Re: Gene you poor soul
On Wednesday, May 22, 2019 05:34:17 AM Gene Heskett wrote:
> I do have an MFC at .21 on the local net. One of Brothers tabloid sized
> Color inkjets. Windows 10-home doesn't seem to be aware of it. What I
> need for this job is a bare-a$$ed color printer, but all I could find at
> Staples last week were physicly huge MFC's. Wally has some really cheap
> $40 ones, but I suspect that I'd have to buy one per job because the
> heads would dry up and clog between uses. Back when I was a fan of
> epsons, the cost of the inks was $250/year just to print the nightly
> amanda reports to exercise the printer. That worked out to about $1 a
> sheet and it still got clogged. I didn't do that with the last one and
> wound up with the head hopelessly clogged, would not clean, 2 weeks
> after I parked it on the table from new in the box. $500 for an AI1. For
> this, I need something that fits in a briefcase, and Just Works, maybe
> once a month. Is such a beast even made today? Doubtfull.
Just some comments on ink jet printers (and cartridges clogging).
I've had what I have to consider very good luck with a Canon BJC-3000 printer
which uses the BC-33e print cartridge. That is a cartridge with ink tanks
separate from the print head.
I rarely have clogs (at least in the last 5 years or so), but when I do, I've
accumulated a (very few) empty ink cartridges which I fill with (I refill my own
cartridges, by the way) rubbing alcohol, and, when the head is clogged, I slip
one of those in and print a test sheet with one of those (it helps if there is
some residual ink in the old cartridge (or, if necessary, add a little so that
you can see, on the test print) whether all the nozzles are working (seeing
transparent rubbing alcohol is difficult when "printed").
Another thing I've thought of doing, but haven't felt a desperate need so far
is adding a little bit of rubbing alcohol) to the inks when I refill the
cartridge. (Maybe 5%?)
I know there are periods of at least a month when I don't print anything and
my printhead is not clogged.
(At least once I did get the error message something like "waste ink tank
full" and had to take the printer pretty much all the way apart to clean the
fabric pad that they call the "waste ink tank". If it happens a 2nd time,
I'll probably try to reset the error without cleaning that pad (put I'll make
sure the printer is sitting an a disposable surface (pad of old newspapers?)
just in case I get a leak.
Refilling your own ink cartridges makes the ink very cheap, I think on the
order of $0.01 or $0.02 per page (I did some calculations once, but I don't
remember the results, but it is so little that I don't care about it).
At that time, Canon cartridges (especially this one) were the easiest to refill
-- just open up a hole, use a syringe to inject some ink, then reseal that
hole either with a screw of some tape (actually, I put tape over the hole and
then "threaded" a self-tapping screw into it -- the tape acts as sort of a
gasket -- I don't know if the cartridge needs to be hermetically sealed ;-)
Some cartridges are much more difficult to refill, either because of the design
or because of a chip that tries to prevent you from reusing a refilled
cartridge. On an HP that I used for a while, I found a way to get around
that, but those cartridges did tend to clog and I don't use that printer
anymore.
Oh, I did burn out a cartridge on the BJC-3000 once -- the Linux drivers
(CUPS, iirc) did not (and, afaik, still don't) watch the low ink sensor -- the
cartridge ran out of at least one ink during a fairly long printing job, and
that burnt out the head. Since then, I periodically lift the lid, put out the
ink tanks (you have to to see the ink level), and make sure there is plenty of
ink in the liquid reservoir (there is a reservoir that holds liquid that feeds
into the sponge in another part of the reservoir.)
Last time I checked into it, Canon had started to include a chip to prevent
cartridge refill -- I don't know if they still do or not. I know that at a
much higher price point ($200 to $400) they make printers with separate
(liquid) ink reservoirs that are made to be easily replaced (and, I'm sure
they could be refilled).
I am sure there are other cartridges (from other manufacturers) that are easy
enough to refill.
(I did get a free Canon Pixma MX492 (all in one) from a neighbor that seems to
work well (well, all I've done with it so far is use it as a copier -- I'm
sure it will work well as a printer, I'm not sure how well it will do as a
scanner although, iirc, Canon does make a scanner driver for Linux for it). I
am a little leery of the ease of refilling because the reservoir is a sponge
with no separte liquid compartment).
Anyway, I guess my point is that you can do quite well with an inkjet printer
if you pick one for which the ink cartridges can be refilled.
PS: If there is a chance that your printout will get wet for some reason, a
laser printer is probably a better choice. The ink jets that I use use
pigmented black ink (and I rarely print in color) and, on the few occasions
I've got water on a page, there has been little or no smearing. (I try to
blot rather than wipe any water (or other liquid).
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