Thanks very mich for that Steve.

Peter

Have found a source of commercial containers which might have been designed for the DIY CIS enthusiast. Made by Bettix in the UK (http://www.bettix.co.uk/4.html ), these have a tube built in to allow air to enter at the bottom of the container (this is not its original function), and only need a barbed adaptor to be fitted to make a good quality ink reservoir with all the desirable features of Aliensteves neat design. Additionally, being rectangular in shape means that neat DIY packaging can be achieved.

Bettix have a number of distributors in US and Canada, and these can be found at http://www.richardspackaging.com/plastic/chemical/bettix/twinneck.html. This site has some good pictures of the containers.


I will email Bettix to see what they can offer in the way of prices for small quantity purchases.

I'd considered this style of bottle. Adaptable, but hard to connect fittings to. The plastic they are made of is hard to get anything to stick to, due to it's composition and the softness of it. Also the small riser tube means small changes in barometric pressure can cause amplified changes in level, getting progressively worse as the ink reservoir goes down. Same for the soft sides.

Single neck style of the bottles will be difficult to fill; the double-neck bottle will rely entirely on how airtight the lid is. I've had bad luck with lids being watertight but not airtight.

The bottle manufacturers (Bettix) say somewhere on their website that they use HDPE for these bottles. Checking the various Loctite glues, type 406 is intended for plastics with "low energy surfaces" (presumably HDPE falls into this category). Will try to get hold of some 406 to try, but I suspect that this might be the same glue that MIS recommend, on which I have already posted info under "Glues".

Need to work out the ratio of tube volume to max reservoir air capacity in the smallest bottle to see if changing barometric pressure would really make these Bettix twin meck bottles unworkable. Agree that a substantial volume is ideal, but wondered if use could be made of existing mouldings. Rising pressure doesn't present a problem anyway, but a fall could even cause ink to accumulate in the measuring chamber.

This is easy enough to clear (I have practised on a weedkiller dispenser bottle in my garden shed), but does mean that some vigilance is required to ensure that remedial action is taken before the printer floods!! A depression means depression (flooded printer)!!