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Thread: New Printer

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    Default New Printer

    I am interested in others thought on colour printer/scanners. I have a Canon MG6460 that is perhaps 5 years old and has been great, but when I turn it off at the wall and turn it back on it creates a fault and the yellow fault light comes on but nothing else. I have read heaps of threads of push this, push that for 5 seconds etc and after MANY tries it has eventually come back on , but not this time it would appear.

    I want a colour print, combined scanner (inkjet or Laser) and the availability to print 6 x 4 photos and with reasonable priced cartridges. I know I want a lot, but would be interested in other persons experiences and thoughts. Brian DJ



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    I Print a LOT of photos. Just bought 800 sheets of A4 Gloss Photo paper and I buy ink by the liter. I'll be printing about 6-700 A4 pics in the next week or so.
    Canon printers are the only ones I will use. I just bought 5x TS 6260's to replace my pile of 7260's and am entirely happy with the things. Still have a few 72's but I needed something with a scanner and I could tie wirelelessly to the camera's.
    The TS6260s do everything you want and a lot more. I hate 6x4's with a passion but they will certainly print them if that's what your proclivities run to. I'd suggest trying some 5x7's or 6x8's ( half A4) which are big enough to see some real detail in. I rarely print anything smaller than A4 which impress by their size alone.

    I refill the carts or buy Refillable ones. Yes, I have read all the alarmist BS about the aftermarket ink destroying your printer but after using probably 50L of ink in total through 30+ Printers, I have yet to see an issue. I usually drill the plug out of the OEM carts, refill the ink and then plug the hole with a little Silicone plug that I get from the ink suppliers. Use the things Dozens of times with no problem. There are refillable carts available now which are cheaper than the OEM carts so I have bought them and am selling the original ink on fleabay and getting my money back so the printers are costing the $14 the refillable ink carts cost.

    IMHO the aftermarket ink is BETTER than the OEM because it is more true to life rather than the screaming over saturated colours the OEM inks can generate.
    A cart refill costs literally about 3 cents. The OEM Ink costs more than I pay for the printers. I buy ink one litre at a time in each colour but you can also get it in little 100Ml bottles which would probably last most people years. Works out at about a dozen carts worth. When you refill them make sue to use the clip on the bottom or the ink can run straight out when the carts are open without the plug and don't try squeezing in every last drop.

    Mate of mine bought one of the canon printers with the built in tanks and reckons that's great too. I wasn't aware of the Print res these things could do or I may have bought some of those but not to worry. Printers are disposable to me and If I do one job and throw he things away I'm not worried. Thing is they never fall over till they hit the pre built in limits which they DO have. I seem to get 5-700 A4 prints before the things give trouble. This is in the form of the Ink absorber that only allows a certain number of cleaning cycles then basically shuts the unit down.

    I have read things online about over riding this and replacing them which requires the unit be pulled apart. I just throw them out and get a new one out the cupboard and go with that.
    It's pre planned BS obsolescence they all have these days.

    The wifi connection the 6250 has is very handy. Not only can everyone in the house print what they want from phones, tablets, laptops etc, I have set my camera up so I can be shooting a job, have the printer on a table and print the pic with the the press of a Button on the camera. Probably old tech but Bloody handy for me.

    I have tried Epsom printers, There are a couple of High end models up the back atm that have probably done less than 50 Prints that I'm waiting to put out on cleanup.
    Things sound like they have a handfull of gravel in them and the print quality that was so revered online and why I bought them dissapointed miserably. From what I read, they were miles ahead of the canons. That did not prove to be the case and the way the things worked I found a complete pain in the arse.

    I would suggest if you have had a canon before, stick with them. I haven't found anything better and more versatile, better value and user friendly.

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    Thanks George for your indepth reply. I have just ordered a TS6260 from Dick SMith $119 because spending multiple attempts to restart the computer once it has been turned off at the wall has eventually caused me to stop procrastinating. My MG6460 is about 3-4 years old, so I guess it is ready to be renewed and the cost of a new one is very reasonable, although the inks aren't.

