combo printer/fax/copier opinions? ideas?

[hambone]

any suggestions as to a combo printer/fax/copier for color copies? i do some fact sheet layouts for some real estate agents and average around 200-300 color copies a week. and also would be nice to have some color proofs for some customers. should i go with a laser or an inkjet?
is a combo the way to go?
or should i have all seperate machines?

i am just starting out, office depot has a nice laser combo machine for around 800$ does this sound right?
thanks in advance for the suggestions...

 

[Bigdawg]

Highly recommend going laser route - inkjet will eat up the ink for that many copies and will ultimately be more expensive that buying a color laser up front. The other thing is the smear factor. If the ink jet printed get humid, let alone wet, they will be illegible.
Remember too, that $800 for the printer will (probably) only give you the starter toner cartridges and you will need to replace those almost immediately for the quantity you are looking at. We are looking at the same sort of thing (still have to save a few more pennies to buy...) and I think laser is the way to go.

-Stacy

 

[WVB]

I still use my old Inkjet Canon Multipass c530 for copies, faxes, and prints. Yes its slow compared to technology today but it works, and you can most likely find one cheap say ebay etc.

But for that many copies you most likely are better off with a color laser all in one. Check online, or even look into like Lanier where you can lease/rent one and they maintain the machine for you.

 

[giantsfan1951]

Our other business operation here is as an Copier Dealer and office supply store... For your best benefit PLEASE talk to a good reputable Copier dealer B4 you make that purchase... most of the Copier/ fax/printers that sell in the 800$ range are NOT going to be able to produce the quanity of copies you're talking about for very long...they're just not designed to handle that type of work load. There are other issues also but to lenthy to try to discuss here.... Again.... CHECK WITH A REPUTABLE DEALER... he can fill you in

 

[hambone]

great, i will check, as we have a company right here who does that./

great advice guys, thanks a million. i will check into all angles, but most of all will go with a laser, due to the cost of ink and such, and also the smudge factor

 

[jayhawksigns]

I personally wouldn't get an all in one, is just me personally.

Get the nice laser printer and a scanner and that'll be all you need. When you want to do copies, use the scanner, pretty much all scanners have a copy function anymore, the same for faxing. I never like all-in-one units, if something fails, you lose your copier, your printer, and your fax. I would rather lose one item at a time then all at once.

On the printer note, Xerox makes the Phaser series of printers. Ours, and I believe others have a free black ink for life offer, saves some on ink that way if you printer contain any amount of black.

 

[Vital Designs]

Checkout this www.freecolorprinter.com . They have the xerox phaser and most I have talked to that have one seem pleased...


Dave

 

[ENTDesign]

Like any deal, do the math first. The free phaser deal indicates about 2000 pages at 5% coverage per color. Full color graphics are going to have much higher consumption. You will be obligated to pay $2400 at least for this (plus the maintanance kit(s)). You need the best estimate of toner cost to price your output and compare this deal to purchasing any other machine. Ink jet will be very expensive obviously at your page output needs, not to mention way slower. I have seen some color laser devices recently at CompUSA for around $500. Epson has a new all-in-one that is around $800-900.

 

[Vital Designs]

I agree with doing the math and figuring out cost. The color lasers in the sub $1000 range are not built for mass printing. They are great for printing customer proofs and as a standard office printer. FRYs in Dallas had a minolta for $179 this past weekend.


The phaser 8400 can be purchased new for around $1000 outright. This does not include a full service contract however nor additional supplies per month. Are they worth $1400 over 24 months? Depends how much you plan to beat on it!

Choices,Choices.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I bought an Epson R320 a few months back with a bulk ink system for $380 from these folks. PrintonIt.com

It's a six color printer that will also print CD's and do full edge to edge print as well when you need to do something like that. I'm still running on the original ink that's included after better than 1000 pages and about 400 CD's. The output is beautiful as well. I have a refill kit for all six colors sitting on the shelf that costs $125 but would figure out to about 8 to 10 times that amount if I were buying cartridges.

I prefer separate dedicated hardware so my HP ScanJet 4600 sits at the ready ($149.00 at Office Depot ... probably less now) and if I need a color copy that feature is built into the ScanJet.

 

[smullen]

I bought an Epson R320 a few months back with a bulk ink system for $380 from these folks. PrintonIt.com

It's a six color printer that will also print CD's and do full edge to edge print as well when you need to do something like that. I'm still running on the original ink that's included after better than 1000 pages and about 400 CD's. The output is beautiful as well. I have a refill kit for all six colors sitting on the shelf that costs $125 but would figure out to about 8 to 10 times that amount if I were buying cartridges.

I prefer separate dedicated hardware so my HP ScanJet 4600 sits at the ready ($149.00 at Office Depot ... probably less now) and if I need a color copy that feature is built into the ScanJet.

Sweet, I've always been an HP fan, but latley I'v seen a few Epsons I'm liking... Do you use that for stuff you offer to customers or what mostly???

I still want to be able to print on 18x24 Corplasts.... Doesn't have to be Photo Quality, but atleast 3-4 colors, would be awsome...

I just don't really know what HW will do that...

 

[Fred Weiss]

I bought it because we decided with our most recent clip art release that we didn't want to send out to have them manufactured. We wanted to offer it in four different file formats of which two require two CD's. So we were looking at 6000 CD's to bring in a starting inventory (a cash outlay of about $3500). Add to that the fact that we were treated very badly the last time we had CD's manufactured and we decided instead to duplicate our own CDR's inhouse. A five station duplicator ran us about $650, a couple hundred dollars worth of top grade printable CD blanks and the Epson.

The Epson was also invaluable for running magazine quality proofs when we did the 130 page user guide.

We use it everyday for customer proofs and other general printout needs in preference to our HP LaserJet. We didn't used to because the cost per page was so high. But now it's less than a laser print.

As far as printing on Coroplast and other direct to substrate printers, there are nine or ten systems on the market. ColorSpan is probably the best known and uses UV cure inks. Sells for about $75,000 which is considered cheap. It only does 600 x 600 dpi but has much less maintenance and no smells. Main issue with it is only about 1/4" clearance.

Graphtec just released a unit that uses ecosolvent inks. No idea what the price is. Gerber is expected to add a flatbed adapter to their Solara UV printer sometime this year. Vutek, OCE and Raster Graphics offer higher end units with higher end price tags.

Not sure what the attraction is to Coroplast. Why spend $75,000 to make cheap signs? I know one guy that got the ColorSpan. His plan is wholesale and his price is $4 per square foot plus the cost of the substrate.

So his printing of an 18" x 24", two sided blank is $24 wholesale. Now you have a choice of what he prints it on. The Coroplast will run about 75¢ and an 040" aluminum blank costs me about $4. I would have a hard time selling the Coroplast for more than $35 or $40 but I can sell the aluminum for $90 to $125 all day long. High profitability as well for PVC foam boards, magnetic signs and lots of other stuff. Also a great solution for MDO, Alumicorr and Dibond signs.

Coroplast signs are throwaway signs. People aren't looking for digitally printed ones. It is the realm of the screen printer in larger quantity and the vinyl cutter in smaller quantity.