Converting New Epson 7700 to handle Sepiax Ink

[briankb]

Has anyone converted a Epson 7700 to handle Sepiax ink? Meaning adding pre-heaters.

I was looking at the GO EcoMax 24" for $7,995 which is a converted Epson 7700, as I understand it.

Currently Epson has the 7700 for $2,995 and until end of April they have $750 rebate making it $2,245. Surely adding a pre-heater can't cost $5,750 even with a healthy profit for the trouble.

If I order a brand new Epson 7700 has any ink or ink treatment been done to the ink lines? If so I would guess I need to do the required cleaning to switch to the Sepiax. If not then I would expect only to have to install a pre-heater of some type and install the Sepiax inks.

Any help or advice on converting a brand new Epson 7700 to use Sepiax Ink is greatly appreciated!

 

[artbot]

do not do it. the epson head is not optimized for sepiax ink. any amount of reading will tell you that you will be pulling your hair out. i'm very mechanically savvy but, machines are machines... then chemistry is chemistry, then there's where chemistry meets the mechanical with viscosity. there's nothing wrong with sepiax ink. there's nothing wrong with a 7700 (canon is better). take all the future wasted hours and multiply those by your hourly rate. then that is your budget. $4k will get you a hell of starter used printer. go that route.

 

[rubo]

I converted my 7800 to print w sepiax. Works like charm. You don't even need 7700 - you don't need the speed, you're going to be printing at low speed - hi res anyway, to allow the media to get warm - there is not much heat required, but still...Just get a used 24" Epson - or wider - any one will do - to play with. There is a piece of software that will let you split the channels on 7800 (or any other Epson) into CMYK only - the heater, RIP and the controller together will cost you a lot less than 5K or so added to the ecomax. If you want to know more email me @ rubo_g at sbdglobal.net

 

[artbot]

you i want to retract my warning... i had rubo discuss with me the other day that he's using sepiax in a mutoh flatbed he built. that it even works decently on his material without heat (he mentioned the colors pop a bit more with heat). so maybe other's have had bad luck, maybe sepiax has modified it's product over the last few years, who knows?

 

[CustomRide]

We bought a 9700 converted to sepiax and you have to print super super slow and we have had a problem with the colors not lasting outdoors after 3 months mainly yellow and blacks with lamination. The price point looked great on paper but the headache left us just switching back to our eco solvent printers cause we were getting prints returned to us. It might be great for indoor prints and or short term signage. I think sepiax is on their 2nd or 3rd generation trying to get some things dialed in. I believe there was a post on here that got deleted about graphics one also not supplying heaters that heated evenly. Sepiax is an interesting concept but not ready for what real printers need I think.