I am a bit cheesed off with my new printer, I bought an Epson 412 and printed off a couple of Scalescene models and the ink is now low, just priced up original inks and I could buy another printer for the price, please do not mention copy inks as I will not use them.
So what Printers do you use and do you get quality prints for your model making?
I am asking this before I go out and buy new inks just to see if its better to invest in a new printer.
Geoff
Quite often the set of ink cartridges you get with a new printer are not full. Just enough ink to get you started.
I think most ink jet printers use a lot of ink when printing pictures. Comes with the territory I'm afraid. I'm not up to date with the latest printers so can't advise on cheapest printers to run. Try a google for ink jet printer reviews and see what you come up with
Bob Austin
Just before I finished up at work my department bought 3 identical el cheap HP printers and they were scrapped in a few months
At home I have a similar model which is still going well after close to 12 years. In fact I bought a Canon a few years ago and gave it to me daughter, the print quality was so bad.
BUT... on topic, I am told that new printers come with THEIR CARTRIDGES ONLY HALF FULL, so perhaps this is the problem? :hmmm:
My next printer will be a laser one, to hell with the expense (I can probably declare it as a business expense). I was actually on the verge of going out and buying one when my current inkjet was playing up, but it evidently read my mind and miraculously started working.
Was reading the Mail online today (yes, I know, but it does keep me in touch with what is happening in UK!!LOL) and saw this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2778082/End-ink-cartridge-Epson-unveils-printer-refillable-TANK-print-6-500-pages-needs-refilling.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2778082/End-ink-cartridge-Epson-unveils-printer-refillable-TANK-print-6-500-pages-needs-refilling.html) seems like we may be finally moving forward to the technology we used to have :confused2:
cheers, Bill.
Great news, my first two printers were like that, very expensive to buy but cheap to run and then the price war started and we ended up with very cheap printers but high running costs.
My current printer is a HP Laser, great printer, (now about 7 years old) but refill costs are high but do last a long, long time.
Colour laser is the way to go if you do a lot of printing but as Caz says, expensive when it comes to getting new cartridges.
Plenty of printers to choose from but I've had good experience with Phaser and Kyocera, neither are cheap but deliver decent results.
Perhaps 'buy' each page you print and put the cash in a pot to avoid a big dent in the budget?
Dave G
Good idea, Dave! :thumbsup:
Quote from: Geoff on October 03, 2014, 07:09:13 AM
just priced up original inks and I could buy another printer for the price
That's partially because (as others have said) you get the printer with partial inks (but lasers are sold the same way ...); but mainly because the hardware is dirt cheap with very little profit (if any) in it - all the profits come from the inks. Cost a cartridge out to a pint level, or a litre level - you'll be horrified ...
Quote from: daveg on October 03, 2014, 08:30:40 AM
Colour laser is the way to go if you do a lot of printing
Plenty of printers to choose from but I've had good experience with Phaser and Kyocera, neither are cheap but deliver decent results.
Agreed, colour lasers can be very good; I really need to replace one of my colours (been out for over a year now ... !) but I don't do as much printing as I did when I bought it ... tend to use the wireless printer in my wife's room if I need to get a hard copy !
Not up with current lasers; Phasers used to be mainly wax sublimation (and right buggers !), last Phaser laser I saw was decent but expensive. Kyoceras I have always had problems with though; will never buy one. HPs were OK; expensive if they go wrong, however. My laser is Epson - the Acculaser C1100 - current model is C1700, £125 list with toners @ about £60 list per colour.
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.
............I tend to do my printing at work, cheap and reliable! :goggleeyes:
Surprised you had problems with the Kyo's Mike.
We had a dozen desktop versions and 3 big beasts at work and they ran like clockwork, 6 hours a day.
The Phaser I used was a wax block type ink but it never gave me trouble.
Lot's has changed in the 3 years since I gave up the day job. Must've been lucky I guess!
