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Thread: Printer toner as a PC?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master Dapaki's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phlier View Post
    That's great! Man, I could probably get a bunch of spent toner cartridges for free, too. Nicely done! Did you happen to do any of the abrasive tests mentioned earlier in the thread? Kinda surprised the OP never got back to this thread with his results.



    "Spent" toner cartridges always have quite a bit of residual toner powder left in them when they're thrown out. It's not hard to find them for free.
    So far I have only shot them at steel targets, I have PC coming and will abandon this method when it arrives. I just thought it was a fun way to recycle the residue and see what happened?

    My printing center has color carts too, I will be trying C/M/Y when they are available. I am very impressed so far!

  2. #22
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    did you try a smash test or recover any of them to see how it holds up??? Im interested because my wife could get me spent cartriges at work

  3. #23
    Boolit Bub
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    This is a fun idea. I don't think I will try it but am excited to see that others are going down this road. Here is what I know about toner and my thoughts. Do with it what you will. I have worked on copiers/printers for over 30 years so I laugh that I didn't think of trying this.

    Only some types of toner have iron shavings mixed in (called developer material), regular toner does not have iron shavings.
    You could try a magnet and see if it sticks, then you will know if it has these iron shavings.
    Typically a copier/printer has developer and toner as separate parts and both have a life span of so many prints. The theory behind developer infused toner is that the developer mixed in with the toner will automatically replenish/refresh the developer material in the developer assembly as the machine wears or leaks the original developer loaded. If your tech has to replace the developer material in your machine on a schedule then more than likely your machine uses regular toner that does not contain developer material in it. Of course this gets blurry when talking about small printers like HP since the Print Cartridge comes with the developer/drum/toner in every cartridge you load so you are "fairly safe" in ASSUMING that it does not have iron shavings mixed in the toner since you are getting a fresh "load" of developer with each cartridge and don't have to worry about wear or loss so it doesn't need replenishing. K/Y/M/C are all treated the same in the same machine so if you find one machine that does not have developer mixed in the toner then all the colors from that machine will be free of developer.
    If you get that far you should be golden. The worst thing you will find even if the coating is not as durable as PC is that you are shooting bullets that will act like uncoated bullets. Any toner left in the barrel should clean out easily as was stated before. You shouldn't have to scrub like you do with uncured PC. Now if there is leading you may need to scrub to get that out, but the toner shouldn't be a problem.
    The pictures of the black look cool. A Cyan or Yellow would be interesting to see what kind of coverage you get.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tonerboy View Post
    This is a fun idea. I don't think I will try it but am excited to see that others are going down this road. Here is what I know about toner and my thoughts. Do with it what you will. I have worked on copiers/printers for over 30 years so I laugh that I didn't think of trying this.

    Only some types of toner have iron shavings mixed in (called developer material), regular toner does not have iron shavings.
    You could try a magnet and see if it sticks, then you will know if it has these iron shavings.
    Typically a copier/printer has developer and toner as separate parts and both have a life span of so many prints. The theory behind developer infused toner is that the developer mixed in with the toner will automatically replenish/refresh the developer material in the developer assembly as the machine wears or leaks the original developer loaded. If your tech has to replace the developer material in your machine on a schedule then more than likely your machine uses regular toner that does not contain developer material in it. Of course this gets blurry when talking about small printers like HP since the Print Cartridge comes with the developer/drum/toner in every cartridge you load so you are "fairly safe" in ASSUMING that it does not have iron shavings mixed in the toner since you are getting a fresh "load" of developer with each cartridge and don't have to worry about wear or loss so it doesn't need replenishing. K/Y/M/C are all treated the same in the same machine so if you find one machine that does not have developer mixed in the toner then all the colors from that machine will be free of developer.
    If you get that far you should be golden. The worst thing you will find even if the coating is not as durable as PC is that you are shooting bullets that will act like uncoated bullets. Any toner left in the barrel should clean out easily as was stated before. You shouldn't have to scrub like you do with uncured PC. Now if there is leading you may need to scrub to get that out, but the toner shouldn't be a problem.
    The pictures of the black look cool. A Cyan or Yellow would be interesting to see what kind of coverage you get.
    Also something else. On an HP cartridge the heavy side reservoir is the side with the developer. The light side reservoir is the side with the toner. Make sure your only using the powder from the toner side, not the developer side.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master Dapaki's Avatar
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    Tonerboy, this is from commercial high volume printers, neodymium magnets remain clean after passing through a pile of the toner so it looks good to go for ferrous metals. The "cart" is about 24" long, 4"x4" and only holds toner, nothing more. The empty container weighs in at 8 oz or so.

    Yes, I hammered and pressed boolits and they hold the toner well just like the pics of PC boolits I have seen here.

    The bore remains remarkably clean! Surprisingly so.... A wet swab shows flakes of the toner but just a few, nothing grey (lead) and nothing on a second pass.

    Looks good so far.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master Dapaki's Avatar
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    Lloyd,

    I coated them using a PVC container and a handful of airsoft BB's, threw it on the tumbler for 10 minutes and set them all up proud in a silicone baking sheet, set the oven at 400F and baked them in a hot oven for 10 minutes. I like the look too!

  7. #27
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    well if there not leading its working.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dapaki View Post
    Tonerboy, this is from commercial high volume printers, neodymium magnets remain clean after passing through a pile of the toner so it looks good to go for ferrous metals. The "cart" is about 24" long, 4"x4" and only holds toner, nothing more. The empty container weighs in at 8 oz or so.

    Yes, I hammered and pressed boolits and they hold the toner well just like the pics of PC boolits I have seen here.

    The bore remains remarkably clean! Surprisingly so.... A wet swab shows flakes of the toner but just a few, nothing grey (lead) and nothing on a second pass.

    Looks good so far.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check