| Did you know that you could refill your laser | | | | spilling the ink I guess but if you put down paper |
| printer toner cartridge? I recently discovered that | | | | or sheets and take your time you should be fine. |
| it is both a quick and simple procedure. Most toner | | | | You let the soldering iron heat up - in my kit there |
| cartridges are manufactured to a very high | | | | was an egg timer to make sure it had! When the |
| standard enabling them to be used time and time | | | | time was up I placed the end against the laser |
| again. Unfortunately the manufacturers have | | | | printer toner cartridge and it made a hole in the |
| discovered that people refilling their toner | | | | side of the cartridge. |
| cartridges directly reduces their profits so they | | | | Next you have to shake the replacement toner |
| now actively discourage the practice. | | | | ink - although powder it is so fine that it appears |
| Until recent years you would find a visible refill cap | | | | as a liquid. Carefully pour the toner ink into the |
| on your laser printer toner cartridge - open this, | | | | cartridge through the hole you created (the bottle |
| pour in some replacement ink and the cartridge | | | | has a pouring lip to make this easier) then seal up |
| was as good as new. Some toner cartridges still | | | | the hole with one of the supplied plastic plugs. |
| have this refill cap but many printer companies | | | | That's basically it - the only danger I can see is |
| have removed it to discourage refilling. Fortunately | | | | spilling the ink but if you're careful you should be |
| you can buy an inexpensive kit to create your | | | | ok. |
| own hole in the cartridge to pour the replacement | | | | I did the first one in about 15 minutes and 5 |
| toner in - extremely easy to use and takes about | | | | minutes for the other laser printer toner |
| two minutes. | | | | cartridges - the cost was approximately 37% of |
| Most kits accomplish this by supplying a small | | | | a new set of cartridges but I still have loads of |
| soldering iron with an attachment on the end to | | | | toner left in the bottles so that will fall further. |
| create the hole on your laser printer toner | | | | Obviously the other parts of the cartridge will |
| cartridge. Simply let the soldering iron heat up and | | | | eventually fail - but you should be ok to refill each |
| press the attachment onto the cartridge - it | | | | cartridge a few times. Every time you do refill |
| creates a hole which can be sealed using a | | | | your laser printer toner cartridge you are saving a |
| supplied plastic cap. After doing this you can refill | | | | significant amount of money and reducing the |
| the toner cartridge as often as you like. The | | | | amount of landfill. Also imagine the environmental |
| advantage of this system is that no working | | | | costs that are being saved - nearly 2 liters of oil |
| parts of the cartridge are touched - so there is | | | | are required to produce a new cartridge - this is |
| no chance of damaging anything. | | | | also saved each time you refill. It's so simple and |
| My first attempt at this was on Lexmark C500 | | | | everyone wins - I used a company called |
| Printer cartridge - I bought a kit (about £10 | | | | Tonertopup for my kits who supply UK, Europe |
| 20$) which contained all I needed to refill my | | | | and North America. Save yourself some money |
| cartridge and bottles of replacement toner ink. I | | | | and help the environment - check out the link |
| laid everything out (you should put a sheet down | | | | below. |
| or do this in the open air) - the main danger is | | | | |