Do You Keep a Laser Printer in Your 3D Printing Workspace?

General Discussion
1

I’ve been thinking about how useful a regular laser printer can be alongside a 3D printer, especially for people who work on projects, prototypes, and small batches.

A 3D printer handles the physical part of a project, but there is often still a need to print labels, instructions, measurements, shipping documents, calibration notes, or project documentation.

For those who keep a laser printer in their workspace, what toner cartridges do you normally use?

I’ve seen people use both original and compatible toner cartridges, and I’m curious what matters most in practice:

  • Print quality
  • Page yield
  • Cost per page
  • Availability of replacement toner
  • Reliability during larger print jobs
  • Compatibility with older laser printers

I’m particularly interested in experiences with HP and Brother laser printers. Do you normally stick with the manufacturer’s HP toner cartridges or Brother toner cartridges, or have you had good results with compatible alternatives?

For a workshop or home setup, is a laser printer still worth keeping alongside a 3D printer?

Would be interested to hear what other members are using and what has worked well for them.

2

I have a Brother DCP-7065DN laser printer/scanner for 10-ish years. It works great and I can get after market “large” print capacity (2500+ pages) toner cartridges for about $20CDN, 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of original ones. The best part is the cartridge is a two part one, the collector section (spent toner) and a separate toner cartridge. The collector section only needs to be replaced after about 10,000 prints. The after market cartridges do seem to print better then the Original Brother ones. I don’t know if they still sell this model but there are many printers that use these toner cartridges so there should be something available.

HP is working very hard to prevent the use of after market toner cartridges whether ink jet or laser.

P.S. the eco-tank style of printers have a problem in that after the spent ink (ink used to clean the print head) collector is filled they just quit.