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Hello from South Alabama
Hello,
My name is Ken and I live in South Alabama and want to say hello. I am very new to the sign business. I work in a chemical plant full time and have started doing vinyl signs for a hobbie. Most of my hobbies are work related.
I came accross this site while looking up sign related items on the net. This is by far the best sign forum there is and it has drawn me to be a part of it. I have learned so much just my reading post here.
Anyway I have a project that I am working on and will be needing some help with. I purchased a used non-working Summachrome printer and I am going to try and locate new/used parts for it. You may see another post here later stating that I am looking for a USED print head to purchase.After I purchased this printer used, I called Summa here in the US and inquired about getting some things from them. Then I found out from Summa that they would not sell me any parts or give me any help with it at all becuase the machine was pulled from service. What they had done was after the previous owner had so much trouble on and off with the printer they traded her a small cutter for it. Instead of having this lady ship the printer in as trade they told her to remove the print head. When the lady could not figure out how to remove the print head they told her to just to cut the cable to the print head and mail it back to Summa. So I have a couple of inches of the old cable coming out of the print head that I would like to attach a cable off of an old one too.
The lady was suppose to dispose of this machine but she sold it too me. She did tell me that it had only ran two rolls of vinyl through it. She also said that she thought that most of her problems with the printer was actually her and not the printer. So you may can see why I want to make an effort to get it working.
One thing that Jim at Summa did tell me was these Summachrome printers were 15 years old and it was not worth the trouble of fixing. What do some of you experts think? The date when the printer was made was in 1999. Do you think it is really worth the money and time to get it working? I have $100 us dollars invested so far with a little room to spend.
What do you think?Ken (?)
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14 Replies
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Hi Ken,
Welcome to the site. You’re dead right. It IS a great place to visit.
About this printer. I’d be very wary of trying to repair this, it sounds like you’re only going to buy yourself trouble. If you’re new to the biz why not start with the best cutter you can afford and go from there.
I bought a second hand encad pro e printer early last year. This was reconditioned by the business I bought it from but still had hassles. I ended up selling it back to them and wiped off the exercise as a bad idea.
I was far too inexperienced and didn’t have the resources to buy stacks of vinyl to practice on.Since then I’ve recently been given YES given two mimaki machines. I just have to pay for the freight to ship them here from Melbourne ( the other side of the country), which I’m about to do. I’ve been reliably told that one works perfectly and the other needs some parts. Oh and there’s a couple of boxes of parts and inks coming over too.
Mate you’ve gotta learn to walk before trying to tap dance.
Lee
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Hi Ken,
welcome to the UKSignBoards…
if I’m reading this right and you have invested (only) $100 so far then I’d say, withouth being cruel, that you’d be best forgetting about this machine and put it in the bin (or at least selling it to someone else for spares).
In cold hard terms, $100 represents 1 to 2 hours profit in commercial signmaking. I know you’re just starting out and every dollar counts, but this is the kind of thing that you’ll look back on in a year or two and laugh about (hopefully 😕 ).
When we first started we had no software, no plotter, no nothin’ – we worked for almost two years buying our prepared kits of vinyl from another sign company and in the first year alone made the equivalant of $150,000 – just me and the wife. So don’t worry if you can’t afford everything to begin with…there’s always a way around things.
With everything you’ve said about this machine – Summa not building it anymore, the history, the price, the ‘lady’ etc. I’d do what Leeroy suggested and buy a good working machine when you can. Even if you get this machine running, everytime something goes wrong it sounds like you’re going to have hassle getting it fixed – and you don’t need that when you’re learning from scratch and starting a new business…
good luck – and we’ll help in any way we can – even if you choose to try and fix the ‘ol girl! 😉
more soon
mikethesign
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Yes, I only have $100 USD in it so far. Not sure about investing a little more just for a try. I am worried that I will regret not trying to get it going. If I do not try at least with a little effort and a little money I will always wonder could I have fixed it. Yes, I am hard headed on some things.
