printer recommendation

[tomsteve]

i think its time for me to break down and get a printer. im rather lost in the area of computer printin machines,though.what id like is something simple and inexpensive that can print patterns.

did i mention something simple?

im hopin ya'll can give me me some suggestions on brands and all that good stuff.

[WayneMahler]

I have an HP and I like it. If I were shopping for a new printer I would take a good look at the cost of the ink. Printers are fairly cheap anymore but the price of the ink is expensive. The HP I have is an All-in-One, printer, scanner fax. I don't use the fax. The Model is HP Photo smart 6520. For buying all four factory cartridges runs about $125. Someone else up here was posting about this not long ago, can't remember who. Maybe a good read if you can find the thread. 

[jbrowning]

Here is the link to a thread from earlier.

http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/forums/topic/27257-printer-scanner-copier-fax/

[MrsN]

I got sick of always needing to buy ink so I went with a laser printer. I bought a small Brother unit a year and a half a go and have only needed to get toner once. The down side is that I can only print black and white but that doesn't really bother me.

[OCtoolguy]

35 minutes ago, MrsN said:

I got sick of always needing to buy ink so I went with a laser printer. I bought a small Brother unit a year and a half a go and have only needed to get toner once. The down side is that I can only print black and white but that doesn't really bother me.

I've thought about a cheap laser printer just for pattern printing too Mrs.N. From what I have found so far Brother makes a pretty good one and it's not at all expensive. What brand did you buy?

Ray

 

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Tom that was my post back then. I did wind up buying a HP all in one 6978. I can tell you some of my findings being I just went through this. I always want the ability to scan and copy and print. This unit came with a fax and I have not used it much in the past I can say I have used it. (both receiving and sending) I did not look into laser printers so can not speak to them except the fact they are not good for picture quality and in my case Decal work. I make alot of decals so I need good print quality. I also wanted a inkjet that had individual color cartridges because if one color is used more often you need to buy an entire cartridge with all colors if you get the combined unit. More expensive that way. The units that are more geared toward photos have 4 to 5 cartridges as opposed to 3 color and one black. Those units have an extra deep black and and extra deep blue. I did not need to get that involved so skipped that. I found that most units today are wifi capable or wireless as they call it. I have read many many reviews and this feature gets bad reviews in that it is hit or miss alot of the time. I was not interested in that because I hard wire to computer and it sits on a table next to computer as always. Also found out that you need to pay attention to your operating system that it is being used on. I use WindowsXP64 and none of the units today are compatible with the windows. On the box they say XP but that is 32 bit system. When I got mine the tech who I had to call took over my machine and installed older printer drivers so that it tricks the computer in order for it to work. What this did was eliminate much of the software programs that come with each printer. I did not care again because it is used for specific purposes and the way it is programed now works for me. I looked at the Cannons but felt they were the cheapest made as far a quality goes. The front door on one did not stay up and found it to be a bad review. Brother was too big for my likings. I bought the extended repair package and as the clerk said when 2 years comes up break it and you will get reimbursed or a new one. Not sure if he was suppose to tell me that but that is what I will do. 

 

As far as simple, they all are simple but there are options to expand their use too so you never know what the future holds. They are not at all expensive. I bought mine in Best Buys on sale. Be careful when buying in Costco and walmarts, many times those units are made specific for those companies and are not a worldwide unit. Not much more I can add but if you have a specific question I will try to answer but I am sure there are many here that can help too. Happy shopping.

[GrampaJim]

2 hours ago, MrsN said:

I got sick of always needing to buy ink so I went with a laser printer. I bought a small Brother unit a year and a half a go and have only needed to get toner once. The down side is that I can only print black and white but that doesn't really bother me.

I did the same thing.  Got a Brother Laser printer from Wallyworld a couple of years ago and have had zero problem with it.  The experts say Laser are the cheapest cost per page printer compared to inkjets.  I still have my old HP inkjet just to have the scanner/copier function.

Edited January 26, 2018 by GrampaJim

[rjweb]

Ink is the expensive part, I have found it was cheaper to buy a new printer that has the ink included, RJ 

[crupiea]

I have a color laser printer brother and love it. Cost me about $150 and came with all the cartridges. I just had to replace the black and yellow after 853 pages. The toners cost me $31 for all the colors and they work great. Simple math, well worth it for how much I paid.

 

[orangeman]

2 hours ago, crupiea said:

I have a color laser printer brother and love it. Cost me about $150 and came with all the cartridges. I just had to replace the black and yellow after 853 pages. The toners cost me $31 for all the colors and they work great. Simple math, well worth it for how much I paid.

