Best PCB Printer for Thermal Transfer 2018: Current Recommendations & New Models on the Market

I am looking for a printer to print PCB patterns. I looked at previous posts and most of them are for printers from a few years ago. What printer do you recommend from those currently available as new?

Every laser printer is suitable for this purpose.

I don't think so. Not all print out nicely.
Nobody boasts what printer they have?

If anything, as far as I know, it is about toner replacements, not everybody works well. I have the HP P1005 and I have no problems, it was better on the original, but the price is amazing.

Original toner is recommended. I was thinking about HP but they only give a one year warranty. Where is Samsung for three years. Another friend will print a few for me and I will conduct tests.

HP LJ 6L, you can get stimulants in the amount of PLN 10-50 on OLX / Allegro, toner around PLN 30 and lasts for a very long time. Thick with toner, great result in combination with the appropriate chalk paper (90g / m ^ 2, necessarily matte).
Other accessories (platen, paper roll, etc.) can be purchased inexpensively when worn, and disassembly / maintenance is simple and does not require half the printer to be disassembled.

The disadvantage is frequent paper jams or downloading two sheets (especially on old copies), no USB port (you need to buy an LPT-> USB adapter), sometimes it has whims and prints random characters or does not print at all (maybe it's the fault of the grommet), with larger pictures you have to wait a while, in chalk paper you have to trim the two lower corners, otherwise it may get jammed, quite simple (crude) paper routing, which can sometimes print crookedly, maybe for this reason the dimensions are often slightly different on two prints.

It's hard for me to compare something with other printers, because in my career I also had the Kyocere FS-1010 (actually a combine, mega-fast printing, USB, built-in container for 300 A4 sheets, but after a long time it does not cover much with toner, and the new one is very expensive) and Samsung ML 1010 (prints quite fast, USB, quality probably good too)

@phanick I was thinking about a stimulant, but you never know what will happen. If a corpse is even worth a lot, it could be added to the new one. As for the new ones, I will be testing my friend on Samsung. A printer worth recommending, he said. I was wondering about the HP but they only give a one year warranty.

Recently I bought an old Samsung lm1610 for PLN 30 powder PLN 18 speech drum opc (photo active) PLN 5 and the printer prints great for thermal transfer or with acetone I can do it I'm happy

I need to see if there's anything interesting in the area.

phanick wrote:

It's hard for me to compare something with other printers, because in my career I had a Kyocere FS-1010 (actually a combine, mega-fast printing, USB, built-in container for 300 A4 sheets, but after a long time it does not cover much toner, and the new one is very expensive)

Exactly, I have the same problem. I bought with the remnant of toner (probably a substitute) and the opacity was unacceptable. I added fresh replacement toner and unfortunately nothing was better. It is very good for normal printing, it has been used for 10 years.
I read that they praise the HP for transfer. I bought the HP1100 for PLN 50, also with the rest of the toner. A bit better than Kyocera but it didn't work out either. New toner with a roller for PLN 30 and it sneezes ... pale gray, unacceptable. I bought another toner for PLN 80 and it was a success! Density at 5 and it collapses so much toner that I have a problem with washing off after etching
The downside is that it only has a parallel port.

At home, I have a Xerox WorkCentre 3025 and an old Samsung LM1610.
Xerox is very good with toner saving off and winning the blackout to max thermal transfer.
Samsung has just undergone a cleaning and a small renovation - replacement of rubber rollers (old cracked) and general cleaning of the whole. It is over 11 years old and it flies on the original starting cassette all the time. For now, I have 21,000. prints from it. I add a replacement toner with alledrogo for ~ 10-20 PLN / bottle (I bought a crap once, which gave a smell after mushroom picking - it went into the basket). The cassette is dying, because the sponge seals are falling apart but still print cleanly. Printing on chalk for thermal transfer is ok. Certainly much better than with RICOH MP4500 (very good printouts, but prints poorly on chalk paper).

I am using HP 5L. The original toner can now be purchased at a reasonable price (recently I saw it on Alle for PLN 20). Very good coverage. Good paper basis. Toner replacements weak, or so I found them.

I need a printer for school and for thermal transfer. I came to the conclusion that the old ones printed better due to slower printing. I still have to go to the store where I always printed and ask what HP they have. There was always a needle printout. Thanks for the suggestions. As you can see, you will probably have to invest in an old printer.

I can recommend Lexmark T430 or HP LJ 4050t with print server with a clear conscience. I was using the HP T430 now and on both the remanufactured toners it printed well ...

Maybe I will write what I do not recommend.
- Samsung ML-2955ND - it stops chalky paper, which goes without problems in other printers,
- Laserjet P1005 - in humid rooms, the print peels off when passing through the furnace and a torn drawing appears. It may depend on the paper used, especially since the colleague above has no such problems with this model.

I will refresh the topic. I have a Samsung Xpress M2022W, I have not done PCB prints yet, but maybe someone has such a printer or one of this line and printed PCB paths? I saw how it is printed on a black surface, e.g. a filled square on plain paper. It does not impress much. It's a printer that's more meant for text.

Is the print blacker at the edges than at the center?
This is one way to save toner and you need to turn it off for pcb making.

Jacek Rutkowski wrote:

Is the print blacker at the edges than at the center?
This is one way to save toner and you need to turn it off for pcb making.

Maybe not so much as blacker and with a uniform background it can not fill everything perfectly. There are such white lines - "mijaki". I have now printed a small project (8 cm x 4 cm) on plain paper, there is nothing disturbing. I am afraid that there may be a problem with larger tiles. We will see.

Generally, printers are less able to handle large surfaces. If you want to pour a mass, it is better to use a fine path mesh than one large mass. The toner coverage will be much better and the pickling problem solved.

I tested this printer by printing a large mass. As you wrote - a grid of paths. I believe that this version is better. In the version with the mass, I "poured" it on the printout, after pressing it into the water with dishwashing liquid so that it lay down for a while and the chalky paper went away nicely. The paper went away by itself in a moment and the mass crumbled a little where there was more filling - it left the paper and the plate. I don't know if I kicked the ironing, come on I tried to do exactly that, maybe a little too long. It etched perfectly.
Technical acetone wiped the toner from the tracks. It came off nicely, but a lot of toner was left on the plate because it smeared when cleaning - how dirty it looks It works.

I have a Samsung ML-2160, and everything would be great if the printer did not keep the vertical aspect ratio ... Has anyone encountered such a problem?

greetings

I have an old hp 1100 and with small plates everything is ok. I noticed the problem with prints measuring about 30 cm. It turned out that it cheats about 2-3 mm on this size. I had to calibrate in the program and by trial and error it prints correctly.
Try calibration, most if not all programs should have this option.

With this Calibration it would make sense if it went evenly, and it was on the left, differently, on the right, different on some section of me, on another more ... I have no idea what's going on new toner still 65% left ... Drivers already some time reinstalling ... The printer is about 7 years old ... There were not many printed pages, maybe 300 pages ... 1 new toner is sitting there after the initial one ...
My hands just drop ... I bought it mainly for pcb ... I don't think it was like that ...
The question is whether all laser printers have a problem with keeping the print ratio ...

It turns out that I will have to buy a new printer Only the question is what? And this one will remain for the Documents ...

greetings

Check \ clean the guide rollers. I expect the paper is not flush.
I have a 15-year-old ML1600 and it works fine today, but I replaced all the roles and rubber bands 2-3 years ago with new ones.
I bought a set probably on the Allegro for about PLN 30 with shipping.
I don't do PCB anymore but it works ok.