[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Deskwriter Refills

gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) (06/11/91)

Yesterday I screwed up my deskwriter print head by injecting india
ink.  I think the ink is incompatible with the cartridge, and after a
few pages the print was banding spaying ink all over the page.

Since the cartridge was shot, I decided to open it with a paring
knife.  Facing the cartridge, as it installed in the printer
(arrowhead up) there are two green tabs that extend out the bottom
left and right edge of the cartridge.  I pryed a little at these tabs,
then forcibly pryed the knife underneat the entire length of the
bottom side.  Finally, the cartridge opened (breaking some glue).  It
contains a large grey compacted sponge and the ink.  I washed the
sponge and the cartridge jets with very hot water.

According to a net.suggestion, I purchased 2oz bottles Schaeffer's
jet-black ink and blue ink.  I loaded the cartridge 30% full of blue
ink, whereby the jets began to leak, so I loaded the sponge and
dribbled more ink on top.

Now I can print beautiful blue documents instead of black ones.
Judging by the size of the ink bottle, I'd should get at least 2
refills from a $3 bottle of ink (assuming the ink jets don't clog or
burn up before that).  I taped the green top on with strapping tape.
It sure is easy to refill the cartridge with the top open!

I'm considering getting some red and green ink, and try to do some
color separations.  Has anyone tried printing color separations with
the deskwriter printer?  What kind of software will do this?  Are
there any public domain color-separation printer drivers?  Are there
any programs to take a postscript file and produce three postscript
color separations?

Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you!)

Don Gillies - gillies@cs.uiuc.edu - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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