Dave G
My preference is the OKI colour lasers, the one I have is now getting on for 8 years old, it cost about £220 when new, prices are now considerably lower, especially with the current £30 cashback offer.
http://www.printerland.co.uk/OKI-C301dn-P122971.aspx (http://www.printerland.co.uk/OKI-C301dn-P122971.aspx)
It will print "banner" paper up to 1320mm long ideal for backscenes without a lot of joins, also prints on paper/card up to 220gsm, the cartridges supplied with new printers do 750 pages, standard ones do 1500, I'm now on my second set of refilled toners no problems with non OKI refills.
Before retirement I spent a few years repairing printers, plotters and scanners, I wouldn't touch Epson with a barge pole, we had more Epson ink jets with blocked jets than any other make, nor was I impressed with their build quality, if used daily there was less likelihood of jets blocking, Lexmark also were not too good, HP cartridges came combined with a new print head so jets were not a problem.
My wife and I have a Printer each - both HP inkjet models a 3050 and a 4500.
Had them both quite a few years and the Ink seems to last quite a while but we always buy the "XL" cartridges if we can which are a little more expensive but last a lot longer.
Don't know how much cartridges would be in the U.K. at the moment but they do seem to be a little cheaper over here if my memory serves me right. Most recent purchases 28th August 2014 were a :-
HP 901 (black) €15.60
HP901-XL (colour) €23.22
HP 301-XL (black) €21.14
HP 301-XL (colour) €21.14
The I.g.i.c charge (VAT) on the total was €5.80 making a Grand Total for 4 new cartridges of €86.78 - equivalent to about £68 sterling using current exchange rate of €1.27 to the £1.
I did a costing exercise a year or so ago.
For mono printing it is a lot cheaper (about 50%) to use a laser assuming it's mostly text, but the advantage increases for pictures. This was based on 2000 sheets a year.
For colour, the advantage for lasers was still there but wasn't nearly so good if most printing was text but it got a lot better for pictures. The shop assistants have the information usually but don't give it clearly - take a calculator to work out the costs, then check the pirated cartridges as well !
Hope it helps,
Bob B
I have an Epson its great
First cartridges did not last long.
I used cheap compatible cartridges (from Inkredible) for a while and they were good then printer upgraded its software and the compatible ones stopped working.
I now get genuine ones (still from Inkredible)
Quote from: FeelixTC on October 03, 2014, 09:23:52 AM
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.
.............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.
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
I use a Kodak ESP C310 my self, prints & photo are very good and the ink is dirt cheap :)
Roger
Quote from: austinbob on October 03, 2014, 07:01:55 PM
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.
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 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
:goggleeyes: 8)
Quote from: PLD on October 03, 2014, 07:53:08 PM
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
An Epson stylus 1400 for anything over a4 size
Quote from: MKP on October 03, 2014, 08:41:19 PM
An Epson stylus 1400 for anything over a4 size
Come on... this is N gauge we're talking about here!! LOL
Bob Austin
Quote from: GeeBee on October 03, 2014, 08:26:03 PM
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
:goggleeyes: 8)
:searchingsign: 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 (https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=laser+transparency+film)
Quote from: Dorsetmike on October 04, 2014, 10:23:55 AM
Quote from: GeeBee on October 03, 2014, 08:26:03 PM
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
:goggleeyes: 8)
:searchingsign: 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 (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
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 (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 (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
Quote from: daveg on October 05, 2014, 11:23:43 AM
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 (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 (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
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
We use Oki lasers at work and they are very robust and not too expensive to run (the consumables are expensive but they last a long time).
Crafty computer papers - I've been impressed with their clear decal paper for laser printers.
Cheers, Mike
i used to havea epson r800 which was good, unfortunatly after a windows upgrade to windows 7 the software with the printer would no longer work. I contacted epson but they did not support the new os w7 so the software would not work anymore. I managed to get a driver that worked but ink costs where dear too. I now ues a HP all in one, it prints ok and genuine ink is reasonabley priced.