@fribbledom

I have a couple of dozens of dead printers!
Everybody has a broken printer bring it to me: soon or later I'll find an use for the steel bars and motors inside them.

And when I have to print I use the printer of my neighbor's shop, always on, so I don't have to waste ¼ of cartrigde to clean the head.

My plan is to buy an impact printer, to get rid of the ink: when the ribbon is almost exhausted it's still possible to print placing a sheet of carbon paper between two sheets.

@fribbledom helps me do street activism 😃

https://pixel.nogafam.es/p/bofh/348235741808404514

@fribbledom Yes, one is working, the other is slightly b0rken.

@fribbledom Yes, a working laser s/w printer and an ink one, that constantly wants ink and has a clogged magenta nozzle.

@fribbledom I usually just print things off at the library

@fribbledom Yes, it's works, but not entirely as intended. It's a wireless printer that was working well on my network until I "upgraded" my router to work with my ISPs modem. The printer's WPA security is no longer supported.

@fribbledom
There is a statement in your question and I approve.

@fribbledom Working only in the very loosest sense of the word.

@fribbledom Yeah, had to buy one recently because authorities, boarding passes and proof of this and that are either required or better in paper form.

Mono laser at least makes no trouble and can wake up and print a page after a few months rest, which inkjets seem unable to.

@fribbledom I had gone for a number of years without one, but the pandemic made it hard to rely on other places (work, libraries) so I decided to invest in a small laser printer. More expensive initially, but more efficient in the long run, and less fickle so far.

@fribbledom My parents own a Brother printer from the early to mid 2000’s, and it still works! The only bad thing about it is that the toner cartridges for this printer are hard to come by. In fact, the Brother printer we bought to replace it broke in just a few years, so we switched back to the old one. 😂

@fribbledom most uneconomic item.

@fribbledom yes, and it should be working still, but I haven't needed to use it for I don't know how long, and I need to dig it up from underneath a stack of stuff before I actually can use it again.

@fribbledom I print chamber/orchestral parts and other music quite often. I use a LaserJet 1200 that I traded for small help with Linux with someone.

@fribbledom 3 convenience stores in 5min walking reach offer these services, and are much more reliable than me undusting the machine every 6 moths for a small print job..

@fribbledom Do you need to borrow it?

@fribbledom It's not broken but I wouldn't call it working either cause it's out of ink and I'm broke lmao

@fribbledom I chose it's working although it produces annoying dots on the print, but I can print stuff so 🤷

@fribbledom the only reason it works so well is that it's a laser printer

@fribbledom no, I have 2

@fribbledom Does "I have to soak the cartrige with water before use" count as working?

@fribbledom yes and it would probably work, if I plugged it in, but since I don't need it ...

@fribbledom I suppose it depends on your definition of "working".

@fribbledom I have 2! One working and one not! Need to take that one to the recycle place.

@fribbledom I have a 3D printer, but not a 2D printer

@fribbledom I've had my trusty Brother HL-2240 since 2012. It was and still is my first laser printer. My parents' experience with inkjets led me to stay away from them.

My only regret about the printers I've had was getting rid of a dot matrix printer that I picked up for free from the university IT department back when I was a student. That one was also reliable & was good for printing things like the occasional email that I wanted a hard copy of.

@fribbledom We have 2 actually.
I have a Epson XP 345 with a CISS system.
My parents have a Brother DCP-L3550CDW (LED printer).

@fribbledom Missing option: „D: Yes and I‘m German: Unless I acquire a fax I can’t survive our bureaucracy without a printer.“

Also: Laser printer bc it lasts longer and survives bureaucratic dry spells with a scanner because one needs to scan everything for the same reason.

@fribbledom apart from the fully-working boring Brother laser printer and the slightly blocked Epson inkjet, I've got fully working:

* OKI ML320 Turbo 9-pin dot matrix

* NEC Spinwriter (a painfully slow and loud daisywheelish thing from the early 1980s)

* HP and Roland pen plotters

* Epson thermal receipt printers

@fribbledom "Rage against the machine" https://twitter.com/wildwinter/status/1457078599937404929?s=20

@fribbledom Was no for over a decade, due to moving frequently.

I figured out I could use a print shop for less total money, even though they charged outrageous prices per print job (other people's printers?). Also, public libraries.

I really was just not printing things, with maybe 1-2 print jobs per year.

Recently though, I got one because I found a printer worth getting, and also now own a house.

@fribbledom We have one but it is out of ink, which means it is not working and fixing it is nearly as expensive as buying a new one.

(A combination of bad choice of model back then, not a ton of local places that re-fill cartridges, but plenty of good cheap print shops means it is generally not worth it)

@fribbledom pre pandemic I did my printing at the office 🤷🏻‍♂️

@fribbledom

One interesting note:

I had an HP Laserjet in service for almost 20 years. A plastic component in the gear train finally broke (and other plastic parts were fragile too.

Had to replace it, though I don't expect to print as much as that old workhorse went through.

@fribbledom To be fair, it's working because it's new and was bought to replace the one that stopped working. So really you could put me in both categories.