Inkjet CD printers POLL?

[The village idiot]

I'm in the process of creating another build it yourself CD/DVD printer. I wanted to know if people are even interested in the outcome, or am I just wasting server space. This one is a Lexmark Z25 printer from Walmart. $35USD. Cheap enough to slaughter, simple enough to work. Sorry, no TGPO option.

[BJ_M]

i got 3 or 4 inkjet printers at home that one print 1 or 2 colors each .. i might destroy them (but who cares) but your idea sounds great (can't keep using the disk printers at work all the time) ...

i could use each one of them for one color ..

[The village idiot]

So far the Z25 is a snap to mod.

What type of printers do you have? Maybe I can help you fix them and then mod them. I'm very good with Epsons (my favorite if you haven't noticed). The rest I can fumble through if you have a camera for pictures.

[Bob W]

I have the Epson 900 and love it.

[overloaded_ide]

Tell ya what I would like to see modded to a disk printer, though expensive, is the Canon I850!

This printer was $200 most places, but I got 2 of them for $150 each from Sam's Club then. That was when they were pretty much the NEWest printer, prices are down now but I don't know how far down yet? Think I saw I could get them anywhere for $150 a few months ago.

The reason I would like to see this one modded, it is a GREAT printer!
I have gotten actuall PHOTO quality on plain paper. Pics were taken from a digital camera, Some were people on a bright street and some were High Gloss cars in an outdoor car show. Quality is great!

Next it has 4 ink tanks! ONe for each color, and you can see through the clear plastic. It does have the ink level detection, But when you can actually SEE inside the tank it makes it much better!

Tanks are a breeze to refill! Simply pop out tank, drill tiny hole in top, inject ink, SEAL HOLE WELL with hot glue and your done! And since you can see in the tank, no geussing when it is full! Next refill, pop out tank pull off glue, inject ink, hot glue again! I am still useing my orginal cartriges that came with the printer! Refilled OFTEN. They hold alot of ink, but I print TONS and TONS! I manufacture pinback buttons, and for printing images I use this printer. Images look like gloss photos after placed under mylar. (clear plastic)

It is fast! See above for my type of printing! Sometimes I have ran off 100 full color pages in a day for one product. I don't have time to wait for each page, I need em now. Thats why I replaced a HP 656C with this model also. HP was just too slow... AND though I liked the Xerox I had, this printer is even better!

Cost of operation, $0 so far! I have pint bottles of ink, (not tiny refill kit ones) and I have been refilling many printers several years with the same ink. Cost was about $100 for all four colors! This INK works great!
Again, refilling is no problem!
Also does not disable the tanks with Ink Counter chips, like some printers Refill as many times as you want

Cost of new Cannon tanks if you don't want to refill is about $30 for a set and last a long time, and plenty of places sell the lower cost tanks for cheap too, like $12 a set.

Now this is currantly an expensive printer, over $100! But if it can be modded for disk printing, it would be well worth it.

Now I know I can get an Epson 900 disk printer for about the same price or alitle more, but I think it has all in one cartrig for color and an ink counter chip that disables the cartrig after so much use. Does not look that easy to refill!

As I told my wife when she did not think $150 this canon printer was a good deal, since I could get an Wally world HP for $50!
The cost of the printer is nothing, it is the cost of INK that runs up the bill!
And of course QUALITY counts!

After she used this printer 2 weeks, she said nothing when I bought a second one for a spare!

And that's my esay on why I think this would be a great disk printer
And even better if it still can print regular paper after the mod!

Use it for everything, disks, covers, and all your other printing needs too
Or disks only will work!

[Craig Tucker]

How about I would buy one if they werent so damned expensive, well that is the case with me.

[marvel2020]

The village idiot wrote.....

So far the Z25 is a snap to mod.

What type of printers do you have? Maybe I can help you fix them and then mod them. I'm very good with Epsons (my favorite if you haven't noticed). The rest I can fumble through if you have a camera for pictures.

What about the printer i have the EPSON STYLUS Color 880, can that be modded ?.

