Opening inkjet cartridge, printer head question, etc...?

Question

Yesterday I asked this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgjpMGZUtmIZikMW78EdcQrsy6IX?qid=20070727115724AAJ3hgr

And I think I might just give it a shot. If the printer head is on the cartridge, would it really destroy my printer?

I have a canon ip1800 printer, how do I open the cartridge?

Is there anything I can do to thin the ink before adding the metallic powder?

Also printer was 30 bucks off ebay so I don't really care about it.

Answer 1

Would not work for two reasons: ink ejection mechanism, and ink suspension medium.

HP's ink ejection mechanism involves flash-heating the ink so it bubble's and the bubble burst, popping the ink to the paper. Any sort of "contaminant" in the ink such as your metal powder will likely 1) jam the print head 2) mess up the ejection mechanism

The Canon version is slightly more likely to work as they use a piezo electric process to "pop" a tiny droplet of ink onto the paper. However, again, I have no idea how "fine" your powder is, and how it would affect the ejection mechanism. And second, Canon carts use a sponge inside to "hold" the ink, and your powder will likely NOT go through the sponge.

It'd be MUCH EASIER if you use the heat-transfer foil for lasers if you want a metallic look.

http://www.hyaz.com/gold%20heat%20transfer%20foil%20news.htm

http://www.papilio.com/metallic%20gold%20silver%20transfer%20foil%20blue%20green%20red.html