SC540 – is a boat anchor!

[Shane Drew]

Tim, sorry you have had so much problem with your roland.

I have had my sc540 for 4 months, had a thermostat blow last month (first time ever this part has failed in australia I’m told) but outside that, I love this machine.

My clients love the results (used to have a hp3500cp) and it has opened up new markets for me.

The machine never stops, and I can say that it seems bulletproof.

I have had a roland 1000mm cutter for 8 years never had a problem at all. That what prompted me to go with the soljet as opposed to the JV3.

I rang a warranty centre for both soljets and JV3 before I purchased, and they said the JV3 was by far the most popular machine for warranty calls.

When they came out to do the warranty repair the other day, the tech said the same thing.

The local JV3 dealer has 2 repair techs on staff for out of warranty repairs, the local soljet agent has one.

I would be asking roland for an explanation though.

I hope it goes better for you when it is finally up and running again.

Cheers, and keep you chin up. I know it is easier said than done tho 😥

[Tim Knight]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for the “pick me up”
Its just really frustrating,
Don’t get me wrong when its going it does a really nice job.
The service Guy can’t tell me why but we are not in the city
so we might have to wait a week before they get here!! (:)

While we are on the subject of the SC540
Do you guys clear laminate all your jobs?
We have been using the Orajet 3165 for most jobs
are clearing with the same orajet in clear.
Lasting or vehicles have been using the Avery 1005EZ and DOL clear
Illuminated signs the Orajet 3850 trans white which is nice too!
Do you have any suggetsions of different media to try?
We have to clear everything unless its up high inside a shop
The prints seem to scratch or scuff easy.
Unfortunately we have a few staff members that are a little heavy handed as well which doesn’t help.
Although the quality is not as good previously the prints we bought from
a trade supplier where full solvent and for durabilty they where great.
Also if you do clear laminate do you use a laminator.
We don’t have one and use a vinyl application solution and wet apply
the clear to all prints then apply to the sign. Probably not Ideal at the moment but we are getting by untill we work out something better.
Its the same old story if we did the same thing every day, same media, same sizing would be good, but we might print on 4 different media in 1 day, its crazy!

anyhow thanks again for the reply of confidence, hopefully they can
give me the reasons for it failing and sort it out.

Tim Knight :lol1:

[Shane Drew]

Hi Tim,

Mate, I have been there too with machines that let you down. I am a small operation, and I rely heavily on everything working when it needs to, or I get behind and…. well….. its not pretty here some days.

To answer you other questions;

Do you guys clear laminate all your jobs? No. Most of my work is in tourism sectors; theme parks, tour coaches, advertising companies. Anything that is of a temporary nature, I just print with no laminate. Only jobs that will be in heavy traffic areas I will laminate manually.

I use mainly Orajet 3551g as my primary vinyl, and I’ll clear coat it with either Orajet clear film, oracal 551 or Graphicoat liguid laminate, again manually.

If I produce car magnets, I’ll print them and then cover them with a 551 clear to protect it. If I am printing an outdoor sign, say 2400×1200, I’ll apply a graphicoat coat, and I always graphicoat banners.

I am not a big fan of Avery products, and I don’t use them at all. Oracal is my 1st preference. Spandex, as a company, have let me down too many times. Australian Sign Supplies have the best staff of any supplier here in Qld, so they get my business first everytime.

Orajet 3850 has had good comments, but I have not used it yet. I have lightboxes to sign next week so I’ll give it a try

The ecosol ink does damage easy if you don’t be careful for the fist few hours after printing. I normally give it an hour or two to dry, then I’ll premask it. I don’t remove the premask until it is ready to be sent out to the client. That way it is always protected from the elements, or heavy handed staff. 😮

I have, just yesterday, converted my soljet to a full solvent unit thru Australian Sign Supplies http://www.australiansignsupplies.com.au . In a word, it is brilliant. the same brilliant colour, but really duarable. It was a bit of expense, but money well spent. Mine is the first machine they have done in OZ, although they have over 20 installations on other brands all over australia, and they warrant the print heads for the remainder of my manufacturers warranty, and they set it up with training as well. If you want me to send you some samples, please just ask.

Also if you do clear laminate do you use a laminator? I do have a 1370mm wide laminator, but it is old, and I rarely use it now. I have got in to the habit of doing it by hand now without any, or many, disasters 🙄 I do it dry if possible, but wet if I have to.

The graphicoat system is a little disappointing, but OK for banner work. No good for hi class jobs tho.

