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VJ-1204 not printing all colors

Eddie Greer

New Member
I have a newly acquired vj-1204, I replaced the maintenance station, new dampers, new O-rings, new 440ml OEM inks and when I print a nozzle check I get pretty much nothing. I pulled ink through all the damper with no issues. I did 2 little charges and 2 strong charges with no luck.

Please see attached image.

20190628_194051.jpg
 
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RG

New Member
How long had it been unused before you acquired it? Sounds like it's time for some serious head soaking. If you get nothing in a nozzle check, test the fuses on the main board.
 

Gabriel Conti

New Member
Eddie, check the ink line bellow the capping station. We have seen many cases dry ink in there and pumps are not capeble to suck the ink while making cleanings. If that is the case, clean or replace the ink line and suck the ink from there so you get ink all the way to the head. Connect everything back, make another hard cleaning and start printing.
 

Eddie Greer

New Member
How long had it been unused before you acquired it? Sounds like it's time for some serious head soaking. If you get nothing in a nozzle check, test the fuses on the main board.

He said a couple of months but he flushed it out when I got it the lines and dampers were clean not dried up. When you say serious soaking what do you mean? I just received a new manifold, I'll put it in tomorrow and see how that goes.
 

Eddie Greer

New Member
Eddie, check the ink line bellow the capping station. We have seen many cases dry ink in there and pumps are not capeble to suck the ink while making cleanings. If that is the case, clean or replace the ink line and suck the ink from there so you get ink all the way to the head. Connect everything back, make another hard cleaning and start printing.

I can see the ink in the waste lines when I do a ink charge.
 

RG

New Member
I'd guess that there are several different methods for head soaking. My method is different from most, but it works for me. I use a piece of thin, smooth plastic, like I receive in junk mail offers for credit cards. I cut it a little larger than the cap top, about 2.125" X 1.5". I put the head height to "high" and move the carriage to the left and place this plastic piece on the cap top. I cut a piece of Scott towel to about 1.5" X 4", fold over about 1" of it, and place it on top of the piece of plastic. The folded down part goes between the cap top and the spit box. I use a syringe with about 2cc's of cleaning fluid to saturate the towel that's above the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." See attachments. I let it soak for about 5 minutes. Then, put head height back to "high", move the carriage to the left, discard the piece of Scott towel, move the piece of plastic, use a swab to moisten around the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." Next, I use a scrap piece of vinyl or banner material and print 1 to 2 square feet of CMYK color bars. I use a banner profile (540X720) and no weaving. Lastly, I do a nozzle check test. If several jets are missing, I repeat the process or I print a square foot of the color that has missing jets. And, yes, I cut away some of the MS so that I can have a better view of the head when it's parked. Some here will probably disagree with this method, but, like I said, it works for me.
 

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Eddie Greer

New Member
I'd guess that there are several different methods for head soaking. My method is different from most, but it works for me. I use a piece of thin, smooth plastic, like I receive in junk mail offers for credit cards. I cut it a little larger than the cap top, about 2.125" X 1.5". I put the head height to "high" and move the carriage to the left and place this plastic piece on the cap top. I cut a piece of Scott towel to about 1.5" X 4", fold over about 1" of it, and place it on top of the piece of plastic. The folded down part goes between the cap top and the spit box. I use a syringe with about 2cc's of cleaning fluid to saturate the towel that's above the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." See attachments. I let it soak for about 5 minutes. Then, put head height back to "high", move the carriage to the left, discard the piece of Scott towel, move the piece of plastic, use a swab to moisten around the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." Next, I use a scrap piece of vinyl or banner material and print 1 to 2 square feet of CMYK color bars. I use a banner profile (540X720) and no weaving. Lastly, I do a nozzle check test. If several jets are missing, I repeat the process or I print a square foot of the color that has missing jets. And, yes, I cut away some of the MS so that I can have a better view of the head when it's parked. Some here will probably disagree with this method, but, like I said, it works for me.


