Epson 7600, Ink Cartridges stuck!

Discussion in 'Large Format Inkjet Printers' started by duckrabbit, Mar 6, 2010.

  1. duckrabbit

    duckrabbit New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2010
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    Location:
    New York City
    Hello all,

    My husband and I recently bought a used Epson 7600. The guy claimed that he had used the printer as recently as December, but we have our doubts. The inks are completely empty, and the expiration date is from 2004. We are trying to remove the cartridges so that we can flush the system using InkJet Mall's PieozoFlush, removing all the super-old dried ink in there. Anyway, the problem arises when we try to take out the old, empty ink cartridges. They seem to be completely stuck in there, and no amount of brute force will loosen them. At first I thought the the ink had dried and sort of locked them into place, but they all have the same amount of give (which is very little, just up and down movement, no sliding movement). It almost seems as though the locking mechanism isn't releasing them.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. daSaunders

    daSaunders Member

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    Aug 2011
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    Location:
    USA
    Epson 7600, Ink Catridges stuck!

    I have same problem. So frustrating. Dd you ever resolve it and how? Thank you.
     
  3. daSaunders

    daSaunders Member

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    Location:
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    If anyone finds this thread - - I was able to remove the carts finally. (I thought the ink lever was malfunctioning). In the research process I called Epson and then their recommended service group, Ardito's Business Machines in Babylon.

    Epson indicated that the ink lever drops a bar across the ink carts. I wanted to lift the "bar" as a workaround before calling a technician. So, to get a better look at things, I removed the white housing on the left of the printer. (Easy, just 4-5 screws). But, I couldn't take off the ink cart housing because a screw holding the ink lever to the unit can't be accessed with carts in the unit.

    That's when I called Arditos - very helpful. The person there described the bar and, while standing near the back of the unit looking through it toward the front, and moving the ink lever up/down, I could see what was happening. Turns out the "bar" is actually a rotary piece that engages/ disengages and it was working just fine. I was able to figure this out w/ Arditos on the phone.

    The solution was to, after re-installing the housing, get a friend (w/ stronger fingers) to pull out all the carts. I thought I'd break the printer - that's how much pressure it required! It was serious effort because the carts felt absolutely immoveable, to me. Warning: don't try this until you've first taken off the housing and confirmed that the ink lever is functioning properly inside the unit. And then make sure the ink lever is up in the release position.
     
  4. xfactor printing

    xfactor printing Senior Member

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    Location:
    united states
    Interesting. Thanks for posting the followup daSaunders. Is it the ink itself on the connection sticking them in after time?
     

  5. aris

    aris New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2019
    Messages:
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    Location:
    france
    This is probably a bit late but here's what I experienced today with an old Epson 7600:
    • the cartridges would not slide out just like described in the original post (I tried pulling hard but the grey top tab of the cartridge came out flying, these are Epson cartridges)
    • removed the left cover
    • removed the lever knob (the cartridges were blocked so I had to cut some of the plastic from the yellow cartridge to fit my screwdriver past it)
    • removed the ink holder plastic housing (to do that without removing the cartridges, I had to slice off some plastic from the top and bottom of the ink cartridge handles)
    Now, upon inspection, the locking mechanism did not appear broken. All good. Cartridges still stuck though.

    Why is this happening? I think because the printer is old, the plastic teeth in the ink housing that block the cartridges have aged and are now harder, drier and less flexible. As a result, they do not lift as the cartridge tabs push against them when you try to slide out the cartridge.

    Temporary solution: slide a thin ruler along the top of the cartridge. The ruler needs to slide along the right side of the cartridge's top tab that is the closest to the front of the printer. Twist the ruler to lift the plastic tooth in the housing the blocks the cartridge. Hold both the ruler and the cartridge and pull to slide out the cartridge. See the attached photo to see how far the ruler goes in. It goes as far as the second tab on the top of the cartridge. Note: it might be possible to insert a thinner tool into the cartridge holder to lift the plastic tooth to release the cartridge without needing to slice parts of the cartridges in order to remove the plastic housing.

    More permanent solution: use a knife or a file or sandpaper to smooth the corner of both of the top tabs of each cartridge. Keep shaving until you no longer have to use the ruler to remove the cartridge. Of course, you have to do this to every new cartridge you buy. Unless anyone has a better idea :)



    IMG_2646-smaller-blocked-carts-ruler.jpg
    IMG_2650-smaller-blocked-carts-ruler.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2019
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