Looking for a Copier machine that handles cardstock.

Hi everybody,

I already posted this in the forum but thought this is maybe a better place. So I am sorry if this is considered as a repost.
I am very new to this topic and really hope to get some input from this forum.

I need a machine that can print on cardstock. My requirement is 250-300GSM - ideal material size would be 11" x 17". I will be printing black vector lines and numbers. So this is for building cardstock models. Not a professional printing service. The volume I will print is small. I guess it will be 2000-3000 pages/month at max but more likely a few hundred pages.

After a long search I found out that copier machines might be right for this task. I found a sales guy who offered me his showroom Konica Minolta C220. According to him the machine handles this kind of thickness but it is a bit too expensive for me.

I am super happy I found a machine that will work but also have a weird feeling to buy the first thing that is offered to me. So lack of knowledge brings me here and the hope to learn about more options. It would be no problem for me to have an older machine for a smaller price. Ideally in the 700$ department that can handle this as well as this is not a professional printing service I am going to run.

My Questions to the forum:
- Do you think this is the right machine for this task? Is this a great machine?
- Are there other copier machines that would work (handling thick paper)? Still cheap and older models.
- Do you think I need a service contract for this? Printing volumes are small but paper thickness could damage the machine? Are this machines workhorses or do they get damaged often?

Any information would be great. There is so much stuff out there that I would love to hear from you guys and have at least a small filter to begin with.

Cheers
M

 

Just about any production copier can handle 300gsm these days. Even a Xerox C60 or whatever the most current model is. Canon, Konica, Ricoh entry level copiers all support this weight. 300gsm would be the max.

Always get the service agreement for any digital "press"

 

If you're printing a template to cut, check how the machine you are considering handles:
paper feeding consistency (i.e. print 10 sheets of 300 gsm and see if a crop mark on sheet 1 matches sheet 5 and sheet 10 or if it varies.)
skew
shrinkage
2-sided registration if printing both sides
curl of the printed sheet

and see how it matches your need for accuracy. Some machines will feed more consistently than others.

Is 1/16" or 1/8" accuracy enough for what you are doing?

 

Hi, Yes the suggested accuracy would definitely work.
At this point I am not planning both sided but if I make textured models this might be an option.

So what I am reading out of the answers - the brand does not really matter. I have to test every machine for itself.
Does the year matter? I mean, I know this is hard to answer, but an older machine from 2002 - 2005 would be much cheaper than a newer one.
For my requirements this could work. Or is there anything that I should take into account there?

Thanks for answering my questions to everybody.
I really appreciate it.