I am sick of babysitting creaking old printers.

June 11, 2008 4:31 PM

I want to buy the Leaflet-o-Matic 5000 printer of awesome.

I want a printer to print runs of hundreds of survey cards with addresses, etc. and leaflets for a political campaign. It should be a laser black and white, fast and reliable, with a capacious paper tray, duplex would be nice but not necessary. Network printer capability and plays nice with Macs, please. Budget of about £200.

I am in the UK if relevant. Many thanks!

posted by By The Grace of God to technology (7 comments total)

Note: Sometimes I'll be printing 1500 or more at a time, breaking this up into a few runs is OK. Mostly I'll be printing addresses onto pre-printed material.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:32 PM on June 11

I always recommend this printer, but that's because it's awesome. We use the Xerox Phaser 8560 and it's seriously just sick. Solid ink, NOT laser but looks as good or better (glossy ink RULES), an easy 18/20 COLOR double sided fliers per minute (faster in b/w), network compatible, secure jobs, memory jobs...trayed output if you buy the trays, ability to do really thick cardstock...it's awesome.

Ink on ebay is super duper cheap too. Not sure if it's available in the UK, and it stretches your budget. It's radical though.

Xerox Phaser 8560 (but there are many in the Phaser line.)
posted by TomMelee at 7:23 PM on June 11 [1 favorite]

Look at the monthly duty cycle spec of any printers you choose. You might be stretching your budget to fit all of those specifications.

The only thing that you will run into is maintenance costs. Printing a lot of non standard paper (both size and weight) will wreck fusers and toner cartridges. And on a lesser scale, pickup rollers and separation pads/rollers. Choose a model with easily obtainable and replaceable parts. Because what you are asking is tough on standard laser printers.
posted by gjc at 8:33 PM on June 11

The survey cards are just a4 pieces of standard paper, if that helps. We guillotine them after printing. We just call them survey cards.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:23 AM on June 12

Seconding anything from the Phaser line, especially if you want your stuff to look professional, and not like you just ran stuff off on the company printer. It's just all kinds of high-quality awesome. And plays perfectly with Macs. Maintenance is pretty easy, too.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:02 AM on June 12

Phaser it is.

Where can you get these in the uk?
posted by By The Grace of God at 10:56 AM on June 13

If you can't quickly find them online, you could check with your local Xerox distributor.
posted by TomMelee at 7:49 AM on June 14