To my astonishment and delight one of my tech-savvy friends was able to find just what I needed.
Enter Cobra Ink Systems, for all intents and purposes a Mom and Pop store based out of Cookeville, Tennessee, where I found exactly the object of my desire. What they did was to make a business around customizing Epson printers to do exactly what I described, adding small plastic tanks to the side of the printer that could hold many ounces of liquid rather than a small thimble's amount or what could be stored in the sponge of a regular cartridge, effectively replacing the cartridges and bypassing them so all the ink would be supplied by the tanks.
Even better for my needs and concerns, the printers can be bought to service for pigment ink, which unlike regular inks doesn't bleed or run off when wet. I've dipped a printed page in water and it only did damage to the paper, not the printed image or text itself. For the cost of around $300 and up for the customized printer and about $35 for a full set of ink bottles, color and black, you have a printer that in my estimation is fantastic for not only private users who have large printing volume, but the educational applications are good, too. Granted a lot of schools will have copiers and those are the most common resource for quick printing, but for a specialized classroom or a tutor who handles lots of teaching assistance the usefulness over a common office printer is most certainly exemplary. You can run off hundreds upon hundreds of pages without even getting halfway depleted in your ink levels, and instead of the hassle of replacing ink cartridges the Cobra team has a "restart" button installed in the cartridge housing to fool the computer into thinking that the printer has been magically refilled.
Even if one only uses it as a printer for their office in assisting with their teaching and running off pages, assignments of other such things, I believe it's worthwhile to have. I've sworn by the Cobra printer for 4 years now and would frankly be mortified if I had to go back to owning a regular store-bought printer and use the absolute scam of regular ink cartridges again. There are a number of different models, with or without scanbeds that can be bought here:
While the initial cost of the printer may be offputting, the advantage in the long run not having to blow so much money on ink truly is appealing, especially if you print in large amounts. You can also choose how much ink you want to buy in bottle sizes ranging from 1 ounce per color to 32 ounces, which believe me 32 ounces will last you a long, long time unless you're a crazy person printing everything you see.
If there are downsides it is that you need to print at least once page of something every week or the system runs the risk of drying out and becoming useless, and also some bugs can arise with the printers because they have been customized from existing printers, but the folks at Cobra have an extensive video tutorial troubleshooting section and are available for phone calls and email.
Overall I just adore these printers and would not think of being without them if I had the opportunity to use them in a classroom or office environment, because they have been an immense boon to my artistic career.
