Mike Ford wrote:
>
> >> Now is the time to buy cartridges too, as MANY big dealers are dumping
> >> them, and when its gone its gone (at decent prices anyway).
> >
> >Not a very successful strategy; the ink cartridges for the HP1200C,
> >HP650c Plotter, HP750c/755CM+, and the black cartridges for the
> >HP DeskJet 870 & 895 have a limited shelf life.
>
> Limited shelf life and refilling is a very bad idea. This message brought
> you by HP.
My own 2c is on Nylon ribbons for Dot Matrix - even sealed in plastic,
these do have a shelf life as the ink dries up. I purchased about 20 all
up for my NEC P5200 and basically used them in lots of five. I.E. Use a
ribbon until faint, swap to next ribbon, use to faint, etc, then re-ink
a lot.
Reinking was a really messy business requiring holding the bits, much
metho, etc. I kept on with the use - reink cycle until either ribbon
wore through or the internal feed mechanism wore out.
By the time I had used up the first 10, the second 10 had all dried out
(about 10 years (?).
However, the old WD40 trick recovers them for a first use, then I
re-ink. Still doing it, but the printer needs a major service, so I tend
to just do text printing off the HP laser now as the need for
multi-layer forms has passed and it is such a messy business to re-ink.
Having helped a lot of people re-ink ribbons (PC printer only) over the
years, you get to learn alot about ribbons. The best were the printers
that ran a moebius strip and printed in the top or bottom half. The
worse was a little brother that had about 6" of ribbon which brushed a
sponge tank inside to re-ink the ribbon.
My experience of refilling inkjet cartridges was that it sometime works
and sometimes doesn't. There seems to be a vapour lock problem, plus it
takes an enormous amount of cleaning and testing to clean out blocked
heads. $ wise, it was just as easy to shop around and buy generic
cartridges.
If you are buying for the long term, get a printer with separate refills
for each of the four colours. Then vapour lock on one doesn't render the
other colours lost.
--
Terry Collins {:-)}}} Ph(02) 4627 2186 Fax(02) 4628 7861
email: terryc_at_woa.com.au www: http://www.woa.com.au
WOA Computer Services <lan/wan, linux/unix, novell>
"People without trees are like fish without clean water"
Received on Sat Jun 23 2001 - 03:32:28 BST