Any ideas where to look for old Epson Stylus R200 & R300 series printers

Has anyone got any ideas where I might look (I'm Melbourne based, down the Peninsular) to find Epson Stylus Photo R200 series & R300 series printers, dead or alive (R200, R210, R230, etc up to R290, & R300, R310, etc, up to R390). I've got some shareware software that needs these printers, or older ones, but I've just went through about 5 older Epson printers (Stylus Colors) and all of them were defunct in one way or another, whether it's blocked heads, stuffed electronics, or whatever. So now I'm concentrating on the above mentioned ones.

I know lots of these printers must be getting thrown out but there's no way of knowing where. I've seen a couple on Gumtree but they're asking $50 and would you believe $100. No thanks after the time and money I've already wasted in used inkjet printers, they are just too much of a risk to pay much for them. Ebay has none either.

I'm learning to make circuit boards if anyone is curious why I need these printers. The printer will be used to print what's called a film positive on transparency.

Cheers,

Keith.

You could try posting a want ad on Freecycle.

Thanks Smidsy, I'll give that a shot.

There is a firm in Campbellfield that recycles all things computer wise. I cannot remember their name but a "google" might find them.

I've been making a few circuit boards lately, and I suspect you are doing it the hard way. I did it your way when I was making them years ago, but discovered this method recently. Really works, and so much easier.

Thanks Chesand,

that might be a good idea. I think the mobs that sell a lot of second hand computers just get hold of stuff in bulk from offices or wherever. They might have access to quite a few printers even if all they do is send them for recycling.

Chris,

thanks for that video link, but I've actually seen that one and just about every other one on Youtube LOL. I started off with the toner transfer method but found all the stars had to be aligned for everything to go right. Some seem to be doing OK with it. Further Googling, etc brought up lots of experienced PCB makers who had ditched the toner transfer method for the UV light method. That's what I did and I can now make a beautiful crisp PCB quicker than what I could do with the toner transfer. It certainly is a bit more expensive to get set up and the hardest part of all is getting a perfect transparency with an opaque print. It's a combination of the printer, the type of ink, the printer driver (ink density), and using quality transparency material designed for film positives. Once you get set up it's quite fast and very dependable and you can get much better quality than you can with the toner transfer method.

My workflow with the UV process is:
Print the transparency
Expose the board to UV for 2 mins max
Develop for about 1 min
Etching takes about 5 mins

With my Epson TX810FW set at max print density I had to use two transparencies accurately stacked on top of each other. It still did a wonderful exposure but I won't be happy until I get hold of the golden egg, and can achieve a crisp print with enough ink density so I only need 1 transparency. This will also give better edge definition if I ever need to do a very "fine" circuit board with little tracks spaced close together.

I actually found out I can run my Epson TX810FW with the software I have so I'm guessing there might be a few other "non-supported" printers that will actually work with it, so now I'll grab any Epson printer that is being chucked out just to see if it can work with my software. I want a dedicated printer for the PCB making because I'll be putting a black screenprinting ink in it.

Keith.