I've never encountered this - but all the laser printing I've done has been on the big industrial sized laser printers.

Okay, let's tackle all issues in turn:

*** Printer model, prices and yield ***

I got the HP 2550L, that 'cheap color printer'. It a pretty nasty buy for a serious company (small paper tray at 125 sheets, and low pp/month), but thus far proves a very solid buy for the modeler in me. And HP has (had?) a decent mail-in rebate going on it.

The color toner cartridges are 140$ CDN (each) at staples.ca for a 4000 page yield, and black is cheaper. Look for the US price if you need it.

I've used up less than 20% of the initial (2000-pages) yellow and far less of other colors printing the Maiden as-is. Statistics list me as using up 18-19% coverage in yellow ink throughout that build, and other colors hang around 12-15% page coverage.
So I'm doing 1000-1200 (WorldWorks Games) pages out of a 140$ yellow cart, with other colors lasting almost twice as long.

The network model is priced higher, of course. And I don't think you'll find any duplexing under one grand. And I wouldn't count of perfectly matching textures between the two sides either.

It is light years better than my Epson 740 Inkjet.

*** flaking ***

I *have* noticed minimal flaking, especially when I hadn't scored pieces properly (or at all). However, this
a) only happens with the rather rare inside folds
b) can be easily covered with a touch of washable marker
c) doesn't show half as much as the dotted scoring line anyway
I seriosuly cannot say this is any sort of problem. Actually, the only way to notice it is to unfold the piece after folding it and lloking at the tiny cracks. You can barely see it when it's folded. I made the cliffs and skull rock from skull cove, diodn't take any special precautions (i.e. no markers to hide it) and I [gets up to check] can barely see flaking one *one* single step, out of five cliff pieces, and only when looking carefully. There are many things people will notice before that, trust me, and I'm pretty proud of my cliffs.

*** Glues ***

I've been using Elmer's white school glue throughout. I press my pieces overnight most of the time, so I've had little or no warping. Most gluing happens on areas where there is no ink anyway. However, do recall that nail polish remover, applied lightly to a surface and then dried, will make anything rough enough for glue to adhere. And laser ink sure beats trying to glue transparencies! (which *do* work with the 2550L, by the way -- but use laser ones, I wouldn't trust inkjet transparencies!)

I can't think of an on-ink gluing spot that really needs to hold tight anyway. The bow of the Maiden hasn't given me any troubles once glued, but that white-on-white.

Haven't tried Superglue : haven't been needing super glue.

*** Washable markers ***

I've gotten some really neat Staedtler ones, in 50 colors with tiny tips. The "won't stain printed areas" feature seems to be a Crayola thing after all. They're still way useful, I just have to be careful with them. To reiterate, the crayola markers I can basically draw a line over the dotted folding line on a model and when I slide my fionger, only the marker that's on the white paper stays : anything on top of laser is ink removed effortlessly. That's extremely useful on many occasions.

Exact markers data:
Crayola Washable Colossal Collection Thin Tip Markers no. 8524

*** WWG status ***

I've done a full Maiden, a good bit of Skull Cove (that's Halcy's fault) and I'm in InteriorWorks now (couldn't resist that combo).

I don't think that will work for you, based on this paragraph of a review in PC magazine:

Output quality is unimpessive. Graphics are average for color lasers, earning a rating of only a little better than good, primarily because of visible dithering. Text, at the high end of good, and photos, at the high end of fair, are both below par. Most fonts were easily readable at 5 points or smaller, but one highly stylized font needed 12 points, which is unusual for lasers. Photos showed slight posterization, oversaturated colors, and a darkening effect that made some photos look underexposed. Still, the output is good enough for most purposes. More important, the balance of speed, quality, paper-handling, and price makes the CLP-510N a reasonable choice as a personal or small office color laser.


So yeah, its too good to be true for this purpose.

On the bright side, the laser printer the post creator suggests is on sale at Amazon for about $510 after shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001X ... e&n=172282

I suspected as much. I would keep my Inkjet for photo work, I've been completely unimpressed with photos from consumer laser printers. The review's comment on text quality is really troubling. Laser printers have been doing monochrome text for a long time now; every laser printer being sold should be able to kick out clear monochrome text. Even my $5 (yes five dollar) state surplus auction laser printer (HP 4Si w/ duplexer and JetDirect 10/100) turns out crisp text page after page, but it is monochrome only and weighs more than both of my kids combined.

I tend to avoid HP inkjets (I hate the way they gouge on ink), but I've used a lot of HP Lasers and Okidata LED printers at work with very few problems. HPs just run a hair more than what I had been looking for.

