jlong@blackbird.afit.af.mil (Jeffrey K. Long) (09/06/89)
Well, I finally ran my last DeskJet ink cartridge dry last weekend. There were no computer supply stores open (it was Sunday and I needed a printout for some church handouts) and I really wasn't thrilled about the idea of shelling out $18 to buy one even if they were open. Then I remembered some discussion I saw on the Net about 9 months ago about refilling the cartridges with ink, it was cheap and easy, or so the discussions said. All you needed was a bottle of "Sheaffer, Skrip Ink in Jet Black" and a syringe. Well, the ink was a whopping $2.00 at the mall office supplies/art suplly store and fortunately (?) my wife is an insulin dependent diabetic, so the syringes were handy! Let me tell you folks, it really is easy, and it works great!! I used a pointed knife to open a VERY small hole in the green plastic top (on the flat part near the part of the cartridge that the molded 'arrow' points toward). I then injected about 2cc of ink and reinstalled the renewed cartridge. Turned the printer on, pressed the "prime" button once, and then printed out over 150 sheets!! The cartridge is still going strong, and if you ask me, the print quality is a shade BETTER than it was before (maybe that is due to the knowledge of the costs of this fix, but I don't think that is it :-)) I remember there being some "warnings" about this method possibly "clogging up" you DeskJet, but if you look at how the cartridge fits into the printer, you will see a series of rubber seals that prevent any Ink from comming out of the printhead unless it is actually moving accross the page to print something. So What If It Eventually Clogs This "RENEWED" Cartridge??? I still got much more life out of it than I ever would have before, and at less than 7 cents for a fill-up (60cc for $2.00) it sure beats running out and buying a new cartridge the first time it runs out of ink!! STANDARD DISCLAIMER: This method worked for me, but it may not work for you, and I make no claims that it will,nor that it is safe for your printer!! ========================================================================= | Jeff Long jlong@blackbird.afit.af.mil (ARPA net) | | | | humble (and getting humbler by the day) graduate student; | | The Air Force Institute of Technology (what a great way of life??) | =========================================================================
swan@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US (Joel Swan) (09/07/89)
The problem of Ink clogging isn't related to the cartridge, it's related to the priming "pump" inside the DJ. There is a tube that gets "squeezed" along directly under the priming port every time the DJ gets turned on. My fear is that this tube will get clogged up and cease to function, causing my printer to not clean & prime correctly each time I turn it on. (I was recently given an HP technical document on the development of the HP DeskJet. VERY interesting reading.) -- - Joel E. Swan [ swan@jolnet.UUCP <> PLINK ID: Amiga*joel ] [ "Amigas.... for the rest of us." <> CI$ : 74746,3240 ] [ "...peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:8 ]