garth@sigi.UUCP (Garth Snyder) (08/03/87)
[[Editor's note: Some laser toners are carcinogens. There are
reasons other than economic ones why a company might try to discourage
you from refilling your own toner cartridges. Also, to the best of my
knowledge, the problem with using photocopier toner can also be due to
differing polarities of the toner particles. --Rick ]]
I have a couple of questions about refilling LaserWriter toner
cartridges. Briefly, they are:
1) Is my conception of how to do the refill correct?
2) Where can I get laser toner?
3) What is the correct amount of laser toner to place in the
cartridge?
I have seen several people use the following technique to refill their
cartridges. Naturally, you try this AT YOUR OWN RISK. Both Apple and
Canon warn of horrible tortures that will befall those who do this, and
whether this is because they want your $100 per cartridge or because you
are likely to damage your printer is debatable (although most people seem
to think the former!). I do know that the imaging cylinder is contained
in the LW cartridge, and probably doesn't last forever, so the number of
refills you can do on a single cartridge is probably limited.
It is NOT possible to use photocopier toner in the LW; laser printers
require a much finer powder than a garden-variety xerox machine.
Anyway, to refill a cartridge you apparently do the following:
o Remove the old cartridge from the LW and locate the place where a
long, rectangular piece of thin cardboard with storage
instructions, etc. has been pasted on the cartridge. If you hold
the cartridge as if you were going to insert it back into the
printer, this cardboard will be on the very top of the cartridge,
on the right hand side.
o Work a knife blade underneath the cardboard and remove it. It is
glued on, but should come off in one piece without leaving any
extra shreds of paper behind. Save the cardboard. Underneath the
cardboard you should find only an area of unblemished plastic.
o With a hot soldering iron, cut out a hole in the center of this
plastic about the size of a quarter. BE VERY CAREFUL TO
PREVENT ANY SMALL PIECES OF PLASTIC FROM FALLING INTO THE HOLE! If
bits of plastic get into the toner reservoir they can seriously
damage the printer. This is why you must melt the hole out rather
than use a knife or other tool that is likely to shatter the
plastic.
o Allow the plastic to cool, then funnel in the appropriate amount of
toner.
o Glue the cardboard back flush against the plastic with a dab of
Elmer's glue or equivalent. Be sure to keep the glue away from
the area of the hole!
o Shake normally and re-install.
o Wipe off the cleaning bar from the binding assembly as best you
can with the edge of a piece of paper, then put it back.
I read in this month's Computer Shopper that a company called 'Lazer
Products' sells toner appropriate for use in refilling LaserWriter toner
cartridges, and also the wiper rods that are used to clean each page as it
comes off the binding rollers.
Does anyone out there have any information about this company, or know
where the right kind of toner can be purchased?
A number of other companies will take your old cartridges and 'refurbish'
them for about $40 - I believe that they do more than just put more toner
in, however. Does anyone know anything about this refurbishing process?
I'd be very grateful to hear all comments, concerns, and personal
experiences you have had with this kind of thing. I will summarize all
replies that get sent to me after a week or so in comp.laser-printers and
comp.sys.mac.
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Garth Snyder UUCP: seismo!hao!boulder!garth
Univ. of CO @ Boulder ARPA: garth@boulder.colorado.edu
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Garth Snyder UUCP: seismo!hao!swatsun!garth
Univ. of CO @ Boulder ARPA: garth@boulder.colorado.edu
--------------------mkm@JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU (Mark Murray) (08/06/87)
I've tried three cartridge re-charger vendors so far, and the success rate is around 75%; no problems with 3 out of 4 cartridges from these vendors. Ninety percent of the problems are leaky cartridges. You would notice powder inside the laserwriter, in addition to blotched output. The other problems have included tiny dots on every output page (symptomatic of toner powder grains too large for the laserwriter) and a dark vertical smudge down the right side of the page, less than one-sixteenth of an inch wide, but ruining clean output nevertheless. The last two vendors have 'guaranteed' exchange programs; if you're not satisfied with any cartridge, they'll replace it. Fine. Once when that happened, I had the vendor come out and leave me a cartridge for a leaky one. The one he replaced it with not only leaked, but as the unit was printing, the color dial (indicating green, yellow, red) did its impression of a kaleidoscope, turning with the drum on each revolution. Recharged cartridges that have no problems do, however, seem to have more toner powder in them than new cartridges. We've gotten as many as 2-3K more output pages from a recharged unit.