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Advice needed on vinyl Printer please?
Hi
I an new to all of this and I want to get a 60" printer to print on vinyl, vehicle wrap and also contravision vinyl.
This is going to be applied to the rear of vans and also rear windows. I am not a sign company. I imagine the lifetime of each sign would be 3 – 12 months.
If the printer has the ability to cut the vinyl it would be a bonus but not needed as most of my work would be full graphics.
I am looking for advice on which models would be good, I think I need a solvent based machine and also where I can get both Vinyl supplies cheap and also ink supplies.
Thanks for your help.
mod-edit see board rules
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8 Replies
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Hello Jonathan,
Mimaki and Roland have good print and cut solutions and I am sure they can be found second hand. However, I have researched for such printer a year ago and I understood these machines are not recommended. Usually only a printer is better. Moreover, if you will not need the cut option so often, it will be cheaper to buy printer only..
I am using thevinylcorporation for vinyl but I am looking to change them. One of the forum users recommended a new one and I will speak with them and see if they also sell ink. Maybe another member can help with a place where they sell both.
Regards,
David
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Have a search through these forums, you will see the same reply will crop up:
Sub the printing out, until you can gain enough to work a solvent machine daily.
Print & cut machines, eg Mimkia CJV30-160, you be looking at around £9000 for a second user machine with rip and limited warranty.
Vinyl – number of suppliers out there, Robert Horne, Antalis, Allprint, Grafityp, Hexis Direct, the list goes on.
Ink can range from £80 per cart for genuine to £45 for 3rd party inks.
Don’t forget your other costs:A laminator for example.
Yes you can buy ‘cheap’ solvent machines,but I’d advise an engineer look at them before purchase – why? say it requires a head replacing, say good bye to £700 – £1000.
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As Colin has said don’t forget the other bits you will need such as a laminator, I would sub the work out to a trade printer to start with as well, solvent machines can’t be switched off as you would do with your A4 inkjet so you need to have a pretty constant flow of work for them to do.
If the machine is not printing it is still costing you money as they go through a maintenance cycle periodically to stop the ink in the heads drying up, the ink used for this goes straight in the waste ink tank.
If you download the signmakers toolbar there are lots of suppliers listed with contact details, plenty of people for you to phone to get prices from.
Just make sure you buy the right quality of vinyl for the jobs you want it to do. -
Hi Martin,
Where can I find that signmakers toolbar? Sounds interesting…
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Should be on the forum somewhere unless Robert has taken it down with the site moving/being upgraded. What sort of phone do you have because there is also a sign app that has all the supplier info I believe. Need an apple device for that & my phone is android so haven’t tried that.
Just found this with a search, don’t know if it still works or is the right one.
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Thanks Martin,
I have an iPhone, is the app with the same name or I should search for something else?
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We have stopped downloads of the toolbar for a new software which will be owned outright by UKSB and is being created just now.
The toolbar was hosted by a third party and recently bought out for several hundred million. Their terms and conditions are not something i would agree to so i have taken an alternative route of our own dedicated software which will be 100% free for anyone to download.
in the meantime, please feel free to download signapp from itunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/signapp … 13489?mt=8this is also free to download. signapp has all the same functionality as signtoolbar.
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Thank you all for your feedback.
I am more than happy to apply the vinyl but do you know a good trade printer?
This could be a good idea.
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