[NTLUG:Discuss] [Bulk] Re: Color printer for Linux

[Leroy Tennison]

steve wrote:
> Leroy Tennison wrote:
>   
>> I have a Canon BJC-610, supposed to work and it might but it's been 
>> sitting for a couple of years.  Tried the cleaning option and it just 
>> cycles forever.  Don't feel like paying $200+ for a new print head...
>>     
>
> No - that would be ridiculous in an age of sub-$100 printers.
>
>   
>> I rarely use color mainly because of the cost of ink so i would like a 
>> color printer which I could somehow clean and store for an extended 
>> period of time without having the kind of problems I'm having with the 
>> BJC-610, any ideas?  Thanks for any and all replies.
>>     
>
> The way cheap inkjet printers are currently sold, the cost of the
> printer is insanely low - and they make all of their profits on
> the ink/print-head.
>
> Hence, you can pick up a printer with a *tiny* ink cartridge for
> under $100 - and then pay $50 for a set of cartridges to fill it.
>
> So when buying a printer, it's the cost of the ink that kills
> you - not the printer itself.
>
> In your case, if the cartridge gets clogged through lack of use,
> then this is doubly the case since you're going to be throwing
> out more costly cartridges than is otherwise reasonable.
>
> So don't look at the cost of printers at all - just take a
> walk down the cartridge aisle in Fry's and find the cheapest
> (even if low capacity) cartridges - then go look for a printer
> that fits it.
>
> Finally, you could always stick a cron job on one of your PC's
> that prints a postage-stamp sized rainbow once a week.
>
> That would suffice to keep the jets un-clogged and waste a minimal
> amount of ink and paper (in fact, you could keep recycling the same
> piece of paper if the thought of wasting 52 sheets a year irks you).
> You'd still have to keep the printer turned on though - so you
> might want to invest in a cheap mechanical timer to turn the printer
> on for just one hour a day - timed so that when your cron job runs
> every Saturday night (or whatever), the printer has already been
> turned on and warmed up.
>
> I suppose you might find a printer that automatically cleans it's
> heads each time you turn it on - then you could just stick it
> in a closet somewhere - plugged into a timer so that it cycles
> the clean-cycle once a week or so - and dispense with the cron
> job.
>
>    Steve.
>
>
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>
>   
Pick the cartridge then the printer - makes perfect sense with the 
economics.  Hmmm, cron job, interesting thought.  Thanks for both ideas.