Brother GT541 Help!!!!!!

[inkman996]

Heres the run down last week we were printing then all of a sudden not one single drop of black. Did all the usual stuff, head cleans, head flush, check ink cart on and on to no avail. Finally after trying to get the head to prime with the initial head clean I noticed not a thing was going down the drain tube. Checked the black cap station and it was clear no clogs, popped the drain tube off and tried to force some solution through but with out a tight connection it was futile. Finally ordered a drain tube flush kit, it comes with a huge syringe, and a connection to fit the drain tube connecter perfectly. Hooked up the big syringe full of solution, and ran initial head clean, still could not get anything through the tube I tried a dozen plus times. Today I came in and tore the machine apart to get at the whopping 8" tube. It is literally buried as deep as is imaginable with in the machine. Got the tube out soaked it for an hour, hooked up the syringe to it and still clogged, I hooked it up at both ends and still nothing. Finally I pulled of the one elbow connecter and noticed the inner lining was pinched severely and with out any way to open it back up I snipped a bit off. But now with out it being flared there is no way to get the barbed connector back into the very thin and fragile inner lining, I tried but it just wouldn't go.

Now I am stuck. Here is the option Brother wants  get this over $400 for this tiny tube. I looked up the manu on line and they sell the tubing in 50 yard rolls for less than $50! but I have zero clue the inner OD and outer OD needed and it is critical. The manu sells it in some extremely accurate sizing since it is used mainly in the medical field.

Now I know Brother will not tell me the size needed I could guarantee that. They will want there $400+ for nothing more than a catheter tube.

Has  Brother owner on here been down this road yet? Surely someone has sourced these tubes in the past. While on the manu site I noticed they also sell the double wall tubing needed for the Cartridge to print head which Brother marks up to a ridiculous percentage.


It never ceases to amaze me, the machine is one of the most expensive and they charge by far the most for their inks. They charge an arm and a leg for every little thing there is, I would think they could take it easy on pricing for critical components. Hell they get over a grand for a single print head.

TIA by a highly frustrated DTG user.

[mk162]

Let me check for you.  Yes, i agree that brothers do cost more, but they run the best of any machine with the least downtime.

I know a few people I can contact.  The best bet might be to see if you can get smaller rolls and order the size you think it is, plus one on each side.

OR

measure the overall tube diameter, then measure the thickness of the tube wall...and bob's your uncle

[Frog]

Inkman, in a pinch, could you send the tubing folks your piece (or a snip) to match? Then, I'd also ask how they suggest to flare it.
Are we talking plastic tubing, like polyethylene? Can you insert a tapered pin of some sort?

What if you heat it with a hair dryer or low setting on a heat gun?

[inkman996]

Turns out Brother has us by the balls.

How it works is the whole tube assembly is sold as one unit. That means the whole branch system. Even tho the tubes are pennies a piece its the assembly of the fittings that gets you. There is a lot of them and if you attempt this on your own and just one fitting is pinched inside the whole thing is useless. I could spend the time sourcing all this crap and possibly figuring out a way to flare and insert the fittings but it is not worth the effort right now with how busy we are. I found someone with a branch assembly available I will have in hand tomorrow ($436) I am calling techs if I cannot get one in town ASAP I will have to dive in and do it myself. That is many hours of disassembling and reassembly ugh. All for a stupid tiny tube.

Brother is great and all but just like a high end import car when something breaks be ready to get your arse raped.

[mk162]

Brothers are like Hondas, they cost more for parts and techs charge more because they can, but they will go further than any printer(Kornit might be the exception, and I don't know if they are) before they need major repairs.

Yeah, the heads are $1k a piece, but they are industrial and they print faster than Epson heads(which are getting harder to buy).  But you replace them so infrequently.  We've replaced 1 head in 85,000 prints.

[inkman996]

Things are back to working.

I ended up tackling this whole job myself, a tech was out of the question in a rush and I was able to get in touch with an awesome tech from Brother. Thanks to him we didn't have to buy one single part and lose over a grand on parts and tech.

I did do some things that were high risk and I won't say what i did and possibly encourage others to do the same, I got lucky is all I can say. I took the whole maintenance assembly apart and out of the machine. Anyone familiar with the machine knows what that entails. ONce I did that I was able to clean all the tubes and fitting, I had to use tiny zip ties to keep the secure on the fittings since they were getting loose. Once everything was back together I then had to deal with dry print heads and lots of air in the lines. I did get all that back to working, except for a few bad nozzles left on black and cyan.

All I can say is it sucked! A ton of ink was wasted and a ton of my time, but it worked out.

[mk162]

I spoke too soon, we got a clog in the yellow drain line...we are down.  This freaking stinks.

Hey, 7 years and over 85,000 prints, I am bound to have some down time here and there.

[mk162]

well thanks to mike i fixed the problem, we had a clog in the drain line.  I coudl have taken the whole thing apart and cleaned everything, but I just didn't feel like it.  My brain is on overload as is and I know I would have made some mistakes and I have yet to find the Ctrl-Z button on life.

So here is the booger we pulled out...

[inkman996]

Yep looks just like the one in our black line. How did you get it out?

[mk162]

I unplugged the connector after the "valve" and pulled it out with a bent paperclip, above the line looked fine, I guess I forced it past the valve.  the tube went back in pretty tight, and I tested it and it sucked down the bubble that was above the head...so I am all good.