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However you choose to refill cartridges, there are some items of equipment you will need, but they do not always come immediately to mind. Here we recommend the cheapest ways of equipping yourself for remanufacturing cartridges.

1. SOAKING TRAYS. When cartridges have dried ink in the print head, you cannot just wipe them clean. They need to be soaked. This means standing them print head down in a tray. The best sort of tray to use is a green seed tray with no holes in it. You can get these very cheaply at your local DIY store or garden centre.
2. SOAKING MEMBRANE. Big name, simple idea. When you soak cartridges you need to put them on a simple membrane to hold the soaking fluid and draw out the ink. You have two choices:
• KITCHEN TOWEL. Cheap and easy: use two or three layers for the best results. Throw away after use. You will also need quantities of kitchen towel for:
• "dab testing" cartridges. This is the process you use after filling that presses the print head onto kitchen towel. You should get nice, clear bands of ink if the cartridge has been filled correctly.
• cleaning with isopropyl alcohol (see point 4 below).
• wiping up spilt ink!
• wiping noses (and tears)
• With all these uses, you will appreciate that we recommend own brand kitchen towel, not the expensive sorts!
• KITCHEN CLEANING CLOTH. Available in some supermarkets, these cloths have moisture retaining properties and are quite tough. You can rinse them out and use them several times. Do not, however use blue "J-cloth" type fabrics: they will shed paper fibres that will clog the print head even more than the ink!
3. SOAKING FLUID. You can either use
• DEIONISED WATER. All cleaning of cartridges should be performed using deionised water. Check out your local car spares shop for cheap "Dee-eye" in bulk. It is worthwhile getting a price for 25Kg at a time.
• OCP FLUSHING FLUID. More expensive than DI but better results. Available from us.
4. ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL. There is really no alternative to isopropyl alcohol for cleaning foils on cartridges. Obtainable from your local chemist, but wear a suit when you go and ask them to supply you--a business card would help too! Chemists do not tend to look kindly on someone wearing dirty jeans with inky hands, asking for a couple of litres of neat alcohol. Apply by rubbing the foil with kitchen towel (again) moistened with the isopropyl alcohol.
5. PENCIL ERASERS. No kidding--what isopropyl alcohol will not remove, elbow grease and a rubber will. Buy big ones through a stationery supply store for the cheapest prices. Make sure they are the real ones, not coloured plastic equivalents.
6. STEAMER. Another tool for loosening dried ink in cartridge print heads. There is a huge range of steamers available from DIY stores. We ourselves also stock an industrial capacity steamer with variable temperature which we can highly recommend. Use this link to find out more about our steamers.
7. PRINTERS. The bane of the remanufacturer's life. You need a range of printers to test finished cartridges on, and also to pre-test incoming empties. You do not need printers for ink tanks (like most Canons and Epsons), just for HP, Lexmark and the Canon cartridges with foils. You do not need to lay out on expensive, brand new printers--second hand is best, and essential for some older models. Shop around on internet auctions. If you want to know which printers to buy, use this link for our recommendations.
8. COMPUTER. Depending on how computer hardware literate you are, you will need one or more computers to drive the test printers. You can set up some nifty networking to drive the printers from a single computer, which should keep you happy for a day or two if you are into that kind of thing. Alternatively, the cheap and easy solution is to use TonerHead TestMessagers. Use this link to find out more.
9. TEST PAGES. This might sound trivial, but it most certainly is not!. It is very important to set up test pages that really test a remanufactured cartridge to ensure its quality. The page for black should contain black horizontal bars and text. Colour tests should contain horizontal bars of all three colours. Beware! Some word processing programmes do not contain the pure cyan, yellow and magenta colours you need. For more advice and copies of our test pages, give us a call.
10. PAPER. You will get through a lot of paper on test pages. High quality paper is not required: watch for deals on boxes of paper from stationery suppliers, and when they come out, buy in bulk. It will save you money in the long run.
11. SHARP KNIFE. You need a knife to remove tops from some colour cartridges. A "Stanley Knife" is not recommended--you'll remove more fingers that tops! Go for a good kitchen knife with a flat--not serrated--blade about 10cm long.
12. PLUG PUSHER. You can buy plug pushers from us, or alternatively go to a good builder's merchants (not a DIY shop) and ask for a carpenter's awl.
13. SUPERGLUE. For replacing removed tops! Do not be tempted to glue all the way round--a spot in each corner is enough, and allows the cartridge to breathe. Also makes it possible for you to get the top off next time around!
14. LABEL REMOVER. Not absolutely essential, but it does help to clean the glue off cartridges before you apply your own labels.
15. SCALES. You need good quality scales weighing accurately in grams. This is to establish how much ink is in a cartridge before and after processing. Check this link to see our range of digital scales.
16. OFFICE SUPPLIES CATALOGUE. Many catalogues have a wonderful list of printers and the cartridges they take. Excellent source of free information--and you can check out competing prices in them too!
17. HOT GLUE GUN. Essential if you are filling Epson and Canon ink tanks, otherwise optional. The best way to fill holes drilled in ink tanks.
18. REPLACEMENT PLUGS AND PARTS. You cannot rely on always using the parts from the original cartridge. They frequently break or become damaged and ink stained during remanufacture. Of course you can reuse parts whenever possible to save money, but always have spares available for when you drop or loose some.
19. KETTLE. As the sign in our filling room says, "When in doubt, brew up." We also recommend that a filled cartridge that is not flowing properly can benefit from being held in the steam from a kettle for a few seconds followed by pressure on damp kitchen towel as a way to revive the cartridge.

There are other "tools of the trade" you can use to improve your production and quality, but this list is designed to ensure you have everything you need to start out.

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