Affordable ink solution

GREAPER

About a week ago I came across a deal on an Epson 7600 Ultra chrome printer. It was too good a deal to pass up so I bought it.

I also picked up two and a half rolls of 24 inch wide paper and 6 extra ink cartridges.

I had to run the clean cycle on it several times and re-align the print heads to get it printing right and now it is printing wonderfully. I printed one of my images from Glacier at 24 x 36 and cannot wait to frame it. It is perfect.

Now to the question.

The ink cartridges (of which there are 7) cost 70 dollars each. I have looked around and I see that you can purchase refillable cartridges, but the I look at the bulk ink and it seems to cost as much per liter as the original ink cartridges.

Does anyone have experience with off brand inks or refillables for a printer like this?

Poseidon

I tried a 3rd party ink, and did not like the resulting MESS that happened in my printer.

I have however found a place that sells OEM Epson ink as cheap as I have ever found it.

www.atlex.com

colourbox

Atlex is also where I order my Epson ink/paper. Prices are great.

If you are using the printer for color-critical uses, the thing about non-Epson inks is that you need to be sure they match the Epson profiles exactly, or that you can make your own printer profiles, and that the inks won't fade. Otherwise they might not be suitable for photographic printing.

Icebear

Niagara
What does anybody know about mediastreet's Niagara continuous ink systems? If the quality's there, sounds like a hell of a good idea to me. Check it out if you haven't. Please weigh in if you know anything first hand!

dogwood

GREAPER wrote:

Does anyone have experience with off brand inks or refillables for a printer like this?

I used to refill my Canon 9900 printer using inks from http://www.inksupply.com/

Their service was great, the ink was great, I had the printer calibrated with a kathy's profile, and my prints were beautiful and show no sign of fading-- but now the printer just sits there idle. Why? It seemed like EVERY time I went to use it, at least one ink cartridge needed refilling and then I'd have to run a cleaning function or align the heads and all that. It just got to be too much and now I just outsource (to SM/EZ prints) my prints.

DavidTO

I am going to be completely unhelpful and say that there is never a good deal on an ink jet printer. Talk about a money pit. I hate those things.

Poseidon

DavidTO wrote:

I am going to be completely unhelpful and say that there is never a good deal on an ink jet printer. Talk about a money pit. I hate those things.

!!!

I originally bought mine to make nice prints start to finish, but my wife has taken over the R1800 for digital scrapbooking. She prints and prints and prints.... So YES it is a gigantic money pit, but it keeps her happy!

Dee

I drill holes in my canon cartridges and use a syringe to refill them. My daughter does full size borderless letter size digital scrapbooking for both sets of great grandmothers who are not computer savvy.

I can print maybe 30 - 34 pages before I have to refill the cartridges. This works about 5 to 6 times before I put in new fresh cartridges and begin the process all over again.

Unfortunately with the Pixma printers I get a replace the ink absorber message only after 5 to 6 months. I will get the current printer under warranty replaced for free (they don't put in a new absorber)

The next printer will have some sort of continuous ink flow method.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Jane B.

Dee wrote:

I drill holes in my canon cartridges and use a syringe to refill them. My daughter does full size borderless letter size digital scrapbooking for both sets of great grandmothers who are not computer savvy.

I can print maybe 30 - 34 pages before I have to refill the cartridges. This works about 5 to 6 times before I put in new fresh cartridges and begin the process all over again.

Unfortunately with the Pixma printers I get a replace the ink absorber message only after 5 to 6 months. I will get the current printer under warranty replaced for free (they don't put in a new absorber)

The next printer will have some sort of continuous ink flow method.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have found this http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/ site very helpful for printer stuff.
(Maybe that's why they chose the name "Nifty-Stuff"! hoping thats what people would think of it.)

I currently use the Pixma iP6000D which was one of the last to use the BCI-6 inks. This is my third Canon over the years to use these same inks. I have NEVER (so now I will) gotten an ink absorber message; but then again I do not do borderless printing. 99.9% of my printing is several smaller size prints on an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet and then cut down. Have you ever noticed that the smaller paper of more expensive than cutting down a larger sheet yourself?

For opening and closing the refill hole I use a modification of what is described here http://www.nifty-stuff.com/sealing_canon_bci6.php in that I do not cut off the nylon screw — I have discovered with the slightly longer length I can start it by hand rather that keep a screw driver in the slot (my screws come from a different place and have larger slots in them and although I have the screw driver referenced in the article my slots are too large for the driver to hold in them.

I believe someone mentioned getting refill ink from MIS Associates, Inc, (www.inksupply.com) they are also the supplier that I am currently using. I do try to keep a set of refilled ones on hand so that I don't have to stop to refill in the midst of a print run.

Hope this helps.
Jane

Dee

Jane B. wrote:

I do try to keep a set of refilled ones on hand so that I don't have to stop to refill in the midst of a print run.

Hope this helps.
Jane

That's a great suggestion!

To drill the holes, I have a hand drill that works just great. I cover the holes with that brown plastic type of packaging tape. One piece covers both holes on the cartridges.