We have two MacBooks (10.6.8) each connected by usb cables to separate printers in our office. One of the printers has reached the end of it's useful life and I'm just wondering if I could connect the two machines to the remaining printer without a mile of cable, (they aren't close together). The two machines connect to the internet via their respective airport cards and our local wi-fi network which is created by a Netgear wireless router. I do have a couple of spare Airport Base stations in the cupboard, is there any way that I can press these into service?
Any suggestions gratefully received.

what's wrong with connecting the printer directly to one computer, turning on print sharing, and connecting the other mac to the shared printer?

A possible alternative might be to use the ABs to extend the existing network*, and once that's set up connecting the printers to their respective base station via USB. This may not work*, but it's easy to do and worth a try (see this post).

*) the problem may lie in the fact that Apple's WiFi equipment officially cannot extend non-Apple based WiFi networks, like Netgear in this case.

I have three Macs, two iPads, and two iPhones all sharing a single Canon !P4500 that is connected, via USB to an Airport Express. I see no reason an Airport Base station would not work equally well. The printer appears on the network and is accessible via Bonjour so there is no connection difficulty. I connect the iDevices to the printer using an app called Print and Share but there are several other similar apps available on the iTunes app store.

Thanks for the ideas. I have sorted it using the printer share. Simple really, I had just never needed to investigate it before.
Thanks again.