"Ridiculously affordable inkjet printer from Brother..." Topic

I searched for CISS printers (Continuous Ink Supply System), and this is the first thing I came across:

link Printer article

link The printer, on Amazon.com -- check out the bundle deal: printer + 12 cartriges + 5 Black cartridges for $93.29 USD!

I've never seen this printer before, but the reviews sound good enough, and the prices of ink, and printer, are so low, it almost sounds too good to be true. Definitely going to give this a try.

A few months ago, I printed up a great many 2D dungeon, and cavern tiles, in color. I spent around $40 USD-$60 on ink cartridges. I need to print quite a few more pieces, but that will mean another $40 USD in ink… With this package deal, I can print more cardstock terrain than I will ever likely need, for a pittance… YMMV. ;-) Cheers!

Thanks Sgt!

Brother also has a laser color printer out that costs arounds 80 EUR… pretty nice price if it has comparable quality to Cann's Inkjet printers.

Most laser printers have a curving paper path, more like an S-shape. It works fine for thin, light-weight papers, but it does not work well for heavy card stock. For the heavy stuff, a straight-through paper feed path, is ideal: very few jams, no creasing of the card stock, and the freshly melted toner does not get flexed on its way out of the printer. When shopping for a laser, check what the maximum paper weight it will handle is: it may not be rated for use with card stock -- it will jam, and that can get very expensive, very quickly.

I have 23 years experience as a PC Technician, worked on a lot of printers: laser, dot matrix and inkjet. Inkjet printers tend to have C-shaped paper paths, but they deposit water-based inks, which are absorbed into the paper, so the ink cannot flake off as the card stock is flexed. Inkjet printers have higher than 600 DPI resolution, some up to 1600 DPI. Laser printers are pretty much the same resolution.

Laser printers were more economical ($0.02-$0.17 per page, B&W – color), but with this Brother inkjet printer, the costs are likely the same, or less. The laser advantages are the output won't run when it gets wet, but the card stock will still be ruined; and, lasers still print much faster. They're rapidly becoming a comparison of apples to apples -- a very good thing. Cheers!

Thanks for the heads up Sgt!

Sgt. Can you recommend any laserjet printers that will handle heavy cardstock?

I've looked a few times, over the past few years, but I've never really found any, in the consumer retailers (Office Max, and the like). I've done some Internet searches for laser printers capable of handling card stock, but with little success: what few I did find, were in the $800 USD+ range, aimed at businesses, and decidedly out of my financial reach.

The best practical advice I can give you is this: Hewlett Packard is one of the very best, as is Canon. Try contacting their respective sales department, with your requirements for paper handling; tell them you need to stay on the lower cost end. This will be the quickest, most efficient way to find printers. When I asked the local Offixe Max staff for assistance, they could not find the specifications on the printers they had on display, so they could not tell me which, if any, could handle card stock. Save yourself time, and hassle: go direct to the manufacturer's sales staff.

Details to look for: cost of replacement consumables (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow toner cartridges -- the included cartridges are "starter" units, half-empty; photo transfer drums, if any); maximum RAM memory -- the more, the better, especially for graphics printing; manual feed path capable (more direct feed path, usually, with less chance of jamming); warranty/extended warranty available? Cheers!

Okidata had a color laser that had a shallow "j" feed (via a bypass) that served me well… I want to say it was a 3300 or 5300 series…

(I miss that printer)

What I currently use is a Xerox Phaser 7400. It is a huge expensive monster with a ridiculously expensive appetite for consumaables (toner cartridges, imaging units, transfer units, fuser units, waste cartridges, etc). But it works! It will take heavy cardstock (heck it will take posterboard!) and does a great job. But it's getting old and cranky and I don't know what I'm going to do when it conks out. They don't make them anymore and from what I've been able to find out about the 7400's sucessors, none of them handle cardstock very well. So I'm hoping to find something cheaper that works as well,

Laser toner just doesn't work as well with folding or scoring, and inkjet color-fastness has improved significantly in recent years. As for inkjet output running . . . a spray can of artist's matte fixative solves that problem completely.

After doing considerable research, and polling the members on papermodelers.com (where the subject is discussed often) I settled on Epson, which rates very high on reliablity, handling of heavier cardstock, and cost of consumables. Brother came in a close second, so Amazon's bundle seems like a good deal.

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Okidata had a color laser that had a shallow "j" feed (via a bypass) that served me well… I want to say it was a 3300 or 5300 series…

(I miss that printer)"
I miss that entire range. We now stock OKI systems and the frame that holds the write units on is made out of such brittle plastic, a Ukranian model kit manufacturer 20 years ago would have pointed and laughed.

I work on Brother systems, ink and laser, and there seems no real advantage at all to choosing ink over laser.

Use the bypass, and use 200gsm card instead of 250-300 (it's cheaper anyway.) If you need it thicker glue it to a substrate.

That amazon deal is for compatible cartridges. These are cr@p and the first sign of ink system trouble will leave you with no warranty.
PDF link
I cannot find any information on that model being a CISS system.

All my models are made with electrostatic printing. To do better you will need offset printing. Good luck finding that (well, economically, anyway).
Or, at least, you will need to spend a lot more on your inkjet.

Chironex is correct: use of any ink, other than the OEM, will void the warranty (page 26 of the owner's manual). That is, however, true of all ink jet printers, not just Brothers. It is worth noting, however.

Also of note, is that the specifications for this Brother printer say that 110# card stock is too thick/heavy for this printer (page 18), but you can use 3 x 5 index cards (weight unknown). Life is a gamble, but thanks to Chironex, we can now make a more informed decision regarding the Brother inkjet. Thank you, Chironex, for your assistance. Cheers!

UPDATE: This printer, while still available, has jumped in price by over $100 USD! Its current list price on Amazon, is $229.59 USD, just for the printer; the package deal of printer + ink cartridges, is no longer available. The ink refill package is still very affordable, at $9.95 USD for a 12-pack, but the printer is now crazy-expensive… Wish I would have jumped on this before the price hike to the stars!