OT: InkJet Refill Kit Warning

A few years ago while I was employed making ink jet pens one of our techs, a cute blond gal, was working on the inkfill and set off the ink pump while a hose was off. She looked like a big blue smurf for the next few days. lg no neat sig line

Tale of woe snipped.

We have just had this experience with ink thinguses.

Tired of paying too much for ink cartridges. They give you the printers, then rape you for the ink.

Bought some on ebay. Tried them out. Streaky. Off color. Tweaked printers. Cleaned heads. Taken things out and stuck my head in there with Q tips to clean things, etc.

Nothing worked.

Went to Costco and got some new cartridges, with a very small break in cost.

Slammed them in the printer

Printer works perfectly.

Those cheap fillups and cartriges don't work worth crap.

Steve

Yup, just like the fast food joints could damn near give you the food, the profit on the drinks is so high. It's lots easier to sell you an inexpensive printer -- for which ink sells for about $800 per gallon retail.

Smart marketing! :)

Stopped at a Circle K/BP on the way home from visiting my MIL in hospital yesterday.

There was a soft drink dispenser rack with at least 20 stations for all kinds of drinks, even competing brands. 59 cents a cup -- of any size from 20-ounce to 64 ounce.

Who ever said that God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Right, Steve, because all vendors use exactly the same ink and have the same quality and engineering, right?

For a more reasonable approach, might I suggest that you don't buy "universal" ink refills, and go instead with someone who actually matches their third-party ink to the printer it's for? I've been buying from these guys for years: "ACSI Bulk Inks", at

I've bought probably a dozen pints of ink from these folks over the years, no problems, and good service. No involvement with their business, financial or otherwise, just a happy customer. Not all bulk ink sources are the same; these people do it right.

Dave Hinz

"John Husvar" wrote

When I was a kid I had a friend who had just moved here to Vegas from Fort Worth Texas. His dad used to work for what became 7-11. I think it was Oak Farms or something Farms. At that time, when it first started out, they found out that there was tremendous profit in fountain drinks. He said that it was a couple of cents for the cup, the ice, and the mix. (at that time)

Still a hell of a lot of profit today in that $2 monster drink.

Steve

I remember having "Purple hand" for a while, I don't do that anymore.

You know, I wouldn't mind so much if the printers actually came with full cartridges. Or if the cartridges actually didn't dry up before they were used up.

I came up with another solution: I found a laser printer at my local thrift store for $10. Once I cleared the free complimentary paper jam,

it worked beautifully... --Glenn Lyford

Sing with me: "...I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas..."

I have been doing my own inkjet refills for years. Disposable gloves are always used. The whole operation is carried out in an old enamelled darkroom tray, in the laundry room. As for the ink, good quality bulk quantities are purchased. The syringe, is a large glass one, intended for medical use. The needles can be found at kitchen supply stores. My two thrift shop laser printers, can be recharged with bulk cannon toner, packaged for photocopiers. I found a case of the toner in a thrift shop!

Steve R.

Well you can use the leftover ink as Dykem. :^)

Tony

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 14:17:13 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, John Husvar quickly quoth:

I've seen too many CMYK-handed folks to try that myself. Instead, I limit myself to HP ink cartridges and use the laser far more often than the old 722 inkjet.

I've had an HP 5P laser for a decade now. Other than putting 3 new toner cartridges (2 refills, all getting about 3,000 pages per) in it, it has given me no problems and has been a very good investment, about a penny a page. Hell, I even used it for making polyester printing plates for color seps on my buddy's Multilith 1250 printer.

Ayup. That's why I take bottled water (I bought a case and refill a dozen times each from well water out of my tap.) to a fast food joint if I have to eat there. It's quicker to make a sandwich and take it with me, though.

I wish someone would make a printer that had four small tanks, with screw-on lids, for the ink. I'd be willing to pay more for it. Of course, no printer manufacturer will do it, since they make most of their money on cartridges.

Dan

Well, wouldn't be that hard to at least dril & tap the tanks for plugs...

Take a look at an Epson C88, they are about $79 at the Office Depot. I got one for my kids, but I am impressed. It has separate refill tanks for each color.

Jon

I can beat that. I bought a LJ 4000 about 7 years ago. It runs every day, the main print server for the company. It has 200k copies on it and still runs good as ever. The only work it's ever needed is new rubber rollers for about $30 at 180k.

Almost as reliable as my Subaru.

Well hell, you're doing it right...that doesn't count!