Who repairs their own Printers?

[David Rowland]

well i do, since the earlier albatross printer but you kinda forced to learn as much as you can as a lot of surprises can come up.

[George Kern]

There are about 3 of us in our place that can repair just about all of the machines in the place, now trying to get certain parts without being a trained engineer is another story. Most things like the heads etc the companies wont sell you unless they install it or have their people under contract do it, so if you botch the install you cant blame it on the part bein broken out of the box.

[David Rowland]

yes, the parts thing is some that annoys me, why should it be exclusive and priced exclusively too! This is why I always liked the American market for printers as there is a lot of dealers selling at good prices.

[Kevin Flowers]

Dave
i have got a number for someone who can supply some parts at reasonable rates. Dampers, Heads etc. I’ve also bought capping stations & pumps from B&P at good prices. Example three solvent pumps @ £35 + VAT each these will fit Roland & Mimaki as far as i know but B&P now service & repair Mimaki so should stock parts for them.

Kev

[Paul Jamieson]

I also service and repair my own equipment/printers. I have an engineering background too, and have worked with Videojets too Kev.

I find the only problem is, getting some of the parts. And then they charge extortionate prices, you’re so right Dave! Maybe we’re on the wrong side of the business guys 🙂

Paul

[David Rowland]

Well kevin’s post is interesting, I shall PM you… although my supplier was not B&P and I ordered a pump to £100 last time and I know costs of heads are in the region £700-£1000 area.

[Paul Jamieson]

I was quoted over £500 for a print head for my Cadet. I manged to get a pair for the price of one from some guy in Canada, although it was shipped from China. They are fitted with solvent adapters and are original parts.
There are a few people on ebay selling original parts…well worth a search Dave.

[Robert Lambie]

I always try enforce light maintenance on machines with our guys… just things like lubricaticating and cleaning…, however. things like wipers etc then fair enough, we save money… but i can’t help but think that if threads and replies like this encourage self maintenance we could be opening a few headaches for many.
by that i mean…
as i said… we do light maintenance on our machines. but i always remember our ol pc60 needing a head change. it was overdue… we got the new print head and decided to install ourselves as it didn’t look a big deal. fact was. we installed correct but we never know about it being aligned etc etc… few weeks of imperfect prints, the proper tech guy comes out… we had twisted or bent some chassis and that needed replaced along with the head… costing us allot of money… "lesson learned eh!"

[Kevin Flowers]

Rob
i agree not everyone can or should but i do believe that there are some people who own a printer and don’t even bother to know the basics. I’ve spoken to a few engineers and the stories that they have of going out to the most basic of problems that any operator should have been able to sort. I bought my Soljet 2 preowned with only 249 working hours on it but it had been sitting & transported with ink in the system, i knew it was going to need work and was pretty confident that i could do it. I sourced a service manual and parts at good prices & now i have an all but new machine for half of its now resale cost, basically a £12,000 machine for £6000 if i hadn’t done deals on parts & done some work myself, i wouldn’t of done that. One example was that that a bank of two heads was not printing at all, Roland advised a head board was probably required i sourced further info from UK & abroad & soldered a new fuse on the board at a cost of 60p, cost of a head board approx £2000. I ain’t saying that a Roland tech wouldn’t have done the same but it would have still cost the call out & time etc. I’m also not recommending that everyone start attacking there machines with soldering irons & screw drivers but learning more about their machines will aid their bank balance. This is just my opinion and i’m an ex engineer but a load of the guys on these boards have the common sense if not the knowledge to do more of the basic repairs on their machines.

Kev

[David Rowland]

indeed Kev, I know what you are on about with regards the fuse, the mimaki will also gain that same problem, only reason I know about it as I have seen it on ebay.

One of the reasons why I am subscribed to the mimaki usergroups, very useful and have managed to source a lot of info from thier. However the JV3 is actually much simplier then the old mutoh, less parts to worry about! Yes, interesting you said that about the Canada ebayer, I have actually dealth win an american who I actually had seen on the mimaki group before and purchased a head, still yet to install but hoping it goes well. Thing is head turned up with no duty to pay, brilliant!

[Kevin Flowers]

Dave
if fitting the head in the mimaki is similar to the Roland its easy, just do it when your stress free i marked my cables just to be on the safe side although they are Ribbon cables & are routed in a way that they are hard to mix up, but better safe than sorry is my motto. i have mailed you back

Kev

[David Rowland]

thanks kev… yep, this will be my second go as done it before, but want make sure i get the alignment back on this time.

[Chris Wool]

quote :

but i can’t help but think that if threads and replies like this encourage self maintenance we could be opening a few headaches for many.

i think rob may be right here but the trick is to be able to get all the right information and parts diagnosis is another problem.
lets face it you have to have a basic to good knowledge of electronics and a good mechanical background and a twisted mind.

its not the fitting of some of these parts its the way the machine performs afterwards that is the most important the setting up time can be very consuming.
some people have the ability and confidence to take a tool to a very expensive bit of kit but they have to take the consequences as well.

i take that risk but i would not encourage less experienced people to do so.

chris

[Paul Jamieson]

I totally agree with you Rob, If you’re not sure, or have no basic engineering skills you’re better off not touching. It could end up costing you much more to put right what you have done.
I’m not personally trying to advise people to do things that they perhaps shouldn’t.

Paul

[Kevin Flowers]

Just to set the record straight i ain’t suggesting that everyone is suited to working on their own machines. The original thread was "who repaired their own printer" i side tracked it to more people trying. I like many others on the boards know my limits & have a past in multi skilled engineering. I also always source info for the required job so i don’t go in blind. So please if you are not confident in what you are doing then pay the men that are.

Kev