Building a pure B&W printer... advice needed

[BWlover]

Dear all, Great forum: already learnt a lot!
Based on what I read and my wish I am going to do an experiment. Suggestions and experience GREATLY appreciated!

What I want: a inkjet which prints pure black and white without any colour cast (you all know how hard this is).
And I don't want to buy the canon pixma 9500 (both for size and cost). And preferably the prints should be low cost...

I will be doing this with an old S800 printer (if I ruin it I can always buy a cheap ip4700 with - in addition - borderless printing)
So this is what I came up with:
- use cheap B&W refill ink (I was thinking of Inktech ink)
- dilute it to the correct shades/ luminosity for C,M,PC,PM, Y
- clean old cartridges and inkjet the ink
- print

Now I have seen the nice chart with the info which colors are used ( http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8390) and this made me a bit worried: if I go the level of 100% cyan you get a luminosity of 62, for magenta 52. However, below 80% everything is completely dependent on the color ink, so I might increase the cyan levels a bit (darker gray) so I can play around with colour settings to get the correct profile (I am not intending to use profiling hardware, but to do it by hand: I don't care too much about perfectly matching prints: as long as they are neutral, that is the most important thing for me).

I have a big question: what solvent to use to thin the inks?
I have extracted some original canon ink from a catridge the printer claimed to be 'empty' (I collected at least 1 ml and spilled at least 1 ml: that is how much is wasted!). There is a distinct alcoholic smell which I think is isopropanol.
I was thinking (also based on info on the web): 1-2% isopropanol, 1% ethyleglycol (as wetting agent).
Do you have any info/ experience.

If I buy a bottle of 250 ml for 20 euros it would mean, with dilution and ink consumption, I estimate it would in the end cost me someting like 0.75 eurosent/ cartridge max, so print cost would be neglible. Colour stability would be reasonable to good. And no colour cast or, also very important, shift over time. If the black colour is not what I like, I could switch or add some other tint before diluting.

I already found out all of this is not that easy: cleaning a tank for example. Difficult to clean completely. Also, I see some 'cracks' in the sponge after trying to do so. Also, I am a bit worried about destroying the print head.
And, in addition: it simply sounds too good to be true! Is it?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[ghwellsjr]

See this link for a discussion on replacing the ink in the color cartridges with grey ink. I believe what was being done there was taking the different shades of grey ink from HP cartridges and putting them into the yellow, magenta and cyan cartridges. Your printer also has the photo magenta and photo cyan cartridges which are more heavily used than their normal counterparts which means you are going to need a lot of ink. I would recommend that you attempt to do this with a printer that does not have the extra two photo inks.

There may be a supplier of bulk ink that provides different shades of grey which would be a better way to go than trying to mix your own. I have no idea how to successfully mix your own.

Good luck and keep us posted on your experiment.

 

[mikling]

Wait for my Canon B&W inkset for CMYK, PK printers, the ones with 4 dye colors and pigment black. We basically turn off the pigment black for near all the time by choosing the correct media and then print with the other 4 colors in shades of gray. As you are discovering, diluted black is not gray. Tonality changes as dilution occurs. Choosing the colors is not an easy task as Black is not Black is Black.

You should also note that with dye ink the neutrality will easily shift as the paper is changed. Pigment appears less sensitive to this. I am currently working on this and will complete it soon as I have finalized my KLARIAH pigment ink to replace Epson Claria dye ink. My foucs is now on B&W for Canon printers and particularly the CMYK or "quadtone" for Canons. This can be extended for 6 tank and 8 tank printers but I really see no need as the 4 tank CMYK yields resolution so fine it is more than good enough.

 

[fotofreek]

MIS has had quadtone B/W inksets for specific Epson printers for several years. I don't know what their current items are, but there were warm and cold tone B/W inksets available years ago. Good to see that Mikling is working on sets for Canon printers.

I've noticed that my black dye based Canon inks have a decided purple tint when diluted. I've been able to get more neutral blacks with an ip5000 than an i960.

 

[__-_-_-__]

imho for black and white only just try laser. it's way cheaper... it only depends on how many pages you will print

 

[ghwellsjr]

I think BWlover wants to print on photo paper. Can you do that on a laser printer?

 

[mikling]

For some B&W means text . Must be the younger ones who have not been exposed too much to B&W images. Probably says a lot about our age!!!!!!

 

[fotofreek]

For some B&W means text . Must be the younger ones who have not been exposed too much to B&W images. Probably says a lot about our age!!!!!!

I didn't even think of it being an age issue! You are right. It would be quite an education in fine art photography for them to see a good B/W exhibit. Some of my very best prints are B/W that I've done in my own darkroom. 35 mm SLR, 6x6 rolleiflex and Nikor lenses on my enlarger. I just gave all my darkroom equipment to a local public high school that specializes in visual arts and performance courses. Everything from nikor film tanks to 11x14 trays. Timers, safelights, variable contrast filters, color filters, etc.

Want to really blow the newbies away? I could show them some fine color pix made on 10 ASA Kodachrome, some handheld with available light. Kind of like putting a fairly new driver of a modern auto transmission car into my old stick shift 60 Porsche roadster or 48 stick shift plymouth - no power steering or brakes, no power windows or power door locks, and forget cds, tape players, or premier sound stereo systems in those cars. Nonetheless, I'd like to have both of them back again!

 

[mikling]

You know I still have vinyl ( and my Linn Sondek! ) and Paul Simon's Kodachrome on There Goes Rhymin Simon. When I first got that record I didn't understand what the lyrics were all about. Then I was looking at my old slides last year before I digitized them and really appreciate Kodachrome and it abilities.

When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of edu---cation
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome (KLARIAH my custom pigment ink)
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon ( Canon) camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome ( KLARIAH) away

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
my sweet imagination ( for sure)
everything looks WORSE ( glamorous ) in black and white



Well I'm not sure about the WORSE.

Happy humming.

 

[mikling]

Just noticed the 10ASA. I am always amused by the new pros clamoring for High ISO up in the thousands!!! Good grief, those guys would have a heart attack if told that they could only "push" to 400 or 800.

And Ferrari now has cars that don't really have a real stick. Ugh.... what's the world coming to????