Workshop Printer recommendations

[gunnyr]

Earlier this year I finally began to move out of my garage and into a dedicated off-site workshop.  Now I'm finding I have need for a printer.  I know that it will only be used sporadically, rarely will it be used to produce presentation level documents.  Any recommendations?

 

[Sparktrician]

Jeff, you might want to look at the Brother MFC-L2750DW.  It's not terribly expensive, but its output quality beats the tar out of offerings from H-P and the like.  If you're in a separate shop, you'll have the ability to scan documents for emailing or storage.  It's wonderful for printing plans reasonably to scale, and for printing manuals for your toys. 

 

[Dick Mahany]

After many years with Epsons, I got tired of the constant needing to clean / align print nozzles which were chronic and wasted ink like crazy (even though I only used Epson OEM inks) on two newer units.  I switched to a Canon TS9120 all in one a year ago and it has been great so far.  It does have a rather odd four color plus two black ink cartridge set up but has been problem free. 

One of the reasons I chose it was because of the ability to use an aftermarket tray for printing PVC ID cards (exact fit) for my Systainers.  I don't print many photos however the ones that I have done look crisp and colors are excellent.  Might be an option to look at.

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[jonnyrocket]

In my experience, the biggest deciding factor when looking at a printer is whether you want permanent ink, or water soluble ink.
If you need permanent inks, then Laser printer is the way to go. If non permanent is OK, then you can bring ink jet back into the mix.

But for general printing, a simple black and white laser will give you the lowest cost per page with the highest reliability. My wife and I had a bother B&W white laser printer for 13 years and only replaced the toner once at a cost of $68 on top of the $300 purchase price. that's less than $29 per year for the printer and ink. That's pretty tough to beat.

If amazing color photos are your desire, then inkjet is the best option because the accuracy and quality are more important than const per page. Just be ware that to protect the inks, you need to spray the fotos with a gloss or matte clear coat or they will run.

 

[Michael Kellough]

What’s it for?

If you want to print very accurate diagrams for templates or hole layout etc. you need an inkjet printer. Laser printers don’t print 100% to scale. Often shrinking the output between 1 to 3% depending on axis.

 

[Cheese]

I do a lot of 1:1 pattern layouts and find a HP inkjet to be perfect. If you need to overlay a pattern on material to layout center lines  or hole-to-hole distances the inkjet is absolutely dead nuts. It's within a couple of thou.

The cartridges however, are expensive and are consumed at a rapid rate. The ink can run when exposed to moisture unless done on specific papers or films. There is also not an optional tray to print PVC identification cards for Systainers.

 

[gunnyr]

Excellent input!  I've had various portable units over the years that were seldom used, seemed every time I wanted to use them the ink was dried out, this has led me to think about a laser printer.  Mostly I'll use it to print cut sheets and the like (I confess I often simply prefer to read a sheet of paper as opposed to a computer screen!)  I have generally had HP printers, thanks to [member=59951]Dick Mahany[/member] and [member=7493]Sparktrician[/member] for steering me to Brother and Canon; I'll certainly take a look at them. 

 

[Cheese]

I confess I often simply prefer to read a sheet of paper as opposed to a computer screen!

Amen...don't we all.

 

[CarrieCarpenterChick]

All good suggestions so far. I opted for an HP Office Jet that could print on Tabloid size paper for design drawings specifically. It was under $200 from amazon. I’m not crazy about a new issue where it won’t use aftermarket ink though. Never had a problem with that until last month but now I get an error if it’s not a genuine HP cartridge.

 

[Sparktrician]

One thing I forgot to mention earlier has to do only with multi-function devices like printers with integrated scanners.  If you make this your choice, take a piece of quadrille paper (graph paper) to the store with you.  Run it through the scanner of the device you're interested in and see if the output from the printer matches the input sheet dimensionally.  I mention this because a couple of years ago, I bought an H-P device which printed canned documents perfectly, but when I scanned a document, the output was utterly junk in terms of quality.  I sent it back and ordered a second one.  Same problem.  The second one was returned and a third one ordered.  Once again, same problem.  The third one was returned.  Finally, I took some quadrille paper to a local Office Depot and tried the same process on multiple display devices until I found one that did the job right.  I bought one of that model, but on the condition that I had to test it in the store FIRST.  They agreed; it worked perfectly; I bought it.  It's the Brother MFC-L2750DW that I mentioned in my earlier message.  Caveat emptor!!!

