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Recycling waste ink from a Epson D1 20 inkjet printer
Container / screw lid
On inkjet printers when you clean your printing heads ink is forced through the heads the waste ink goes on to a sponge in the bottom of your printer and eventually this evaporates, you will be surprised how much ink is used to clean your printer heads. You can buy, on eBay, recycling waste inject containers ready made, I decided to make one for myself using some components lying around.

When you drill the hole in the lid make sure everything is a tight fit.

Find a container with a screw lid make sure it does not leak any liquid.

You will need some silicon/plastic pipe you can buy this from pet shops (it is used for connecting to a fish tank air pump)

You will need some kind of fitting to secure the pipe to the lid (I used a fish tank air filter valve, they are very cheap to buy)


I cut one end of the filter valve which separated the bottom part of the valve.

I drilled a small hole and pushed down the small plastic end into the lid on the underside of the lid I pushed on a small piece of plastic
which went over the end of the intruding plastic valve.

Then I pushed on the silicon/plastic pipe onto the top of the lid.
Next step,  make a breather hole. I wanted something that would not leak if the container was knocked over I used a small plastic filter valve, you can get these off eBay very cheap to buy, I had some spare ones that came with my continuous inking system.

I drilled a second hole in the lid and pushed the air breather valve and on the inside of the lid where the plastic valve protruded
I pushed on a piece of small plastic pipe, this made the valve secure.



Basically what you should end up with is a container with a plastic pipe coming out which should be sealed in the lid
and a breather hole.

The tricky bit is you will need to take off the cover on your printer, I recommend going on to You Tube and watch some of the videos that explain how to fit one of these  ink containers , I would not recommend doing this modification if your printer is still under warranty.

To make the printer more economical I use a continuous ink system, I brought mine from eBay for £29 .00, this consists of a container which houses all the colours for your printer and silicon piping which is connected to ink cartridges the unit's normally come supplied with ink , they are very easy to fit, have a look at some of the videos which are normally available from the supplier of your unit. Search eBay for continuous inkjet system and try to find one that matches your printer, it'll save you a lot of money.
The ink is continually supplied from the containers via the silicon piping into the new ink tanks
fish tank air filter valve
cut valve
drilled  small hole
continuous ink system
The pipe coming out is normally positioned onto the evaporating sponge.
You have to carefully  pull the pipe so the bottom end comes out of the printer case and attached a pipe connector (these are available from pet shops )this allows you to connect the pipe from the recycle tank.


The waste ink can be reused, I recommend a ratio of 3 to 1 , you simply pour this back into the black continuous ink system tank.
breather hole filter
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