Looking at other USG products, I’m thinking about running some USG DryStone in my Z310+ - it requires less water than HydroPerm or UltraCal 30 to set.
Plaster.com has it in 7lb buckets, if I can’t find a local supplier.
As for the HP10 heads - I was getting similar burn-out issues; turns out it I had two issues - a clogged binder line, and ‘flocking’ in the cartridge.
Flocking of Pigment based Ink
Disassembling some ‘dead’ HP10 printheads, I was surprised to find that the fine mesh filter over the inkjets was clogged with a black sludge.
Turns out that the sake I was using chemically combined with the pigments in the black ink, and the pigment particles flocked into large particles. These particles clogged the mesh filter, and the printhead nozzles themselves.
Pre-flushing the printhead with a dye-based ink resolved this issue for me.
Clogged Binder Line
The snap-fit binder line connector on the back of the fast axis has a one-way valve that degraded over time, and wouldn’t let binder flow to the head at more that a slow dribble.
You can determine if you have this problem if ‘pushing’ binder into the septum using the purge kit syringe is much easier that ‘pulling’ binder via the syringe.
I replaced that connector, and my heads no longer burn out, and I get much better saturation.
Dye-based Ink Purge Procedure
I keep a supply of ‘bulk refill’ dye-based yellow HP10 ink ($20 from ebay for 250ml) on hand to do purges with. My purge process is:
- Select ‘install new head’ via the ‘N’ command from the console - and NOT via the Z-Print application
- Remove old head
- Push 30ml of yellow ink into the septum with the purge kit, filling the binder lines
- Install new print head
- Press ‘ONLINE’
- Print a 50x50x50mm solid cube
- This is usually enough to ‘purge out’ the pigment based black ink, and flow in the dye based yellow
After that, I can reliably print in sake.