macquarium
Member
Hi all,
I'm toying with the idea of acquiring a LaserWriter and actually putting it to use as a main printer in my house. This would be partially to fulfil a desire to simply have one in the collection - I regret not getting one back in 2002 when I had the opportunity - but would (or at least could) be a practical alternative to a newer personal Laser printer for everyday use. My girlfriend still has another year to go at uni, thus does a lot of printing and the costs of keeping the cartridges up to my lowly HP inkjet aren't cheap.
There's no lack of examples going on eBay and elsewhere, even in Australia, for $100 or less. I am of course not a complete muppet, and realise that with any old secondhand laser there'd be a significant cost, either right after purchase or soon thereafter, to renew the toner and possibly fuser unit and some other repairs. These would cost far more than the initial purchase price, but, in theory, assuming all the parts and consumables can still be sourced (big caveat) the result should be a well-functioning B&W laser printer that would go on for several years without much fuss.
Now, one can of course go out and buy a brand spanking new personal laser printer, especially a B&W one, for under $100 these days. Common logic says you probably should too, but the replacement toner cartridges - required quite soon as everyone seems to be putting in low capacity "starter" cartridges into their printers - are usually 150-250% more expensive than the actual printer itself, so you're still looking at an outlay of several hundred bucks in the short to medium term. I'd hazard a guess and say that an Apple made LaserWriter, which retailed for thousands 15 years ago, was made a helluva lot better than the cheap stuff you see today. However that's just a theory and it has been over 10 years since I last used a LaserWriter to any great extent.
I guess my questions therefore are:
1. Is the above reasoning sound, or am I wearing rose-coloured glasses?
2. Which LaserWriter or LaserWriters would be worth considering, bearing in mind both functionality, likely condition today and access to consumables and parts? Are some harder to get bits for now than others? Are they easy enough to repair should major stuff break or is there a good reason why they're so cheap now?
Obviously an 80s original is too long in the tooth to bother for practical purposes, so I'm thinking something like a Select 360 (which I used at uni... handled my mate's excessive print habits at the time, when he was seemingly trying to create a paper backup of the Internet) or something newer. There's a LW 8500 available locally, which would obviously be overkill for a home network and a bit more expensive in terms of getting setup with fresh everything, but with a 14,000 round toner cartridge it should last me a looooong time. That and the A3 printing would be neat too. I'm sure my better half would put it to good use.
Cheers, Ben.
So my
I'm toying with the idea of acquiring a LaserWriter and actually putting it to use as a main printer in my house. This would be partially to fulfil a desire to simply have one in the collection - I regret not getting one back in 2002 when I had the opportunity - but would (or at least could) be a practical alternative to a newer personal Laser printer for everyday use. My girlfriend still has another year to go at uni, thus does a lot of printing and the costs of keeping the cartridges up to my lowly HP inkjet aren't cheap.
There's no lack of examples going on eBay and elsewhere, even in Australia, for $100 or less. I am of course not a complete muppet, and realise that with any old secondhand laser there'd be a significant cost, either right after purchase or soon thereafter, to renew the toner and possibly fuser unit and some other repairs. These would cost far more than the initial purchase price, but, in theory, assuming all the parts and consumables can still be sourced (big caveat) the result should be a well-functioning B&W laser printer that would go on for several years without much fuss.
Now, one can of course go out and buy a brand spanking new personal laser printer, especially a B&W one, for under $100 these days. Common logic says you probably should too, but the replacement toner cartridges - required quite soon as everyone seems to be putting in low capacity "starter" cartridges into their printers - are usually 150-250% more expensive than the actual printer itself, so you're still looking at an outlay of several hundred bucks in the short to medium term. I'd hazard a guess and say that an Apple made LaserWriter, which retailed for thousands 15 years ago, was made a helluva lot better than the cheap stuff you see today. However that's just a theory and it has been over 10 years since I last used a LaserWriter to any great extent.
I guess my questions therefore are:
1. Is the above reasoning sound, or am I wearing rose-coloured glasses?
2. Which LaserWriter or LaserWriters would be worth considering, bearing in mind both functionality, likely condition today and access to consumables and parts? Are some harder to get bits for now than others? Are they easy enough to repair should major stuff break or is there a good reason why they're so cheap now?
Obviously an 80s original is too long in the tooth to bother for practical purposes, so I'm thinking something like a Select 360 (which I used at uni... handled my mate's excessive print habits at the time, when he was seemingly trying to create a paper backup of the Internet) or something newer. There's a LW 8500 available locally, which would obviously be overkill for a home network and a bit more expensive in terms of getting setup with fresh everything, but with a 14,000 round toner cartridge it should last me a looooong time. That and the A3 printing would be neat too. I'm sure my better half would put it to good use.
Cheers, Ben.
So my
)] ]'> See if you can still get the service source and take a look at it before buying one of these monsters on eBay! [