 

Gosh, I paid about $125 for a Brother black and white laser printer a couple years ago. On my third cartridge @ ~ $55ea.

When it dies I will investigate a color laser printer. What kind do you have.

bb

[lawson56]

Well I have a Kodak.Don't know how much I paid for it.bought it several yrs ago.but it's working Fantastic!It scans copies faxs prints.Its Great.The price pf it is cheap.

[ScollSaw Slasher]

Ah printers. i have had Brothers, HP, Cannons etc ink jets. Currently have an Epson XP-650 for about three years. Don't know if it's still available but it's been a pretty good printer. The thing about printers is no matter who the manufacturer, they give them away to lock you into the ink cartridges. Very high profit margins. To solve this (on my 4th batch of colored cartridges), I buy the knock offs from Amazon or some of the other internet ink sellers at a 60 to 80 % savings. Only on that last batch did I get that famous message "you're not using genuine Epson ink" and the printer quit working. Well a few little tweaks I had it up and running. This happened right after I had a supposed software upgrade from Epson. So the lesson learned is if you get the new printer running, forget the automatic updates etc. that the company offers, especially if you are using knock off inks.

[Brianr24]

I bought a HP 4630 I don't have any complaint it's ok. But I made sure this time to buy a printer that if the tri color cartridges ran out I can still print black which is what I print 99% anyway. My old Brother printer would not print black If the tri colors were out. They used to dry up on me from no use . then I couldn't print in black even. That really would piss me off! Just thinking about it now gets my dander up. Lol

[tomsteve]

17 hours ago, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

Tom that was my post back then. I did wind up buying a HP all in one 6978. I can tell you some of my findings being I just went through this. I always want the ability to scan and copy and print. This unit came with a fax and I have not used it much in the past I can say I have used it. (both receiving and sending) I did not look into laser printers so can not speak to them except the fact they are not good for picture quality and in my case Decal work. I make alot of decals so I need good print quality. I also wanted a inkjet that had individual color cartridges because if one color is used more often you need to buy an entire cartridge with all colors if you get the combined unit. More expensive that way. The units that are more geared toward photos have 4 to 5 cartridges as opposed to 3 color and one black. Those units have an extra deep black and and extra deep blue. I did not need to get that involved so skipped that. I found that most units today are wifi capable or wireless as they call it. I have read many many reviews and this feature gets bad reviews in that it is hit or miss alot of the time. I was not interested in that because I hard wire to computer and it sits on a table next to computer as always. Also found out that you need to pay attention to your operating system that it is being used on. I use WindowsXP64 and none of the units today are compatible with the windows. On the box they say XP but that is 32 bit system. When I got mine the tech who I had to call took over my machine and installed older printer drivers so that it tricks the computer in order for it to work. What this did was eliminate much of the software programs that come with each printer. I did not care again because it is used for specific purposes and the way it is programed now works for me. I looked at the Cannons but felt they were the cheapest made as far a quality goes. The front door on one did not stay up and found it to be a bad review. Brother was too big for my likings. I bought the extended repair package and as the clerk said when 2 years comes up break it and you will get reimbursed or a new one. Not sure if he was suppose to tell me that but that is what I will do. 

 

As far as simple, they all are simple but there are options to expand their use too so you never know what the future holds. They are not at all expensive. I bought mine in Best Buys on sale. Be careful when buying in Costco and walmarts, many times those units are made specific for those companies and are not a worldwide unit. Not much more I can add but if you have a specific question I will try to answer but I am sure there are many here that can help too. Happy shopping.

thank you greatly for this,JT. the ink is big for me- im only going to be making patterns and shipping labels so the majority will be black ink. and after ya mention it, scanning would be a good option- i have hundreds of patterns from past issues of magazine(going back about 12 years) that a scanner would be a great option for.

think i might head out and do some window shopping today.

 

thanks all for your experiences!

[amazingkevin]

On 1/26/2018 at 12:45 PM, tomsteve said:

i think its time for me to break down and get a printer. im rather lost in the area of computer printin machines,though.what id like is something simple and inexpensive that can print patterns.

did i mention something simple?

im hopin ya'll can give me me some suggestions on brands and all that good stuff.

get one where you can order non original equipment ink and refillable cartriges

.It costs pennies to refill and at $25.00 a factory cartridge it adds up to way to much to afford to buy them prefilled.