Which Printer do you use?

[keithfre]

My beef with inkjets is that if you don't use them for some time, the nozzles seem to clog permanently. You can run the 'clean' process as much as you like, put in new cartridges, even wipe the 'heads' with IPA; but it makes no difference as far as I can tell.

That problem has driven me nuts too. I recently discovered that inkjet 'cleaning' involves trying to pump more _ink_ through the nozzles, thus aggravating the problem. There are special cleaning cartridges that contain cleaning fluid, which I intend to try. My plan is to take the ink cartridges out, clean the nozzles with the cleaning cartridges and leave those in place until I need to print something in colour.

Meanwhile I've bought a cheapo mono laser, which also has the advantage of being a lot faster than the inkjet.

[FeelixTC]

.............On the other hand; the downside of laser prints is that they tend to be glossy and they don't fold well without 'cracking' the print.

[austinbob]

Read in the Daily Mail today...

New Epson Eco Tank L355 printer.

This uses refill bottles (proper Epson ones) of 70mL capacity instead of the standard cartridges which apparently are only 3.8mL!! at £28.99 for four colours

Printer cost £249 at PC World
Refill cost 4 colours x 70mL £31.96

This seems to reverse the trend of cheap printer and expensive ink.

Might be worth looking into.

Bob Austin

[Oldun]

I use a Kodak ESP C310 my self, prints & photo are very good and the ink is dirt cheap

Roger

[Geoff]

Read in the Daily Mail today...

New Epson Eco Tank L355 printer.

This uses refill bottles (proper Epson ones) of 70mL capacity instead of the standard cartridges which apparently are only 3.8mL!! at £28.99 for four colours

Printer cost £249 at PC World
Refill cost 4 colours x 70mL £31.96

This seems to reverse the trend of cheap printer and expensive ink.

Might be worth looking into.

Bob Austin

Yep I read that earlier today and I have read that the inks that come with new printers are only a quarter to half full so I am going to buy the XL inks for my model, that printer you are talking about is cheaper on Amazon, so that might be my next printer when this one packs in.

Many thanks Bob and everyone who have given there views on printers.

[PLD]

Another vote for Epson.

In my case a Stylus 750 Photo Printer, now around 12 years old and still going strong. Havent found anything that matches it for photos. A Cannon was dismal and a Lexmark lasted less than a year while lasers have never been good on photo paper.

Inks cartridges are realtively cheap compared to more recent types but are getting harder to find. Cartridge World will refill and the colours are indistingusishable from Epson Originals but their Black can be a bit variable...

[GeeBee]

I wanted to buy a colour lazer but every time I ask the sales persons which decal film it will print on all I get are glazed expressions and a non committal answer I will get a sensible answer one day but not soon I fear
   

[austinbob]

Another vote for Epson.

In my case a Stylus 750 Photo Printer, now around 12 years old and still going strong. Havent found anything that matches it for photos. A Cannon was dismal and a Lexmark lasted less than a year while lasers have never been good on photo paper.

Inks cartridges are realtively cheap compared to more recent types but are getting harder to find. Cartridge World will refill and the colours are indistingusishable from Epson Originals but their Black can be a bit variable...

I had a 750 which served me well for 5 years followed by another Epson printer with which I had no problems. I am a keen photographer and have always found Epson printers to be best for photos. I've got an HP Photosmart 7510 at the moment but I've found it is not very smart at all printing photos, compared to Epson. Great for general printing, scanning and copying though.

This new Epson L355 looks really interesting though - with the larger ink refills. I'm going to investigate further to see if this is going to be my next printer purchase.

I note the interest in Laser printers in this thread and they are probably good for graphics and maybe even for printing coach sides and other railway items. For photography they don't come close to ink jet printers at reasonable prices.

Bob Austin

[MKP]

An Epson stylus 1400 for anything over a4 size

[austinbob]

An Epson stylus 1400 for anything over a4 size

Come on... this is N gauge we're talking about here!!  LOL

Bob Austin

[Dorsetmike]

I wanted to buy a colour lazer but every time I ask the sales persons which decal film it will print on all I get are glazed expressions and a non committal answer I will get a sensible answer one day but not soon I fear
   

A quick Google has Amazon as the first result of about 595,000

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=laser+transparency+film

[GeeBee]

I wanted to buy a colour lazer but every time I ask the sales persons which decal film it will print on all I get are glazed expressions and a non committal answer I will get a sensible answer one day but not soon I fear
   

A quick Google has Amazon as the first result of about 595,000

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=laser+transparency+film

Yeah thanks for that I had done that but they are all for transparency films and not decal Sheet a different beast altogether having spoken to the tech department at HP Winnersh I am no farther forward, their first reaction was Duhhh and the what does it do, having explained they said 1. They had never heard of the stuff. 2.They did not know if it would damaged the printer but they did not see why I could not try it. When I pointed out that there are 2 types of colour laser cartridges and which one should I use they said they were unable to help me further. Still looking

[daveg]

How about this stuff off ebay?

TP-LW A4 Laser Printer Water Slide Decal Paper 10 Sheets White

Here's the horrendous link -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/161403512689?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

or

http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.Inkjet-Water-Slide-Decal-Paper_151.htm?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=GoogleShopping&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CMWo2o2llcECFUnlwgodZKgAVQ

No idea if it works or if it's what you're looking for but it was fun taking a gander!

Dave G

[austinbob]

How about this stuff off ebay?

TP-LW A4 Laser Printer Water Slide Decal Paper 10 Sheets White

Here's the horrendous link -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/161403512689?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

or

http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.Inkjet-Water-Slide-Decal-Paper_151.htm?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=GoogleShopping&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CMWo2o2llcECFUnlwgodZKgAVQ

No idea if it works or if it's what you're looking for but it was fun taking a gander!

Dave G

Checked out that second link - looks really good with a little video to show how its done. Requires acrylic spray which is readily available from Amazon.

I've got some Peco wagon kits to try this on some time in the future. Looks like a good solution!!

Bob Austin

[dodger]

An Epson Stylus DX3850 that is nine years old. To reduce ink costs I always use 3rd party equivalents that are Epson compatible and hence do not give error messages. Its been replace twice but both replacements were returned after a few days later due to poor print quality and lack of adjustment.

I was given a tip to prevent jet clogging many years ago, dont go more than a week without using it. Printing one page that uses all colours uses less ink and is cheaper than cleaning the nozzles.

For me I don't think the later ink tank type will be cost effective.

Dodger