Do you print Laser Labels?

On my beer bottles I'm quite happy to cut out and stick home made ink-jet labels, but I like my wine bottles to look as professional as possible, so I tend to buy pre-made wine labels if there are none in the kit.

However the selection available in the UK are pretty poor so I've been buying them from Canada where there is a good selection and they are pretty cheap - however by the time you add the delivery, VAT and the Royal Mail's £8 for collecting it, it gets a bit pricey.

I realise I could just get fixative spray for my Ink Jet but it sounds like a lot of hassle and a bit hit and miss - I just want to print, peel and stick!

To this end I've been thinking it makes long-term economic sense to buy a Colour Laser Printer around the £100 mark. But surprisingly I can't find much advice on line.

My questions are:

a) Can anyone recommend a cheap colour laser that is good at handling sheets of self-adhesive labels?

b) Any recommendations of 3rd party toner - at around £200+ for a full set of replacement toner that print ~1,500 pages at 5% coverage it could get pricey! But I've heard some 3rd party toners as well as damaging the printer itself, don't always stick well to labels.

c) Recommendations of label stock - obviously I want a label that will stay put until I want to remove it Though I'm considering the idea of waterproof labels in that if I'm refilling the bottle with the same kind of wine maybe keep the old label? Otherwise something fairly stable that can be peeled when necessary. I mainly make reds so they don't tend to sit in ice buckets or anything.

Any advice gratefully received!

Have you thought of having a chat with your local print room? We use printers a lot at work and if you provide the artwork they can print almost anything and would save a lot of capital outlay.

I bought a Samsung clp-365 colour laser from Tesco for £100 and Tesco parcel labels (99 x 68mm) which I print in portrait, using a modified MS Publisher template, just for this purpose. You get 8 labels per sheet, so running cost seems very low, but replacement toner cartridges are expensive, as I can only find genuine Samsung ones. A full set costs £130! The results are fine, but the colours do fade over time, except black.

I dont know much about paper stocks and finishes, but have had to deal with a few post lable printing problems...

a glossy more proffesional finish may be easier to achieve with a hi clay glossy paper stock and cut with a guilotine? stuck on with prit stick or other glue. (milk fails....) copydex should work a treat.. ( i cellotape mine on .. lower standards..)

if you use lables not paper stock buy avery lables not just avery sized.. And

1) Dont leave them near direct sunlight or a heat source, if warmed the glue can and will flow from between the label and backing sheet to the label edge and can then easily be transferred onto the printer rollers..

2)Dont be tempted to print one and save the sheet for reuse, print a sheet at a time only and check with fingers for a tacky feel to the label sheet surface before use.

remember refill page counts reflect something like 15% ink coverage you may be more likely to be printing closer to 80-100%.

base price evaluations on refill costs more than initial purchase price.

laser printing will be a lot less hassle than inkjet. and cheaper in the long run..

when refilling shake the hell out of the box before u unpack unless it says otherwise in big letters, the last thing you want to do is have to shake a settled dry powder cartridge once its feed ports been opened

disposable gloves for cartridge changes, tho domestic models may be a bit more user friendly than some of the jobbies ive had to change. but if its giving u signs of being dusty, seriousley consider working inside a black bin bag or moving outside..

Cheaper Samsung cartridges now available at £28.31 each, post free. But a full set still costs more than what I paid for the printer, albeit on special offer at the time. Also worth noting that the cartridges supplied with the printer are 'starters', and not as full as replacement ones.

Thanks for the replies folks!

Mickeywheelspin: I don't really have access to a print room, I think Staples used to have a laser printing service not sure if it applies to labels though, but worth checking.

Tony: Do you ever have any problems with paper jams or the toner not sticking to the label properly?

Fil: Good points, I think the ISO standard for expected prints is based on 5% coverage - so although they claim 1,000-2,000 pages, I might only get 200-400 pages from a £200 set of toners which is a bit steep.

I might order a bottle of fixative and print some labels with my inkjet and see how I get on with them.

If they work out, I'm quite tempted by the Epson ECO print where instead of the normal model of cheap printer but expensive ink tanks, it's an expensive printer (£350) but a 6,000 sheet set of inks is £30 or something.

I've had the occasional paper jam, but not specifically with the labels. The only reason I use laser because the colours do not run. There was a time when you could get waterproof ink cartridges. In fact the real reason for using colour laser is because I picked up a Xerox one at a boot fair for £7, including a full set of new cartridges. The printer packed up before I had used up the spare cartridges, but I had a good run for the money. Even so, I would have to print thousands of labels to make costs reasonable. I now tend to use plain labels and a pencil - a cheap and waterproof solution!

I'm intrigued. Have never heard of fixative for ink jets. Is this like the hairspray we used to use in art classes in school for chalk and pastels?

Indeed it is. Laquer. Best source Poundland!

Cheers. Shall investigate it...

I was thinking of using just a pen to mark what brew what in what brown pet bottle, would this work? It says its oil based..... which worries me

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hellfire-...Domain_3&var=430461351377&hash=item1e8ce1085f

As a cheap, flexible and recyclable way of identifying the contents of barrels, polypins and demijohns, I cut up used plastic milk bottles, cut 2 holes with the sharp end of scissors, attach a length of garden twist tie and stick on an address label, using a pencil to write identity and date. This fits on the tap or neck. To re-use, simply erase and re-write.

For identification I usually try to use different coloured crown caps on my beer bottles, and little round coloured stickers around 99p for loads including postage from Ebay to identify fermenters / Corneys etc.

For the wine labels I've been doing some reading.

I did some beer labels once using my inkjet, and they looked great but after a couple of months in the shed (presumably slightly damp) they looked dreadful.

It seems that the official Epson ink is waterproof and UV proof, but that costs £40 a set and only does a couple of hundred pages typically. The cartridges I buy are about a couple of quid each!

However apparently the difference is that the official ink is pigment based whereas the cheap cartridges are dye based.

I managed to find some refillable cartridges + pigment based ink which promises to be waterproof and uv-proof for 80 years or something - I'll take their word for it!

Bit pricey at £50 but apparently there is enough ink there to refill them 10 times.

So I'm going to give it a shot and will report back.

good idea about the stickers!
I jsut have about 15 ipa brown pet bottles left, and just did a load of woodfordes, so wanted to distinguish between them, little stickers might well be perfect!

Yes pigment was the word I was looking for!
I also find cap labels very helpful for the wine rack. I simply cut up address labels to fit and simple 3 letter ID codes in pencil. 2 letters is not enough. C could be cherry or chardonnay, likewise CY. CHY is no better. CEY and CAY works fine, but gives no clue to the age, so CAY with 09 beneath. At one stage I considered bar codes on the labels, but QR codes on the caps in this age of the smartphone is the way forward!