    Even though I do not use my printer very much, I am still interested in your refill information. Any additional information concerning where to buy the inks and any other instructions would be appreciated. Brian DJ

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    Too late now Brian, but for future reference. Look into a cheap laser printer. If you are not doing much printing, the initial outlay far outstrips the the inkjets in running costs. You end up wasting so much ink with blocked nozzles and so forth that the inkjet becomes a false economy. You never get blocked nozzles on a laser (they don't have 'em.) Yest, there are other costs involved with lasers, that make them seem expensive until you look at cost per page in time and money spent. Years back, when I was selling the things. A laser print was about 5c per page when an inkjet came in at around 15c per page at normal duty cycles. If you are like most of us and only print rarely, that 15c can more than double with head cleaning and s wasted paper because the print was streaky. I'm now running an ex govt colour laser that I picked up for $80 at auction (over $1k new) that always gives me a satisfactory print. Of course, if you are looking at high quality colour photos, I believe that the proper inkjets for that task are still ahead of lasers.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    i'd go laser as well.

    any photo printing can be done at local harvey norman or chemist etc or even a professional printer.

    stay away from brother, for laser id go ricoh or oki semi commercial.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post

    You end up wasting so much ink with blocked nozzles and so forth that the inkjet becomes a false economy.
    That -MAY- be true if using OEM ink carts but would be totally inaccurate if using replacement ink.
    Occasionaly my inkers need a clean but that is probably something around every 50-100 A4 Prints which are about 95% of what I do. The amount of ink used would be negligible. Yes, the inkers go through a cleaning cycle when you turn them on and when you change carts but I "Budget" around 20 A4 prints per refil although that said, I haven't put the new machines to the test but I doubt they are much different in capacity to what my 7260's used. In reality I doubt the guts of these printers has changed much in the last 10 years other than changing carts and Chips to make them incompatible with older model.

    Looking at Current Prices for ink, a 1L bottle sells for $63.00. I -think- a refil takes about 8ml of ink but I'll call it 10 to cover my less than wonderful math skills. By my calcs, at 10 Ml, that make a cart top up about 6.3 Cents. 5 carts = 31.5 cents per set, 20 A4 Prints from that ( Minimum) = 1.6 cents per A4 Print.
    I don't know the cost of laser toner but I'd guess it's more than that AND, I guarantee I can't afford to walk into JB and Buy 5 lasers that have anywhere near the resolution the inkers will do..... or close to it.

    If a cleaning Cycle takes 1/10th of the ink of a set of carts, 3.1 cents. BFD. Pretty sure it's a heck of a lot less than that.
    As far as paper goes, I make a LOT more stuffups when printing than anything near the amount of paper the printer wastes through streaked prints.
    The only reason I get them is pushing the refilled carts too far and having them run out. To avoid this I run a conservative print batch before changing the carts. Mind you, this is for Hi res glossy A4 photographs. If I'm printing colour Documents, print run is more like 100 Sheets which means I have to replenish the paper feed several times. To this end I printer pool and run ( now) up to 4 Printers although in years gone by when I was running flat out, I had a printer pool of 12 machines. 6 printers, 2 wide, 3 along 6 ft folding tables with my daughter going flat out just removing prints, and refilling paper. Back in those days I ran bulk ink tanks which held 100Ml ea colour and only required topping up once per day.

    In my game there has always been a lot of "peer" and industry pressure/ mindset to use Dye Sub lamination printers.
    I look at these things about every 3 years to see where they are at but it's not changed in about the last 15. The things still cost Minimum $1500+, the print price for A4 is closer to $$ and the killer for me and some like minded operators is the very limited availability of consumables.
    You can only buy supplies from the Importer and if they are out of paper or ribbon, YOU are out of business.

    With an Inker, worst case, I can go to the local supermarket or office supplies and get all I need to keep me going. I have even found opportunities where I went and Bought new machines and set up with them. Sure, I was paying through the nose for OEM ink but Orifice works sure as heck Don't stock dye subs or supplies for the things.

