Has anybody used Chinese hardware before?

[Gert du Preez]

I used to do all the digital printing for a sign company in a neighbouring town. (and they did all my laser engraving on their Chinese engraver)

Then they bought a Chinese printer……..

I did not really notice a drop in their orders from me. The machine was ALWAYS having an issue – motherboard, power supply, alignment, drop out, and just plain "fail to go…"

The cutters, laser engravers and even (some) cnc routers are workable, or at least a decent stepping stone. The large format printers and flatbed printers seem to be less usefull items…

[John Thomson]

I have lots of Chinese equipment…….plotters, embroidery machine, sublimation setup, laser, 1.6m printer with a laminator on the way.

Search for some of my threads for more info.

My printer in particular is a fantastic piece of kit, fitted with the latest Epson DX7 head……….couldn’t see anything at SignUK this year printing better….

Bottom line is that imported equipment can work really well but you MUST do your homework, be prepared to solve setup issues yourself and also to LEARN how the machines work.

Lots of people will disagree with me on this…..I can only speak from experience.

john

[Alan Brown]

Thanks for the replies!

I’ve been researching the Chinese machine that I’m interested in, even found a few videos on Youtube…. cant understand what they are saying but the machine seems to be, well, fine.

It also has the Epson DX7 head, would I be allowed to link to the machine, or is that against the forums policy for new members to post links?

Cheers!

[John Thomson]

What machine is it?
There are youtube links to my machine in some of my threads.

John

[Alan Brown]

It’s the TJ-1671C printer and cutter, I’ll see if I can find your post history and have a look

Alan

Quick Edit: Found your Youtube vids John, looks like you got yours from the same company I found, so that’s a good start! 🙂

[Jon Marshall]

I think I would always go for a second hand brand name machine than a new chinese machine.

How much could you get a four year old JV33 for? I guarantee it will be better than the chinese kit.

[John Thomson]

Hi,

mine is print only………I know the print /cut is a more complex process than on a Roland or Mimaki.

I also have a Mimaki so can directly compare them……my Tjet has superior print quality.
There is always an unjustified stigma surrounding imported machines….

Although I do have to say I would not buy a Chinese machine unless you have experience using/maintaining solvent printers as you cannot just lift the phone and get an engineer out under warranty.

John

[Alan Brown]

Sounds like a bit of a learning curve, I’ve not had to deal with printers bigger than standard office printers before, and I’ve never used a large format solvent printer before

However, I’ve worked IT support for a few years and I’m currently a software developer, so tinkering and figuring things out, I’d say I’m somewhat competent with.

The vinyl thing started as a bit of fun doing stickers for myself and friends cars, and it’s slowly grown into a decent eBay/Amazon business, which I’m obviously now looking to expand into printing.

Perhaps it would be better to outsource my work? Although I really would like to do everything myself, do you know what the going rate is to outsource say a 1 meter x 1 meter full colour print job?

Also one last question, sorry! I’ve read that these machines need to be left on and used pretty much constantly,because as far as I can gather, these machines leak ink through the heads constantly? Is that correct? So I wouldn’t be able to just plug it in and fire it up every few days or whenever it’s needed?

Cheers!
Alan

[Martin Pearson]

Your assumptions about the ink are not correct Alan, the problem is that the ink dries very quickly & if the machine is not run then the ink dries in the printhead clogging the nozzles. With older machines the only think you could do was run them pretty much constantly to avoid this happening. Most machines these days have a maintenance function where the machine will perform a self clean to purge ink through the head periodically while machine is not printing.
This means the machine needs to be left switch on all the time & the ink being used to clean the heads goes straight in the waste ink tank. This can prove to be quite costly if the machine isn’t used very often.

You could buy something like a BN20 for what you want to do a lot cheaper than 15k which would give you UK support.

[Lee Atkinson]

Hi Alan,
Funnily enough my 1671c just arrived about 3 weeks ago and finally getting there. I have to admit, the instructions and ‘sally’ can be a right handful
How r u getting on with your machine. It can be a bit of work transferring across between the programmes but it seems to be going well. I have a bit of banding, overspray with the black and the cut is a fraction off but apart from that it;s going good. Does your xy axis continually reset? I’ve had the programme reset on me a few times too resulting in having to reset my settings.
Are you using the jailkbreal and wave settings? What do u think, good to hear of a fellow tj1671c user 🙂

quote Alan Brown:

It’s the TJ-1671C printer and cutter, I’ll see if I can find your post history and have a look

Alan

Quick Edit: Found your Youtube vids John, looks like you got yours from the same company I found, so that’s a good start! 🙂

[John Thomson]

My 1671 is print only.

I run with the wave setting on and have NO banding at all.

Regular calibration keeps it perfect…….it’s a 2 minute process run in the Epson control software.

Overspray may be an incorrect head voltage…..I had this with cyan…..the factory connected to my laptop via Teamviewer and changed the offending setting which cured it for me.

John