Food coloring as printer ink?

Hi there,

I have an old printer that I would like to use again, and was wondering if food coloring can be used to refill the empty cartridges. I have refilled cartridges before with no problem, but that was with commercial refill kits.

The printer I have is a canon ip4000 and I have refilled it in the past with proper printer ink. But being a tightass I would really like to know if food coloring will work or will it kill the printer. I don't really care about color or print quality as mostly I just print text documents.

Thanks
Sam

 

Not a chance. The ink must dry almost instantly upon hitting the paper.

Food coloring? Nah.

 

I thought I remember reading about someone using food coloring once and getting good results, that's why I am curious to try it.

As for the ink needing to dry as soon as it hits the paper, even some official inks need a few seconds after printing to dry or they will smudge if you touch any printed parts.

However, if you say it is not possible I better forget it

Thanks
Sam

 

well you can risk it, but chances are it will ruin your printer, so if it didn't work your be screwed.

 

I found this to be an interesting read.

So, I guess maybe it could work, but how well?

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/lookup+1/4FFAFFAA66BEEB86CA257117000A8E50

 

sweet, I'm gonna try it once I run out of my commercially available refill kit. I'm sick of paying extreme prices for ink when I could be using cheap as sh*t food coloring.

 

you know what my brother try it and when he test it and it goes well and now he is looking for a food color, that is color black.. hehe.. it work well..

 

Hi Paltao,

Black ink is just a mixture of the 3 colors in equal parts. I wouldn't bother to try food coloring but then I have an endless supply of real ink.

Jim

 

Hi Jim,

thanks a lot! and using food coloring, i think i can save more using food coloring..

 

Hi again Palteo,

Thanks for the thanks. Further thoughts. Epson uses Pizzeo (spelling) Electric pumps to move the ink through the jets. They will pump most anthing that is the right consistency. HP uses Heat to pump the nozzles. Both should work. If I ever run out of ink maybe I'll try it on an old Epson.

Luck, Jim

 

Hi again Jim,

Good luck to you.. just try it.. i will be fun.. (sorry if my English is "barok" coz i'm not good in english..) thanks for eveything! God Bless!

 

If anyone wants to document this, then post some photos, I would be most impressed! I'm intrigued as to whether this will work at all. Anone got a crappy old printer?

 

Considering the price of printer ink, 8000 dollars a gallon? I imagine the price of food coloring will be on the rise...

 

uhm.. i just wondering what are the methods of food coloring as printer ink? can you suggest something? i am making an IP for this one..

 

I think the external refill companies just inject it back into the original cartridge (?) have you got a syringe handy?!

 

Take a look

http://www.instructables.com/id/Printing-With-Food-Colouring/

 

Good work that man there V

 

Just don't start licking your printouts

 

As a factory trained Epson printer tech, I can verify that at least Epson printers can and do use pigmented ink. Not just colored water.
And the inks differ from printer model to printer model.
Put in the wrong ink and you've just roached the print heads.

In years past I've refilled Canon black ink carts with Epson black ink and they worked very well.
Good ink is almost as cheap as good food coloring, when you buy it in bulk, like I do. I would try "India Ink" before I'd fuss around with food coloring.

I have four Epson printers in my house and I buy all my after-market ink carts from "LD Products", via the internet.
Original Epson carts cannot be refilled, but the ones from LD Products can.

Good Luck,
Shadow :cool

 

well on the food colouring thing i would say it works on a hp deskjet printer for over a year now and still running on it my wife does a lot of baking and my printer does a lot of printing so my supply of ink is food colouring and just exp with the mix for different colours