B&W inkjet prints on the cheap.

Hello,

This is my first post here, my name is Dan. I'm toying with the idea of trying my hand at a dedicated B&W printer on the cheap.
Has anyone experimented/experience with this route?

I have an Epson photo stylus R220 and two R300's, all of them are using aftermarket ARC carts and dye ink.
I did a bit of research on 6 color B&W ink setups and was shocked at the prices they want for the inksets.
From what I gather the ink is really just 3 colors, 100% black, light black (C & M positions), and light light black (LM, LC, Y positions).

Is it possible to just buy the Black and dilute the rest?
What to dilute with, distilled water? anything else added?
Also wondering if I should use spray fixative or some other type of finish when dry to negate UV degradation?
I'll use mostly matte paper.

Thoughts, suggestions? Thanks!

DAN

There is a company in UK called NOVA Darkroom (They make the Nova deeptank processors) They also make aftermarket continuous Ink systems for various Epson printers including the P600 which I have and the R3000 which I used to have. That has 3 black inks as you describe LLK, LK, and photoblack. You can buy these inks seperately in 125cc bottles but I don't know if you would be able to use them in your printer because they are technically 'dyes' and not 'inks' as used by your printers.

The only way to find out would be to contact them. Just Google their name 'Nova Darkroom' and you will get their E mail address.

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Thanks John, I'll check them out.
I use dye in my printer all the time, even though the stock carts are pigment ink.
They are pretty old printers, but they still work. I feel a bit cavalier about experimenting with them because they are so old.

Thanks again!

I have just checked their website and they are showing low stock on the refills, however they will be getting more. The price in pounds per individual bottle is roughly £12 so that would be about 17$, give or take. They actually make a 4th black dye .... Matte black which is designed for use with matte paper, but you have to have a a way of conversion to use the matte black built into the printer because you cannot use both the matte black and the photo black at the same time. For normal use the photo black is very good.

I have recently converted my 3880 to Jon Cone's Piezography setup. I'm very impressed with the results. I've wondered the same thing about diluting the darkest black inks to make the others. No idea if it's a viable route. It isn't for me at this point since I'm using the split tone special edition ink set. See the Epson MSDS sheets here: https://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/SuppMSDSSearch.jsp?UseCookie=yes. The 3880 photo black is carbon black, water, glycerols and a proprietary blend of organic materials. I'm not a chemist, but maybe add 10 to 20% propylene glycol or glycerin to the water.

The other factor against mixing your own is you will need to figure out the curves for your printing system to blend the inks and allow a nice linear response. If I try this I'll probably try to reverse engineer the cone densities. But that's a lot of work for minimal savings at the volumes I print.