Printers

[treffk]

Does anyone have a printer that is reasonably priced in purchasing and ink costs? Come build season we will be printing strictly from this printer and off season it will get used primarily by just my family.

Thanks,
Kelli

[Mike AA]

If you just want black and white prints get a laser printer. Theyre a little more expensive for new toner but you only replace it once a year or so. I personallyhave owned a brother ml2040 for over 2 years, printer is about $100 to $150 toner is about $60 to $100. Each kickoff I print 10 copies of the whole manual, takes about 5minutes. Color laser printers are more expensive but well worth the investment if you don't need to print high quality pictures.

If you want ink/color buy a brother all in one, mfc series, scanner, copier, printer. Staples sells the ink fairly cheap, if want cheaper then buy replacement ink off ebay, 15 cartrages for $20 to $30.

Just my opinion

[PAR_WIG1350]

laser printers are also good for PCB etching. There really are no printers that use cheap ink (that is available at most retailers), ink is how printer manufacturers make money. However, certain websites and retail stores (such as Cartridge world) sell the refillable versions of most cartridges which also sometimes contain more ink to begin with (the ink cartridges consumers are often tricked into buying are identical to the cartridges that the printers ship with (which aren't filled to capacity) instead of the full refill cartridges that the manufacturers don't like to advertise since they are less profitable. I know that lexmark operates that way, but I don't know who else does.

[sanddrag]

Your best bet is to get a good used printer from an office place that has recently updated or gone out of business. Don't waste your time with inkjet printers, unless we're talking large format.

For older models, the HP LaserJet 4 is a real workhorse and can be found inexpensively. The things just don't die.

The LaserJet 4000 series is also nice.

If you need something fast for high volume printing, and it also does 11x17, the LaserJet 8120 is a great choice.

If you'll be printing a lot of manuals, you may want to look at something with a duplexer.

I've used a LaserJet 2200 a bunch, and I hate the lack of a menu/screen.

For color, I have an old OKI that prints rather nicely. I've also used an HP CP3505 that works okay. It's very fast but the print quality cannot compare to the OKI.

Whatever you get, I'd recommend making sure it has network.

Unfortunately I do not have any experience with the newer models.

[Cuog]

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-ML-251...ref=pd_sim_e_2

I've been using a slightly different model of this laser printer for 3 years and it has worked great. The toner cartridges are ~$35 for an off brand or $80 for the samsung. I'm using an off brand currently and have had no problems. Both will give you 3k pages.

Networking is a great feature if you have multiple computers that may need printer support.

For used go for an HP laserjet series. My parents have an HP laserjet 4 that has the old LPT or whatever printer cable they bought it in '93 and its still going strong.