    The other thing which is Important with what I do is backup. A Handful of people I know -May- have a backup printer. No one I know that uses Inkers DOESN'T have several inker backups because the things are so cheap. A mate of Mine in the US that shoots big events and follows the comps round the country doesen't even take them with him. Buys a dozen when he gets to the city the event is in, takes out the OEM Ink, puts in the bulk carts, does the event and then dumps them to save space in his truck when he goes to the next event. Yeah, some fall over for reasons he never bothers to worry about but he always gets the job done.
    I remember a guy that was very vocal about Dye subs on a forum always saying his was so reliable he had the thing serviced once a year and never had a break down. Unfortunately he was working a gig that was on generator power and had an over volt and...... Game over. Couldn't source a replacement in time for his Job. Not always about the reliability of the unit itself, sometimes things beyond your control come into play and stuff the best laid plans.

    Inkers are not perfect, far from it but for someone like me producing 100's of prints at a time where I am looking for the maximum photo quality available, the are by far the best solution for me. Cheapest, most reliable, best backup etc.
    If you are just printing crappy prints on plain paper or doing loads of Documents, there may be other options.
    Horses for courses.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bacdj View Post

    Even though I do not use my printer very much, I am still interested in your refill information. Any additional information concerning where to buy the inks and any other instructions would be appreciated. Brian DJ
    Glad you found the info helpful. Hopefully others will too.

    I presently get my ink from MIR.


    They sell the Bulk ink in various sizes from 100Ml up.

    I used to use a Place in Melbourne called Rihac. I have used tens of litres of their ink but MIR was closer to me, Cheaper and their service was impeccable where I had some issues with Rihac. In fairness, I just Bought some plugs from Rihac and their service as it has been on a couple of occasions before was very good.

    These are the refilable carts I have Bought.


    I have not tested them as yet for this printer. Let you know how they go later in the week.

    I have been drilling some of the OEM carts. One these ones the Plug is right under the barcode thing. It's easy to see where it is if you run the top lable of the cart and look at it at an angle to the light so you can see the round depression. The orange bottom cap MUST be put on the cart or the ink will run straight out. I get a sharp Screw or and awl and screw it into the little plastic ball and pull it out. I have Syringes with Blunt needles which I fill with ink from the bottle and then top up the cart. The new ones are black sided unlike previous transparent ones so you have to go slow and careful.
    When (Not over) full I push in a silicone plug I get from Rihac. The cart needs the plug hole enlarged with a 4.5MM drill as the plastic plg hole is a tad too small.


    Plugs are inserted and the cart is ready to use. To check the cart, remove the bottom orange seal clip. If it's right you may get no more than 1-2 ink drips. If you get anymore the top plug is not sealing properly and you cannot use the cart less it leak into the printer and bugger it. If it does not drip any ink withthe bottom seal off you are good to go. It's hard to stuff up such a simple procedure IF you don't try to over fill the cart. You can " Spill fill" as you can't see the level on the black carts but you can suck the ink back a small amount with the syringe then plug the cart.

    You may have to reset the ink counter on the printer. The instructions come up on the screen and it's just a matter of typically holding down a Button till the thing resets. There will be of course the usual warnings of destroying your printer and end of life on earth as we know it but yet to have a problem yet.

    In my repeated experience, many people underutilized their printers because of the cost of Ink. everyone I know that I have put onto the replacement ink has used their printers much more and printed much bigger pics and done more with their machines. Back when I was using OEM carts It was nothing for my expenses to be $500 a day. Using the " Dodgy ink" as I sarcastically call it because of the gloom and doom warnings about it my costs dropped to maybe $25 and 90% of that was in paper. Ink was a couple of bux, if that.

    My kids were well know for Turning in assignments even in Primary school with everything printed on glossy paper with hig res pics. Teachers always commented on it and they did well for presentation. Myself, I have wn a lot of business over my Competitiors for the same reason. Where others might give a printed sheet on plain paper, I give potential clients a folder with a 12 Page hi res presentation. They often go to give it back thinking it must be my presentation folder. They are surprised then Impressed when I say that is for them to keep and review. They seldom do. I have a killer closure rate and I attribute this to about the $3 I spend on that folder and it's contents.

    Finding replacement ink has been one of the major wins I have had.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hoe View Post
    i'd go laser as well.

    any photo printing can be done at local harvey norman or chemist etc or even a professional printer.
    I agree, at 10 cents a print why bother doing it yourself. Or if you have a lot, Officeworks or someone has a special at least once a month with a ridiculously cheaper price.

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