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Thread: Is toner just toner?

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    I am NOT the Messiah!
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    Default Is toner just toner?

    I asked this question years ago in relation to a photocopier I had and never got an answer. Toner is basically carbon black mixed with very fine plastic powder which when heated by the fuser roller binds to the paper.

    I have an old and trusty 4039 IBM laser printer which works well but “IF” I was silly enough to buy one a replacement toner cartridge is $750.00 – I have no intention of spending that the unit will end up as hard rubbish first or the cart refilled at one of the many places that do that stuff.

    Anyway I have a number of large Cannon photo copier refill toner bottles I got from work as we no longer have that machine and they were being dumped.

    Is toner generic stuff or are there different sorts it would be nice to refill the laser when it eventually needs it. The IBM cart does 48,000 pages before refill so it may not occur in my life time

    I also have a dead 4039 to use as spares if I did kill this one trying.



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    Well - I think it basically is... but the grade is what you need to be carefull of..

    I had an old panasonic 600dpi laser that was good because it used cheap toner replacement bottles instead of replacing the expensive whole cartridge. When it finally died - I had a bottle of toner left over..

    Later I purchased a lexmark e220 600dpi laser from aldi - when the toner ran out, i was up for $125 for more toner... so I drilled a hole in the cartridge carefully to ensure no plastic pieces entered - then I poured my panasonic toner into it - worked fine! needed to run about 10 test pages to get the toner to spread around before the print was normal and the excess toner no loger dirtied the pages...

    since then I have simply purchase bottles of this $45 panasonic toner instead of paying $125 for a new lexmark cartridge...

    of course - the green roller only has a certain life span and in a small home laser that's about 10-15k pages... seeing each toner refill does about 2k pages, I can refill approx 4-6 times...

    I have refilled 3 times so far on my lexmark printer and it still prints like the day we got it! The only bummer is that this older panasonic toner is no longer being made I think as the printer was around in the lat 1990's and has not been sold for about 10 years

    LOL - so the morale is - I think as long as you stick to the same grade - ie: same dpi rating, you are probably safe...

    But try at your own risk as I may have been lucky.. but i'd say more than likely most black toner is much the muchness...

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    Senior Member tagg's Avatar
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    Can the Drum on these laser photocopier be cleaned safely ?? we have an old one when it prints it comes out smeared and blotchy

    Tagg

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    I have cleaned the drum on my Brother HL-2140 with a soft lint free cloth and my humid breath.
    Do not use any cleaners or alcohol
    Do not use tissue paper
    Do not expose the drum to bright light, clean in as dim light as possible.
    Clean the brush that wipes off the excess toner as well.
    I used pressurised air for that and that should be done outside (drum removed).

    Some Lasers for home use will stop printing even if the cartridge is still quiet full.
    They use a photo diode to detect if the toner cartridge is empty but IME that is not reliable.
    I blocked the window for the diode with a bit of insulation tape and got a further 1000 pages before the print started to get uneven.

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    Sys Rat,

    I don't know about the spec of the toner, but instead of paying 750, go to your local generic after market printer refill store. I priced a refill toner cartridge for my HP 4100 series laser printer and was quoted 130 for a replacement, given the amount of time they last, I thought 130 is reasonable.
    Common sense isn't !!!

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    Default toner isnt just toner

    Depending how high the dpi is. Yes toner is different..

    I used to re-manufacture toner cartridge for my first job. It's not just about refilling the toner hoper, usually you will have to replace parts of the cartridge as well. The drum will usually last 2 lives of the cartridge and there is a cream called drum polish u can buy which you rub onto the drum with a soft rag, then after that you apply a blue liquid called drum hardener which you also rub into the drum but make sure u rub it till dry.

    Next you have the wiper blade which cleans the uncharged toner off the drum which wipes off into the waste hopper. Wiper blades usually last 2 lives as well but you can tell when they need to be replace because the wiper blade rubber will look yellow sort of like urine.

    There is something called a recovery blade which sits above the wiper blade, it looks likes a strip of thin plastic half on the cartridge and half off the cartridge about 1 mm above the wiper blade. The recovery blade can last a while if cleaned properly.

    OK now lets talk about the other side of the cartridge where you will be putting the toner into. You will find something called a mag roller which looks like a big magnetic pole usually with a spring on the end and there will be a rubber blade called a doctor blade which gives the mag roller even coverage of toner. The doctor blade usually lasts 2 life's as well.

    To clean the wiper blade, recovery blade and doctor blade use isopropal or something similar with a soft rag. (DO NOT USE ANYTHING ON THE MAG ROLLER ONLY A SOFT RAG.)

    When you get the bottle of toner get a nozzle to fit on top of the bottle so you can express toner through it to the toner hopper. Sort of rock the toner hopper when your putting the toner in every now and then so it all fits in nicely making sure you don't get toner all over the place and over the cartridge as well. A successful recharge has a lot to do with how clean the inside of the cartridge is when its all put back together. There are metal contacts in the cartridge which you can clean with a cotton tip and isopropal.

    We used to get all toner and replacement parts from a place called delacamp which you can probably find on the net.

    Anyways that's enough from me. If you have any questions reply post and ill answer them.

    cyas

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    WOW, it really is an artform. And I was going to complain that my refilled cartridge sucks - never printed nicely since the day I got it.

    Cost $80 each too!

    I should have kept the old cartridge and given refilling myself a go
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    Thanks for that reply. That I think is one of the best bits of info that i've seen on the net on the subject.

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    So Cobra, when you're refilling these cartridges, do you have just one bottle of toner for all the makes and models?

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    a little off topic and refering to printers only, but with tagg commenting on his having dirty and smudging prints - it can easily be diagnosed by printing both a white and black page. you can then work out which roller is the culprit... in my short 10 years of laser printer and copier repair, i only every had to clean laser assembles twice!

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    TZB yes usually only one toner bottle will do since they customemize each bottle for each cartridge. But you probably can use a bottle and half or a bottle and a quatar to get extra prints.. But becareful because you may fill the waster hopper up to much and it will pissout toner everywhere... Yes different grades of toner for different types of cartridge depending on there DPI

    E.G.

    AX toner for EPA's
    VX toner for EPV

    so on and so on

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    no worries system rat. i like to share

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    Quote Originally Posted by cobra679 View Post
    Yes different grades of toner for different types of cartridge depending on there DPI
    Arr, so the answer to the OP's question "is toner just toner" the answer is no.

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    yes that's correct (different grades)

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