I did a similar thing with my Epson Artisan 835. I love the thing so far. A CISS is definitely in my future.

Please add:
Add the Brother HL-3040cn to the accurate list.
I just picked one up for AUD$179 in lieu of $299.
It great when you find an out of date "sale card" with that price and they have to honour the "advertised" price on the shelf.

Now where is that printout list I wrote down somewhere???

Oh, well my HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One Printer is dead-on accurate; I measured 4 different floor tiles, 2 printed from our Windows 7 machine, and 2 with my Linux machine, all are perfectly accurate.

DO NOT get an epson sx515w it will not feed card of 200gsm even though it states it will print on up to 280gsm card

Add and hp colorlaser cp2025 (I have the cp2025dn model). so far everything has printed out great, make sure you turn off fit to page and duplexing. This printer prints cardstock from the manual paperfeed tray very well and the toner wears very well on the Tower of Chaos and the Roller Arena so far.

I guess I can confirm that the HP DeskJet 990c is also inaccurate. 6" on one side, 5 15/16" on the other. I'd ask if that realy makes that much of a difference, but I kno those errors will add up when I make larger projects.
Eh, the thing wasn't doing registration marks right, anyway.

Is it worth it to buy a whole new printer? Or could I use Kinkos or some such to print in the mean time?

In my experience I found it very much worth it to go for a new printer...especially if you plan to add a CISS system to it.
I tried for a while to go with commercial printing. It wasnt that expensive, and the look of the prints were superb...BUT costs do mount up, and any problems that crop up, or missed components, mean a trip back to the printers.
I spent about $100 on my printer, another $60 on the CISS, and so far $40 on inks (of which I have used less than half) As a conservative estimate over the last 16 months (time I have owned the printer and CISS) I used 250 sheets of cardstock a month so i have used about 4000 sheets ( i dont build everything I print, I dont keep everything i build either, but I do need to print a lot for testing cutfiles and such ) Ignoring the fact I still have not used half the ink I payed for, I have paid about 5c a page maximum (actually much less) I figure that I was paying about 20c a sheet buying inks, and about 75c a sheet at Office Depot.
So , plug your own usage into that, and see how the numbers work for you
Quality of the CISS inks has been extremely good...on par with the Canon inks I was buying before.

Is it possible with this old but still relevant thread to split out the ink jets from the laser jets? Looks like I am back in the hunt for a good laser printer.

My old Samsung CLP-610ND seems to be getting old. I have run three sets of cartridges through it, refilling them each time, but it is now printing pages in a real pretty pink shade, and streaking. The HP CP1215 prints nice, but I bought it for my wife and I hate using up all her toner as it is her baby.

For the record, both print exactly 6x6.

I tried checking out the local office supply store (Office Max) and most of the printers on the lists on page 1 aren't sold any more. Any suggestions for a new printer?

TelcoLou: I didn't find an HP Deskjet 3050, but I did find one that was a couple numbers off. Forgive my ignorance, but would that be essentially the same thing, like the same printer in a series?

I needed a printer that also did the family photo printing, my wife's business faxing and copying, and my papercrafting. I've been really happy with my Canon Pixma MX870. Just recently installed a continuous ink system in it too, and though it takes some getting used to, I haven't bought an ink cart in ages.

Often, that's the case, but not always. You can look it up on HP's website and compare the specifications to the 3050. (you can usually find those older models on their website, still, if you search for it) Even that's not a guarantee, though. Sometimes they make changes to a product line for cost savings, remove a problematic component, or just to give it a new look.

If you're looking at printers in a store, they will often let you bring in a few sheets of cardstock and a file on a usb thumb drive/sd card and try printing it right there in the store on the display model. That's at least 1 way you can see if it prints to scale.

While the continuous ink feed sounds like it would give a long cartridge life like a 5500 page life of my laser printer, I still worry about the water soluble side effect of the ink jet method. Has anyone who has experience in both methods an opinion they would like to share?

Brilliant! I'm going to try that!

Oh, don't forget to bring a ruler to measure! (or just take the pages home and measure)

Tested and measured my Canon Pro9000 Mk II for accuracy, and it is extremely accurate. Even on the 13" x 19" paper a printed ruler matched a real one exactly at every point and in both directions.

Much like the others my Canon MP560 passes for accuracy.

It may be time for a new printer. My old one was an HP 7200. Good color and results, awful ink cartridge management. It would constantly nanny me, asking for new cartridges even if I knew I wouldn't need that color or I knew there was enough left.

I recall that there are fans of Brother laser printers, but to replace I also need a scanner. Any suggestions? I wouldn't be opposed to CIS if its manageable and clean, though the clean/nice sheen of toner is a temptation.

If you want a Brother hl4040cn, which some folks on here (including Denny) are really fond of, I have a used one I'm trying to sell. It's just a color laser, though. No scanning or multifunction features.

Thanks very much for the offer. I actually decided to buy a CISS based on the 02 HP cartridges for now. If it doesn't work I'll keep the offer in mind.

Good idea. I'm going to be picking up a CISS for my HP 6500 soon, too.

My brother laser printer HL-3040CN just prints.

I got a separate canon inkjet printer for scanning and some limited copying.
I like the canon for scanning, found it the best for colour and size rendering.