I'm in the market for another printer it seems, and felt this thread was worth reviving.

Where do the reccomendations stand nowadays?

Given the advice of some of the members here I wanted to upgrade my inkjet printer and get a laser. I was surprised at how inexpensive it was (250USD) and how well it worked. The printing quality is just as good as the professional printer at Office Depot that I was using to print my terrain and definitely kicks my inkjet's butt in image clarity, color vivacity, and finished product feel. Definitely recommend. I got mine on Amazon so that might be a good place to start..

I put the name of the printer in the subject box, but I'll repost here for clarity: Brother HL 4040 CDN

Thanks,
KE

I have a Brother HL 4040 CDN, and I love it.

Not much to add, other then a ++.

Ravebomb - How well does it feed cardstock? Do you have to limit the print jobs to 67 or 90 lb or can you go up to 110?

Thanks,
strgzr

I myself have a brother HL 4040cn, as for cardstock, not a problem. I use 80lbv cover stock, which is heavier then 110lb cardstock.

I use 110lbs rated cardstock from Staples. I don't do anything special with it either, just toss some in the tray and print.

I don't tend to do large print jobs, maybe at most I did was 20 sheets at once one time.

I'd still be looking at HPs (they are better known for their printers but have rubbish multifunctions) but I have unpacked some KM Bizhub C20s recently. Quality not bad, considering it is NOT adapted for photos but good enough for modelling; and better for maintenance due to having 4 imaging units instead of the horrific revolver mech of the C10 and preceding magicolors.
This also makes it faster. Due to a variable suspension on the transfer belt, the system uses less colour drums than black drums as the belt is removed from the colour drums when you only want black.
The issues are that is is more expensive than many solutions, even if you only buy the C20P (printer only version); much larger; heavier; and doesn't handle more than Thick-2 (200GSM) which makes it good for Terrainlinx but not for, say, Skull Cove...

Has a single drive bay that can have a hard drive or CF card reader fitted, not both; can direct print from a camera or USB storage module but must have that drive bay occupied to do so.
PCL and PS supported.

Has anyone tried the Brother 4070 CDW? It's like the 4040 CDN, but has wireless support.

It completely depends on certain factors as follows

1. Brand prefer.
2. Budget.
3. Features requirred.

Match with the avaliable varieties and get the best one fit for you.

There's more to it than that though, jack. If you read many of the other threads, you will see some printers are completely inappropriate for printing papercraft models - they have scaling issues (things just a bit too wide/narrow/long/short), or can't feed cardstock very well.

You offer decent advice, but then this thread is about identifying printers that match all 3 of those criteria, plus the 4th criteria of suitability.

The Canon Pixma ip4700 keeps popping up on sale, you can get it at Frys right now for a measly $30

http://www.frys.com/product/6000778

That is almost worth purchasing for only WWG printing. How is the ink cost effectiveness?

You can get refillable ink carts, 4oz bottles of ink, and all the supplies you need to refill them yourself for this printer. I did this with my HP and it seriously drove down the cost of printing for me. Inksupply.com also comes pretty well rated by customers.

For $84.75 (free shipping)
http://www.inksupply.com/refill_cart.cf ... erID=66773

Sometimes you can find cupon codes online to get 5 or 10 bucks off.

That all being said.... I don't know the print quality, accuracy, or how this thing autofeeds cardstock. I just thought I'd provide some help on how to drive down the ink cost.

I haven't been building for as much time as everyone else around here, but for right now I can't see investing in a printer.

My at home HP F380 is a piece of junk. It also costs me around 60 cents a copy (plus paper). I've tried different shops in the area for printing costs. my costs (paper included) range from 72 cents a page to ~41 cents a page.


I'm currently thining about going the brother route, but minimally that'd cost me in the range of $150 - $200 for a used model which means to break even (assuming ~20 cents per page plus Paper cost) I'd need to print around 1,000 pages.

For right now I'll probably just keep using a place that rhymes with Bed Hex, 35 cents a page plus roughly 6 cent paper cost (I have to bring in my own paper as they only use 24 lb).

