way down that ink tube to clear a clog. or simply put and cleaning cart on that line and pull solution through it (damper off).
 

Signguy100

New Member
Thanks for the tips. Do the ink lines just "pull off" at the brass fittings or are they like a compression fitting? I can't get the yellow line off to check it for blockages
 

cdiesel

New Member
Chances are you have a bad cap top.. With the heads in the parked position, try to pull a vacuum on the line coming from the yellow head. If you suck air, you have a bad cap. Replace with a new and you should be good to go.
 

artbot

New Member
one other thing. to determine if you've got bad vacuum to the yellow. you can do pump tube swaps.
 

Signguy100

New Member
I replaced the capping unit and still no yellow....must be blocked in the yellow line somewhere possibly??? I just don't know how to remove that line to check it. Any thoughts?
 

artbot

New Member
have you determined that you have easy flow from your yellow line. i wouldn't start in on the pump side before you know that you've got no issues with supply.

also, just swap a damper position. (put the yellow damper/line on a spot that is flowing fine and put the removed damper/line in the yellow position). do a head clean (look for yellow ink coming down your pump tubes.)

report back on how the color are flowing/vacuuming with the new damper/color positions.
 

Signguy100

New Member
Does anyone know how to take these lines off?? All I can see is a small brass like fitting that the lines run into individually, but I don't want to just "pull" this line off I'm worried about breaking something
 

artbot

New Member
if it's a fitting, there's no danger of taking that a part. the only danger is letting yellow continue to sit in that head further complicating your repair.

start taking that machine apart. but before that, do a head soak on the yellow so you don't have other issues.
 

Signguy100

New Member
Hey thanks for the response. The fitting I'm talking about is like a hexagon shape but I tried to unscrew it and just seems to spin and not loosen. As it spins, it twists up the yellow tube with it so I stopped. It appears my only option is to pull it off forcefully but not sure if this is safe to do so or not.

Head soak, do you mean some cleaning fluid in the cap ??? Just lying on top ?
 

artbot

New Member
well each printer has it's own different fittings. these are compression fittings. so, the moment it seems to just be free spinning you then have to forcefully pull the tube away from the union or whatever it's plugged into. just like taking off a damper.

and yes. get some fluid to the yellow head (cap soak).
 
Top