Just my 2 cents... For what is it worth.
I can see a use for this if a large format printer (something that could print 24" or 36" wide stock rolls) was the end result.
With that being said, I think a purchase of a cheap new or used printer would be the easiest way to get a print head.
I'm sure if I were to attempt building a printer I would cheat in this area. I'd find a 4 or a 6 cartridge Epson printer.
There are several continuous ink supply kits that are cheap or that can be easily fabricated.
I know that building everything from the ground up would be nice in the grand scale of things... but, the image resolution
from even a cheap printer is fairly nice today.
69.151.36.107 06:31, January 27, 2010 (UTC) xtrmhp
I, personaly would never go with an epson printhead - they get gunked up far to easily - one of the three reasons I will never buy Epson again.
Epson also uses an entirely different technique to produce the ink droplets from everybody else - we need to find out if this method is better or worse for our uses, and how easy it is to hack the circuitry - is it going to be a 30-sec or two year job, or is a xerox/cannon/HP/whatever going to be easier?
One thing is for sure - some major work needs to go on with experimenting with these things.
Badspyro 06:46, January 27, 2010 (UTC)
I've been working with Epsons for about 14years now...I've bought 10 of them. I even have 2 wide format printers that are that old.
I have had to clean the heads on them after I pass several thousand feet of paper through them... but, that is every 3-4 years. Granted I do use high grade pigment ink in the both of the wide format printers.
In the past few years I have been ordering the cheapest bulk ink I can get for Printing cd's and dvd's (those are on 4 Epson R200's) with very few issues. Each of the R200's uses up close to 3500-3700 ml of black ink a year. I tend to have more downtime when rollers or gears get worn out.
I know I am jaded on other brands, but, I would be willing to try something new. It doesn't have to be and Epson... I just know supplies are normally cheaper when compaired to other brands.
Xtrmhp 07:27, January 27, 2010 (UTC) xtrmhp
Epsons tend to have issues if you don't use them on at least a weekly basis - you don't seem to have that kind of problem, but since this is more of an experimental printer, I have doubts that it will be used on a daily basis - and as such, I doubt that the epson heads won't have issues. This also comes from having worked in an Epson repair center last year, and seeing just how many epsons were sent back in the first year of warranty, and these were $200 machines - compared to my laser that I bought for the same price, from my experience they have a lower mean time to failure. But then after working in a repair center, I will have a tendency towards bias against them.
Sadly, I also know that we can't use the same methods to fabricate the ink nozzles as we don't have $20-30,000 to drop on a Coherent LASER, as they are what epson happen to use from memory.
Again, to be honest, we really need to find out how easy it is to control several types of nozzle and experiment that way to find the best one, otherwise we could be sailing into a lot of problems.
Badspyro 07:47, January 27, 2010 (UTC)
Rather than using a specific ink head, why not just use a bluray laser? Using similar stuff to the POV toys, it might be easy to make a thermal printer.
keepishop 1/27/10
A blueray diode would work.... but it would be slow on regular paper... and IMHO thermal paper just cost way to much and reacts with time poorly (turns black in time with heat or print fades with age).
It would be an option if time wasn't a concern I would have. I would want to use it all the time if I made it.
Dot Matrix?[]
Just had a quick glance at the website. As the printer will be black and white, wouldn't it make more sense to go for Dot Matrix? They are still fairly good, and you can have colour dot matrix printers. Also, it makes it more robust. What do you think?
I've just taken ownership of 2 x Citizen 120D dot matrix printers. If it helps I'll document the teardowns when I butcher them for parts. I also have an NEC Pin Writer 2 which is broken down, but I am refurbing that because I have this thing about dot matrix printers (non-sexual).
The noise is the big issue with dot matrix printers. Resolution perhaps another limiting factor. It kind of helps add weight to the "don't bother, invest in a laser printer" argument.
Print nozzle fabrication.[]
Ooof,
Making tiny stuff is hard. You could easily have your 'nozzles' contract laser pierced.
I don't know about the accuracy, but there are desktop lasers that are under 5 grand. So there should be people selling time on them for a resonable price.
I was dicking around with some automotive fuel injectors, with the idea of making a large format print head that I could put on my 4 by 8 foot cnc router.
Did not get very far with it. I have a short attention span!199.44.26.248 11:13, January 27, 2010 (UTC)dan
Don't build one, repurpose one. Seriously, for the first iteration of the project, find a common and cheap printer cartridge and print head and hack them about a bit. I say hack, I mean find some way that allow for refills, and aren't full of cheeky easter eggs such as nerfing the cartridge when it is empty. Open Source Laser CNC: you don't build your own laser, you find soemthing that is 90% of the way and get it to work for you. That'll at least give something back to any initial efforts, and encouraging people to tinker with existing print heads will provide more details on how you go about building from scratch.
Soft lithography and airbrushes[]
Just a couple thoughts: fabricating nozzles may actually be relatively simple if you use a technique called "soft lithography". I've used it for work and it's really easy to get going. In general, you need silicone and something to mold the silicone to. For the really small stuff, I'd suggest TEM aperture grids as the inital mold for the silicone and a starter point for the soft lithography. The major advantages of this technique:
1) It's very cheap.
2) It's highly reproduceable.
3) It's very versatile.
4) It's easy.
See:
http://www.bwfoundry.com/soft_lithography_for_dummies.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_lithography
http://www.2spi.com/catalog/grids/aprtgrds.php
Secondly, you might look at using the Venturi effect to generate an ink stream. It may be easier to get a small air nozzle and basically make a tiny airbrush than to try to copy or hijack an Epson or HP type nozzle. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbrush
122.57.238.88 23:31, January 27, 2010 (UTC):
Now that would be cool: a device with "CNC like" movement that airbrushes calligraphy.