Budget vinyl printers

[Martin Pearson]

you can buy sheets of A4 and I believe A3 coated vinyl for inkjets but it is a bit on the expensive side compared to standard vinyl. Your biggest problem though is going to be that they will need to be contour cut so you will need a plotter capable of doing that.

[Jason Middleton]

Hi Martin, I’ve ordered a plotter capable of contour cutting so I’m ok with that, my main concern is like you say the cost of of a4 & a3 sheets and also I would like to be able to use clear or metalic vinyl and I don’t think know if its possible to get this in A4 or A3. I’ve tried searching online and my findings show I’m looking around the £1500 mark to get a printer capable of printing on vinyl but I justed wanted to ask the experts if there was anything available in my budget.

[Chris Wool]

what have you found for £1500

have you spoken to make-a-gift see what they use. i am sure epson do a white vinyl, probably a polyester.
but that can be done on a £50 printer.

some ink jet vinyls are like a sponge surface and don’t dome well.

chris

[Jason Middleton]

Hi Chris, thanks for your reply I’ve found a canon Canon iPF5100

I haven’t spoken to make a gift, I believe that cutters don’t track well on A4 size and A3 is better so an A4 printer is not advisable so that puts the £50 printer out of the question also I want pigment inks.

[Chris Wool]

just looked up the Canon iPF5100 i can’t see that will print on to standard vinyl. no mention of vinyl prints in the adds.

cheap epsons run pigmented inks.

will see what i can find

chris

[Jason Middleton]

Many thanks Chris, I’m on a major learning curve all help most appreciated

thanks again

[Jason Middleton]

Chris, the Canon iPF5100 features a roll feeder I was led to believe that providing a printer features this then it can print onto vinyl is this not the case?

[Chris Wool]

quote Jason Middleton:

Chris, the Canon iPF5100 features a roll feeder I was led to believe that providing a printer features this then it can print onto vinyl is this not the case?

NO you are a mile from the point.

desk top printers are water based so need very special vinyl with a coating to accept water based inks. can only find mat vinyl at the moment which may not dome very well.
i have had some gloss in the past just trying to find it.

to print to a standard sign vinyl you need a solvent ink machine they start around £6000.
or a thermal print machine now lost a lot of favor and expensive to run.

[Jamie Wood]

quote Jason Middleton:

Chris, the Canon iPF5100 features a roll feeder I was led to believe that providing a printer features this then it can print onto vinyl is this not the case?

Basically, no. It simply means that it can take roll fed media, but in the case of
this printer, it means rolls of paper. You can get rolls of vinyl for this type of
printer, but it is specially coated, and would not last without laminating. A
friend of mine had an aqueous large format printer, and used to print onto the
specially coated vinyl, but instead of laminating, he had a machine called a
polymeriser, which did some odd sealing thing which made the prints scratch
and water resistant. He now has a VersaCamm, so I expect it outlived it’s
usefulness.

Bottom line is, there isn’t much of an alternative to solvent if you want to print
onto vinyl cheaply, and this starts in the £9 -10K range. Sorry, unless anyone
else has any other ideas. Second hand would of course be cheaper.

[Jason Middleton]

javascript:emoticon(‘:oops:’) Aaargh back to the drawing board then!! Vinyl printing is out of the question for me then at £9-10k kind of cost, even 2nd hand. I’m not sure where I go from here now, if I want a printer to print out small label for doming, any suggestions

[Jason Xuereb]

Outsource your printing for now. If your only looking at doing one offs or really short runs then its never going to be viable or profitable unless you have your own printer and you have an additional income stream.

[David Rowland]

i agree with jason, its the only way to make money

[Mike Chalk]

hi
i purchased a aqueos printer only 8 months ago [ what a waste of money] as all ready said you have to by special vinyl at crazy prices and it does not last long even with laminating out side. So bite the bullet and by a solvent printer I found a seiko 64s on flee bay for £3500 with RIP software so there are cheep printers out there if you look. Good luck.

Mike

[Alex Pirozek]

Would it be possible to use the Epson 2100 A3 and convert that to solvent inks with CISS??
Only a thought?

Alex.

[Alan Drury]

Not sure about durability but it might be worth exploring the A3 laser printers Magic Touch have on offer. I know they supply a laser compatible vinyl film and for contour cut labels you are doming this may serve your purpose. The Magic Touch are very helpful are usually generous with their samples.
Alan D

[Andrew Blackett]

We used there system with the self adhesive vinyl a couple of years ago. The film domes nice, cant comment on its outdoor durability but the polyurethane dome will have some degree of UV resistance to help it from going yellow so it may help the toner on the paper. It sticks like snot too – dont apply it wet though as it’ll seperate the adhesive from the paper. You’ll have to check with the magic touch for the weather resistance etc, think its called SEN12…… just checked it is – runs out at £2 a sheet for A3, its here http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/transfer/clmedia.htm

Our printer was a 5430 konica machine – it was crap to be honest which is why we binned it and plumped for an SP540v instead! no brainer looking back really!

As I say the paper was fine, hopefully they’ve developed a better printer for it now though.

Andy

[Warren Beard]

quote Mike Chalk:

hi
i purchased a aqueos printer only 8 months ago [ what a waste of money] as all ready said you have to by special vinyl at crazy prices and it does not last long even with laminating out side. So bite the bullet and by a solvent printer I found a seiko 64s on flee bay for £3500 with RIP software so there are cheep printers out there if you look. Good luck.

Mike

I have an aqueous pigment printer and I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of money, I would bet there are 100x more of these printers in the market than solvent printers, the fact is I don’t think they will be any good for doming but are good for many other things so to say they are a waste of money is naive. I wanted to get in to digital printing but couldn’t afford a solvent printer so opted for one of these and picked up a second hand (actually third hand) from an old geezer on this forum 😉 :lol1: I know have a very good side line business supplying poster prints, giclee prints, roll up banners, hanging eyeletted banners, canvas prints and stickers using this machine, I have also done a small selection of vehicle graphics with it (for flat surfaces) and have had my own vinyl graphics on a window for close on 2 years which is South facing and not one bit of fading as yet. Yes the media is more expensive and there are less medias you can print to but there is a market for these printers and they are much cheaper than solvent printers so a good way to start in the printing side.

If you bought this type of machine thinking it will do something that it can’t then that was bad business sense on your part and lack of investigation. My printer is 42" wide and I paid nearly half of what you paid too and have made a lot of money off it.

Waste of money…….. I think not.

Cheers

Warren

[Jason Middleton]

Thanks, the magic touch laser printer looks interesting and would open a few options to diversify, are laser printers economical to run compared to an ink-jet and would the image quality good enough for doming badges.

Regarding A3 I was only looking at this size because I heard if I used A4 my cutter could have problems with the tracking, anybody have any experience of this using the Graphtec 5000-60