suggestions for first vinyl printer

[David-Foster-]

Sorry Jim
I have replied to your topic about artcut software. I can’t believe you are considering a vinyl printer and the only software you have is artcut!
I have no experience of vinyl printers but I think you are looking at £8k – £10k and they have to be used constantly to pay for themselves and to prevent the heads drying.
You are not giving someone else money, they give you something in return (printing). You can do a lot of outsourcing printing for £8k and get your 20% markup.
Sorry if I am wrong, I am just going off your previous questions and guessing your experience.

[Jim Anderson]

quote David-Foster-:

Sorry Jim
I have replied to your topic about artcut software. I can’t believe you are considering a vinyl printer and the only software you have is artcut!
I have no experience of vinyl printers but I think you are looking at £8k – £10k and they have to be used constantly to pay for themselves and to prevent the heads drying.
You are not giving someone else money, they give you something in return (printing). You can do a lot of outsourcing printing for £8k and get your 20% markup.
Sorry if I am wrong, I am just going off your previous questions and guessing your experience.

i had a gerber plotter with advantage 6.2 program, which i have used for 10 years but both went up in smoke,now i have a graphtec plotter and artcut till i get proper software. 😛

[Martin Pearson]

A lot depends on your market but as David says you are looking at somewhere between 8 – 10k for a machine new, even second hand machines hold there price quite well so even a second user machine will probably be somewhere around the 4-6 k mark.
You will probably need to buy a print and cut machine as the plotter you have probably won’t be suitable for anything that needs contour cutting as it will only plot up to about 15" wide.

[Mike Chalk]

Jim
I have to disagree with David I bought a Second user printer for £3500
it have already paid for its self if you include time going to a printer and the price they charge. So instead of making 20% I make 80% profit and don’t waste time away from the shop going to the printer. I think the maths speak for them selves.
Mike

[Zoe Dugard]

hi i have same question. im looking in to printing my own graphics and am sick of giving others the work the only problem i have is my budget. i want something cheap and cheerful to start me off rather than going head first into a brand new £7500 roland printer cutter that may take years to pay for itself.

ive searched and searched for hours for printers other than the big names such as roland and mimaki ect and all i can find are hp designjets. they say they print on to vinyl or coated vinyl or colourfast vinyl but i dont have a clue if this would print on to normal vinyl or digital print media? i also dont know if the inks used would be ok outdoors or if it will only print on to hp’s own self adhesive vinyl which seems expensive and i dont know if it will do the job?

it doesnt seem right to me to buy a hp to do these type of print jobs so i may be looking in the completly wrong area but as im only used to working with my plotter and vinyl and printing is a whole new area for me.

i can find a roland fj500 for £1600 and an encad novajet 850i for £1400 but i wasnt looking to spend more than £1000 as i dont know if this is going to be a profitable move for me until i have one and put it out there?

Advice would be greatly appreciated,
thanks, zoe

[Matty Goodwin]

No offence Zoe but if you don’t no if it is going to be profitable for you to print why invest £1000 in a printer?

If you have enough work to sub out then yes, if not, no!

Matt[/quote]

[Zoe Dugard]

its a leap, a win or lose situation. I’d be taking a chance and it will either pay off or fail and if it don’t work then ill have to sell the printer which is why i don’t want to spend tens of thousands but don’t want some tacky bit of Chinese stuff. If we never tried anything we’d never get anywhere and life would be so dull.

A grand is alot to spend on the off chance of it working but then its a small amount compared to rushing in head first getting in to loads of debt and ending up bankrupt cause it didn’t work out.
I cant afford to take big risks but i also cant afford to sit still and take no risks and lose out to competitors??

thanks

[Matty Goodwin]

Love your view Zoe, it’s good to see people like you here!

Grab £1000 of print work in, sub it out and then you know you have a market to hit, and justification for your printer!

Matt

[Kevin Flowers]

Zoe
the problem of running a pigment printer for signs is that you need coated media which is a higher cost than solvent media, you then ideally need a matching laminate although you could take a chance and use a standard laminate. If you want to contour cut then you will need a cutter with an optical eye. So basically it will end up being a pain to produce something you could buy from a good supplier

Kev