Help with stuck, full waste bottle
I've seen this happen on a more than couple of SP's and VP's. On the last one, the cause appeared to be nothing more than not cleaning the bottle threads when replacing the bottle followed by over-tightening.
Shops deal with it in different ways. I saw one shop actually cut off the bottle and put a wastecan under it spot to collect the ink.
To deal with your immediate problem with a full and overflowing waste bottle--
Remove the front cover and metal cover covering the pump (three screws)
- If you follow the the two black ink tubes from the pump, you will see that one on top will go to the rear and down into the waste bottle (this is the pump side of the pump assembly--marked with a P on the pump.)
- If you unconnect this waste hose from the pump, you should be able to take a syringe, connect it to that hose and suck some ink from the waste bottle-- depending on how far the tube goes into your bottle.
I figure that you should be able to remove least enough to keep the mess down while working on removing the bottle. The hole going into the waste bottle is just wide enough to allow a second tube down into the bottle which may allow you to remove more ink and possible even empty it so you can continue operating without creating a giant mess.
- If you do remove the waste line from the pump, remember to put it back onto the pump, otherwise you are going to make a big mess in your printer. In fact, I'd clip the hose back about a 1/4" to give it a fresh bit on the pump fitting.
- So the bottle cap is attached to a soft metal bracket which is screwed to the frame with just two screws. It is very possible "tear the screws" through the metal bracket when turning with a lot of torque from the bottom of the bottle. To make things worse, the cap is sunken, so it's difficult to support without removing the right side metal cover of the printer (which you might have to do). I keep a small adjustable Craftsman strap wrenches in my tool bag for times like these. I think the wrench costs something like $8 at Sears. This usually works.
For a totally scrappy fix, you can always cut off the bottle and fabricate another bottle and cap holder in it's place. Find a solvent-safe bottle that's wider than the current bottle . Drill a hole in the cap and use some VHB to stick it over the current opening. (Make sure you have enough waste tube going into the new bottle). Screw on the new waste bottle and you're done.
Hope this helps!
~E