Apart from Which who I subscribe too, I would imagine most if not all sites are biased to some degree.

Tony

Be aware that USA paper sizes are different to UK. That may cause problems with the printer.

John

I would not rely on anything on the internet.

No idea about that particular one, but a lot of those "comparison" sites list only those who pay to be on there. All a little too cosy to be truly unbiased.

Another satisfied Brother user.

I have the MFC J6930 DW with two paper trays. One for A4 and one for A3. It's a big lump but two trays make life easy.

Had the single A4 predecessor before.

Both have stood up well to rather intermittent use although I suspect almost as much ink goes in the cleaning cycle as on the paper.

Clive

Is expecting anything to be reliable a grandad thing?

The world has always been full of pitfalls for unwary organic lifeforms, and the onus has always been on individuals to apply due diligence. Adverts are biased. When the phone rings, it could be a scam. The media is biased, and so are we! Reputable banks mis-sold Personal Protection Insurance on a grand scale. Politicians are notorious fibbers and yet their supporters ignore and excuse misbehaviour and failure to deliver. Policemen shack up with criminals. Arsonists join the fire-brigade. Governments mount "Special Military Operations", and enact laws with no intention they will be enforced because they're unfunded. The Post Office imprisoned postmasters despite knowing their IT system was faulty. 'Performance enhanced sportsmen, and FIFA, who run 'the beautiful game' are a byword for corruption. Britain's most successful serial-killer was a genial General Practitioner who bumped off about 250 patients. The military apologise for 'collateral damage'. Tobacco companies successfully fended off serious health issues for decades. Minorities are successfully blamed for everything. Crime, mistakes and negligence are universal problems. And there are lies, damn lies and statistics. The world is full of people out to mislead others and themselves.

Fortunately, as there's considerable profit in honest trade, taking a few reasonable precautions fends off the worst. But in my opinion it's always necessary to proceed with caution: don't assume anything, and consider the worst that could happen before taking a big risk. Beware 'bargains' – might be shocking, but maybe they're not!

Assumptions are always unwise. Not everything made in the West is wonderful, and not everything made in the East is rubbish. Also foolish to assume anything made in the past is better than it's modern equivalent, and to assume that time-honoured brand-names and trade-marks are automatically safe. They're not!

None of us have a fairy godmother and surely our current sense of entitlement is mostly unjustified. Everything in life is a risk, including going to bed at night. However, avoidable risks should be avoided, hence I suggest a few basic checks are always a wise precaution before committing to anything that might become seriously painful.

I wouldn't assume a comparison site is useless just because of a minor slip over paper sizes. Nothing and no-one is perfect. Comparison sites are somewhat untrustworthy because of how they are paid for. They're still worth reading, but look at more than one, think about it, and take a balanced view.

Dave

Having had to specify and support classroom printers for quite a few years I would be happy to offer this broad generalisation – HP are usually quality kit but the toners with the built in drum can be very expensive for some while Brother will often allow you to replace belt/drum/toners independently -BUT Brother may well have usage counts on every component and when it thinks it is life expired will stop printing until you either replace the part or fiddle the counter.

Is this what's needed?

I've abandoned Inkjet printers for another reason. They have to be used. The technology squirts tiny droplets of rather expensive ink through a closely toleranced nozzle. Keeping the nozzles clear is best done by frequently using the printer, ideally every day. Almost the worst thing is infrequent printing, because the printer goes into a self-clean routine in which the nozzles are cleared by pumping ink into a waste-bin. Infrequently used printers can use more ink cleaning than they put on paper! And because Inkjets are intended for full-colour, all the cartridges have to be used, which may not happen if the owner mostly prints in black and white.  Despite self-cleaning, nozzles and pipework are prone to gum up.

Inkjets are good for regular light-duty colour printing. The printers are cheap and do a good job, but the ink is expensive. However, Inkjets are unsatisfactory for irregular occasional printing, and not so good for heavy-duty work, unless you buy one with giant cartridges or a reservoir system.

I've given up on Inkjets of any size, and colour. Not because Inkjets are rubbish, but because my use case doesn't match their capabilities. Instead I use a cheap A4 monotone laser printer which doesn't care how often it's used. It's also fast and cheap to run. When A3 and bigger prints, or colour are needed, I order prints over the internet, or take a memory stick to a handy local print shop.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 28/02/2023 11:09:53

Sorry Nigel but I think you are being too hard on TurboCad (TC) – I'm afraid the problem might lie behind the keyboard!

I've used TC for years and haven't experienced the problems you seem to encounter. I have printed A3 drawings on an A4 printer (as multiple A4 pages) with no problem. Why you are bothering using a Viewport is beyond me – it isn't necessary, at all. And, if you do use a Viewport, be aware that the Viewport itself often introduces a reduction factor of it's own, in addition to any page related reduction!

I don't normally dimension my model , as it ends up too cluttered, but do end up with multiple Paperspaces for individual parts (or groups of them) which I do dimension. Only downside is that if you change the model, you have to redo the changes in the Paperspace(s) too. If you use a viewport changes made to the model are reflected in the paperspace, but dimensions reflect the Model dimensions (when I've used a Viewport, I've drawn the wagon full size and used the Viewport to give me the reduced scale of print I require – e.g. 1:19.05 for 16mm/ft). You can break the link to the full size model, so your dimensions appear in the scale size (if you know how to)!

In it's simplest form, highlight your model, or the bits you want, in Modelspace and paste it into a Paperspace – you can see where the model is bigger than the paper you have selected – set any reduction (or magnification) you need and print the Paperspace.

If TC keeps defaulting to US paper sizes, you need to create a new TC Template for future drawings and set up the features as you need.

Hope this helps.

Tom