Re-Fill Printer Cartridge

Everyone has an inkjet printer, and everyone hates buying ink, because it is so dang expensive!

With this instructable, you can save about $100 every year!
(not to mention saving the environment)

Step 1 The Tools/Supplies

A few tools are required..


Tools:
Drill
Small Drill Bit
Scissors
Syringe

Supplies:
Electrical/Duct tape
Ink Re-Fill kit
Empty Ink Cartridge
Paper Towels

(optional) gloves

Comments

[noglider]

Where does one buy just the ink?

I'd like to know how to make the ink itself! Is this feasible?

[orrosta]

Sure, you can make your own ink, and it can be cost effective. If you live in an area with abundant black walnut trees, many people will practically beg you to take the fruits out of their yard. You can boil the walnut husks for a nice brown ink and if you add some rusty iron into the mix (or simply boil it in a rusty old iron pot) you can get a very rich black ink. It is Archival too! I have made several gallons of it for the cost of a few burned logs and an hour or so of time.

[alex-sharetskiy]

You can buy the ink on Ebay, for a couple bucks


i would advise that you not make your own, it's a lot more cost-effective to buy pre-made ink, and use it

[coppeis]

Where can I get a syringe?

[alex-sharetskiy]

i believe drug stores have them, alternately you can find them online

[app0]

 The modern ink cartridges are too smart, i wish this will work with my epson FX-800+ . but drilling may damage the cartridge, I'd better peel off the sticker, fill cartridge and put the sticker back

[milsorgen]

 Nothing ventured nothing gained my friend!

[tweekskratch]

When I used to refill my #92 at Walgreens, they just shot (3) needles straight through the sticker. I'm not sure if they purged them, but never had any problems with ink distribution. If you have to purge it may be easier to drill... If not, through the sticker is way easier than drilling yet another hole in the side? plus Elec. tape residue gets all over not good if it gets on the print head... Don't forget to let them sit overnight so the ink has time to settle as this could also cause problems with the ink. Anyway, thanks for the technique!

[Turnip123]

Well, if you peel it off uniformly, fill the ink cartridge, and replace the sticker, everything is the same, AND you don't have unpredictable adhesive tape on the side of a printer cartridge (constantly moved), that is now clogged with drill fragments of ABS plastic. :D

[alex-sharetskiy]

if you take a close look at your printer cartidge, you will notice that there are little holes that come off to the side of the sticker, mess with those holes, and you will get unpredictable flow of ink form it

[Turnip123]

Not on mine, but I have a 92 HP black cartridge.

[Turnip123]

You can also peel off the sticker...

[alex-sharetskiy]

i don't suggest you do that... the sticker controls how much air is allowed to enter the cartridge, if you change it, the ink will come out unpredictably

[Scroman]

Some printer manufacturers are now making single use cartridges. After the ink is used up the printer wont use it again even after refilling. I know because I have a Lexmark Z2300 inkjet printer and tried to refill the cartridges and the printer still told me to change the cartridges and wont print.

[alex-sharetskiy]

you can get a pretty decent color inkjet for $30-$50 at walmart

[djr6789]

i refill my ink cartridges with food colouring , its way cheaper

[alex-sharetskiy]

i didn't want to mess up my printer cartridge, i have no idea what ink is made of... besides, i had a large volume of useless printer ink

[jordand]

Why don't you use the filling hold at the top of the cartridge, underneath the label

There is a very good Instructable on how to do this (they have the same cartridge as you) Here's the link http://www.instructables.com/id/Refill-your-Printer-Cartridge/

[alex-sharetskiy]

that sticker regulates how much ink is allowed to leave the cartridge, if you take the sticker off, the cartridge will bleed ink out of the printing head

[jordand]

Well tape it back up like you did to the massive hole you put in the side of your cartridge.

[patsy0827]

Thank you! I wondered how this was actually done...I may try it myself one day....

[stuuf]

Worst abuse of word processing software ever...

[alex-sharetskiy]

how come?

[stuuf]

Just save your black box as a PNG image (or better yet SVG) and the file will be much smaller and you can print it directly from a browser.