I bought an Epson NX415 with a built in CISS off of eBay for $100, got a full set of ink refills for an additional $20. I have printed off a 3x3 layout of Streets and a bunch of LHotDK, and am also printing off Pathfinders core books, still on my first set of ink, oh, and the ink bottles are still 3/4's full. Black is running low as I am printing Pathfinder in B&W.

So yeah, good buy here, the colors come out a little dull, but it still looks great, and it is a wonderful value.

So has the printer market changed much in the last couple of years? I figured I'd ask here since this was the printer thread with the most recent posts.

It is time for us to get a new one and I'd like to get one that can support this hobby that I'd like to start soon (it's my last semester of school). Really just looking for any brand of inkjet that would do the job well and isn't overly expensive. I was just kind of wondering what everyone was using nowadays, or if you all still had the same printers from however many years ago.

I bought an Epson Artisan 710 all-in-one and I love it to bits. Prints true, brilliant at photo printing (I also use it for scrapbooking) and just a good, every day workhorse too.

Epson Artisan 835 here that I picked up a few months ago. It is definitely a great one.

The color ink would probably only see use in printing terrain, so how much do you guys print before a cartridge runs out?

Some of the people on amazon were saying they had issues with paper feeding, are they just dumb (which is likely), or have you ever had any issues with them liking regular paper or cardstock?

They seem like pretty nice printers. I'll see what my wife thinks.

The amount that a cartridge prints is completely dependent on *what* you print, so estimates are difficult. As for paper, mine has taken every thing I've thrown at it, but you'll get the best results using Epson inks with Epson papers (or installing an Epson compatibly continuous ink system from a reputable vendor). You'll have to do your own research on a CSS vendor though, because I never got around to it.

guys, after reviewing the many threads on this forum about printers, i was waiting for "she who must be obeyed" shopping when I walked into DSE (an Aussie electronics store) and found a Brother HL 3040 CN priced for AUD$179.00, checking the price, I was told it should be $299, but because the wrong sales ticket was on the shelf I could get it for $179.
I Snapped up, telling the wife my other daughters printer has broken down and I let her have my old HP inkjet that never really printed out well.

Sometimes you never know what opportunity comes knocking.

First print the Telephone Booths (P3) from Mayhem street props.
Cut on the SD, perfect match. Love the new printer. Grandson is also visiting and what did he take, the blue police call box..... got to print some more.

Good buy.

Can you test the printer to see how accurate it is - i.e. how close to 6"x6" the ground tiles are after printing?
I did at a test at Brother's HQ here and all the HL30XX printers we tried stretched the 'length' of the tile. The rep assured me it would just be a driver problem and that they'd get back to me about it, but never did. It would be great to know if they've got the problem fixed.

That sounds the issue I had with my last printer (an HP). The various customer service reps all assured me that in time a fix would be released. They NEVER got around to that though. I had that printer for like 5 years.

Zen, the tiles are 6" all sides tested by ruler and an SD cut out.
Perfect all round.

Excellent - thanks

I work at a printer repair company & I can tell you if your using any coated paper go for a inkjet. If your going non-coated paper & want long term cheap go Laser. Also do NOT buy a KM C25 or C35. We have had to swap out way to many at work because of jamming issues.

Haydn, bit of a question, what weight (and possibly where to find) card/cover stock do you use in the HL-3040cn?

is not just printers by themselves it is their ability to use self charging ink cartridges some printers are better for that application some printers the cartridge is buried deep within the machine and it's harder to add the self charging station.

best to go to self charging Ink websites I think there's a bunch of links on them in a post on the forum find the machine they best recommend or gives you the most affordable way to re-ink cartridges.

Most printing resolutions are high enough so that is no longer an issue in a printer.

Some printers handle thicker paper stock better than others that would be another factor you would want to look for.

And lastly larger format printers can print bigger terrain pieces I like doing my base in larger format printing. I have an Epson 7600 that does 24 inch by however long so I can make battle maps or game boards, but I don't recommend this printer as I don't use it often enough and inks go bad and are very expensive to replace.

I can imagine this would get awfully frustrating. I had an old canon (before I got into WWG), which to be perfectly honest was a great little printer, but because it would weeks if not months between prints, there was always something to replace.

Thank you for your input though, much appreciated.