Although looking at it i don't think it can.

[freestyler]

I agree with overloaded. I have the canon i950 and love it. It actually tells you if the ink is low and is accurate - hell it will even tell you if the ink is out (if youre a lazy bastard) while youre printing, and you can swap out the ink while its printing (it will pause obviously) and it will recognize the ink immediately and not screw up your printjob

spits out full page borderless photos in about 30 seconds or so - no joke

i paid about 210 for it but its still goin for 250 at most shops from what ive seen

shame it doesnt do disk printing, otherwise it would be king of printers

[overloaded_ide]

Yep, my opinion of the I850 too, if it did disks it would be king!
Costs less than yours, but when yours costs less then that would be KING!
I geuss I would call yours the Prince for now

And besides, yours is a newer model, and we all know a King is older than a prince! :P

[gotodvdr]

How about my HP 970 CSE? It could be molded?

[The village idiot]

The epson 880 looks to be too new. The paper feed on the newer ones makes it a little more difficult to mod. The Hp's all have one common problem, They do not have a way of increasing the printhead height. Same with the lexmark, so I will do some heavy grinding to make it higher. The lexmark being cheap enough to not worry about a lost printer.

The Canon 850i would be a good mod candidate, but it is expensive. The easy way to mod them, leaves the printer so that it only prints to disks. No more paper printing. The 850i is a little expensive to limit it's capability. If you want a new canon that will print both disks and paper, look for it around December. They WILL NOT stay out of the game for too long.

For those looking to buy a disk printer, but can't afford the price... Look for an old Epson 6XX series printer. This is the easiest to mod so far. Also wait until I finish the Lexmark, this is a cheap current model printer, in case you don't want to buy a used printer.



I will stick with the old Epsons being the best. The old ones DO NOT have the chipped cartridge, they do HAVE plenty of room for thick media. they DO have adjustable printhead height. They are also cheaper than dirt. $10-$30 USD used, working. The Epson will be the one I keep. The Lexmark will be the one for current model printers. I will most likely give it away after I am done making it. If it works well, the Lexmark may show up as a fund raiser for this site. You may want to pay attention to any messages Baldrick puts out. I've already discussed it with him, and only waiting on finishing this mod. If it works up to my high standards, you will see it available to help this site. Details are not fully together, but you might get it CHEAP! If not, a trip to Walmart makes it a cheap disk printer. But don't buy one until I finish, there may be some complex work to be done to raise the printhead, and not everyone will want to do this kind of work. Right now, the head hits the disk, so it MUST be raised about 1.5 mm above its current position.

I still recommend finding a store that sells used computer equipment, and looking for an Epson 4XX, 6XX, 700, or 740. The older 800 and 900 might work, but there is a lot of stuff in the way. So I don't recommend them unless you have one that is collecting dust. The 6XX is the one to get if you have a choice. It works! It is easy to make! All you need is a screwdriver, a measuring device, a cutting tool of some kind, and some cardboard, paper & glue. It is the easiest and cheapest way to get to printing onto disks!

[Tommyknocker]

I still haven't gone through my 520 sticky labels I paid $9.95 for. Cannot see paying anymore money for a printer I do not need.

[Cornucopia]

I've got the Primera Signature IV. Works GREAT! It cost more but quality and speed choices make it worth it.
Only problem I can see-you've got to buy the @#$%*&&$ expensive manufacturer's ink. It's the whole "sell the razorblades" ploy.

Does anybody else use a high-quality disc printer which can use ~generic/inexpesive (but not cheap!) inks?

Scott

[The village idiot]

Doesn't the signature use Epson ink cartridges? Either those or a Lexmark/HP type cartridge. I know the primero pro uses an HP type (thermal inkjet). Any of the "pro" printers that use Epson inks have a whole world of choices. One thing to think about... You often get what you pay for with generic inks. Make sure you buy from a good company. I would only buy from a company that makes their own inks, and stands behind compatibility with testing. For Epson comp. inks I would buy from http://www.mediastreet.com. They have dye and pigment inks for Epsons (piezo printheads), as well as dye inks for some Canon printers. The thermal inkjets are much harder to work with, and you may be better off with OEM inks.

