printer ink

[MossRoad]

As far as I know, all of the HP laserjets that we own have the drum in the toner cartridge. You change it each time. We have maybe 20 HP 4mv, 20 HP4000, a dozen 8150s and a few other models. The laserjet 4s are getting hard to find parts for. Especially the hard plastic case parts that people tend to break off and the little pieces that hold plastic gears in the manual feed trays. Fusers are getting sparse, too.

 

[LMTC]

As far as I know, all of the HP laserjets that we own have the drum in the toner cartridge. You change it each time. We have maybe 20 HP 4mv, 20 HP4000, a dozen 8150s and a few other models. The laserjet 4s are getting hard to find parts for. Especially the hard plastic case parts that people tend to break off and the little pieces that hold plastic gears in the manual feed trays. Fusers are getting sparse, too.

Sorry to hear that, as I know my 4 will eventually need something again. I work it hard. From your experience what is the next tank-like model, coming forward from the 4, that still has decent parts availability and good pricing? My primary attraction to the 4 when I bought it was the price; the two 4Ls I bought were both around $40.

 

[MossRoad]

Sorry to hear that, as I know my 4 will eventually need something again. I work it hard. From your experience what is the next tank-like model, coming forward from the 4, that still has decent parts availability and good pricing? My primary attraction to the 4 when I bought it was the price; the two 4Ls I bought were both around $40.

Stay away from the 4000 models. They have an inaccessible place where paper can jam. If it jams and paper gets caught in there, you have to disassemble the printer to get it out. Even surgical forceps cannot reach into it. I have one on the bench that jammed Friday at 4:30. I get to repair that tomorrow morning. Should take an hour. Less if I don't drop any screws, longer if I lose them.

The 8150 seems to be a pretty good printer. However, it is huge! Approximately twice as tall as the laserjet 4s. The reason we went with the 4MV is that it had a true post-script engine and not a post-script emulator. That was important at the time, but with the increase in processor power it is no longer much of an issue. The 8150 has two internal paper cassettes and a manual feed tray. It also has an internal duplex option for two sided printing. You can find them on the internet fairly cheap. The fuser unit is much easier to replce than the laserjet 4. You don't have to pry the case off.

 

[MossRoad]

A typewriter is what I have stored in the corner of my attic, along with a record player and a stack of records, a dial telephone, my cassette player, a couple pair of my bell bottom jeans, a hula hoop, a wind-up wrist watch, some returnable Coke bottles, a Nixon for President poster, a set of encyclopedias, a bunch of old ice trays, a bumper jack, a skate key, a refillable ink pen, a Brownie camera, an AM radio and some bottle and beer can openers.

I've got the typewriter, record player, records, dial telephone, cassette player (both hand held and underdash for the car), no bell bottoms, but I do have red white and blue suspenders, hula hoop just broke, wind up alarm clock, Coke bottles AND Coke bottle machine, Nixon pocket knife, no encyclopedias but 25 years of National Geographic, plastic ice trays cracked and leaked Cool Aid all over the freezer (I should have kept the aluminum ones with the lever), a couple bumper jacks, no skate key or ink pen, we have the Brownie, am radio and a bunch of bottle openers (I collect them a bit) and serveral bullet molds.

 

[J_J]

Speaking of printers, I have a problem that came up all of a sudden. The old printer hooked up to new computer, is printing out pages that were last printed about a year age. Is there anyway the data is still in printer memory? Years ago, I remember hearing that a lot of copy machines kept data in memory, and the data could be recovered.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Do they make a photo printer that makes photos that are as high a quality as those made by the professional photo services?

Yes. And depending on the printer, the inks it uses and the paper, the photo from a inkjet can be better from a photolab. Using the right printer/ink and paper can produce prints that will last 100-200 years. You can achieve the similar results with photo labs but its expensive. Ilfochrome/Cibachrome process is what I have used on some of my old slides.

Fading is reduced/minimized/prevented by using the correct inks, paper, and print mounting. Usually the best thing to do with a print is to have it in a frame under glass. Mounting and preservation of photos is a subject about which volumes are written.

Inks back in the 90s were very prone to fading. Epson had the first/one of the first inks that was supposed to greatly resist fading and it did. Sorta. But under some environmental conditions the ink would fade. Epson learned quite a bit from that printer and for the better photo printers I have not heard of any problem regarding fading.

I have been looking at the Epson 1900, 2880 and 3800 printers. The 3800 is being heavily discounted and it has been on the market for years so I assume its about to be replaced with a 3880 model. The xx80 models are using an improved ink that adds a splash more color. The "old" ink and the newer ink are very good. But the inks has to be matched with paper.

Canon is supposed to have some good photo printers as well but I just have not looked at them as closely. They did not seem to have what I was looking for in a printer.

The funny thing about photo printers is that for many people its cheaper to go to a lab for prints. This is why I still don't have a photo printer after wanting one for 10 years. I have had good and bad luck with Walmart prints. They are cheap and fast. I can upload the photos to WallyWorld and go pick them up that day if I really need the photos or wait until our next trip to town. Of course they will mail them to us as well. If the prints are bad they are so cheap I don't care. Too much.

Later,
Dan

 

[tallyho8]

You have to admit that Epson holds the patents on their ink cartridges. Therefore, anyone that makes exact duplicates is infringing on their patents. I see nothing wrong with Epson protecting their bread and butter. The market for their printers will decide how much people will be willing to spend on them VS other brands.

At home we have an Epson printer that has individual ink wells. That is nice in that you do not have to replace an entire color cartridge if just one color is empty. Color cartridges are about $12 bucks a poke, however the black is over $30! I saved the last batch of cartridges and am going to try filling them myself with a refill kit.

I fail to see the moral or ethical difference between buying generic cartridges with generic ink or refilling Epson cartridges with generic ink. Epson surely doesn't approve of either option because it deprives them of an income source. However, I will continue buying my $1 generic Epson cartridges as long as they are available.

 

[MossRoad]

You quoted someone else and put my name on that first comment.

 

[tallyho8]

No, I multi-quoted your two posts. The first one was in this thread. https://beta.tractorbynet.net/forums/index.php?posts/1273051/

In that thread, I thought that you were condemning my use of generic ink cartridges while you were promoting the use of generic ink in the other post.

Perhaps I was a little rude in pointing out the disparity. Sorry.

 

[MossRoad]

No, I multi-quoted your two posts. The first one was in this thread. https://beta.tractorbynet.net/forums/index.php?posts/1273051/

In that thread, I thought that you were condemning my use of generic ink cartridges while you were promoting the use of generic ink in the other post.

Perhaps I was a little rude in pointing out the disparity. Sorry.

Ouch! That's a two year old quote. I'll have to go back and read what I as spouting off about.