There is a crowd in sydney that contracts to the trade for laminating big jobs, but in truth, I’ll probably buy my own liquid laminating machine next year. If I can find a local sign shop with one, I will probably pay them to do it in the mean time, although using real solvent inks now, my need for this will be reduced.

As far as printing on lots of media, I agree. The only thing I try and do is have set days for set media. Then, if I have a job come in that is to be printed on paper, I know that I’ll have other paper jobs on tuesady, so I try and do them all on the same day. Does not always work, but when it does work out, I get heaps more done in a day.

Tim, I am happy to help you any way I can. Wodonga is a lovely part of OZ, and I know how isolated you can be from the big smoke. If you are stuck for some printing, and I can help, just call me (0419 722 199) Are you a member of the SAA?

If I can send you a sample of something that you want to see, send me your eps and I’ll print it and post it back.

Cheers, and keep in touch.

Shane Drew
shane@signs.au.bz
http://www.signs.au.bz

[Chris Wool]

sorry to here you are having problems my sc540 is nearly 2 years old and had 1 set of pumps – i lke roland stuff there are odd ones – when i first had this one it was very poor at cutting small circles after 3 visits it was not fixed so they swoped the machine so cant complain . hope yours is fixed soon

chris

[Tim Knight]

Hi Shane & Chris,

The Service tech is coming today thank godness.
Will only be 2 days down fingers crossed.
I’m not sure what the problem is as yet, Scan motor error?
Have you guys had any media jams yet, where the print head and cut head come apart mid print?? Has once, hopefully thats not the cause.
Shane, I did chase up Australian Print supplies about the ink.
Sounds promising. Haven’t got a price yet but I think, if saving on ink carts and better durability name the price!!
Thanks for the contact. Let us know how you go with it all.
I might take you up on the sample offer. I will send somthing to you.
Pitty they don’t have the software yet for the Orange and Green,
We have a customer that uses PMS137 bright orange / yellow
and cannot match it with the printer, hes pretty particular too!
We had been mask and sparying previously to get the colour.

Thanks for the input Guys, Feeling a little better after the weekend,
not so hot under the collar 👿 , maybe try mne on Friday!!!LOL

Text again soon!

tim knight 😛

[Shane Drew]

Hi Tim.

Upgrade set me back a little over $7000 once they credited me for my unused soljet inks. That includes upgrading the pumps to JV3 solvent ones.

Inks are 50% the cost of soljet inks too, so I am looking forward to the savings in the long term.

Sounds to me that the scan motor and the head problem is related. I assume the scan motor is what drives the head? You’ll know by now no doubt, so I’d love to know the answer incase it happens to me. 🙄

Had no media jams yet thank goodness.

So far so good with the new inks. Printed all day today, only thing the smell gets a bit much by the end of the day. Still waiting on the bloke to install my exhaust fan. Said he’d be back today – have not seen hide nor hair of him 😥

Look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers
Shane

[Chris Wool]

hi
as i understand it the head seperating is a protector mech for the head so if the head hits something it stops and has happened to mine once or twice quite rightly – the very first machines did have a seperation problem that was cured in firmwear very quickly.

chris

[Tim Knight]

Hi Shane and Chris,

The scan motor is the motor that drives the head back and forth.
The first breakdown was thought to be a dirty sensor.
which in the ribbon that runs left to right. its transparent and has small lines for the head to workout where it is up to! when dirty it gets confused and stops. you can lightly wipe it with tissue paper only.The tech guy said aswell as this problem they have had a bad batches he thinks of scan motors because generally not many ever fail. He replaced it then 3 weeks later ( which was last Friday ) it went again. But he found yesterday
that 2 screws that fit the bracket to the body which holds one end of the head cable had vibrated loose slighty to one side. Like it had been hit almost he thought. But I said nothing actually happened at the time before it stopped. He just realigned and tightened. He has put a message thru to roland about fitting another screw so it cannot rotate ( the bracket ) He did the 6mnth service while he was here for free so that was good! That bracket is actually behiond the print head carriage while docked. He also said sometimes the cut head cable clamping point, which is just 1 screw and washer can come loose and do the same thing.
So maybe after all I might take the SC540 fishing after all!! LOL
The price for the ink sounds ok to me we have $2500 of carts just sitting in stock, maybe over kill but we can’t just pop down the street to get another so Will seriously chase it up.
About the smell , we where concerned about that too! specially with out staff running the machine. I moght post that question to Aust sign supplies.

Thanks for the input guys

Tim Knight 😎