Build your own CD printer?

[The village idiot]

Anyone interested in this topic?

It looks like you might be able to do it for under $100USD if you buy a used printer. I have some ideas, and would love to discuss them. You can find some info in this thread https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176043

Just though I would move it to this forum, and hope that others are interested.

[The village idiot]

I just finished tearing into an Epson 640. After a little light testing, this may not be an ideal condidate for this mod. I seem to get a lot of paper errors, so you might be able to print 1 disk, but to do more, you may need to power the printer off and back on. I'll do some more testing tomorrow. If it works I have most of the pictures ready for a complete description.

[AmeliaK]

OK I went to a local PC shop and came across the HP3500 only $75AUD around $48USD New. The best part it has a straight through feed!! I ended up buying it and I already have it in pieces

The problems I have encountered so far:

1. It seems to trigger a paper feed and then expects the paper to feed through within a certain time frame. Not sure how I am going to fix this. I have taken the rear paper jam cover off and I put in new paper but as it feeds though (and out) I feed in the caddy from above. If I get the timing right it will feed through.

2. It doesn't seem to like thick cardboard. I'm not sure how to adjust this.

So I need to overcome the Thickness problem and make a Caddy and feeder.

OK for the good news I did manage to print on a CDR, not very accurately since I haven't made a feeder yet. The quality to my surprise is excellent!!

Kind Regards
Amelia

PS: You moved the post on me It was a good Idea, I was actually thinking of doing the same.

[The village idiot]

You know, its funny. I'm having the same feed problems you are only with an Epson 640. There seems to be some sort of timing issue for the paper to enter the printer. Then it will give me a paper error at the end, because it is expecting another sheet to load.

I'm thinking that a temperary caddy could be made out of some very heavy paper stock, or thin card board. Simply cut circles for the disk. Then glue a sheet of paper to the bottom to keep the CD from falling out. After it works, I plan on finding some plastic that is the same thickness as a CD, and then doing the same thing. I'll end up with a caddy about twice the thickness of a CD, but it should still work. Might just have to set the print head to "extra" thick media. There is normally an adjustment to move the guide rail closer or farther from the paper

My suggestion for your caddy template would be to get an Avery label page for CD's. Model it after that page. Then you can use their freeware to design your labels. If you can't get Avery brand labels there, I'll see if I can come up with some measurements for you. The software can be found somewhere on the Avery web site. I think this is the link: http://www.avery.com/us/Main?action=software.AverySoftwareDetail&catalogcode=WEB01&softwarecode=3200

I guess you could always get the template for label #8695, and fill the CD space with a color and print it on a piece of paper. That would give you the size of the disk label. The labels are 2 per page, centered across the paper.

[The village idiot]

Definately a media feed problem. Going to try to replace select parts of the feeder assembly to make this work. Also need to do some cutting on the case.

[AmeliaK]

I think if I can achieve consistent loads at a consistent position then the rest should be smooth sailing. I am using MS Publisher to print with. So as far as the software goes, that wont be a problem.

I read the following last night:
The external print height adjustment was not enough for the print head to pass over the CD and caddy. I opened the printer by inserting a screwdriver into the slots on the side of the printer and by using my index finger to release the latches on the inside front of the cover. Once I had the cover off I saw the print height adjustments on each side of the printer. I adjusted these to their maximum. I noticed that the print head was now very difficult to slide back and forth. Along the top of the printer is a piece of shiny angle steel. The print head rides back and forth on the bottom edge of this steel. I used two small washers to shim this up slightly. That problem solved. When I printed my first CD I noticed that there were rows of tine dots on the top surface of the CD. This is due to the “Star Wheels” on the paper outlet of the printer. I had to shim this assemble with thin washers also. The pictures should have all of the screw locations marked in red. When I powered it up again I would get an error when the external print height lever was in the down position (greatest opening between the print head and paper). I found that the print head was now striking the spring tensioner for the print head drive belt. I managed to bend this up slightly (less than 1/16 inch) so that it would clear.

I finally got some better pictures of my caddy. I had trouble with the print head dragging on one side of the caddy. That is why it looks like somebody sand off part of the top layer of cardboard.


