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Thread: Printers???

  1. #1
    crazy crafty person AndiDee's Avatar
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    Printers???

    Hello ladies and gents, I am posting this on this part of the forum because you all have the same needs and issues as I do for your card making, and I trust you all because you won't be trying to sell me something for your business purposes, so I hope you'll "bear with" whilst I explain. I currently use an Epson printer/scanner/copier. I must be honest and say I've never really liked it much - I took my eye off the ball when I bought it and it really just won't handle thick card - basically anything thicker than about 160gsm (just occasionally 200gsm will go with a bit of a struggle). It is a top loader and the card edge gets caught on the feed mechanism and jams. I've tried running a brayer and/or a bone folder along the leading edge of the card I'm printing to try and thin it down and soften the edge so it doesn't catch but to no avail. Now it's not working properly so I can legitimately look for a replacement. My question to you is, what printers are you using and what is the max gsm that it will take? Ideally I need one that will load card from a tray at the front or back (even if there is also a top feed for normal use - actually that's probably a bonus). It is quite difficult to get the media spec from the manufacturers, our card making requirements are a bit more specific - I do quite a lot of 3d work, as well as the normal card making, and the card for that work needs to be robust to maintain shape etc as any of you who do it will know only too well. Print and cut on my Cameo is affected to an extent too. I'm really hoping you can assist - just printer names and models will allow me to go off and have a look round online. If this draws a blank I mayl repost on the main site.

    Thanks for reading and, in advance, for any help you can give

    Andi

  2. #2
    Dedicated Scrapper Crafty Sandra's Avatar
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    I have a Canon pixma and it handles card well. its front feed only but manages. Its a few years old now so not a current model I believe the newer ones have back feed for card now. Hopte this helps.


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  3. #3
    crazy crafty person AndiDee's Avatar
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    Sandra, thanks so much for your speedy reply. I shall investigate the Canon printers and see if I can find any spec on their card capacity. I would love to get several replies so that I can evaluate if everyone has a different favourite or if one printer seems to be the most popular, but I do appreciate that people are busy and may not have time to post. I think the manufacturers are loathe to quote figures in case someone buys a specific model which doesn't live up to expectations and they get sued!!!! The times we live in now are beyond me I think.

    Andi

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    Dedicated Scrapper
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    I have a Canon Pixma MG5450 which has a bottom feed but I haven't been using it for long. I previously had an Epson RX500 which I had for many years, it finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and had to go to the tip! I'd had it so long it was like losing an old friend but I am slowly getting used to the Canon. Good luck with your research on printers. Another consideration is the cost of cartridges. I bought my Canon a couple of years ago but didn't use it whilst the Epson was still functioning, so it is out of manufacturer's warranty. I therefore decided to use compatible cartridges instead of forking out for the genuine Canon ones and I have no complaints so far.
    Sylvia x
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    Dedicated Scrapper Neries's Avatar
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    Andy I had a Canon Pixma MG5350 which I loved. It had a front and back feeder and I could print up to 250gsm card. Unfortunately last year it came up with a fatal error message and would not work. Not sure if it was because I used compatible inks once warranty was out. Replaced it with a MG5750 which only has a front feeder. It does take my 250 gsm card and has 5 separate inks like my MG5350. Down side is I can't leave paper/card in it as the feeder folds away, so I don't fold it away. The only other model I liked at the time with front & back feeder only had two ink cartridges, one black & one colour. Compatible inks are so cheap for Canon machines, unlike genuine cartridges.

  6. #6
    crazy crafty person AndiDee's Avatar
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    Sylvia and Neries, thank you both for your replies. So far it seems to be Canon printers, which doesn't surprise me too much. The point about cartridges is important, generic cartridges are much cheaper than brand specific ones no matter which manufacturer they are for, but sometimes the branded ones are coded to make using cheaper ones very difficult. Also, printers have pads under the cartridge/print heads to collect any waste ink and eventually those pads get to saturation point and disable the printer, which then has to either be binned or sent back to the factory for "repair" i.e cleaning (which is costly and probably more than a replacement these days!) I was looking at a printer online today and in the review/question section quite a few people were asking about card weight. It looked as though those replying were merely quoting from the machine spec... "oh it will handle up to 300gsm" but I had to dig deeper (that's me all over!) and I discovered that what it really said was 300gsm photo paper. Well, excuse me but 300gsm photo paper is a lot more pliable than 300gsm card, and if the medium has to bend to get from the entry point to the exit point it ain't gonna happen with card. So if you good ladies are both able to get actual card from entry to exit with no problems then that is what I have to look for. I had a Hewlett Packard years ago and it was so brilliant. Card fed in from behind and straight through under the print heads then out at the front. I never had any problems with it but it eventually just wore out. I'm a bit unsure about HP these days because the ink is expensive and they really cane you if you try to use generics.

  7. #7
    Dedicated Scrapper Crafty Sandra's Avatar
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    Before I got my 1st canon printer I had a HP photo print quality wasn't good. It started playing up at just under a year old and although I could have sent it back decided id had enough of poor printing and went for the Canon.


