First, get the cover off. You'll need to remove the parallel port cover first. There's a slot at the bottom of the parallel port cover, stick a flatbladed screwdriver in there and gently pry it out.
There are 4 Lights! Er, there are 4 plastic tabs holding the top on. You can reach the front ones by reaching inside the printer and gently bending them back while lifting the top.
The other two are on the sides near the back. There are slots, press a flat bladed screwdriver gently in the slot to push the tab back while gently lifting the top. DO NOT PRY!
I didn't take pictures of the ink tanks until they were done. Cut the plastic film off from over that plastic BB over the back of the cartridge. Then use a drill press with a 1/8 inch rod to push the BB into the cartridge. Then select a drill bit that fits your twistlock fitting, drill the hole out larger. Then shake out the BB and shavings, get it all out. At this point I cleaned my cartridges out by running lots of water through them, then a mixture of 10% nonsudsing household ammonia, 20% isopropyl alcohol, 70% filtered water. I used a syringe to suck water out the bottom by using the original orange plastic and rubber seal, by drilling a hole in the orange plastic to fit the tip of the syringe and drilling a smaller hole through the rubber seal.
This syringe and orange thingy will be used later to suck ink into the cartridges for the first charge of ink. I suppose I should have added a second sealable connector to each cartridge but I want to minimize weight and complexity.
Then I used Devcon High Strength Plastic Epoxy to glue my Luer Lock connectors in place. That white thing is just a cap on the connector. At the front of the cartridge (over the sponge) is the air inlet. You need to plug this. I just smeared some of the epoxy into it. It sets in 15 minutes so either do them only 2 at a time or work quickly.
Some other glues that may work: Goo (auto, shoe, sportsman's, it's all the same), E6000, Gap Filling Superglue (don't use the cheap stuff!).
Tada! Cartridges installed. The white caps come off and I had preselected some very flexible hoses with the matching gender twistlock connectors. You could stop at this point and simply refill through the caps, you don't even need to take the cartridges out of the printer. However, you need to sink the connectors in a bit further as they will hit the top case.
I will have to cut away some of the case to allow for the hoses.
I'll post more pictures and details as they develop. Of particular importance:
For the next one, I plan on using right angle connectors to avoid having to cut up the case.
What Canon calls the "waste ink tank" is really several very thick felt pads stacked on each other. Cleaning cycles pump ink out of the heads and a hose sprays it in a pad so it soaks into the felt pads from the bottom up. The printer simply counts the number of cleaning cycles it has performed and when it hits a certain count it warns you, when it hits a higher count it stops printing. Good news, bad news: you can remove and clean the pads and reset the printer, but every model has a different sequence of button presses to reset it.
I have 3 of these printers, along with a BJC 5100. At least one will get archival inks (possibly Mediastreet Generations Micropigmented) and one will get photocake inks. One 6000 will likely stay with OEM inks and since I have an Epson 1520 that will get archival inks for wide format printing, the 5100 will likely get photocake inks. The 5100 has been altered slightly and will never have a tank in number 2 slot again to avoid breakdowns due to the 5000 series design flaw- it sprays ink from cleanings into the gearbox, eventually coating a photo position sensor, ruining the printer. I almost stopped buying Canon after my BJC 5000 died due to this, 11 months after buying but lost receipt.
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Thanks, Alien Steve Home