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? 

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  seems like we may be finally moving forward to the technology we used to have 
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! 

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! 

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

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)