Refilling Printer cartridges with Fountain Pen Ink

[mulrich]

Using slightly different shades of CMY could produce something fun, who knows. I only have a laser printer so I don't get to play but it sounds fun.

[tamiya]

Been 20yrs since I filled HP Deskwriter/DeskJet with Quink those are piezo, the head (piezo crystal and 50-nozzle mask) are on the cartridge so you get a new head every cartridge. The heads usually last 10-12 fills, then occasionally the piezo crystal cracks from fatigue.

 

Once printing when inkjet went colour... it's cheaper to buy CMYK refills than FP ink!!

 

Same exists today... you can even retrofit a 3rd party bulk ink system if you print heaps, although best OE system is Epson's EcoTank line of printers... which amazingly still aren't widely sold even though they've been out 3+ years... WHY hmmm Why? (ok ok the printers aren't exactly throwaway cheap)

 

Epson's sells EcoTank refill in a squeeze bottle for SG$10, it's at least 2oz? Per colour.

 

Been wondering if I could use those to mix my own FP ink colour...

[brucejohnson]

You would be able to successfully print a few sheets but due to increased water content you will have to deal with the ink spreading all over the sheet.
Trust me.......I have tried it.

 

[californiabob]

there's another set of issues for using a specialized FP ink. on canon printers some

have a dye black in addition to a pigment black. the former is used in picture printing

and the latter is used for text printing. you could mix your own pigment inks to

create brown, for example, and force the printer into text printing only.

 

if you have a dye-based black only printer then you can load any FP ink for

special effects. otherwise you'd have to anticipate how the cyan-magenta-yellow

combinations work to facilitate your end goals.

 

if you were to do this, find late model printers on CL, and pickup several cheap ones.

almost all printers now have usage chips. if you refill (printer dye inks or FP inks)

you can get a resetter to allow printing to continue. otherwise, without a chip

reset, there are limits and conditions for use.