Do I repair my JV33, or do I take it to the dump?

[TheSnowman]

I'm being told that my JV33 needs (8) New Dampers, New Cap Assembly, New Pump Assembly, and a new printhead. The dampers and printhead were all replaced 9 months ago, and two of the dampers, pump, and cap assembly were replaced last week. I understand that this is the "fix all solution" probably, but to the tune of $4,167 (the only company I could get to return a call for service) it almost seems more like it needs to go to the dump, rather than sink that much into it. I'm running triangle ink, and did right out of the box. I have a hard time believing that it went 3 years with zero problem, then in the last year, it's taken 3 heads to get a year out of printing (I had a head strike, so had it replaced, and had trouble ever since, so it was replaced again under warranty).

I have a 54" JV33 and a Mimaki CG-130FX, and I don't know what that should be worth. If it's not printing a good test print, is it even worth messing with trying to sell? I figure my options are to get it fixed, and hope that doing that makes it worth that much more that I can sell it easier, and recoup my money, or I can try to sell it broken (need at least $2,500 between the cutter and the printer) or I just haul it to the dump and don't mess with anything, and just get the new latex on it's way.

I've been w/o a printer for over two weeks now, and it's getting old really fast subbing work out. I don't want to dump 25% of the cost of a new printer and cutter into repairing this thing unless I can sell it in a few weeks and get that money back.

 

[Andy D]

I would keep the plotter regardless, that's a great plotter and could be used with any printer you end up going with.
I would probably look to see if I could find another used and working Mimaki at a good price
and keep the other for parts... IMHO you would be hard pressed to beat the quality and dependability of a Mimaki.

 

[TheSnowman]

This one ran great for three years, and the last year, it seems like I've replaced everything on it twice. I'd normally blame it on the ink situation, but it doesn't jive when all was well till I had the head replaced from my head strike.

The plotter, I think I still want to update. I can't cut anything over about 36" deep and have any kind of accuracy. Sometimes not even that.

I think I've already decided I'm going with a new HP L310, I just can't decide what to do with the old one. The plotter I guess could be up for discussion, but this one won't cut thicker things that I'm having to deal with more and more now, so I'm looking to upgrade that at the same time.

 

[Andy D]

Sounds like maybe the tech screwed you over.. Maybe used parts?
I have had great experience with Mimakis.
With a few tweaks I was able to get my Mimaki CG-130FX to do much better on the counter cutting.
It was much better than the plotter that replaced it.....

 

[TheSnowman]

What tweaks did you do?

I just got a call back from a guy that's coming in another week to come check out the machine. Probably $500 or so, I'll take that over the $4,500 or whatever it was from the other guys.

 

[neato]

Did you see this Kraig?

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?128960-2015-HP-360-Latex-Printer

 

[TheSnowman]

I did see that, but I don't think I'd know enough about it to just buy one without the training and all. I'd have to research what all would be involved in getting someone here to set up and train me and in the shipping situation.

 

[ChrisMartin]

This is a tough question. I think you can get a new CJV30-130 now the old model for $14k to $16k. So you take the guess of $5k in repairs and you are only a few thousand from a new machine. If you got 3+ years out of it and made the initial investment back a few times, it might be worth to get a new machine. Though one though. How long would it last if you repaired it? Another year?

 

[player]

I would fix it and go back to original inks. Sit tight and in a couple of years get the latest greatest.

 

[petesign]

Knock on wood, im running a jv33... 5 years old.. original print head. I have had issues a few times with my printer, but you have to consider all the parts are consumables. I have decided a new capping station, dampers and pump every year or two is well worth what this machine ca, and has done whenever I have asked it to for the last 5 years. The only issue I have ever had with my print head was while running non-oem inks. Never again. Charge an extra 10 cents a square foot if you have to, but get those triangle inks out of that thing. A lot of people will say otherwise.. aftermarket inks are just as good, etc... but that has not been my experience. For 30-50 cents a square foot, i will take the peace of mind that my inks arent going to destroy my head, and leave me in a 3k bind.

You can replace your dampers and pump and capping station in an hour. If your head is clogged, try forcing a little cleaning solution through the manifold using some tubing and a syringe. Park the head in some cleaning solution over the weekend. There are a lot of tricks to saving that print head before scrapping that machine. Post a pic of your test draw.

 

[getcustomized]

I really don't think Triangle inks is the issue. Pretty much the same ink formulation as original OEM inks. You could try printing in 24 pass. It will print slow but should print with much better quality. Some printers end up with a gremlin inside them and can be almost impossible to fix.

 

[Sign Works]

If all I got was 3 years out of one of my Rolands I'd be really pissed.

Thermal resin ... 13 years and counting

Inkjet ... 10 years and counting

 

[TheSnowman]

I got three years no issues on Triangle ink right out of the gate, I didn't have trouble until a tech did a head swap after I had a head strike. I'd blame the ink, but it doesn't jive up that I didn't have trouble till the day the new head was installed.

I may try another head soak overnight. I did (3) 99 minute soaks today, and didn't get anywhere.

I did push cleaning solution through where the dampers plug in, and that didn't do anything. The tech comes Tuesday so we'll see what he says. If it's a head issue, I guess I'll blame the ink, but of 10 years with a Mimaki and only running 2 of them on OEM inks, I'm not sold that it's the only way.

 

[JDcolor]

JV33 was a good printer.
It was so young as years.
And if you can fit the parts by yourself, total cost will be lower than $2000, for printer head, damper, pump and capping.
I will repair it if it is my printer.

Jack

 

[InstantOneMedia]

When we purchased our new JV33 2 years ago, we immediately began using Triangle inks and after 6 weeks, needed to replace the printhead because a lot of the nozzles weren't firing. We tried everything (flushes, soaks, etc . . .) and nothing worked. Triangle said it had nothing to do with their ink, so they didn't honor the warranty. After the same thing happened 2 weeks later, we tried flushing and soaking again and it didn't get better. So we switched the black to OEM, and that fixed it immediately. Since then, we use OEM black but triangle CYM and have had no other issues with the print head. We have had to replace the capping station and regularly replace the dampers.

​

 

[TheSnowman]

When he gets it going, I'm trying to decide rather to flush the system and just let the next guy choose the ink, or to leave it running on triangle for the next guy.