Service Engineer Needed

[Bill McMurtry]

Hi Steve, are you getting the dreaded "carriage error"? If so there is an easy fix which simply involves wiping down the carriage bar with silicone lube.

[Steve Holden]

Thanks Bill, I will give that a try. Do you just do it every now and then?
Have you got an 850 aswell

Cheers

Steve :lol1:

[Bill McMurtry]

Hi Steve, I used to have a Pro50. I think they are mechanically similar to the 850. The oil impregnated brass carriage bushes dry out over time and cause sliding resistance to trip the error (drive motor load increases). If you wet out a clean cloth with silicone spray lubricant and rub down the carriage bar it should solve the problem for you. I found that I only had to do this once every few months, depending on printer useage.

[Steve Holden]

Thanks again Bill, I am going to give that a try but if anybody does know of an engineer based in the Midlands please let me know.

Many thanks

Steve

[Printdesigns]

Hi Steve,

Look up a company called 1st Call for Service and speak to Les.

Tell him Mark gave you the number and he should be able to help.

All the best

Mark

(mod-edit 5) see board rules

[Steve Holden]

Thanks very much Mark, I’ll give them a try.

Steve :lol1:

[Dave Bruce]

Hi Steve, I have an Encad 850 too, also looking for an engineer to completely service it. I have tried Colourgen but they are not interested as I am too far north.

I would love to be using it every day, what’s your main use?

I will try 1st Call too thanks Mark.

Dave

[Colin-T]

Hi there, you don’t need an engineer to change those bushes. If you have changed the outers, the inners take 10 minutes more. Its dead easy and takes care of the error for good (or at least until the next time they wear out and bind) I find if you use silicone spray anywhere near the machine it will infect the media and show up in the prints. Sorry to contradict but its just my opinion. If I were to use anything it would be dry PTFE as that wont attract any muck onto the rail, any muck on the rail accelerates wear on the rail.
Service on an Encad should really be just the usual consumables, spit pads etc. Why not continue and maintain it yourself?

[Steve Holden]

Dave, I’m glad somebody else out there is using the same machine; I know it’s out of date but it just keeps going so why scrap it? I use mine for all types of jobs but the media is getting very hard to find now. Its main work is GX prints mounted on to Foamex for point of sale displays. Good luck with getting yours back up and running.
Disco, what’s the secret then, I thought the end of the machine, the rail and belt all had to come off to get to those middle bushes!! Any tips would be very much appreciated and thanks for taking the trouble to post your reply.

Steve

[Bill McMurtry]

quote disco stu:

I find if you use silicone spray anywhere near the machine it will infect the media and show up in the prints.

That’s right, don’t spray silicone lube near the printer. I used to wet out a cloth with the silicone spray and then rub down the carriage bar with the lubricant soaked cloth. The good thing about silicone lube is that it doesn’t leave the metal surface sticky and prone to collecting excess dust and grit as might be the case with oil or grease 😉

[Colin-T]

Hi again, its no secret really, I did a clients machine the other week. You just slide each side out and off the rail. It is tricky at the ends of the rail, but the right one tilts at an angle and eases out. The left one was a two finger job, one finger curled around the cutout in the end plate of the machine. I suppose its fiddly, but you don’t need to pay anyone.

[Paul Munford]

We clean our novajet rail with stainless steel cleaner from an aerosol can.
Spray on to a cloth first and give the rail a good wipe down, i found it helps with carriage axis error messages and sometimes solves banding issues.
I have printed over 80 square metres of print this week on an old novajet 630…really slow but it still keeps chugging along!
Paul.