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advice please looking for a cheap printer?
Hi as i am new to the industry and have just purchased a plotter i thought i would leave the digital printing for a few years. Because i have very little experience and the cost of printers are expensive. But is it possible to have a small printer for business logos say the size of a4 paper as i have been offered some work putting on stickers on to on fuel storage tank but it may not be the most cost affective way of doing this?
All advice welcome manufactures/price/ink price
Thank you
Martin
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9 Replies
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Hi Martin
In MHO you should get the plotter side well and truly under your belt before adding a printer to your arsenal. As you say they can be expensive to run and clients tend to get a bit picky re colours all of which requires you to learn more skills. We did just cut vinyl for 4 years and only moved in to printing in the last few months firstly with a old Roland pc60 and only this week we bought a Gerber edge. you need to be sure what you are wanting to print and what purpose will your clients will be putting your finished product to. Do you need to go solvent, eco solvent or thermal and I am sure there are more options. I don’t personally know of any small solvent or eco solvent printers about 760mm wide is the smallest I know of, having said that ordinary inkjets can print to special coated product which is available. but we only used it once.
hope this is of some help
Cheers Mike -
Hi Mike
The Thing is it does not have to be to fancy. Just the company name / logo and phone number and it would be no bigger than 200mm by 100mm
i just dont wish to buy a larger printer so soon after starting up and the choice of different way of printing is scary 😕 -
Depending on your budget and cashflow the best option might be to look for a second hand Gerber Edge, they tend to be better quality print and more cost effective than the Roland PC60/600’s, but they still seem to hold their price to the point of being too expensive for occasional use.
You could probably buy a second hand inkjet printer for similar money, but only used occasionally it will be more trouble and require much more tlc. to keep it in good working order. The Gerber needs very little attention by comparison, and there is no risk of the printhead drying up.Frank
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Hi Frank
After reading your comment i did a bit of research and the Gerber Edge 2 / fx range sound what am after. What kind of price should i be looking at new/used?
Plus am using signlab 8 basic will i have to up grade to print & cut? Because that’s not cheap!!
And can i get some opinions off from you signwriters about this machine eg problems/ink cost and vinyl etc
Thank you
Martin
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hi Martin
As i said we have just bought a Gerber edge and sought Franks advice before buying ours came with a program security Key and Program to run said machine over here when they were originally sold, they were sold with omega software.
ours is only an Edge not an edge 2. I have been told the main difference is 300DPi verses 600 x 300 DPI. we looked for several years and this is only the second one to come on to the market that we saw.
Cost to us was $7000 Australian.
the machines are built like sherman tanks and are really good gear.
cheers Mike -
About 6 months ago a 1 year old FX sold for £4000 on ebay.
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Why not just sub the work out to someone who has a decent machine and has already gone through the steep learning curve? I’m sure you’ll get a decent wholesale price.
It’s what I did before I got my digi printer and I don’t regret it one bit.
We sub out stuff that we don’t have the machinery for…Like Router cut stuff, brushwork, and metal fabrication. I just add a markup to other people’s work and don’t stress.
You’ve found a great resource here in UKSG…Why not use it to get what you need?
Don’t panic about coming to the trade after the digital revolution has taken place. I don’t know what it’s like in the UK, but over here (in Aus)it’s hard and not very clever to buy parts of rolls of digital print materials.
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quote Peter Dee:About 6 months ago a 1 year old FX sold for £4000 on ebay.
I didn’t buy this, just saw it on sale.
I don’t actually own one.John – I can’t reply to messages as a Gold member.
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Thanks guys
Peter i thought i it would be round the mark and thats not even new?
Lee i have considered this but just wanted to find out how much it was going to cost me if i decided to go down this route. Maybe am i bit naive but i thought there mite be a market for small printers and then build up to larger printers.
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