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    Dedicated Scrapper DJG's Avatar
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    The first ever printer I had was a Lexmark but I hated it. Since then I've always had Cannon except for my black only laser printer which I bought a long time ago for foiling. My current printer is a Canon MG3000 series top loader (Canon stopped making top loaders for a while but they seem to be back now) it prints up to 200 gsm but I only use it to print toppers rather than directly onto card. It has 2 cartridge's and I only use genuine one's because I found the Canon ones didn't work very well with compatible's at least the ones I've has didn't it's something to do with the chip in them.

  9. #9
    Dedicated Scrapper liverbird's Avatar
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    I too have a canon its a pixma MP495. It's got a rear feed which is useful for card as it doesn't need to bend too much to feed through. It has two cartridges, one black and one triple colour.
    So far has taken all card I have put through. I use 260gsm regularly, as in 'linda's brick'. Also have put kraft card through recently with no problem, that's 280gsm.
    Could try some centura if you want. Cant remember if i've used that previously. Think that's about 300gsm.
    Maureen

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    Dedicated Scrapper Neries's Avatar
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    Andi my MG5750 takes Centural Pearl and Sunday I put through a thick white card that was in a pad from Lidl. Slightly bigger than A4 so I cut it down to A4. Definitely thicker than white 250gsm Supersmooth I use a lot. Also white card from Creative Crafty World goes through no problem.

  11. #11
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    I have Epsons two in fact and they both take card from the rear feed quite easily. I bought an Epson (I've always had Epson) but a cheap one from Costco and the rear feed didn't go back far enough to take heavy weight card but the XP-750 and the XP-960 (A3 printer) both take 300 gsm. It is the angle the card goes in at that prevents it from taking heavy card and if it is too upright it just won't catch. Fortunately, with Costco I just took it back and got a refund.

    I tried a Brother next and it hated taking the card from the rear feed and I nearly broke my back trying to do it because the feed is half way down the back of the machine so you have to bend right over it, utter madness, so that went back too.

    I've spoken to Epson about this and they said they are listening to the concerns of their customers and realise crafters need to have printers that take much thicker card and they are dealing with it. Not sure which printers they have brought out since but I already had my 750 and bought the 960 (the love of my life) because I wanted to print onto either 12x12 scrapbook LO's or A3. The 960 has been a Godsend and they both take thick card no problem. One of the cards I use is Hunkydory Essential card block and that is quite a dense 300 gsm card A3 size.

    I loved the old Epson photo/stylus printers but this is a photo printer too (Expression) but also an all-in-one so it can feed from the front although I would never put heavy card stock in the 'main' tray, all that bending as it goes through the printer can't do it any good. For heavy card stock I use the rear feed. Hope that helps and any more questions let me know. Meant to say, this is brilliant for photo's and has the 6 inks, they both are actually. I tend to use the 750 for general use and the 960 for photo's and printing as I said before onto A3 or 12x12.

    Oh, I was going to try the Canon that was recommended on here a while ago but at the time they must have been discontinuing it as I couldn't get one for love nor money. I literally scoured the internet but to no avail, although I'm glad now because I love the 960 so much.

  12. #12
    crazy crafty person AndiDee's Avatar
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    Thanks for all the replies folks, I appreciate you taking the time to help me - that's why I posted here!! I have a way to go yet before I commit... I don't want to end up making the same mistake I made last time. I wish there was somewhere to go and try out printers before making a final choice but that's not going to happen. I'll get there eventually. I am also eying up the Cameo 4, I have said for ages that the Cam needed a bit more downforce to compete with the likes of the Pazzles etc but the printer will have to come first. Thanks again all.

    Andi

  13. #13
    Dedicated Scrapper DJG's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndiDee View Post
    Thanks for all the replies folks, I appreciate you taking the time to help me - that's why I posted here!! I have a way to go yet before I commit... I don't want to end up making the same mistake I made last time. I wish there was somewhere to go and try out printers before making a final choice but that's not going to happen. I'll get there eventually. I am also eying up the Cameo 4, I have said for ages that the Cam needed a bit more downforce to compete with the likes of the Pazzles etc but the printer will have to come first. Thanks again all.

    Andi
    I'll move this thread to General scraping now as it might help someone in that section

  14. #14
    I like chocolate, I like shopping, but best of all, I like cropping! izzy's Avatar
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    i have a Epson XP 405 and it doesnt take card at all - in fact it doesn't accept some photo papers! At first I was quite happy with it as it printed in true colours but now I find that tho it still is ok for prints from the pc, if I want to scan/copy photos - the colours are wrong. found this thread interesting as I am thinking ahout a new printer myself - just havent got around to it!

  15. #15
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    I had the same problem with the one I bought from Costco, it was the 400 range and quite cheap and wouldn't take card. Have you tried speaking to Epson about the colour problem they are very helpful. As I said, mine had to go back because the rear feed was too straight up and that stops it taking thick card. I can pretty much tell now from the style of the rear feed if it will take dense card or not.

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