DIY Continuous Ink Printer = Unlimited Free Printing
Instead of paying for absurdly priced printer cartridges, build yourself a Continuous Ink Printer (CIS) which can be made by hacking an old printer to suck ink from external reservoirs. You can get the raw ink for dirt cheap so it’s essentially like unlimited printing for free (besides the paper). So now you can actually print your collection of pirated books! 
A CIS is relatively easy to create, just take an Epson Stylus 760 (a surprisingly hard to find printer) and make a few modifications to it. A tutorial walks you through the build process so you can make your own.
More Printer Hacks:
July 9th, 2009
I have always loved hacks and this alows me to acully print out all my home made graphics really cheap and put them up on my house. Keep up the brilliant work.
July 10th, 2009
Or, just get a color laser for about $400 with full size toner cartridges (Dell), and print 5000 pages for no cost.
July 10th, 2009
Not really free. The heads on cartridges eventually wear out. This can cause a real mess, and possibly damage to your printer if you keep printing with damaged or worn out heads.
July 10th, 2009
Well of course it’s going to wear out eventually but it’s free for ages.
July 12th, 2009
Why is the picture a canon, but the recomendation a epson printer ?
July 12th, 2009
That picture is of a typical continuous ink printer, not the specific setup used in the project.
July 16th, 2009
Imagine your inkjet printer was your car. If your car needed an oil change, would you say screw this i’ll just save money and top of the oil in my car or better yet forgoe putting the right grade of oil in my car (whatever is the cheapest). As an IT tech, I see this all the time, clients blaming the printer manufacturer for their el cheapo refilled cartridges not working or better yet creating a nice big mess inside the printer. Printer manufacturers spend millions of dollars in R&D and patents to get their ink formulations right. I can guarantee you the ink being refilled in your ink cartridges is not the same genuine ink you would be getting from manufacturer. One time an irrate client blamed me for his refilled ink cartridge not working in his printer. Low and behold I put a genuine ink cartridge in the printer in front of the client and the printer worked. The client just yelled at me and called me incompetent. Sheesh.
July 26th, 2009
is there a hack for the HP ones?
July 26th, 2009
it could probably be done with HP…but Epson seems to be the printer of choice.
December 15th, 2009
If you have to buy bottles of ink and “hack” your printer why not just refill your own cartridges? you obviously know how if you have the skills to make this.
December 15th, 2009
Continuous ink printing is actually considerably cheaper than refilling old cartridges.
December 15th, 2009
OK Joe L, explain to us how Continuous ink printing is “considerably cheaper” than refilling old cartridges?
what difference does it make cost-wise whether I refill my cartridges or use a continuous ink setup?
The only benefit I can see with the continuous ink setup is that it’s more convenient as you don’t have to hassle with refilling cartridges, then again I don’t have multiple bottles of ink and tubes hanging outside my printer
December 16th, 2009
I meant it’s cheaper simply because you can buy in bulk, and yes, good point, you don’t have to hassle with refilling cartridges.
April 22nd, 2011
That’s kinda neat, but it’s not new. Plus, you have to go buy a new printer, and the ink, and the setup, and my attention span isn’t that long.