Carbon inks, which ones to use?

[Ken Lee]

I had really good results with EB6 and Red River, while it worked. Then cartridges gone funny and i never seem to get it right since

Whose cartridges did you use ? I've been working with a cartridge issue for a week: the printer thinks that 2 of the cartridges are empty, and tells me to replace them. Of course, they are not Epson cartridges, and they are not empty either. When I am able to make a print it looks solarized because 2 of the 6 tones are missing. It's a nice technique to know about, but I would prefer it were optional

[SergeiR]

Ken, I used MSI cartridges that came with EB6 kit. "Yellow" one at some point will keep reporting that its completely empty, no matter what i did.
I got irritated, left it for like a week, reinserted cartridges few times, and then it started smudging like no tomorrow. Gave up, put back actual Epson ones and been printing fine since. I got some spare ones i think, so i am going to try this weekend again, b/c i certainly shoot more b&w than colour again.

I suspect you got better printer than my squiggly Artisan 1430 So may be there is difference. I also never ever managed to get QuadRIP stuff to work for me with that printer and OSX.. But like i said, while EB6 did work - it was great. Everyone loved prints and Satin Pro form RedRiver gave fantastic warm carbon tones

[Peter De Smidt]

Cartridges come with either auto-reset chips or manual reset chips. If the later, then you need the appropriate chip re-setter. They are inexpensive and work well. If you have auto-reset chips, and they don't reset, unplug your printer, wait 30 seconds, and plug it in again. The empty one should reset. If not, talk to the place you bought the cartridges from. You can replace the chips if needed.

Luckily, I can turn off the chip reader on my 7600, and hence not have to worry about the chips, but I don't think you can on newer printers.

[onnect17]

Few yeas back I read Paul Roark notes about mixing the base for the inks. Then, using expired epson matte inks, I dilute the ink with the base to create 7 shades. The whole set only requires 2 matte cartridges, one for the matte position and the other to prepare the dilutions.
The best part is that I am refilling the original epson cartridges so there is no container with air/ink contents.
Also the cost per ink set is very low:
2 x 220ml of expired matte ink, $10-$40
300ml of glycerin, $4
100ml glycerin, $2
Distilled water, $1

So far 3 years in a 7600 and now in a 9600.

Check this thread for more info:
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ht=Piezography

[Peter De Smidt]

Isn't there supposed to be some Photo Flo in there? What image color do you get with the Epson matte black dilutions?

[onnect17]

Sorry for the error typing. It should read:

2 x 220ml of expired matte ink, $10-$40
300ml of glycerin, $4
100ml Photo-Flo, $2
Distilled water, $1

The amounts are an estimate. The actual formula for the base is just a mix of 35% glycerin, 10% photo-flo and the rest distilled water. I use plastic syringes to refill the cartridges and a scale to check the volume of ink inside. I printed a table with weight-to-inkvolume values to make it easier.

The color in the images depends on the media. A warm tone paper will give you a warm print. A normal paper as Epson Matte will show quite neutral.

Keep in mind that during the inks conversion to BW any remain of color ink in the cartridges, lines and dumpers would show as a color cast. To minimize it:
- properly wash the ink cartridges after extracting the color ink.
- load enough base in the cartridges and run a 'ink initialization' to flush the lines and dumpers.
- you can also replace the dumpers if it is not too complicated, depending on the printer model.

[Ken Lee]

Cartridges come with either auto-reset chips or manual reset chips. If the later, then you need the appropriate chip re-setter. They are inexpensive and work well. If you have auto-reset chips, and they don't reset, unplug your printer, wait 30 seconds, and plug it in again. The empty one should reset. If not, talk to the place you bought the cartridges from. You can replace the chips if needed.

Luckily, I can turn off the chip reader on my 7600, and hence not have to worry about the chips, but I don't think you can on newer printers.

Mine come from InkjetCarts.us, and are apparently the same as sold by InkRepublic.com. With this setup you remove Epson chips from Epson cartridges and put them on the 3rd-party cartridges, covering part of the chip with a small piece of tape. They also provide you 2 "master-chipped" cartridges.

In this approach, there is no resetting of chips per se, but an installation procedure which somehow tricks the printer into thinking that you've got Epson cartridges. See http://www.inkrepublic.com/Knowledge...refill-faq.asp. The trouble is, after around 1 year of success with this method, it no longer seems to be working.

[sanking]

Ken,

I used the 80ml refillable cartridges from inkjet.mall with a 3800 and 3880 over a period of two or three years and did not have any trouble at all with the system.

Product Name: Empty Refillable cartridge set for Epson 3880
Item SKU#: RCS-3880-80-KIT9-NS

I did have problems with pizza wheel marks with these printers and eventually decided to move to another system (larger printer with suction). But the Cone cartridge system worked great, and there is an excellent support system from the Cone staff, and Jon Cone himself.

Sandy

[Peter De Smidt]

I've not seen that method with the chips before.

I'm assuming that you followed the steps listed in the link? It looks like it wouldn't be hard to replace the chips.

Currently, my 4880 is in storage. I used funnel fill clear cartridges with it. When installed, the printer would say "Non-Epson ..... Continue Yes/No?". Clicking "yes" allowed everything to go forward.

I bought my cartridges directly from China. Everything went ok, except with my second order two of the cartridges were for a different printer. They sent out replacements twice. Both times they were still the same ones. .... So, if I bought refillable cartridges again, I'd be very tempted to get them from Inkjetmall, even though they're very expensive.

[sanking]

The best part is that I am refilling the original epson cartridges so there is no container with air/ink contents.

Armando,

I would like to refill the original Epson cartrdiges of the 7800, but there seems to be some type of valve in there that needs to be removed. Have you done this? If so, could you tell me how it is done?

Sandy