[stiltman]

Hey Village,

What do you think about an HP722c or an Epson C40UX?
Think they can be modded?

[The village idiot]

The HPs are all difficult, but some can be done. I looked at the Epson C62 to see if it would be easy, and decided that it would not. The paper feed is right where you need to cut the slots for the disk caddy. It looked like it would be difficult. I might still try some of the newer Epsons on down the road. What makes those tempting is that EZCD printers are based on the C42 and C62. So someone managed to do it, just that I think they made a lot of custom parts so that it would work. Not something for the normal do-it-yourselfer.

If someone has a broken Epson C40, 42, 60, 62 they want to send me, I'll give it a go. Might even be able to return a working printer, but at least it couldn't be more broken

If some store has a C40/42 on sale for under $40USD, I'll probably get one to try, but haven't seen any that cheap, while there are a few HP, and Lexmark that are that cheap. Trying to keep total expenses under $50USD for the real hobbiest. The people in business can afford to get one of the ready made printers. Besides how much fun is it to buy a printer, compared to the fun of making it yourself, in the cheapest way possible.

[stiltman]

If some store has a C40/42 on sale for under $40USD, I'll probably get one to try, but haven't seen any that cheap

I searched ebay and came up with this

The cheap one (1 day left) says it prints but not very good, maybe that one would be a good one to practice on?

[The village idiot]

Used and not working? Sounds like trouble. I don't like to buy other peoples' problems. Rather have one that I know works, or one that I know doesn't work, and no one cares about anymore.

The Lexmark has fallen to my knife,

and now all that is left is to make the caddy, and a couple of guides so that the caddy moves easily through the printer. Head height turned out to be something easily fixed with a grinder and some clever use of the stock materials. You might see it very soon.

[DeadLamb]

one that looks like it would super ez is the Canon BJC-6000 being it has a 2nd paper feed that is a straight feed with no mods at all. Out the box it's listed as clearing .6mm so that is close to DVD caddy size.. Heck if one searches the news groups on google now you will see some post that people are printed to cd's with it after no mods at all.

Now I have 6000 and tried to feed some cardboard past it (as in a caddy test) and the rollers took it fine but the print head hit it and jammed. A bunch of papers stacked CD high and then cut out with a cd in it feed past clean..

So really, the main mod for it looks like just finding the right stuff to make a caddy out of.... They also tend to be sold while working fine being most everyone hates them due to not auto feeding paper well. I know I hate mine!! heh... I was able to pick up a 2nd one the other day for a whole whopping $4.68 or so.. I need to hunt down something for a caddy but if I get it work clean I'll be sure to post about it..

but for anyone with one now or if ya see one cheap in a thrift shop, take a look at it.

as for other post about making the printers.. Heck I love to read about hacking up stuff even if some of the mods I never do..

[The village idiot]

FYI, a CD is 1mm thick. So a caddy for printing to them is going to be about 1.5 mm thick. The thinest spots on the caddy that I made are 1.35 mm with and average of 1.4 mm thick. So the 0.6 mm of your printer is only about half way. If people have really used that printer unmodified, then the manufacturing tolerances at Canon are really bad. The distance from the printhead to the paper is very important. It in part determines the resolution of the ink drops, and how well the different colors line up together. Generally when the print head is moved 1 mm farther away from the paper than spec, the print quality decreases noticeably(sp?). At least until you stick a very thick paper through the machine. The only stock machines I have seen that will take paper 1.5 mm are expensive pro model printers. And most of those are Epsons. If you think about modding your 6000, you may want to find a way to put a control on the printhead height. That way you could raise the head for disks, and put it back down for paper. Then you would have a very good choice of all in one printer.

[overloaded_ide]

Hey, less typing more modding, we wanna see that printer

Have you got to try the first disk yet?
Question, if useing the prnter for CDs, I gues the printble cds don't have the raised stack ring, or how would the print head clear those?
I guess the same for DVD R disks also. I just looked and it seems my leda disks have a slightly raised area around the center hub.
Do the printables not have these?

