Roland BN-20 - Tube & Bottle System

[DravidDavid]

Hey guys,

The team and I were sick of forking out $150 bucks every time the waste ink tank on our little BN-20 filled up. So we decided to set up a tube and bottle system for it. We cleaned the existing ink waste tank and drilled two holes through the tank itself for the tube to fit through and diverted the ink to a larger bottle to the side of the printer.

We used to simply remove the top of the ink waste tank, bleed the tank and squeeze the six or so sponges inside that are used to soak the ink up. If you've ever done this, you know it is a REALLY messy job. We only did it a few times before getting lazy and setting up a different system.

The awesome thing about the BN-20 is that the ink waste system is completely dumb and relies on you replacing the waste tank yourself. It does not monitor levels internally. This helped us a lot since we didn't have to work out how to trick sensors or anything like that. We decided to modify the tank, because it was the easiest way to make the printer think it had a tank to dump ink in to. It was also the best way to fill the gaping hole in the back of the printer that removing the tank all together would have made.

This is probably one of the easiest modifications you can make to a printer. In this case, we did not have to defile the actual printer in any way. We only modified the what was a consumable ink tank to allow the tube to run through it. I've attached some pictures showing what we did.



So if you are sick of paying for new ink waste tanks, clean out the old one and drill a hole through it! It's a very simple operation.

Cheers,
David

 

[islandwizard]

better than cat litter

David:

you have come up with a great solution to what i found to be a problem as well.
my solution was to take out half the sponges and replace with cat litter, your solution is much more'
elegant and i look forward to implementing yours.

thanks for sharing the tip

The Island Wizard

 

[DravidDavid]

David:

you have come up with a great solution to what i found to be a problem as well.
my solution was to take out half the sponges and replace with cat litter, your solution is much more'
elegant and i look forward to implementing yours.

thanks for sharing the tip

The Island Wizard

Cat litter is genius! Haha! We were stuffing rags in there until we got cold feet and pulled the tank out because we had no idea how much it could soak up.

The only thing I'd suggest when setting up the waste tank to accept the tube is to drill the hole at the back of the tank as low as possible compared to the inlet. The last thing you want is waste ink flowing backwards through the tube and back in to the printer. All other printers I've seen with a tube and bottle have the waste ink outlet positioned vertically.

I have no idea what kind of havok ink flowing back through would cause.

Cheers

 

[CanuckSigns]

does the BN-20 use a different setup to other roland printers for ink disposal? all 3 of our roland printers have a bottle that screws to the underside of the printer under the pump and ink drains into it. when it gets full, you dispose of the ink. Is that not the case with these little printers? I just don't see the advantage, but i'm also not familiar with these machines.

 

[DravidDavid]

does the BN-20 use a different setup to other roland printers for ink disposal? all 3 of our roland printers have a bottle that screws to the underside of the printer under the pump and ink drains into it. when it gets full, you dispose of the ink. Is that not the case with these little printers? I just don't see the advantage, but i'm also not familiar with these machines.

The BN-20 was never considered a commercial printer like it's big brothers. It was tailored toward the printing at home market, where regular people wouldn't want to be dealing with the mess that ink can be. So instead of dumping it in to a bottle like the big commercial printers, they put absorbent sponges in a small tank that fits in the back (as seen in the pictures) and sold it for $50.00 to $150.00 depending on where you hail from.

When the BN-20 thinks it might be getting full based on the last time the counter was reset, it tells you that the cartridge is full and to buy a new one. We got sick of buying new ones, so we emptied one of their consumable waste tanks and made it not so consumable anymore!

 

[DravidDavid]

Soooo, turns out we didn't get the correct plastic pipe for the job. The ink is eating away at it as I type. So I've replaced the pipe with thicker pipe of a different plastic. Just an FYI for those of you who want to attempt this. Make sure you get the right plastic!

Cheers.

 

[SightLine]

Make sure you get solvent resistant tubing!! That can really become a mess as you discovered. I know on many of the larger solvent machines much of the tubing is Tygon.

 

[Tizz]

Well done David!

Thanks for sharing..

Luckily for me my waste goes straight into a bottle. But I applied this technique to my desktop epson photo printers. Works a treat.

 

[Peter Engelhardt]

Soooo, turns out we didn't get the correct plastic pipe for the job. The ink is eating away at it as I type. So I've replaced the pipe with thicker pipe of a different plastic. Just an FYI for those of you who want to attempt this. Make sure you get the right plastic!

Cheers.

What type of plastic pipe/hose would you recommend? Also, what diameter?