Printer Mistakes I’ve Made (So You Don’t Have To): Kodak Step, Flashforge, and Water Slide Decals

I run a small print-and-gift shop with my partner. I’m the one who buys the equipment, so I’m also the one who has made most of the expensive mistakes. In the last four years I’ve burned roughly $4,000 on wrong supplies, forgotten compatibility checks, and at least one very preventable 3D print failure. Here are the questions I wish someone had answered before I started.

Is the Kodak Step Instant Printer worth it for a small business?

It depends entirely on what you want it for. The Kodak Step is a Zink-based printer (meaning no ink cartridges—the color comes from the paper itself), and it makes 2×3” sticky-backed photos that people genuinely love at events. I bought mine in 2023 for a wedding rental booth, and it saved us. But I made the mistake of treating it like a primary photo printer for our shop. It isn’t one.

For one thing, Zink paper is expensive. At current retail prices, each print can cost $0.50–0.70. To put that in context, according to USPS pricing effective January 2025 (usps.com), a First-Class Mail letter costs $0.73. You’re basically paying letter postage for every little photo. That’s fine when you’re charging $10 per mini photo strip. It’s not fine when you’re trying to produce 200 prints for a client who expects traditional 4×6 prices.

The Step is also not fast. It prints in about 45 seconds per photo, and it’s best used in short bursts. Long printing sessions can overheat the unit. Honestly, I’d recommend it only if you are selling instant photo experiences—not as a general-purpose business printer. For general printing, you still need an inkjet or a thermal label printer.

Why do Kodak photo printer cartridges run out so fast?

Because on many Kodak consumer printers, the cartridge includes the printhead. When you run out of ink, you’re not just replacing ink—you’re replacing part of the printer’s brain. That means the cost per page looks higher than it should, and it feels even worse when you throw away a “cartridge” that still had some ink.

I once rejected a reload because the printer said “low ink,” and I figured I was being smart. In reality, I was wasting a cartridge that could have printed another 15–20 pages in draft mode. I took a fairly expensive lesson from that: “low ink” is not the same as “empty ink.”

One more warning: I can’t tell you which third-party Kodak cartridges are safe, because I haven’t tested them all. But I can say that environmental claims from generic brands should be treated with caution. The FTC Green Guides state that a product shouldn’t be marketed as “recyclable” unless a substantial majority of consumers (they reference at least 60%) have access to recycling programs for that item. So when a no-name cartridge seller says “100% recyclable,” I ask where. In my experience, the answer is usually vague.

Is the Flashforge Adventurer 3 3D printer overhyped?

“Overhyped” isn’t the word I’d use. It’s just easy to buy for the wrong reasons. The Flashforge Adventurer 3 is an enclosed, beginner-friendly FDM printer with a build volume around 150 × 150 × 150 mm. If that sounds small, it is. But that small size is also what makes it reliable.

I bought one in early 2024 for small product prototypes and custom jigs. The print quality is good, and it’s genuinely quiet enough to keep in an office. My biggest mistake had nothing to do with the machine itself. I stored the filament in a damp garage and then blamed the printer when the first overnight print came out as a stringy mess. Moisture in PLA filament causes failed layers, peeling, and jams—somewhat embarrassing to explain to a customer.

Another thing I didn’t expect: the Adventurer 3 uses a proprietary nozzle assembly in some models, so replacement parts aren’t as cheap as generic ones. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s a hidden ownership cost. If I could go back, I’d buy it again—but I would also buy a filament dryer, a spare build plate, and a small budget for replacement nozzles.

Even after clicking buy, I kept second-guessing the build volume. The first week was stressful—what if it was too small for the client work we were hoping to do? Two years later, the size has actually forced us to design simpler parts, which is a good skill to have.

What can you actually do with a 3D printer?

At least once a week, someone asks me this. The honest answer is smaller than the hype suggests, but still useful. In my shop, the most valuable 3D prints are not decorative toys. They are custom jigs and templates for cutting, drilling, or gluing. For example, we printed a plastic guide that helps us place labels on product boxes in exactly the same position every time. That one guide probably saved us 10 minutes per batch and eliminated a lot of misaligned labels.

We also print replacement parts for small equipment, customer-specific phone stands for promo bundles, and prototype enclosures before sending a product to injection molding. One client asked us to print a model of a part they wanted to manufacture. That model let them test fit with a real bracket before spending money on tooling.

What I wouldn’t do is use a 3D printer to make products you’ll sell in high volume. It’s too slow and the layer lines can look unprofessional unless you spend a lot of time on post-processing. Use a 3D printer for the things no one else sells—not for commodity items.

How do you make water slide decals with an inkjet printer?

The key is to remember that water slide decal paper is not normal paper. If you treat it that way, you’ll get a soggy mess. I learned this the expensive way when I tried to print decals for a client’s promotional tumblers and put the paper through the printer in the wrong orientation. It jammed, the coating peeled, and I lost roughly $180 in paper and wasted ink in one afternoon.

Here’s the process that works for us:

1. Print the image in mirror mode if there’s any text or directional design. If it’s just a logo without text, mirror mode isn’t strictly necessary, but I use it anyway to avoid thinking about it.
2. Use the manufacturer’s recommended inkjet printer settings. For most papers, that means “plain paper” or “normal” quality, not photo paper. Glossy photo settings can over-saturate the coating and make the paper curl.
3. Let the ink dry for at least 10–15 minutes. If you rush this step, the decal will smear before you seal it.
4. Seal the printed side with two or three thin coats of a compatible clear spray. I use acrylic clear spray in a well-ventilated area, and I still mess this up when I spray too close. Hold the can farther away than you think is reasonable.
5. After the decal is dry, cut it out and soak it in warm water. It will slip off the backing in about 20 seconds.

If you’re using a Kodak inkjet printer, the same rules apply. The Kodak Step won’t work for this—it’s a Zink printer, not an inkjet. And never feed water slide paper into a thermal label printer; the heat will damage the roller and ruin the sheet.

One more thing: if you are mailing samples to a client, keep the envelope flat. According to USPS Business Mail 101 (pe.usps.com/businessmail101), a letter-size envelope has a maximum thickness of 0.25 inches, while a large envelope can be up to 0.75 inches thick. A decal sample inside a cardstock stiffener usually fits fine in a flat envelope. But I’ve paid the $1.50 large envelope rate when I should have added a stamp and sent it as a letter.

Are small orders actually worth taking?

I’ve noticed that many people in the printing world groan when a customer asks for a tiny run. I get it—small orders eat up time and have the same setup burden as big ones. But in my experience, small orders are how customers test you. The vendors who took my $150 first order seriously are the ones I later trusted with $15,000 orders.

That doesn’t mean every small order is a future whale. It means the size of the order says less about the customer’s potential than most people assume. When I first started buying equipment, I had a very small budget and a very big learning curve. I still remember the Kodak reseller who charged me an extra “small order handling fee” without telling me first. I never used them again.

My rule now is to be transparent: if a minimum doesn’t work for me, I say so outright instead of silently hiking the price. And if a customer comes back after a tiny first run, I treat that return as valuable feedback, not as a demand for special treatment. Quantity isn’t the same as quality.