Digital BW, The Print

I have been trying to follow this group for a few months now.  I do 
not possess the technical knowledge that most of you do.  I have been 
trying to get my 1160 with variable tone MIS inks up and running.  I 
have been moderately successful when using either color slide or 
color neg. films.  I have NOT been so with B&W.  This has been a 
frustrating thing.  My Minolta multi-pro scanner does not give me 
good scans from B&W.  The histogram is always 'pushed over' to the 
left (appears dark with 'blown-out' highlights).  Today I went over 
to a friend's and he scanned my B&W slide on an older AGFA ( model 
HID)  which looks like a flat bed but isn't and scans either 
documents or film up to 8x10.  And lo and behold a far superior scan! 
The histogram was nice and 'spread out' and the shadow's all had good 
detail.
I have gathered by now that scanning silver halide films is not easy. 
I wonder, as a 'dumb newbie' to the field if someone would step up 
and tell me the short answers to the following questions:
1)Which (not too expensive) scanner is best for black and white?
2)Is there any LOSS of Quality using a color slide (or neg) and 
converting to monochrome (I usually do this in channel mixer after 
obtaining what looks like the right filtration). Is this 'cheating' 
in any way?
I'm sure these are old questions and that those among you who are the 
most expert will find them boring.
Thanks,
ML
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