I have't seen a printable disk yet, since I don't have a printer for them I never ordered one.

Good luck with the mod still.

[thegig]

The village idiot, can't wait for your mod. I have an old Lexmark hanging around for a carport sale. But hey, if I can mod it for CD/DVD ... cha-ching. But of course the wife will be pissed. Oh well, not like THATS never happened

Keep up the good work.

[The village idiot]

Keep in mind that old Lexmark is different from new cheaper made Lexmark. If it doesn't look like the Z25, most likely it will not work. However there are many models that use the same design from Lexmark. Not sure what the difference is. The Z25, Z35, Z706(?), Z6XX(?) all seem to have the same chassis. They all just cost more and maybe offer better resolution. Though the Z35 uses the same cartidges as the less expensive Z25.

I have hit a snag that I do not think can be fixed! The Z25 is essentially done. Except for one thing. When it prints onto thick media (like the caddy), it does not print a perfect circle. It prints an oval that is 1 mm shorter on the top and bottom (a total of 2 mm) so if you can live with that kind of tolerance, then it will be out soon. I need to check a few things, and finish photos and write the guide. This one involves some precise grinding to move the printhead height, so it is a much more advanced skill level than the Epson mod. There is also a bunch of messing around that the Epson do not need.

[The village idiot]

I have now confirmed that the following Epson Stylus Color models should work with minor changes:

400, 440, 600, 640, 660, 740, 800. Also possible are the 860 and 1160. These were confirmed by looking at the repair manuals. Some minor differences may be present!

[overloaded_ide]

So if this is working, but printing an oval, how does that effect the graphics? Are they comming out correct or a little fuzzy. Is this a feed speed problem?

If a person stays away from the edge, then are there any problems?
Like just don't cover the entire disk! Stay in 1/2" from sides, or just do logos and graphics without backgrounds.

Of course you won't get an exact copy of a DVD disk image that way, but heck half the fun is making your own! Well at least for captured footage

[magicmycote]

I want one and I am going to build it soon

--- but only if you can get it working as good as the other mod

[The village idiot]

Well, if using photo shop, you could always do a "free transform" on the image to stretch it those 2 mm in height. That way it would come out correct.

And yes this is a feed speed problem. The printer is feeding faster than the media can move. I have eliminated every source of drag that is possible, and it still does it. I think it might be down to the mass of the caddy, and the acceleration the can be imparted to it by the 3 tiny rubber rollers. I tried increasing the pressure that pushes the caddy onto the rollers, I tried decreasing the pressure. Neither one would get it to less than 2 mm overall difference. I tried cleaning the rollers, and then scuffing them with sandpaper. Then I cut a crosshatch pattern into the bottom of the caddy for extra grip. That was when I finally got it to the present small amount of 2 mm. If it fed the media at a slower pace, then all would be good. But without reprogramming the printer controller, that might not happen. The only thing that might fix this is printing in color. Mine came without the color cartidge, and I am not going to buy a $33 cartridge to stick in it for testing as I will not be keeping it! I only got the Lexmark because I thought some people might not want to go thrrough the hassle of finding a used, working Epson.

If you buy a Lexmark Z25 (Walmart) or Z23 (Comp USA) make sure to open the box before purchase. If you don't see both ink carts, then get another!

This Lexmark has one very critical modification that could render the printer junk! You need to grind/file some of the chassis to raise the headheight. If you grind too much, or do it in a sloppy way, your printer will not work. Because of this, I am hesitant to make a guide for it. It is far too easy to ruin your new printer, cheap as it is. I strongly suggest the older Epsons as an easier mod project. They also have cheaper ink that can be refilled. And they can use waterproof pigment inks.

