Introduction: Refill a Printer Cartridge for $5

About: Overclock

Printers are one of the most popular tools in the world, because they are inexpensive, yet highly versatile. The one drawback is the cost of the cartridges. Two of these can cost as much as a whole printer, and they are difficult to refill because of the new "smart technology" which is built into the printers that keep track of the ink level. Once the cartridge is empty, this technology also will not allow you to simply refill the cartridge with ink, because it will still think that the cartridge is empty. But I'll show you how easy it is to refill your printer cartridge and fool the printer into thinking your cartridge is always full, which allows you to refill your own cartridges with inexpensive ink and save a LOT of money!

For better insight on the project you can view a video on how to do it here !

Step 1: What You Need !

You don't need many things to refill a ink cartridge,

here's the list :
-Empty Ink Cartridge
-Electrical Tape (any color)
-Regular Black Ink
-Regular Syringe

Step 2: Load Ink and Poke

Now getting started isn't hard at all ,

The only thing you need to do is to get the amount of ink u want to refill in ur syringe, and then you need to take a lighter or a open flame and heat up the needle until the top becomes red hot, then be really quick to poke the cartridge in the middle or where you think it's best and start filling up until ink drips out from around the hole

Please view all 3 images to understand the hole process !

Step 3: Copper Contacts - Geting Around Smart Tech !

This part may seem tricky but it's really easy !

Now most new printers won't let you cheat the system just by putting back ink in the cartridges, since they keep track of ink levels !

In Lexmark's case i found what copper contacts to block out directly from the printer cartridge so that the ink reading will not work anymore , and that the printer will always think the cartridge is always new.

Step 4: Well Now, :)

Well congrats

Now you can put your black cartridge back inside your printer and start printing and forget about spending a LOT of money on authentic INK !


I told you it was not hard at all and now if u own a Lexmark you really need to stop payng so much money for something u can get for 5$ or less ... :) how much dose regular ink cost anyway ?

The new tech was beat by electrical tape try it and use it well thank you everybody