 

[kmickey]

I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, but in 80s/early 90s people used to put plastic covers on their computers when they went home for the night. I highly recommend making one for your printer to keep shop dust off.

 

[gunnyr]

I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, but in 80s/early 90s people used to put plastic covers on their computers when they went home for the night. I highly recommend making one for your printer to keep shop dust off.

Great idea, thanks for pointing it out!  Not just to keep the dust off but more importantly to keep the dust OUT!

 

[Bob D.]

Another vote here for Brother B&W laser printers. Wife used to do closings for mortgages and Refis and would print 40 to 100 pages document packages every day on a Brother MFC9600. Used it for years. Never had a problem and we only replaced it after 12 years to get a color laser from Brother.

I used a cover on my dot matrix printers many years ago. Good idea for the shop but remember if you go with a laser some of them keep the drum heated when in standby and a cover might affect cooling. Also they draw more power when in standby so look at the sleep mode settings.

 

[cider]

I hate to say it, because I worked at HP as an engineer on printers, but +1 on the Brother.  My wife bought an HP, setup was an awful user experience and it wouldn't calibrate, so we took it back.  The salesperson said nobody liked the HP printers, try a Brother.  I looked the other way, and my wife exchanged the HP for a Brother.  Took it home and everything just worked 

 

[Vtshopdog]

+1 on a basic Brother B&W laser model.  I had several at my business, (360 series??) very reliable, cheap with affordable toner.

HP in my book stands for ”Hellish Product”.  I recall one HP that the staff ritually disassembled and destroyed one night after hours because it was so frustrating to use.

 

[rmhinden]

I have an HP Color Laser Jet M542dn at home.  It was easy to setup and I never had a problem with the printer.  I did get a defective toner cartridge that HP replaced.  Prints very well in B&W and Color and the cartridges last a long time.

Of course, replacing the toner cartridges cost as much as the printer, but I think that the business model for most printers these days. 

Bob

 

[Gregor]

... Canon TS9120 ... photos ... crisp and colors are excellent.

I can only suggest to compare with the output of eg. a Pixma Pro-10s (using paper made for the job) and reconsider that statement.

For a shop printer I can offer the following words of advice:

In case you need high volume, use it only rarely and don't care about photo quality: laser
In case you need photo quality: good ink printer (eg. the one above), in case you also want it cheap look at local print services.
In case you use it in a dusty environment: whatever as cheap as possible as it'll likely die early.

IMHO try to avoid multi-use (included scanner, fax, microwave, fishtank and whatnot) devices, it's better having to replace (or upgrade to higher quality and/or speed) only the one function you're unhappy with.

 

[GoingMyWay]

IMHO try to avoid multi-use (included scanner, fax, microwave, fishtank and whatnot) devices, it's better having to replace (or upgrade to higher quality and/or speed) only the one function you're unhappy with.

I normally agree with not getting a multi-function device, but I love my Brother multi-function wireless laser printer. Being able to "xerox" something with the push of a button is priceless. I also like the ability to easily fax, though that's becoming less and less common.  This has got to be one of the best purchases that I've ever made.

 

[Michael Kellough]

IMHO try to avoid multi-use (included scanner, fax, microwave, fishtank and whatnot) devices, it's better having to replace (or upgrade to higher quality and/or speed) only the one function you're unhappy with.

I normally agree with not getting a multi-function device, but I love my Brother multi-function wireless laser printer. Being able to "xerox" something with the push of a button is priceless. I also like the ability to easily fax, though that's becoming less and less common.  This has got to be one of the best purchases that I've ever made.

I like mine too but I still recommend an inkjet for producing accurate templates.

 

[Bob D.]

IMHO try to avoid multi-use (included scanner, fax, microwave, fishtank and whatnot) devices, it's better having to replace (or upgrade to higher quality and/or speed) only the one function you're unhappy with.

I normally agree with not getting a multi-function device, but I love my Brother multi-function wireless laser printer. Being able to "xerox" something with the push of a button is priceless. I also like the ability to easily fax, though that's becoming less and less common.  This has got to be one of the best purchases that I've ever made.

I agree. Another plus for the scanner function is when you need a template of a small item just put it on the glass and hit print. BAM! You've got an outline of your part. Plus on most you can zoom or shrink the output.