I am looking at now taking the Printer Mech apart so I can prop up the paper height section. I think this will solve the feeding of thick stock through the printer after which I will need to solve the paper feed sensor problem, which expects the paper to come from the front not the rear.

Cheers
Amelia

[The village idiot]

The Epson 640 is not a good choice. There is a definate relationship between when the printer moves the paper feed control, to when it expects to see a paper on the platen. Without solving that problem, this machine will not work. too bad since it doesn't use a cartridge that has a chip in it. Time to look at some of the units that others have modified successfully.

[AmeliaK]

I have been bouncing ideas around and I think I will be able to solve the Caddy thickness problem and as far as the timing goes, I am pretty sure I can work around the problem.

I will hopefully have the thickness problem solve by tomorrow and then tackle the timing after which I plan on making the Caddy feeder.

Cheers
Amelia

[The village idiot]

I think I know how they make the modded printers. They buy 1 of the CD printers, and copy the ROM. Then they just load the new rom onto the modded printers.

So short of making a microcontroller to fake out the printer, I'm going to give up. I can always print on my Epson 9500 after I make a caddy. I am going to look at the Epson C62 this week, and see if I think it will have the same problems with the media load timing. If I had an OOPic lying around, I would have just built a cheater/faker for the Epson 640.

Good luck with your project Amelia, I'll keep track of your progress, and help out if I can. Mostly I have to concentrate on finding a new job this week. The old one is wearing badly on me.

Too bad we couldn't get a few other people involved. It would be nice to see what some of those modded printers look like without having to buy one.

[AmeliaK]

OK as per the above I solved one problem after another and . . . . . . I Printed PERFECTLY on Two DVDS!!!!!!!!. So all up I have spent $75AUD around $48USD for my DVD printer

The adjustments are pretty major, but it can be done.


I need to document it all and post it.

Regards
Amelia

[The village idiot]

Glad to here you have success. Now where to put the info, is it a guide or must it be left where few tread, down here in the offtopic areas.

[AmeliaK]

It going to be complicated to explain, so I am guessing many digital image and descriptions on what needs to be adjusted. Basically I have cut some plastic, Shimmed up part of the feeder/roller mech (to allow feeding of thick stock), adjusted the Print Head and made a cardboard feeder guide using Hot Glue and Duct Tape . . . and the Caddy.

I am going take off all the add-ons and rebuild it properly.

If you can't see the picture go to:
http://homecinema.curvedspaces.com/pics/image.gif

The first two had VERY bad Quality printing, the image doesn't show just how bad the printing was. The last two I did, one on a CDR (the one in the above image) and one on a DVD (not pictured), both came out great.

Cheers
Amelia

[Craig Tucker]

If I click on the link, it says "you do not have access to this document".

[gll99]

Craig:

Right click and save as seems to work.

cheers

[The village idiot]

try this:

[The village idiot]

Stupid me.....


Just thought of a way to solve my 640 feed problem. It will be kind of crude, but should function well.

A cog... a cog is what I need. getting closer, but it might be beyond the average hobbiest.

Wish I could see some pictures of a modified Epson C60 or C62. Anyone.....

[Greenspock]

The print job looks sweet but how does running CD media through the printer affect the data side? I would assume that the feeding mechanism would mark the media leaving smudges or small pit marks. Sorry if this may seem like a dumb question as this is a new subject for me.

[stiltman]

I don't think you should use a dot matrix print for this

[Greenspock]

I never thought of that!

I'm gonna pull out my old Epson and start printing on some DVD-RAM media right now!

[The village idiot]

The way I look at it, the caddy protects the disk same as the ones you can buy. Think of it this way... Take a sheet of plastic (letter size). Then take another the same size. and cut out a circle the same size as a disk. Glue the 2 sheets together. Now you have a carrier that exposes 1 side of the disk to the printer ink, and the other side is protected.

Or if you really want, you could take a thicker sheet of plastic, and machine a spot for the disk.

[AmeliaK]

You're 100% correct in that the media isn't damaged in any way as the Write surface is protected by the Caddy base. So in other words the only part of the media that comes in contact with the printer is the Printed side.

As far as the print quality goes, I guess it depends on your printer. If you can print good quality on inkjet paper then you can print the same quality on your DVD/CDR.

I will try to work on it again this weekend (fathers day wont leave much time) and document everything.

