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Roland SP300V blocked heads. Advice needed please?
Hi All,
I’ve looked through a number of previous posts and tried all the usual options. Even spoken to Roland who surprisingly suggested that I even carefully wipe the actual heads with solvent and a macrofibre cloth. Plenty of Magenta and Yellow showing on the cloth but still nothing printing. The other head is fine.
Tried a head soak but to no avail. I do have a couple of Roland ‘cleaning cartridges’ which I’ve never used because I’m not sure of the correct procedure.
I do have a full service manual but not really sure what the best order to tackle the problem is. I’ve watched various You tube videos and seem to be getting more and more confused.
The thing is I’m as good as retired and reluctant to give in because I do get a lot of pleasure doing the odd job for friends and old customers so can’t really justify a full priced service which may involve a new head etc.
Any pointers, anybody ?
Lastly does anyone have a tame independent engineer in Norfolk or surrounding area ?
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15 Replies
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Have you checked the pipes from the caps to the pump & the drain?
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There’s generally seems to be extra ink in the waste bottle after each clean. How else do I check them ? By pulling them off ? Before or after the pump or both ?
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I’ve just held the waste bottle in my hand and rotated the pump by hand and there’s definitely inky air bubbles being blow out of the waste pipe !!
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Definitely established that the pipe on the right hand cap is blocked. Thanks for the help Kevin. I hope that sorts it once I’ve gone and bought a syringe.
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Just take the cap off, soak the pipe in some ipa & roll over the pipe to get the congealed ink out with a rolling pin or something like that. Sounds like it’s not getting much ink going through it so gunked up a bit. Had it happen a few times back in the Versacamm days
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by Kevin Mahoney.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
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Managed to clean the pipe really well and the cap itself. Then did several power cleans and It seems 95% on the yellow and 100% on the magenta. Certainly good enough to do the job that brought all this to light. Good result. Every days a school day. Thanks Kevin, you’re a star.
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No problem Harry. It’s happened a few times on my old SP30V as it wasn’t getting the use that it used to. Engineers tip was to print a block of CMYK on a scrap of vinyl every other day to keep everything moving in the lines. The original pumps on the Versacamm were a bit puny anyway, had my one upgraded for not much money.
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I think I’ve spoken too soon. The yellow print test is showing 95% nozzles clear on the yellow head but the colour isn’t that good. Looking at feed pipes the yellow looks a bit murky and looking with a magnifying glass at the printed yellow it seems to be covered in quite dark dots. have I over cleaned it or did that last head soak cause a problem ?
I feel if there was a way to draw genuine yellow through the feed pipe it would cure the problem. Is that feasible ?
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Are you on genuine Roland inks?
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I’m afraid to admit this but – No. I haven’t been for two or three years with no problems. I started to use Grantham’s own because of the price and the much lower workload.
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Doesn’t matter but yellow for that printer is usually more mustard in colour than vivid yellow but from memory Granthams sell ITL ink & does actually look bright yellow in the bottle. I would suggest printing a solid metre block of yellow to clear out possible syphoning of magenta into the yellow line as your cap was blocked, then do the same with magenta. If you want to try to just pull ink through the magenta/yellow head just disconnect the cap from the pump & pull through a syringe full or two. The head soak on a blocked cap pipe may have contaminated the head, difficult to tell without pictures. Incidentally I’m not an engineer so am only speaking from my own experience with that printer. Personally I found Nazdar inks much more reliable than Granthams brand
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by Kevin Mahoney.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
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Yep, done that. Much much better. Thanks again.
Flicking through the service booklet, I panicked when I came across a section called “Cap height adjustment”. As I’ve had both caps out, will I need to adjust them ? I was very careful when lowering them by counting the number of turns of the screw. In fact I turned it the wrong way to start with and 3 1/2 turns later I’d obviously pushed them tight against the heads. Whoops ! I backed them off and now take that to be the correct height ?
Sorry for all the silly questions but it’s good to have help from someone who’s already been there before !
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Good to hear you’re winning. Just tighten enough to get a decent seal against the printheads & will be fine before powering up again. Are the nozzles all coming back now? Was it cross head contamination? Don’t know what inks Granthams are supplying now or the viscosity of them but regular firing of the heads could help prevent expensive repairs & replacements, just keeps things moving nicely through the pipes. Would also recommend genuine Roland caps as well. Digiprint offerings are prone to leaks which allows all the solvent to evaporate, leaving you with solidified pigment in the caps & pipes, worth the extra cost in the long run. If you don’t already do it, a regular real maintenance clean is crucial (not the menu one, a proper cover off job & a clean of everything inside, caps, pipes, heads, encoder strip) I was pretty brutal with mine, had it for over 15 years. What I would say, with the ITL ink I ran, had to run it on the slowest speed & the highest pass rate to get the print quality I wanted which cancelled out any cost savings on the inks. Have a look at Nazdar, don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Stuart from SL print supplies is a decent guy.
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Good to know your thoughts on the cap height. It’s kinda what I thought but I’m so nervous at doing anything that might mess something else up that I really can’t afford to replace !!
I’m fairly certain that it was cross contamination as the yellow supply pipe really is yellow now and no longer murky. Good result. I do intend to use genuine Roland caps as I don’t have too much faith in Chinese copies. (Not sure I’m allowed to say that anymore ?) And I take your point about cheaper inks. I reckon I’ve probably used nearly a cartridgeworth on all the power cleans. Is ‘medium clean’ enough to just purge the heads ? I’ve looked at SL’s web site and will look to Nazdar inks next time I need any.
In light of the recent problem, I’m intending to run a regular full colour test page to keep everything clear. I have always left the machine switched on believing the three minor purges a day would be enough but since the machine stopped having it’s regular once a year services, I’ve done nothing other than the ‘manual clean’ when needed. It really does get so little work, but lesson learned and I’ll do my regular test page in future.
<font face=”inherit”>Last query (I think !) In carrying out the full ‘bells and whistles’ clean up. One area I find most frustrating is the “Serge Mist filter pad”. Is this something that ought to be change regularly as it’s </font>absolutely<font face=”inherit”> filthy and I can’t help but feel it’s waiting to cross contaminate everything in the </font>vicinity ?
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Had similar issues with the ink Granthams used to supply but switched to Nazdar & was pretty much trouble free across 4 machines. The Nazdar was better than the original Roland ink in my opinion, quality was still improved even on fewer passes & faster head speed. Don’t miss the Versacamms now, great printers but painfully slow
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by Kevin Mahoney.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
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