Dangers of Refilling a Laser Printer Cartridge

Quick-hitters:

- Apparently lots of people found my blog via a Google search of "Pat Benatar" and the "Alhambra Summer Jubilee."

(It wouldn't surprise me if my sister was responsible for all of those hits.)

This saturday, Kool & The Gang will be performing. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to attend.

- We've had two straight overcast days here in Tarzana. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I miss the hot weather!

- I don't know what's worse: the stupid dog that keeps barking outside my window, or the idiot neighbor that has never heard of an "indoor voice."

- About a year ago, I refilled the toner cartridge in my Samsung ML-2010 laser printer.

(Tangent: It's actually a piece of cake to refill this cartridge. All you have to do is remove two screws, pop off a plastic cap, and pour the toner into the cartridge. Fill, cap, re-attach the screws, wait a few minutes, then run a couple test prints, and you're done!

It's very difficult to screw this up, but as you shall see, I found a way to screw up.)

Unfortunately, while finishing up the refill, I dropped the cartridge, denting the drum in several places. I kept using the printer, anyway, because it still printed well (if I ignored the white spots where the dents on the drum were).

Today, I got an empty Samsung ML-2010 printer cartridge in the mail, with the intention of pouring in the toner from the dented cartridge into this brand new one. I had a plan: I would use a paper funnel (made out of a 24#, 8.5x11" sheet of paper, heavily taped to make sure that the toner wouldn't spill anywhere), latex gloves, and I would do this all in my bathtub, in case of a major spill.

Needless to say, my idea was disastrous. I got toner dust all over my bathtub, and the paper funnel didn't work nearly as well as I expected it to. The transfer also took a heck of a lot longer than I expected it to (those ML-2010 cartridges sure hold a lot of toner!). Oh well, I needed to clean my bathtub anyway.

After the transfer of toner and the reassembly of the cartridge, I gently shook the cartridge back and forth a few times to loosen any stray toner. I also had to very gently clean the drum, as some toner dust found its way there. After all that, I did a few test prints, and to my utter amazement, it worked quite well! There are still a couple minute spots on the printouts, but it was not nearly as bad as the old, dented cartridge.

By the way, is it bad that I'm coughing up black powder? Someone please remind me to wear a mask the next time I even consider refilling another cartridge.

I had another topic I wanted to get to (unfortunately, it was sports-related), but I'll save it for tomorrow. Happy blogging!