BTW: Thanks for fixing the image display problem

Cheers
Amelia

[Greenspock]

Doh! I see how it goes. I mis-read your earlier posts and couldn't quite figure out the big ol' picture that was posted.
Thanks for the plain english!

[AmeliaK]

I know the picture isn't great, but it was late Sunday night when I finally got it right so I placed them on my bed and simply took the Photo.

I have taken the whole thing apart and I am going to rebuild it properly and I will take Better photos this time

The caddy simply consists of an A4 piece of Cardboard the same thickness as the Media (With Hole) and an A4 sticky label on the base. If you're from the US, then I guess Letter is the way to go. I then covered the exposed sticky part (where the Media hole is) with paper the size of the hole (so the CDR/DVD doesn't stick).

Cardboard isn't really the way to go, as I can't see it lasting.

Cheers for now
Amelia

[RabidDog]

8) Are you printing on standard white top media or special printable dvd/cdr? How long to dry? how many "covers" to a cartridge?



Personally I dont print in anything other than B&W as all colour cartridges are a rip off. I feel like a junkie when I get out my syringe... its ok officer I'm just refilling my printer cartridge!!

[AmeliaK]

Only done 4 so far, not sure how many . . . I would imaging if you're only printing DVD/CDRs then the number would be pretty high.

The media is standard inkjet printable. The DVD-Rs are Princo and the CDR I'm not sure of.

Cheers

[The village idiot]

Well, I managed to solve my feed problem. I was thinking too high tech. I went with a low tech idea I came up with while I should have been sleeping. Works great. It will feed everytime without error. And it will do it to about half a millimeter every time. It might be time to fire up that Ebay account and buy yourselves an Epson stylus color 640 (600, or any of the same design family). The advantage of this Epson is that it was produced before the ink counter chip. So refills are easy. The other reason is because it uses a piezo print head. This is important because you can send nearly any ink through it.

What that means is you could convert it to use the newest inks that print onto plastic and do not rub off. That means you can print onto any CD/DVD disk. not just the inkjet prinable media.

The model of printer is also i,portant because it is CHEAP as a used printer! Cheap being the keyword! The ones I saw last week on Ebay were going for around $25USD.

I should have some pictures up tonight, but I do not have any media to print on, so I'll just fake it. They won't be any worse than any other printer on the inkjet media. I have faith! And I might be able to test the newer ink by priting on a regular CD for everyone. I'll play with that later too.

This mod. has a NO ROCKET SCIENCE needed rating! All hail the cheap CD printer!

[AmeliaK]

That's great ,

The HP unfortunately requires a lot of adjusting. The main thing is gettin heavy stock to feed through.

Cheers
Amelia

[The village idiot]

Starting on the guide right now. It is going to take a few edits to get all the pictures in. I hope it isn't too big, and I did scale all the pictures down a bit.

[The village idiot]

The guide is up!

[The village idiot]

I found the material for the caddy. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=USPlastic&category%5Fname=...id+Vinyl+Sheet

I'm thinking the 0.010 sheet, and the 0.030 sheet glued together to form the caddy. Now just need to order it, and find out if it is truck shipped or can come regular shipping. Truck shipping would cost too much, and the stuff would be broken when it arrived. Amelia, I'm sure you can find a similar supplier on your continent. Just don't know where to point you.

edit

Now all you pirate sales people have all the info. You can start selling this thing to the masses. But be careful.... I WANT it to remain free! I may work very hard to keep this project from turning into your cash cow. If I wanted it to be sold, I would never have put the guide up in the first place. I would simply have sold the finished product. So be very careful..... (yes this is a threat) If you think there is other info like this on the net, go ahead and look. I spent tens of hours searching various keywords looking for info. There was nothing. So don't say that you found it somewhere. If it was out there, I would have found it. This was not copied from an existing product. There are no products that accomplish this task in such a crude, but effective manner. Please do not steal the fruit of our labors for your gain. When I see the first one for sale, is when I no longer support the problems that may occur! You will be on your own. You want to sell a CD printer, there are several to chose from. You want to buy a CD printer, same thing. The newer ones have a better resolution, and will let you print onto paper. Mine will not. CD/DVD only! So once again, please do not sell products based on these ideas. Thanks!