Best inkjet printer for the boat

[KrazySailing]

In my experience documents printed with InkJet printers smudge and run when wet. Any idea on coatings to prevent the smudging and running?

[jgbrown]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So, in Antigua they sell the printers but not the cartridges?

Lol, sounds like hardware stores and respirators... want more pre filters, buy another whole respirator.
For some reason this is always more common with 3m.

[jgbrown]

Originally Posted by KrazySailing

In my experience documents printed with InkJet printers smudge and run when wet. Any idea on coatings to prevent the smudging and running?

There are waterproof papers(rite in the rain) that will help, and are hard to tear as well. They could advise on ink to use, they gave me good advice when I was planning to use their papers for a project that never got off the ground.

[jstevens]

Originally Posted by KrazySailing

In my experience documents printed with InkJet printers smudge and run when wet. Any idea on coatings to prevent the smudging and running?

If you want to preserve a printed document seal it between plastic sheets. These are sold at Office Depot and Staples, among others. I have sealed a number of documents, many of which were printed on my ink jet printer.

John

[savoir]

One way to save a little on the ink is to select " grayscale printing " which will be in either the Preferences or Properties section of the Print box. That will give you black only printing and the black ink is cheaper.

[s/v Jedi]

I've heard that inkjet prints become unreadable when they burn. What now?!

[Boracay]

I've an Epsom Stylus NX125 which is a really cheap printer/scanner. One lot of refill ink cartridges costs more than the original printer!

They claim that their ink is smudge and water resistant. My experience has been that it's not too bad.

I'm planning to take the printer with me to the boat when we move onboard.

The ink is expensive (I'm guesstimating 30c a page), but very convenient.

The current "equivalent" model on sale in Oz is the XP-100.

[savoir]

If anyone is interested in buying a printer the Canon series have come down a lot in price. That usually means a new model is coming. Mine is a 6220, cost US145 last July and is a combo printer + copier. The print quality is the same as the i100 although it is a little bigger.

Amazon have them on sale now at US99.

[Sea Frog]

The best inkjet printer is laser . After toying with various inkjets for years, I finally gave up and bought a laser printer\scanner. No more problems ever sinse. Always reliable, always good quality, never need to struggle with dried heads, refills, etc. Even color lasers are available and priced from $200 already.

[goboatingnow]

Even color lasers are available and priced from $200 already.

Yeap, $200, just price the refill toners for a color laser, howd that work out for you. !!

dave

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I've heard that inkjet prints become unreadable when they burn. What now?!

store the petrol elsewhere and ship out that on board arsonist.

[Sea Frog]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yeap, $200, just price the refill toners for a color laser, howd that work out for you. !!

dave

I have met people who say that it is easier to buy a new printer instead of new cartridges - cheaper on a longer run And I know people who refill laser cartridges too (if they can reprogram the chip, of course). For me, it is all about getting a consistent reliable always good result. My print volumes are small and relatively rare i.e. I may need it 3-4 times a month only. But I appreciate the ability to just click and have it printed, without fiddling with head cleanup procedures after long inactivity and so on. But that's me. And I don't need and won't ever need a color printer.

[hellosailor]

There is no panacea for this. Laser printers are about 1/10th the per-page cost of inkjets and color somewhat higher when but only when you use the colors. The pages are waterproof because they are a solid pigment (carbon black for the black) fused in plastic resin. Unlike inkjets, where the inks are all about $4000 per gallon if you try to get it back from the little carts. And inkjets are all either dye or pigment based. The dyes fade faster in UV light. The pigments come out of solution and clog the carts and heads sooner and can of course be "washed" off the paper after printing.

But lasers work based on an electrostatic charge and in humd conditions? That shorts out, causing a gray background which won't go away until the air dries out. And even the new ones require more power for longer periods.

So you buy what makes the printing you need, and either you sacrifice space and power for a laser (Brother makes a nice compact vertical one) or you spend $4000 per gallon for your ink. New inkjet printers almost always ship with "starter" cartridges, which only have about 1/4-1/2 of the ink that rack cartridges have, and HP birlliantly lowered the costs of their replacement cartridges last year by cutting the size of the "Extra Ink! XL" black cartridges by a full 1/3, so users have to change the carts almost twice as often now.

Be careful about plastic stocks (they are called "stock" not "paper" technically) which are usually made from latex or teslin (same as the waterproof postal/ups envelopes). Latex types can melt in a laster printer and ruin it. Teslin usually is safe for lasers but you can permanently tear a fingernail trying to tear it.

Then there are the old Tektronix Phaser printers, aka "the crayon spitting pig". Bulky, expensive, used four colors of wax sticks ("crayons") to melt and spray as the ink. Now, that was waterproof. Someone out there must still want one, for something. Or is selling a "melt your own crayons" refill kit.<G>

[btrayfors]

Inkjet? Laser? Crayon-spitter? Old technology.

Me, I'm waiting for a spiffy new 3-D printer so I can print spare parts for my boat :-)

Bill

[hellosailor]

Bill, you cheap sonofasailor (G) you KNOW those 3D printers are already out there, you're really just waiting for the price to drop.

Of course the really good ones that sinter marine-grade titanium powder may still require a bigger boat....(G)