which printer Mimaki or Mutoh?

[David Rowland]

All I am going to say is I am pleased with my 3 year old Mimaki JV3-160S

[Adam McGuire]

I’ve heard good things about the Mimaki, but think I’ll be buying a Roland. I think you need to use the Mimaki quite regularly or it wastes a lot of ink in it’s purge cycle. (Only what I’ve heard though, don’t take my word as gospel!)

Adam

[David Rowland]

Yeah, it does waste a lot of ink on purge, must seem if i can lower that. When I replaced my pumps, i think they making better seal now so lots more ink going thru.

[Adam McGuire]

I was told the Mimaki (the newer ones) purged every 15-20 minutes?

[Sean Cully]

I’ve heard good things about the valuejet!!!!
The deal with that machine is wider printer, a laminator (which I could do with on either the mimaki or the mutoh) and a PC workstation.
I have had use of a friends JV3, but the JV3 is being superseded at the end of the year with a new machine and I don’t want to buy old technology.

just looking for comparisons on both the machines.

The deal on the Mutoh will not last long and I think it is the better one.

But what do I know…LOL

I’m pulling what little hair out. trying to figure what to buy!!!! (!)

SC

[R Ferguson]

I have a valujet and I am very pleased with it. I do think that you will find a laminator very useful.

Any print eco or full solvent should be laminated for abrasion resistance and to extend the lifespan of the print.

All the current crop of printers are very good – anyone you choose will be a good money maker. I think that you should go with the valuejet and laminator budle – then you can produce more or less anything.

Robert Ferguson

[Peter Normington]

the mimaki dosnt waste that much ink when cleaning, and you can set it on a 24hr cycle, it can be left indefinatly though without use.
I am told that it would take over three months to drain a full set of inks?

Peter

[Sean Cully]

Peter

So if I read into what you said:-

"the mimaki dosnt waste that much ink when cleaning, and you can set it on a 24hr cycle, it can be left indefinatly though without use.
I am told that it would take over three months to drain a full set of inks?
"
Does that mean it would waste nearly £133 of ink a month?
That is worked out on what Granthams charge for a 440ml ink cartridge.
I am beginning to wonder wether the machine wastes this amount no matter wether it used or not.

My friend has a JV3 and the waste tank is always getting emptied!!!
Seems a large waste of ink.

SC

[Brian Hays]

quote heyskull2:

Peter

So if I read into what you said:-

“the mimaki dosnt waste that much ink when cleaning, and you can set it on a 24hr cycle, it can be left indefinatly though without use.
I am told that it would take over three months to drain a full set of inks?
”
Does that mean it would waste nearly £133 of ink a month?
That is worked out on what Granthams charge for a 440ml ink cartridge.
I am beginning to wonder wether the machine wastes this amount no matter wether it used or not.

My friend has a JV3 and the waste tank is always getting emptied!!!
Seems a large waste of ink.

SC

The waste tank will fill quicker than you would like whichever machine you buy.

[Sean Cully]

Brian

It is just another thing to think about when purchasing one of these machines.
How much ink does it waste.

I know how much you pay for a new machine but when you work it out it nearly adds 50% onto what you are already paying for the machine monthly!

I think I am reading to much into the ink waste thing though.

SC

[Peter Normington]

The answer is, dont waste it, print it!
if you are worried about wasting ink, you need to think about if you have enough work to cover the total running cost of a printer.
the depreciation will be far greater than a few carts of ink though…

The more you empty the waste tank, the more money you should be making

Peter

[alan flynn]

hello all

the value jet sells itself and not blowing my own truppet, i said it would, just look at my old postings,
ps, we have a jv375sp and a value jet 1608 and the value jet takes far less looking after, but can print white, but the summa dc4 is far better at that,
less off the waffle, onto the next glass of wine,

regards
alan flynn

[Brian Hays]

quote heyskull2:

Brian

It is just another thing to think about when purchasing one of these machines.
How much ink does it waste.

I know how much you pay for a new machine but when you work it out it nearly adds 50% onto what you are already paying for the machine monthly!

I think I am reading to much into the ink waste thing though.

SC

Peter is right the more you use it the less % wastage you are going to get. The more you use the machines the more reliable they seem to be also. If it’s going to be sitting idle most of the time maybe it would be best to buy trade prints until you are bringing in enough work to keep it busy.

As for quality of print, so long as you get the Software/Profiles right I am sure you will be happy with the quality of output on either machine.

[R Ferguson]

I have found that my machine is used around 5 days out of seven, you really do need to use them regularly.

But that is really easy to do, some of the services i sell every week include:

Canvas prints – good margins and very easy to sell
Large scale photo prints
Posters
Banners
badges and stickers ( get a doming kit)

and of course the normal signage.
I dont think you can fail with a printer – as long as you have a good imagination and some where (which i think is vital) to display what you can do.