Ok this is where I currently stand,
Replaced MS
Replaced 8 dampers and O-rings
Replaced Head manifold

When I do a nozzle test I only get the Black and Cyan - No Magenta or yellow.
20190630_222553.jpg

I printed 4 color boxes but only the Black and Cyan printed nothing on the Yellow and Magenta.
20190701_071201.jpg 20190701_071148.jpg

I made sure I had the head leveled after replacing the manifold. I'm all out of things left to try. Can someone think of something that can get me printing all 4 colors.
 

RG

New Member
Since there are 2 head cables going to the print head, there might be a fuse for each cable. Check all fuses on the mainboard. Replacing the head cables would be the next least expensive fix to try. I think that I read somewhere that the head cables can be detached and re-attached a limited number of times. Are the ink lines for the yellow and magenta full of ink and with no air bubbles?
 

Eddie Greer

New Member
Since there are 2 head cables going to the print head, there might be a fuse for each cable. Check all fuses on the mainboard. Replacing the head cables would be the next least expensive fix to try. I think that I read somewhere that the head cables can be detached and re-attached a limited number of times. Are the ink lines for the yellow and magenta full of ink and with no air bubbles?

Yes there full, no air in line. When I prime I have ink flowing into the syringe. While I was inspecting the head again I found this little sponge looking thing (See attached Pics).

Are these needed? What are they called? Are they replaceable? it look broken or riped.

20190701_202547.jpg 20190701_202605.jpg
 

Gabriel Conti

New Member
I'd guess that there are several different methods for head soaking. My method is different from most, but it works for me. I use a piece of thin, smooth plastic, like I receive in junk mail offers for credit cards. I cut it a little larger than the cap top, about 2.125" X 1.5". I put the head height to "high" and move the carriage to the left and place this plastic piece on the cap top. I cut a piece of Scott towel to about 1.5" X 4", fold over about 1" of it, and place it on top of the piece of plastic. The folded down part goes between the cap top and the spit box. I use a syringe with about 2cc's of cleaning fluid to saturate the towel that's above the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." See attachments. I let it soak for about 5 minutes. Then, put head height back to "high", move the carriage to the left, discard the piece of Scott towel, move the piece of plastic, use a swab to moisten around the cap top, move the carriage back to its home position, and put the head height back to "low." Next, I use a scrap piece of vinyl or banner material and print 1 to 2 square feet of CMYK color bars. I use a banner profile (540X720) and no weaving. Lastly, I do a nozzle check test. If several jets are missing, I repeat the process or I print a square foot of the color that has missing jets. And, yes, I cut away some of the MS so that I can have a better view of the head when it's parked. Some here will probably disagree with this method, but, like I said, it works for me.

Eddie, what you are doing is fine as long as the pumps and waste ink lines bellow capping station are not clogged. You need to be sure the ink lines shown in the picture I'm sending are completely free so the pumps can pull the ink properly from the head.
 

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Eddie Greer

New Member
I hooked up 2 syringes to the waste lines and pull ink through and was able tp get magenta to print, still unable to get yellow. Any ideas anyone???
 

GTSTech_1

New Member
Have you tried to manually push solvent cleaner thru the yellow channel? If you can't push then new head would solve.

Just my .02
 

heyskull

New Member
I have bought machines of sellers before saying that they were working the previous week and they were blocked solid and had obviously been unused for a very long time.
If the machine had been flushed it should still have cleaning fluid in the lines etc.
Also pulling ink through or pushing it through can cause more damage.
Personally I would remove the head and replace with a new one and soak the existing head and see later if you can get it running.

SC
 

Eddie Greer

New Member
I have bought machines of sellers before saying that they were working the previous week and they were blocked solid and had obviously been unused for a very long time.
If the machine had been flushed it should still have cleaning fluid in the lines etc.
Also pulling ink through or pushing it through can cause more damage.
Personally I would remove the head and replace with a new one and soak the existing head and see later if you can get it running.

SC

Thanks!
 

Don Mills

New Member
I have a newly acquired vj-1204, I replaced the maintenance station, new dampers, new O-rings, new 440ml OEM inks and when I print a nozzle check I get pretty much nothing. I pulled ink through all the damper with no issues. I did 2 little charges and 2 strong charges with no luck.

Please see attached image.

View attachment 141392
how do you do a strong charge?
 
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