Oh well, back to the search. I was hoping to find something in the $400 range as a Xmas present for myself. I guess that leaves more money for PDFs.

I've been looking at color lasers lately and the price of them has come way down! Not buying one yet, but you get a whole lot more these days for less money than you could just a few years ago.

chriton227, I'm sure if you take your time and continue to research like you're doing now, you'll find one that you like. What I've been doing is going to my local CompUSA and checking the machines out in person. That way, I can ask questions and look at them physically before I make a buying decision.

I'm still at least 3 months away from purchase, so I can look and look and look. One thing I've started doing is getting demo printouts, then I take them home and score and fold to see if I get any flaking! Sure it's not a model, but the demos are graphics intensive enough that I'll be able to tell if the ink flakes!

Skunk

Check out my fantasy campaign, Wizard Quest, a world using Wizards of the Coast’s 3.5 DnD system by visiting .

Check out the NEW IMPROVED flash teaser for my sci-fi campaign, , coming Jan 2007. I’ll be using D20 Future for the rules.

Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is now available, .

Sam's Club has a for $400. I wonder if the quality is anywhere near their larger commercial models? The I found on it looked pretty good. Decent speed, network enabled, and good yield for the toner cost.

I've heard mixed reviews of the Lexmark/Dell laser printers. The company I work for uses loads of Lexmark laser printers. They are in far from ideal environments being used my non-technical people, and there really aren't very many reports of issues with the printers themselves. The Dell 3000cn is on sale for $319, lists at $399. Maybe I will be getting a laser for Christmas.

Reviving the thread, since it's the same printer<!>

I just started on a very ink-intensive non-WWG project with my yellow cartidge indicating 1% and about four pages left (after some 480 pages of equally intensive WWG projects).

The project is essentially sixty-six full pages (half inch margins with everything else covered) with the dominant color either beige or green (think printing Skull Cove masterboard tiles, but fitted to the page in both directions).

I completed the whole project without running out of ink, with my new page count at 545 and the printer still promising five more.

All in all, that's a good 10% over the promised printing capacity of 2000 pages@5%, and it's not even showing signs of emtying yet, making the laser switch significantly more cost-effective than I first thought. I am so glad I got that laser printer.

For reference, it's a HP color laserjet 2550L. My replacemnt cartidge is high-yield yellow. WOnder what I'll be getting once I put in that sucker!

I have some rather disturbing news about the Dell printer I was looking at. It occured to me and was also stressed to me by one of my gaming buddies that I should ask if the printer takes 110 lb cardstock. I did, and the sales person I chatted with said, no it didn't.

So you might want to double check before purchasing a laser if it will handle cardstock paper. I'd hate to spend all of that money in the hopes of getting a nice quick printer for doing cardstock to only have it start jamming after I purchased it or worst yet, ruin it by running cardstock through it.

I've sent a request to HP asking them if they make a laser that will handle cardstock, but as yet, they haven't answered my e-mail. Only sent it yesterday and they say it takes them at least 1 business day to answer, so I'll update this thread once I hear back.

The gaming buddy told me he was looking into wax printers, specifically ones made by Tektronix. Only problem with wax printers is, you shut them down, they waste wax when they start up again as they clean the print heads. Plus, they only print on one side, which is generally ok with what we're doing, but if you're looking at doubleside prints from your printer, you won't be getting them from a Tektronix.

Plus side, if I remember correct, the cost per page isn't quite as bad as laser, but it's been 4+ years since I did tech work for our company, and we haven't had wax printers for a little longer than that, so I don't exactly remember the costs.

Anyway, when I hear something from HP, I'll add it to this thread.

Skunk

Check out my fantasy campaign, Wizard Quest, a world using Wizards of the Coast’s 3.5 DnD system by visiting .

Check out the NEW IMPROVED flash teaser for my sci-fi campaign, , coming Jan 2007. I’ll be using D20 Future for the rules.

Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

The new and improved Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is here! So see you in the game! .

Note that some printers don't officially support 110lb cardstock, but in practice do.

Skunk funny thing is I'm working HP's Australian HQ at the moment. I have just worked out who is in control of notebooks and who has teh printers. Next time I see the printer chap I will ask him. You might get your answer sooner though.

It's funny the kind of discounts that get thrown around after a couple of free muffins.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Hi guys........ as one of WWGs newest addicts, I have just bought a printer (inkjet not Laser unfortunately...... damn I need a higher salary) but in the Printer manual it states that the maximum paper allowance is 100 gsm. I've tried it with 150 and 200 gsm with no problems......... so far......... *touches every piece of wood in range*

As an engineer, I can also say, in most circumstances, that manufacturer suggestions are often far below what is actually feasible