Another odd thing that i have found out is that if the customers can see the printer I seem to sell more prints.

[John Childs]

quote Brian Hays – Impact:

Peter is right the more you use it the less % wastage you are going to get. The more you use the machines the more reliable they seem to be also. If it’s going to be sitting idle most of the time maybe it would be best to buy trade prints until you are bringing in enough work to keep it busy.

Excellent advice.

[David Rogers]

Honestly, there’s no point in worrying about ink wastage in a cleaning cycle whatever the machine. Filling up the waste bottle is a part of life, like throwing away over 75% of the vinyl material you buy (weeded, backing & tape) – if a machine is idle & using ink to clean itself then there’s no work anyway to pay for this ‘maintenance’…but still cheaper than a set of new heads ‘cos it was left for three weeks unused.

Saying that, since we got our Cadet there’s barely been a day when I don’t print something for sale – this more than covers any ‘lost’ ink for cleaning cycles / test prints.
Dave

[Colin Crow]

Had our valuejet for a couple of weeks now and have been surprised by the quality of this 4 colour printer having being used to a 6 colour Canon for the last year. Have looked at all the eco/solvent options and don’t think anything can get close if quality of print is crucial. Seems to handle any media I throw at it and really not fussy about profiles even using media meant for our old water based printer. As for cost of ink, covered a full set of carts today with the price of a single 4m banner!

Bought ours on a brilliant deal through Spandex including an S-class Summa cutter (which is also the bees-knees) and the ergosoft rip. Can’t fault the back-up and attention to detail from both sales and service.

Colin

[alan flynn]

hello colin
glad your happy, to be fair you should be patting mutoh and summa on the back, they have been making great machines for years and one last word, dont you think the ergo soft is a great rip, we have been selling it for some time and find it really user freindley
regards
alan flynn
ps off to top my wine glass up
sorry one other thing the t series s class i worth the extra money, we have just got a s class 1600 my pride and joy

( aprart from my wife son cars cat and rabbit and sorry frogot to add gold fish and wine collection )

[Jon Marshall]

quote Colin@BECC:

Bought ours on a brilliant deal through Spandex including an S-class Summa cutter (which is also the bees-knees) and the ergosoft rip. Can’t fault the back-up and attention to detail from both sales and service.

Colin

Spandex are doing a deal with a Gerber cutter (plus laminator and rip) for £15k

Is the Gerber cutter as good as the Summa?

[Colin Crow]

Depends, as they don’t make cutters, just rebadge. Ours is badged as a gerber pc1200s but is really an S class Summa with a different paint job. I think the standard package includes the D series Summa which is a poor relation (I know because I already have a 60cm version) and lacks a lot of the niceties as well as the speed. They also rebadge Mutoh Ultima cutters which do not have a good reputation but I can’t comment personally, although my older SC650 was superb.

I stuck out for the Summa S Class as I needed something faster than my D60 to replace my old Mutoh and the deal with an ERGO rip (excellent) was sub 13K +vat for the lot including installation and on-site for 1 year. I dont know how repeatable this is but it gives you something to aim for.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Alan

The ergo rip is just so simple to use and is really fast. The quality is also superb and frankly at this stage I cant imagine why you would need to pay more for a rip. The Roland Rip really impressed me during the demo but I have to say that the ergo seems to do everything I could possibly want. The multi cut option is great if you want to use the flexcut feature on the s class.

I though long and hard about the extra 1K for the tangential option but decided against in the end on the basis that I have no intention of cutting heavy duty materials and a drag knife is actually faster for lots of detail work which makes up the bulk of our cutting time. I may regret it, but it did buy me a super-fast Vista PC to drive the whole lot much quicker!

The S class almost sings as at zips the vinyl back and forth at top speed and certainly gives enough warning to stand well clear when working at full chat.

Colin

[alan flynn]

hello

the gerba cutter is a summa, but as colin has said the s class is worth the extra money for speed and the lence on the optical, but as i said to colin when talking to him the t i worth the extra money and that is what we have just got !!!!
regards
alan flynn
ps spandex i love you, you keep me on my toes

[alan flynn]

sorry forgot to add
at 5ft 6 inchs so do most people

regards
peter crouches brother

[Jon Marshall]

Are you doing package deals then Alan?

We are still using our SC750E we got from you about 8-9years ago:)

[Brian Hays]

Alan is always doing deals. You can part ex goats, sheep, camels stilts etc etc. Just call Del Boy 😀

[Dean Elliott]

Given the choice id go for a JV3 ive been using this one for over a year and have never had any problems, rarely needs cleaning or maintenance. probably give it about 20 mins of cleaning every 2-3 weeks.

i sent down a 50m roll of print just before i leave work and it will be finished perfect when i return to work in to morning there is not many printers i would trust to do that.

although it is true about the more the machine is used the less it seems to waste. we print on average 100 metres a week probably more and the waste ink bottle rarely seems to get full.