Hey Fam! upgrading to a second printer...couple questions

[rawjahprintshop]

So, right now I am using just a Roland SG2-300 for all my print shop and sticker needs.

Im going to be upgrading to the vg3 540 which will be very nice. Couple questions regarding my SG2 Roland however now.

Is there anything special I can do with it? Can I somehow turn it into a Metallic colors Printer? Can I swap some parts and inks and make it a DTF?
Sublimation? Just curious if I could so something in the "specialty colors" side since ill be printing with a new printer and wide color Gamut.

Thank you

 

[Boudica]

The beautiful womans from your town will magically transform your sG2 to print metallic.

 

[Ldiprinting]

So, right now I am using just a Roland SG2-300 for all my print shop and sticker needs.

Im going to be upgrading to the vg3 540 which will be very nice. Couple questions regarding my SG2 Roland however now.

Is there anything special I can do with it? Can I somehow turn it into a Metallic colors Printer? Can I swap some parts and inks and make it a DTF?
Sublimation? Just curious if I could so something in the "specialty colors" side since ill be printing with a new printer and wide color Gamut.

Thank you

I don't know about the SG2. But you will love the VG3 mine is a work horse and with the orange ink the colors are amazing!

 

[Broome Signs]

HI
If you are upgrading to the VG3 make the jump to the VG640, you can when print 1500x3000mm board in one go,
and the media price for 1600mm roll and 1370mm rolls are almost the same price
I have one supplier who's polymeric are priced identical

regarding the ink
think very carefully about the colour configuration you want, as its not easy to change it.
also shop around for best ink prices, if you go for white ink that only comes in 250ml bags and its the same price as the 500ml bags
how often do you need white to be printed, and its not really that good on clear, get a demo and keep the sample bit to compare it to every time the white gos to shit, to prove to Roland how it once was.
good luck

PB

 

[rawjahprintshop]

Thanks for the response, I was kinda looking for something like...For the SG2 colors..
Gold, Silver, XXX,XXX. What I would call "specialty colors" to my customers.

I understand its a 4 color process, and ideally if setup for, as mine was made, for just 4 cartridges, C, M, Y and K.. and they obviously mix, to make the colors.
I have a Gerber edge FX I use for all my current specialty stuff since its so good, but its heat thermal transfer and not wet ink CMYK so its different for spot color printing obviously.

Didn't know if you could literally put different "specialty colors" into the sg2 since ill have a new printer with CMYK+, and they print the individual colors via setup somehow and not mixing each cartridge as CMYK....to be able to work. I think its a pipe dream now that I type it out like that lol

 

[Solventinkjet]

There are ways of doing it but it's all about if it's worth the hassle, time, and money. For dye sub and DTF you could just find an ink supplier that sells the ink with Roland chips. But then you would have to make your own profiles and you might never get it perfectly dialed in. You wouldn't have white for the DTF so that's basically a non-starter. People used to convert solvent machines to dye sub all the time. As for special spot colors, you can do it but you would really need to be able to justify it. You're really only going to find a few spot colors that are compatible with your heads. Basically white, silver, orange and maybe green. So all of your jobs would need to fit within those colors. You would basically just put CMYK chips on the cartridges to trick the machine, and then in your RIP you would map 4 spot colors to be 100% of each CMYK color. Then add the spot colors to your color library in your design software so that any time you send a file with that color selected to the RIP, it would only print whatever spot color you chose. It's an interesting thing to try to figure out but not very useful in my opinion. Keep it as a backup / banner printing machine or sell it.

 

[Medina Signs]

Run your banners through it.

 

[Broome Signs]

you can't hot swap colours in and out of any printer, especially the VG range
it runs a pressurised loop ink system
so to change the colour you will need to flush out the system each time, this will cost a small fortune and really not worth it

in addition, I think you can only have one special ink connected at a time, ie, white or metallic silver flake or clear gloss,
there is no gold or silver option, not shore we can get the metallic or clear gloss any more

Ink Configurations:

Dual CMYK
CMYKLcLmOrGr
CMMYKLkOrGr
CMYKLkOrGrWh
CMYKLcLmLkWh
CMYKLcLmLkOr


good luck

PB