I worked for a company that did this with MICR toner (on the side not the companies main line) Broccoli is carcinogenic (if you don't have the right digestive enzymes... see a back issue of Discover magazine) Don't get the toner on you or breath it. Rubber gloves, face mask, etc... We had a "clean room" with plastic sheeting glued around the walls with a big ziplock at the door (really!) and a special water based evacuation filter. I wouldn't do it in the kitchen or anywhere where the kids may hang out. See Recharger magazine - a trade mag - Recharger 3870 La Sierra S266 Riverside, CA 92505 (714) 359-8570 They cater to professionals but have had some good articles on how-to that applied to low-volume production and re-filling. Don't tell any maintenance people that the toner is refilled, in fact, keep an original out of the printer (wrapped up in the dark) to put back in if you have to take the printer in for repair. They will immediately blame the toner re-fill for what ever is wrong. We were told that the power supply failure in our Okidata printers were caused by our refilling operation! See also: http://www.tinaja.com specifically http://www.tinaja.com/tinaja%5Findex/glib/guruar3.pdf James Newton mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com phone:1-619-652-0593 http://techref.homepage.com NOW OPEN (R/O) TO NON-MEMBERS! Members can add private/public comments/pages ($0 TANSTAAFL web hosting) PICLIST guide: http://204.210.50.240/techref/default.asp?url=piclist.htm -----Original Message----- From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Russell McMahon Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 3:34 AM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: [OT] Refilling HP laser printer cartridges [OT] re Refilling HP laser cartridges No. haven't (quite) done it yet, but - Long annoyed by the manifest profiteering of both the new and after market laser printer cartridge market I took time out to attack an HP toner cartridge. Have toner everywhere :-) Have now opened a cartridge and know where the main toner reservoir is. Know where the filling bung is - perfectly obvious and visible in retrospect. Know where one can safely and reasonably drill large holes for refilling if one considers the bung hard to get to (which it is). A would be refilled-cartridge-seller assures me the toner is carcinogenic. Who knows. One suspects this is a desperate sales ploy, but ... (Anyone know?) I imagine it is not appreciably more so than other toners which ARE available in bulk/loose form. Next step, lets see what damage I can do to a printer with toner from other sources. (HP refills are apparently about as available to the retail market as CocaCola mix-at-point-of-sale drink machine concentrate (and may taste about as good :-)) One source which commends itself is large HP refills for up market HP printers which work out MUCH cheaper per copy. Anyone else's comments on any part of this process would be useful. Can you do it? Have YOU done it? What toner suits? I'm playing with an (old) EPP cartridge but the lessons should apply to other models. I know that some toners definitely make a large sticky mess in some other systems. What works in which HP? Russell McMahon _____________________________ >From other worlds - www.easttimor.com www.sudan.com What can one man* do? Help the hungry at no cost to yourself! at http://www.thehungersite.com/ (* - or woman, child or internet enabled intelligent entity :-))