I do have a Graphtec CE-2000 that I have been cutting vinyl with and it has been 100% great so far. As far as the printer I have not had but one job where I needed anything printed but I would like to have the ability for the future.
THIS IS REALLY A GREAT SITE!!
Ken
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Hi Ken
Welcome to the boardAs the guys have said: Best leave it and invest in something better.
I note you have a cutter and obviously the software to run it
Sounds to me like you have the potential to expand more into the sign business and this without going into digital purchase.Some of us here on the board are in this category. We simply farm out digital when the requests are made for such.
(P.s. You say you work at a chemical plant. Do you know a guy called Homer? He’s got three kids and of course the missus!)
John
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Yes, it may be more trouble than what it is worth to get it going.
As far as Homer, I do not know anyone named that. I do work shift work at a chemical plant as a lead chief operator. We make polysilicon. It is used for computer chips/wafers. We take ground Silicon rock (sand), turn it to a clear liquid and then back into a gray solid that is 99.99999999999% pure for the electronics industry. This is what kind of lead me to the sign business. I got pretty good drawing with a computer at work for diagrams and control screens. Some of the people that I work with have started different part time businesses. I got the idea to buy the sign plotter and at least pay for my stuff by selling co-workers thier signage and etc.
I have been trying to learn Flexisign 7 on my own and I have been OK doing so but still have a lot to learn.Ken
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Interesting stuff Ken!
You seem to have a set up there to do signs part time and who knows how it will germinate. Some on the board, I believe, started out just so.
Oh! and Homer’s second name, I now remember, is Simpson, Think he works in nuclear or something 😆
John
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Ken, If you are trying to learn flexiSign — go to http://www.givemehelp.com and check out Mark Rugen’s website. He does testing for scanvec!!! Really Nice Guy, Also! It’s good to see another person from Alabama on here, I’m from North Alabama — Just 1 hour South of Huntsville!!! Talk to ya later!!!
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Hi Ken..
If I were only doing this part time, like yourself. I would have a go at fixing it…don’t know much about this machine, but sound’s like its worth a try.I have a very old plotter made about, 15-16 years ago.
It was working fine until the drive belt broke; everyone said (not from this site, I might add) put it in the bin. At the time i didn’t have the money for a new one so after a few weeks of searching I found some one that could supply the spare part, it cost around $130 usd and i fitted it myself.
That was about four years ago, it saved me buying a new machine, and its still going strong
You should be able to get some type of cable to bridge the gap; over here we have a place called http://www.Maplins.co.uk lots & lots of electronic parts etc.
Good Luck
Simon
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I kind of thought about Homer Simpson when you said that. Glad to see some one whatches that. No I do not know him.
THIS PLACE IS GREAT.
Not sure what I am going to do about the Summachrome. I guess that I will look for a used print head to get the $2 plug off of the end and just see what I have. I do wish that Summa would just sell me the plug so I could see but they do not have to give me any support due to the conditions of the machine.
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ROLL TIDE ROLL. 1-1 Sure beats 0-2
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Hi Ken,
Welcome to the site.
I know nothing of the summachrome, other than summa in general are very good machines, so… i’m kinda thinking if they pulled this machine there must be something they really are not happy about with it.
My advice $100 isn’t too much, you have a cutter which you can carry on with, it would be nice to have the summachrome running but its not a major deal.
So……… sit tight, keep your eyes open on places like ebay and any other auction sites you have in the US, place an add on these boards in the buy sell swap section, do the same on any other boards that are sign or digital print related, sit back and wait for someone to see it. You never know your luck
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Dave,
Would you happen to have another e-mail address. That one I tried and it came back to me.
Thanks,
Ken -
Hi Ken – Sorry – it’s HENCHEN (not Henchmen) Full info below:
Jim Henchen. Paintin’ Place Signs
29688 144th street. Princeton. MN 55371
Tel: 763 389 2102 Fax: 309 218 1785
email: henchen@ecenet.com
Look forward to hearing about your adventure!
Regards Dave Standen -
Dave,
Thanks so much for trying to help. Jim could not help with the Summachrome. It is a little different and older than the Durachrome.
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