Printer with or without scanner bed?

[ede]

I have avoided purchasing a printer long enough. Now I am ready to make the purchase of a brother laser printer and I ask myself, should I buy a more expensive model that has a flatbed scanner?
My engraving tools have been packed away for several years and I want to get back to it soon and don’t want to short change myself. With the advent of Procreate, how valuable of a tool is a flatbed scanner still? I do not have an iPad pro or procreate but would like to get one someday, but at the same time don’t want to leave behind traditional pencil and paper. The difference in price is $149 vs $220.

 

[DDriller]

I would choose the one with the scanner. I make a lot of copies as I need them that way.

 

[T.G.III]

Being a paper and pencil guy, I have and use a scanner along with an updated version of corel draw. I print designs to transfer and they are minimalist outlines, then scan the design to the computer upsize the design and print several copies to work out the shading.

I have an ipad pro but have yet to get excited about using it.

 

[DaveatWeirs]

The truth is, if you get one with a scanner bed you'll never use it BUT if you get one without a scanner bed you'll need one every damn day.
Get one with a scanner just to be sure. I have an ipad with procreate and still use the scanner frequently.

 

[tdelewis]

Yes, get one with a scanner. I use the scanner often. I scan pencil drawings into my Adobe Illustrator and work with it to vector may drawing.

This is how I do it. I take a smoke pull or pencil rub to get the outline of the part to be engraved. I Scan it into my computer. Then put a layer over the scanned rubbing and use a pen tool to outline it. I increase to 250% or whatever percentage I want. A printout of the enlarged tracing is used for me to draw on. When the drawing is complete, I scan the drawing into my computer and make a vector drawing. I use 40% reduce it to bring it back to the correct size for transfer.

Whatever percent you use for increasing the size, the reduction is the reciprocal of that percent.

 

[AllenClapp]

You have two issues. First, you can print designs on transparency film, turn them over, scan the reversed design and print it to make a transfer. You will want that capability, so get the scanning capability.
Second, and MOST IMPORTANT, do NOT buy a Brother laser printer. I have three of them and love them for normal printing, but the BROTHER TONER DOES NOT WORK WITH ACETONE to make a transfer. I could never make any of my Brother printers work and contacted Brother who said that there is no solvent that will work with their toner for that purpose. There is no free lunch. The Brother toner is superb for making prints that hold up well and show up well, but the toner does not work well with the acetone transfer method.
So far as I know, all current HP and Canon laser printers will work with acetone transfer methods.
If you are buying an ink printer, make sure that the black ink is a pigment ink and not a dye ink. Many color inkjets have pigment black ink and dye color ink to make more vibrant color photo prints. If you get one of those, be sure to set the printer to use black ink only. Otherwise, the printer will try to use the color inks and they will not print.
There are color inkjet printers that have pigment inks for both black and color. Those will print in color and are kind of neat. For example, you can print a red section to remind you to stop cuts that border an element that crosses under or behind another element. If you use one of those, do not bother with printing yellow--you cannot see it under a microscope. Dark red, blue, and green can be seen.
I use an HP laser printer and an Epson Ecotank printer for engraving transfers; both are black only.
Whatever printer that you use, make sure that it is set on the best print setting instead of an econoprint setting to get more toner or ink on the paper or film.
Laserprinting transfers on paper for the acetone method is less expensive than printing pigment ink on transparency film for the varnish transfer method. I tend to use the laser for "gross" designs because it is quick and less expensive. However, for me, the inkjet/transparency film method of tranfering a design to metal prepared with a varnish system gives me the finest and best lines, so I use that for more delicate designs with tiny curves. You can use either method and do well. Some of it is personal preference.

 

[T.G.III]

My Brother laser jet printer does just fine with aftermarket/refills cartridges.

 

[rweigel]

Transfers work with Brother toner as well, please see here:

A working Brother printer transfer method

I’ve finally found a transfer method that works with my Brother laser printer. Brother’s laser toner is notorius for unreliable aceton or Dammar transfers. The advantages of my method are: no printer or toner modification, no expensive transfer paper or plastic sheet, no paper fibers left on the...

engraverscafe.com

 

[tdelewis]

Ink jet on transparencies helps with positioning.