kart45

Hello all! It's been a while! After a couple years of contract printing/production with some great local partners we're thinking it might be time to make the jump into our own production equipment and the HP Print/Cut system sure is attractive. This will be primarily for motorsports graphics/liveries and contingency style decals. We would still be laminating most jobs and would hope to capitalize on the latex non-laminated options for batches of decals, smaller graphics, etc... Main question I'm looking for info on is "mileage" out of the HP Latex ink cartridges and intervals between prints. I know it can vary based on settings, but looking for common use metrics to know what to budget for ink and maintenance, maybe by printed foot or yard? From what I'm gathering the Latex allows for a greater interval between prints while avoiding clogging/issues... ? Between shop setup, additional power and space conditioning requirements - I think I've got most of the metrics factored in to budget for a new printer/cutter/laminator with a new print server machine and layout equipment. Thanks in advance!

Well, got ink flowing thru the black but nothing from the cmy down to the waste tank. Black printed marginally on tue test page, lots of banding and obviously the alignment is off. I may or may not have hurt the circuit board on the black during reassembly but the cmy baffles me that I was able to get black thru to the waste tank but no color. I was getting just as much or more clean water thru it during cleaning then the black Guess it's time to throw down for the refurb kit from cmyk.

Well... I thought this forum was full of cheap-skates like me This thing isn't necessarily killing me by being down so I figured I'd see what I could do before dropping the $$ on all the new parts. If nothing else I'm getting a pretty good working knowledge of the machine in general.

ok, spent some time with the heads tonight. Got the cyan and magenta to open up and flow pretty decent, gonna let the heads soak overnight and see if the black and yellow will loosen up. Gonna shake em some more tomorrow in the u.s. Too. Picked up a brake bleed tool from harbor freight and bled the ink lines all the way up to the dampers, then syringed a cpl loads of ink thru and the ink appears to be usable...

So - to dumb down the actual process of this machine ... If I understand this thing, The heads and dampers aren't connected to the pump, they only receive any sort of vacuum/pressure when they are positioned above the capping station, at which point the capping station is forced up to make seal with the print heads? I tried suction on both the pump side and waste side. waste side was a little groggy but loosened right up. I used carb cleaner... I then tried the pump side and got some of the carb cleaner to suction on the color, but no ink movement in the lines, which leads me to believe its a bad seal on the capping stn. The black side was solid, no suction and no ink movement in the line. Am I down to plugged printheads now?

Thanks for all your help man, greatly appreciated! Aight, back apart it comes. Any trick to getting the suction, syringe (I know I know...) Oh and apparently I should get my tape measure out... this is a 38" machine. cheaper refurb kit at least lol... http://cmykparts.com/MUTOH%20ROCKHOPPER%20I%20SDMP38%20PARTS.html

Got it back together. Not getting any ink up to the top of the machine where the lines transition from hard to soft. Is that indicative of a bad pump? No stripped gears down there. I guess the ink cartridges should prob be replaced too (?) I can hear something in there sloshing around and there are no errors being displayed on ink levels. (Does this machine do that?) I've run at least 5 cleaning cycles and nothing is coming out the waste or thru the lines up top...

Ok thanks. You'd think I might have already learned that lesson with the initial purchase... On a good note, got all the lines cleaned out from the cartridge to the dampers. Took the dampers out and let them soak in the ultrasonic cleaner for 20-30 mins and they are clean as a whistle now. Yellow and Magenta had some clumps but the u.s. cleaner broke it all down within a matter of minutes. Then took a syringe with a red pipe from a carb cleaner bottle and flushed them out in the solution. easy peasey. Both printheads had buildup on them. wiped them down with a microfiber rag and some lemon simple green and they at least appear to be clean now too. Gonna throw it together and see how deep this rabbit hole goes...

http://printheadsite.com/products.php?product=Epson-DX2-Solvent-Black-%252d-F056000 Anyone ever used this site? Looks like my printheads are epson compatible

Dammit man... not what I was hoping for but I guess should know by now that I always get what I pay for! This particular unit is the CMYK 4 head system and not the 6 head shown in the kit, I assume the parts are not interchangeable other than maybe the individual dampers and pump maybe? Also found that the pinch rollers are all cracked and torn up... am I seeing that correctly that CMYK charges $27.50 for each little roller? Or do you know if that's for a whole replacement set?

I did this with Silver leaf...

Hi all, been a while since I've been on the forum. I just picked up a 48" last night. $1450 and it is operational but it has been left with ink in it for who knows how long. The cartridges expired in `09 and I'm guessing they were the original Mutoh cartridges. I took them out and shook them lightly and still sounds like there is good ink in them, also wet ink around the insertion hole so it looks like ink is flowing. I got it home and fired it up, went through the motions like it should, gave no errors on the display but didn't put any ink down on the banner material (that came with the purchase) This is my first real adventure into the world of wide format printing (other than the old HP 1050 we have in our office that I've cleaned and pretended to be service-man on...) Can I pull the dampers out and try cleaning with denatured alcohol and if that doesn't work throw them in an ultrasonic cleaner? My dad is a watch and clock repairman so he has a couple available. Next, can I inject the same denatured alcohol back up thru the lines starting from the dampers pushing towards the cartridges? Or... should I run away from this thing and go back to dreaming of having my own printer?

I understand that the get-what-you-pay-for mantra, but a lot of those in the motorsports realm like the flash of the holographic films. I've yet to encounter an instance where a specialty film fell apart that quickly though, that seems like an anomaly. Most racecars aren't subjected to the same elements for the same periods of time so in many cases we can get away with a cheaper film that still looks great, but for a hauler that is subjected to the elements, unfortunately your best bet may be to order up some transparent/translucent blue (Oracal 8300 works nice over top of Silver Leaf) to get some blue back on your rig... You'll still be applying it to a questionable surface so its dealers option at this point

Oracal 6510 all the way. For blue try the light blue 651.

Cool stuff man, I dig the racers rides !