Lexmark Z25m printer questions and really cheap HP inkjets

[The village idiot]

If anyone has used one of these, I have some questions. I'm thinking this would be a good project printer to turn into a CD printer. Walmart has them for about $35USD so the price is good. Just needed to know a few things about the paper feed. Pictures would be even better. I'm not asking you to take it apart or anything (but if you want to that's cool). Just trying to decide if it would be a good choice for modifications. Need to know where the paper sensors are (if any) and what type of clearance there is for THICK media (CD's). Need to be able to pass about 1.5 mm through the printer. If not, does it look like it can be modified to allow for that kind of clearance.

ANd since I don't need 2 CD printers, I thought of a way to get rid of it that will benefit everyone. Though I can not say what that idea is yet, because I need to discuss it with a couple of people. Need to find the project first. If not the Lexmark, it will likely be one of the really cheap HP's. The cheaper the better, so if you see any of those under $50USD let me know where.

[Craig Tucker]

I don't know about that particular model, but I bought a cheap lexmark for work once. Never again, crappiest printer I have ever come across, paper feed never worked properly from day one and the print quality was poor.

[The village idiot]

OK, then maybe I better think about one of the cheap HP's. The feed problem wouldn't bother me, I'd be cutting a large hole in the back to ram a disk caddy through. But if the print quaity is going to be marginal, then that kills it. We'll see, it would be from Walmart, they'll take anything back!

The newer HP's have a lid the comes off at the back of the printer, inside attached to the lid are some rollers for the paper feed. I figure, just pop that cover off, and move the print head up so that it will clear the caddy and I'm nearly done. They were looking at me funny when I was in Staples the other day, pulling the backs off of their display models. But no one was brave enough to ask me why, so I went about my business. Checked 4 or 5, popped the covers off each one to make sure it looked the same as the rest.

I was also thinking of a Canon S200, but those have already been done. Kind of makes it a copy cat mod then. Don't want to do that. The Lexmark was purely based on price. At $35USD, you can't buy much cheaper, at least not new in box stuff. Thought it would make a good alternative to buying a used printer for people worried about getting inks and stuff.

[Craig Tucker]

it would be from Walmart, they'll take anything back!

What, even in tiny pieces

[The village idiot]

No, I always manage to get all the pieces back together first. And it might even work when I'm done

Whatever I get, it must meet my very rigid quality standards for photos. If it doesn't look half as good as an old Epson, it is trash. Must look as good as 1440x720 with Epson's high quality halftoning. Maybe 720x720... maybe as that only gives you about 2-3 dots per pixel.

All in all, I don't like thermal print heads. To restrictive in the inks you can chose. Piezo printheads are better!

[The village idiot]

It looks like the Lexmark would be easier to modify for CD printing. However, it isn't as easy as the older Epson mod. The HP 3520 doesn't look like it would be very easy to do. The older Epsons are definately the way to go.

[The village idiot]

Against my better judgement, I bought a Z25m printer. I'll risk the $35USD right now. If it works, maybe I'll start selling them.

[The village idiot]

What a paper mangler. None of the pages feed through straight. On they didn't include a color cartridge

On the brighter side. This might be an easy mod. The printer is so stupid that there shouldn't be any feed issues. Plenty of room between the platen and the tension rollers. Though there might be a problem with head height. Nothing that can't be solved.

[gmatov]

Village,

That's also a Compaq, and a Kodak, and, would you believe, an IBM?

Lexmark was IBM's printer division. I think you understand why they dumped it.

They are horrible, cartridges are almost impossible to fill, the recyclers around here say about 25% success rate. Garbage, pure and simple, and cartridges expensive as hell.

In the Kodak Photo version, 200, I think, took 25 minutes to print an 8 1/2 X 11 photo. And the colors sucked.

Cheers,

George

[g_shocker182]

If I wanted some decent pics (not sure about cds) printed I'd buy a color laser printer. They're getting cheaper, now around $700 I think.

[g_shocker182]

Color Laser for $450

http://vcdhelp.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=651411/ut=4432a8cbce014e91

[The village idiot]

Color laser does not fade like inkjets either. Much longer lasting prints.

And the Z25 is a really cheap machine. Price and quality. Both of those things make for a great project machine. Though there will be some serious cutting to be done.

It is sad when the cartridge costs more than the printer I bet you will find a lot of this model in the dumpsters when the first carts run out.