Clogged SP 300

[SellersSign&Design]

About a year ago I purchased a clogged up Mutoh Falcon for what I thought was a good deal, dumped a ton of money into fixing it up and later sold it because I never could get it to print right. I said I would never buy a broke down printer again, but I have found a used Roland SP 300 that has made me reconsider that. It is very clean and the listing says it has been converted to an SP 300-V (I'm not sure what that means). However it has sat unplugged with ink in it, so it is clogged up. I know the Rolands are much nicer machines than the Falcons, so my question is what is it worth in its current state? I guess the other big question would be is it possible to replace print heads and other parts myself, or are Rolands too complicated for do it yourself repairs?

 

[greysquirrel]

Its not difficult to change the head if you know what you are doing...be carful not to damage the manifold...

why wouldnt you just purchase a new HP l110? its only $9500


QUOTE=SellersSign&Design;1258984]About a year ago I purchased a clogged up Mutoh Falcon for what I thought was a good deal, dumped a ton of money into fixing it up and later sold it because I never could get it to print right. I said I would never buy a broke down printer again, but I have found a used Roland SP 300 that has made me reconsider that. It is very clean and the listing says it has been converted to an SP 300-V (I'm not sure what that means). However it has sat unplugged with ink in it, so it is clogged up. I know the Rolands are much nicer machines than the Falcons, so my question is what is it worth in its current state? I guess the other big question would be is it possible to replace print heads and other parts myself, or are Rolands too complicated for do it yourself repairs?[/QUOTE]

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I have looked at the 110's, they are still an option. I have been sending out everything that I can't print on my Edge, but I have had a lot of issues lately with turn around time and incorrect prints. It would just make life a lot easier to have a printer in house. I don't need anything huge or fancy, most of my work is fire apparatus graphics which normally aren't over 24" wide and the printer will only run 2-3 days a week. I have been keeping an eye out for used machines and this one popped up for what seems to be a decent price, I just wanted to do some research and see exactly what I would be getting into.

 

[Sign Works]

Main differences between SP-300 & SP-300V are as follows.

SP-300 ... Roland ColorChoice RIP ... Roland EcoSol Ink
SP-300V ... Roland Versaworks RIP ... Roland EcoSol Max Ink

You can find perfectly working SP-300V's for approx 4-5K. The machine your looking at could need 2K or more worth of parts, the 2K would cover print heads, cap tops, dampers, wipers. Hard to say, it could need less or much much more.

 

[player]

You would want to count on 2 new heads. Dampers x 4. Two captops. New lines.

Then ask why was it tanked? Did it have some other major issue that left it unable to run a decommission cleaning? Anyone who owns one knows leaving it without cleaning the ink out will kill it so I would say NO! $100? Na, I would still move on. It is 1st gen sp300, 2002-2003 era. 12 years old.

Spend your time and money on a machine that works when you buy it. Roland has what they call "variable wave technology" that is supposed too eliminate or reduce banding on newer machines. I would look at the newer machines that will be supporting the new Max 3 ink upgrade/conversions.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Thank you all for the replies, I'm glad I posted here before I wasted time going to look at the machine. I think I'll pass on this one.

 

[player]

Yes it would most likely need a new cable, maybe a scan motor, feed motor, main board, head board, servo board, encoder strip, encoder eye, cutting head, power supply, heater...etc.