can anyone help with ink waste problem on mimaki?

[Brian Hays]

You can change the interval between cleaning cycles. By default I think it is set to clean every 4 hours. You can reduce it to every 24 hours.

[John Lacey]

Cheers Brian but already set the cleans to 24 hr intervals, its when i start the machine up that it pumps through the most amount of ink, sometimes it will throw out about 5mm up the bottle worth in 1 go. I have been known to shout at it while its throwing ink away during start up 👿

[Chris Dowd]

Hi Jonno,

I note you say "during start up". Can I gather from that that you turn the printer off?

If that is the case, then I think the answer is don’t turn it off! We’ve had our Seiko just on a year now and it’s never been turned off yet. The Seiko also cleans at regular intervals, however, nowhere near the amount of ink in the waste bottle your reffering to.

Chris.

[John Childs]

Sorry Jonno.

That’s part of the cost of running a solvent printer. The alternative is to risk clogging heads.

I know exactly where you are coming from as I hate to see the waste bottle as well, but there is not really an alternative.

[Alex Wilson]

Aah the joys of owning a Versacamm!! I think it has only wasted about 200ml in 6 months. We just switch it on when needed and it does a quick head clean and its ready to go. Why did you not consider this machine when getting into digi work? It seems to be the ideal start up machine if you are not getting the work flow required for a Mimaki

Best wishes
Alex

[David Rowland]

hi, yes the mimaki will waste some ink flow thru, normally happens on switch on or periodic clean or sometimes before printing.

5mm, hmm.. never seen it do that…. more like 1mm, seriously tho the JV3 on original ink can be profitable but you must use it several times a week.

From a sign shop who uses the printer daily for a few hours, we would empty the waste bottle about once every 2-3 months, never really gets that full.

We use the earlier model, the JV3-160S which is now about 2 years old

[Paul Hodges]

yep does sound excessive, we only empty our waste bottle on the versacamm maybe once every twelve months and we use the machine daily more or less.

[Stephen Morriss]

This is defiantly the problem with the solvent printers and not printing enough.

I had similar problems when I first got my Cadet, filled the waste bottle within a few months, made printing really expensive, but in the last year as more people got to know and I also use it for things that would have normally been cut vinyl the waste bottle is still nearly empty meaning that most of the ink used has gone onto vinyl.

So just hang in and get more work, instead of letting it clean all the time get some really cheap vinyl/material and use it to print every day, do posters, adverts, banners & stickers, anything, then at least you are using it to promote your business instead of wasting the ink.

I print address labels for putting on tools and jobs that have to be posted, just going to be printing a bath panel for our bathroom in the next few days when I get a quite period.

Steve

[John Childs]

Alex,

I DID consider the Versacamm for my first printer, but rejected it.

Fair enough, most of the work we do requires full solvent, but even if that didn’t apply I would have gone in that direction anyway to give me the maximum versatility.

Some folks will tell you that a laminated non solvent is as good as a laminated solvent, but it isn’t true. We gained one of our best print customers because his previous supplier’s non solvent product kept failing horribly.

Head cleaning is the price we pay for that and whereas to start with we had more ink going in the waste bottle than onto vinyl, as we got more print work the problem went away. Like Dave, we empty every two or three months now.

I understand that it is annoying, but it is better than the alternative.

[Alex Wilson]

Hi John

As you say it depends on what you are printing. Most of my digital work is short or medium term TV work for BBC’s Spooks ad Hustle with some smaller independent film makers so not a problem with the Versacamm. Also I only mentioned the Versacamm as Jonno is struggling with not having enough work to make his machine profitable. I know some will argue that his workload will increase and wastage becomes less of an issue but the costs of waste can cripple a business very quickly. My Versacamm in 6 months has already earned 75% of its value back with minimal waste. We have already thought a full solvent machine would not be more than a year away but it gave us a chance to get into digtal work and build up a client base without too much of an outlay. We also purchased a laminator for the jobs that require a little extra protection but would never offer more than a 3 year warranty with digital prints solvent or otherwise.

Best wishes
Alex

[Jamie Wood]

It’s definitely true that the more work you put down the JV3, the less
waste goes in the bottle. We are coming up to the 3rd full bottle in about
10 months usage, so I don’t think it’s too bad.

Looking to trade up to a JV5 in the next 2-3 months, so don’t know if that will be any different, as I think they use a different cleaning system.

Cheers,
Jamie.

[John Lacey]

Thanks for the advice, suppose i just need to get it working more and stop moaning about it eh! Just wish i’d researched a bit more before coughing up the dosh, oh well live and learn 🙄

[leerees]

quote jonno166:

Ok then, first silly question for all the dig printers with a mimaki. Bought my JV3 130sp about 4 months ago and running Onyx PosterShop 6.5. When it arrived it had a full charge of 440ml cartridges and a ‘spare’ set, so nearly £1200 worth of ink!

The trouble is most of that initial ink(and spare set) has now gone, mostly into the waste bottle!! Because i’ve just started in business the printer has’nt been used a lot, prob less than 30m of printing in total!
It works out that most of the profit i’ve made over the last couple of months has gone into that waste bottle, which is cheesing me off slightly.
I know Mimaki machines have a ‘unique’ head cleaning system but this is beyond belief! I know it expensive to RUN a digital printer but to cost so much when its not being used is crippling me. I have contacted the supplier with my problems and its the usual ‘i’ll contact mimaki and get back to you.
Other Mimaki printers i have experience with were expensive on in but this is rediculous. and dont get me started on the rubbish RIP!!

Anyway, any ideas on curbing the ink usage or shall i just sell the bloomin thing?

How about bottling up the contents of the waste bottle and selling it as calligraphy ink? 😛