The first cartridge I ever refilled

This is the story of someone who began refilling their own cartridges, and through that experience went into the business of selling refills and the idea of refills to others.In the early 2000’s, my cartridge ran out of ink.  It was a Canon BCI-21 series cartridge (printer was a Canon MultiPass, taking a BCI-21 black and BCI-21 color ink cartridge).  The 2 cartridges could be substituted with the thicker Canon BC-20 inkjet cartridge, which would offer more black ink and require that the printer prints in monochrome mode (black only).A set of new inkjet cartridges from the college bookstore cost around $40, a heavy price for a college student, and about 1/2 of what a new printer would cost.  In fact, you can pick up a printer for as low as $60 today (for an inkjet printer).  Taking a closer look at the inkjet cartridges, a light bulb went off…These inkjet cartridges are very simple, I thought.  In essence, they are a plastic casing that is hiding a compartment with ink.  What if I can get to the chamber that holds the ink, add some ink, then seal the chamber again.  Well thats exactly what I did, and it was easy to do.  I made a hole in the cartridge, drilled through to the ink chamber, filled it with cheap ink, and sealed it with tape.  The prints weren’t great, but now I was on to something… what if I have a specialty ink made that will actually be close in chemistry to the original inkjet cartridge ink?This is a simple story of how I got into ink refilling.  It has been good business sense, good for the environment, and fun to do.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply