Digital BW, The Print

I own an Epson 2100, my first printer. I would like to save the ink 
(and cart) from an cart when the printer says its empty, and use it 
again when the same colour's cart is empty again.
I see several methods/workflows and tutorials to do this, and some 
mention of a sponge in the cart that may complicate the issue. Can 
anyone recommend a method to re-use carts and save ink from one to 
inject into another, that would be appriopriate for the 2100?

Andrew Lee

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "alnchiem"
<andrewlee@h...> wrote:
> I own an Epson 2100, my first printer. I would like to save the ink 
> (and cart) from an cart when the printer says its empty, and use it 
> again when the same colour's cart is empty again.
> I see several methods/workflows and tutorials to do this, and some 
> mention of a sponge in the cart that may complicate the issue. Can 
> anyone recommend a method to re-use carts and save ink from one to 
> inject into another, that would be appriopriate for the 2100?
> 
> Andrew Lee

I bought the Virgin Vacuum Filling Kit, Vacuum Pump Assembly, 1ft
tubing  and the ultrachrome compatible inks from MIS. In addition you
need something to make a hole in the cartdridges and som epoxy glye to
seal the tubing to the cartdridge. I more or less followed the
instructions on this page to refill the cartdridges:

http://www.digital4to.com/

If you want an exact match for the inks you could go for 7600/9600
cartridges and extract the ink with a syringe. They're still cheaper
than the 2100 cartridges because of the higher volume. So far I've
only tried refilling the blacks (Photo black, Universal black, and
Eboni) but since it worked so well I'm going to try the color
cartdriges as well.

None of the MIS blacks were as deep as the Epson Matte Black btw...
And I found out that PowerRIP doesn't produce as deep blacks as BO
with the Epson driver. Another reason to upgrade to IJC when it's
released on windows maybe?

Daniel, thanks for that. What chip resetter did you use?
Andrew

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "danielstaver" 
<daniel@p...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "alnchiem"
> <andrewlee@h...> wrote:
> > I own an Epson 2100, my first printer. I would like to save the 
ink 
> > (and cart) from an cart when the printer says its empty, and use 
it 
> > again when the same colour's cart is empty again.
> > I see several methods/workflows and tutorials to do this, and 
some 
> > mention of a sponge in the cart that may complicate the issue. 
Can 
> > anyone recommend a method to re-use carts and save ink from one 
to 
> > inject into another, that would be appriopriate for the 2100?
> > 
> > Andrew Lee
> 
> I bought the Virgin Vacuum Filling Kit, Vacuum Pump Assembly, 1ft
> tubing  and the ultrachrome compatible inks from MIS. In addition 
you
> need something to make a hole in the cartdridges and som epoxy glye 
to

> seal the tubing to the cartdridge. I more or less followed the
> instructions on this page to refill the cartdridges:
> 
> http://www.digital4to.com/
> 
> If you want an exact match for the inks you could go for 7600/9600
> cartridges and extract the ink with a syringe. They're still cheaper
> than the 2100 cartridges because of the higher volume. So far I've
> only tried refilling the blacks (Photo black, Universal black, and
> Eboni) but since it worked so well I'm going to try the color
> cartdriges as well.
> 
> None of the MIS blacks were as deep as the Epson Matte Black btw...
> And I found out that PowerRIP doesn't produce as deep blacks as BO
> with the Epson driver. Another reason to upgrade to IJC when it's
> released on windows maybe?

> Daniel, thanks for that. What chip resetter did you use?

I used the SK168 Universal Chip Resetter. 
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qb7.html

I posted recently about cartridge refilling in the archivalcolor 
group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archivalcolor/message/2508 ), 
describing how I recently ruined an empty oem cartridge, by following 
online instructions on how to 'extract residual foam' left in the 
cartridge, in order to be able refill it with a full charge of ink 
(apparently the cartridges become clogged with this foam after 
several refills, something which I have indeed experienced). 

What does this mean? It means that in addition to the cost of two 
sets of cartridges required (since you can't leave the printer 
without a cartridge in it), plus the ink refill kit, I now have to 
factor in the cost another, new color cartridge, not to mention the 
considerable time and inconvenience required to perform the refills.

It takes me about an hour to refill a 5-color and a black cartridge, 
including set-up and clean-up, which generally yields about 6 -- 8 
satisfactory 13 x 19" prints (a number of 4 x 6" test prints, and a 
few 'off' 13x19's are part of the process)

My point is simply that whether or not you are going to save much by 
going the refill route is very much a question of how much your time 
and peace of mind are worth to you.

I decided to give refilling a try, in part to protest against the 
outrageously high prices being charged by the printer mfgs, and their 
largely succesful efforts to defeat competition from supplying the 
market, but also because I genuinely believed I would be able to save 
money by doing it. The online instructions make it seem much easier 
and more fool-proof than I have found it to be in practice.

You just may want to consider that, unless you are a dedicated diy-
type person, and/or are on a severe budget, and/or you need/want to 
experiment with inks that are unavailable in prefilled cartridges, 
you may find the refill route is simply not worth the hassles.

I'd certainly be interested in hearing others' take on this issue...