I also wish my damn disks would arrive! I need something to properly test these printers, and I can not find any printable disks in any stores around me. Not from Chump Screw Us All, nor BeastBuy, nor Staples, nor OfficeMax, nor Walmart, or Rodeo Shark. F'in ground shipping from the West coast is killing me. It was free ground, or $22 third day, which is not guaranteed to arrive in 3 days!

[The village idiot]

Here is what the Lexmark caddy looks like before cutting.

Notice all the smeared ink. That's from all the attempts to print a true circle. The template is the same as the Photoshop one from the Epson guide. Only changed the paper size to reflect the smaller size caddy. This caddy is only 6.5 x 11 inches. A savings for the plastic. Should be able to make about 16 caddies for the Lexmark from the sheets listed in the Epson guide. But cardboard and paper will work too. Might even give you a true circle.

[The village idiot]

Just went through my Skidmark pictures, need to take a few more. Then I will start writing the guide! Might be late Friday night, but most likely sometime this weekend.

If you are good with tools, and understand the warnings that I made in the previous posts, it would be a safe bet to buy one on Friday. Models that will work Z25 & Z23 without changes. The Z605 and Z705 and Z35 should work, but you will need to make some allowances for what might be a slightly different case. Best bet would be to buy a Z25 or Z23. Just make sure to open the box before purchase. It should have 2 ink cartridges, 1 color and 1 black! The software and paper you might want, then again you might not. You could also spend some time making Test papers the size of a CD, you will need a couple to fine tune the caddy after cutting and glueing. Paper is cheaper the disks, and easier to get.

Bring it home, test it to make sure it prints! Make sure you have all the tools listed in the Epson guide. A small round metal file would be best for the printhead height adjustment if you have one. Safer than a grinder, because you have more control and won't remove too much material. You only need to oval out 2 holes by 1 mm in height. This is the hardest part of the mod! Not a lot of filing. You will also need a drill to make one hole in the metal chassis. Small like 1/8 inch or smaller. Smaller is better. Some sandpaper might also help, but not absolutely needed. That being for the caddy, and the printer case. Since you most likely do not have the materials to make a vinyl caddy, you can get by with a file on the case.

The next printer model I want to do is one of the following: The HP 3520, or Canon i250 (S250?) or Epson C40/C42. But I will not be able to buy any until I get a new job. If someone wants to send one of those to me, I'll return it in one of 2 states. State 1, I do not think it can be easily modded, so I send it back with no damage done (I will give it a good cleaning while I have it). State 2, it will be an easy mod and I will return it fully modded with a nice custom vinyl caddy, and a printed mod/user booklet. It just has to work, and have ink in it (at least half of each color and half of black). If you have a broken printer in the above family, I will be happy to try and fix it. Maybe it will work, maybe it goes in the trash. That's also up to you. Just remember, it WILL NOT print onto paper after the mod!

I'm trying to stick with the cheapest printers on the market! So if anyone is willing, let me know. I find this to be very fun, and it helps give me something else to think about. The Canon is the one that I least want to do, someone has already modded a Canon S200. The 250 is just a compact version I think. No one has any of the Canon or Epson on a shelf for me to look at. I know the Epson C62 and C82 do not look to be easy. I haven't ever looked at the C40/C42, but I do see that it does not use the chipped carts! That's very important!

Any who, a link to the Skidmark guide will appear in my signature when it is done. If anyone does buy a Z25 today, for the purpose of making a CD printer, please let me know. It will motivate me to get the guide done a little quicker. I think this will be a good printer for this purpose. Cheap and available. The quality should be high enough to please anyone (it is a CD after all, not a picture for display). If anyone knows where to get the ink for this model cheap and maybe a refill kit that they have used, let me know. I'll put that info in the guide also, since eventually the ink will run out. With the price of the ink, you are better off throwing the old printer away, and buying a brand new one! Sad that we now have a disposa-printer

[stiltman]

The C40UX does not use a chipped cart, but the has another way of telling the ink is out. After you refill, you have to place some tape over the bottom of the cart to make the driver think it's new. The problem I encountered is if I do not fill the cartridge all the way, the printer driver will reset the thing to full but it will run out of ink sometimes...real screwy