HP Latex Printer arrived today...

[Suz]

Happy to hear you're just one little step from working with your new printer.

Thanks Alti! Yes, we are so excited!

Colorado - Looks like our Tech decided to just finish it up today. He was giving me time to shop for the cables and the switch, and I have those now. What a guy!!! Gonna print a banner and some posters!

Dannytat, I'm really not sure about voiding warranty, but I was just going to wait. At this point, what is just a little more time? But he's bumping it up and will be here in two hours. Luckily, I've got a load of other stuff to do, working on some embroidery jobs and graphics. Have to get the computer situated too, move it over close to the printer after I do some cad cutting on another job.

Rocki'n and Rolli'n!!!

 

[Hicalibersigns]

Anyone had a latex for a year or more that does vehicle wraps? Any feedback?

We got ours in April. We have done a number of wraps using Avery 1005 including a racing Bike. No problems. We have picked up a couple of fleet jobs and are working those now. No issues so far.

The HP seems too good to be true at that price point. I hear the heads are practically disposable. Any truth to that?

Yep. User replaceable. We had one go out, the printer display panel told us it was under warranty. We contacted HP, they sent us a whole set. Said since one went out the others could be suspect too. We just pulled em out and plopped the new ones in ourselves. No worries.

Pointless saving $$ on the front end if the cost of ownership is too high. Sorry, just being skeptical... my Grimco rep has been on me about looking into adding an HP latex.

Frankly, there were a number of factors in our decision. My business partner and I bought a franchise, and the unit offered in the package was the Roland 540. We switched to the HP L25500 because of the extreme ease of maintenance. We literally do almost nothing. No head cleaning, no fiddling around, and so far nothing has required anyone from outside. Add to this no outgas time before lamination and we consider this to be one of our best business decisions.

The thing just works and the print quality has been excellent.

 

[signswi]

Hi Rush, Thanks so much for the encouragement, YES, today was the day! She's plugged in. New Electrical outlets work, the machine works, got our first print out (just a test print) to show all the heads are spitting out some ink. Technician was very good, didn't take him any time at all to set it up. Found out we needed to get a switch box and a Cat 5 Cable, so off to the Office Depot this evening. Our Tech comes back on Thursday to show us how to do some printing!!!! We've got a couple orders already, so we can start printing some money!

Hope you got Cat 5e or Cat 6, not Cat 5! Cat 5 won't do gigE.

 

[Tim Aucoin]

Ahhh, I remember the new smell so well... !!! I'm so excited for you... Did I already say that?!!!

 

[grafixemporium]

We got ours in April. We have done a number of wraps using Avery 1005 including a racing Bike. No problems. We have picked up a couple of fleet jobs and are working those now. No issues so far.


Yep. User replaceable. We had one go out, the printer display panel told us it was under warranty. We contacted HP, they sent us a whole set. Said since one went out the others could be suspect too. We just pulled em out and plopped the new ones in ourselves. No worries.



Frankly, there were a number of factors in our decision. My business partner and I bought a franchise, and the unit offered in the package was the Roland 540. We switched to the HP L25500 because of the extreme ease of maintenance. We literally do almost nothing. No head cleaning, no fiddling around, and so far nothing has required anyone from outside. Add to this no outgas time before lamination and we consider this to be one of our best business decisions.

The thing just works and the print quality has been excellent.

You bought your latex printer in April and have already had to replace a head? What is the cost per head outside of the warranty period?

 

[HulkSmash]

You bought your latex printer in April and have already had to replace a head? What is the cost per head outside of the warranty period?

Heads are a consumable. they're like 110 each.

 

[signswi]

We had to replace a head this week after only 527ml fired but it was covered by warranty and we had a new one free on our doorstep the next morning shipped Fedex high priority from HP. 20 seconds later we were up again as swapping them out is child's play.

As Colorado says, out of warranty they're consumables intended to be replaced relatively frequently at a low cost. Factor that cost into your ink cost calculations and the ink is still cheap.

 

[HulkSmash]

We had to replace a head this week after only 527ml fired but it was covered by warranty and we had a new one free on our doorstep the next morning shipped Fedex high priority from HP. 20 seconds later we were up again as swapping them out is child's play.

As Colorado says, out of warranty they're consumables intended to be replaced relatively frequently at a low cost. Factor that cost into your ink cost calculations and the ink is still cheap.

ive had mine for 6 weeks, and just changed the ink in the cyan and yellow.
and ive printed A LOT.

 

[signswi]

That's been about our rate as well.

 

[LarryB]

Question for people who print on banner material. I currently print banners on my Roland XC540 and have to be careful when I roll them up after they have been printed so ink does not touch itself until it completely dries. Are the prints dry enough on the latex printer where you do not have to worry about ink touching ink?

 

[HulkSmash]

Question for people who print on banner material. I currently print banners on my Roland XC540 and have to be careful when I roll them up after they have been printed so ink does not touch itself until it completely dries. Are the prints dry enough on the latex printer where you do not have to worry about ink touching ink?

I can play hopscotch on my banners when they're done. BONE dry off the printer.

 

[Hicalibersigns]

I can play hopscotch on my banners when they're done. BONE dry off the printer.

Same here. Everything we have done is ready to roll right off the printer.

 

[Suz]

Ahhh, I remember the new smell so well... !!! I'm so excited for you... Did I already say that?!!!

Tim, ha? I thought it was all odorless! Smell? Like plastic and stuff, haha! Well, I'm gonna remember the box the most myself! I cut it up lastnight, also cut up that big wooden pallet, which will make lots of good pieces of firewood. Our trash is overflowing with packing materials. Oh, we got some very generous rolls of banner material, some gloss poster, and some white sticker material from our Technicians. They are the best! I am sure that would have cost at least $120.00 or so per roll, plus shipping. So, there is probably about $500.00 worth of materials there to get started with. I think there was a small roll of stuff that HP sent with the machine. Anyhow, I hope to begin printing today. It did not work out yesterday as we discovered we need a software "Key" for Onyx, even for the trial version. New discovery! So, Onyx was good to FedEx it Priority to be here today. So, gotta hook up with FedEx on that. Tech is coming out again, he is just blocks away.

TTYL!

 

[Suz]

I can play hopscotch on my banners when they're done. BONE dry off the printer.

Hopscotch, hehe!

 

[Suz]

Lights, Latex, Action! (Crossing Fingers!)

Thanks everyone for listening and for the encouragement!

The Onyx Software came FedEx yesterday, got the Postershop version. It has a nice little package with a couple of Software disks and a software key. My poor Technician has to come back again, I feel so bad he has had to do this for me in short intervals. I'm lucky he's just a few blocks away. So, he is scheduled for 9:30am, so today we should be able to do a few real jobs. I'm sooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!

I will post some pics of what we actually produce. I plan on a banner that I designed for my Sis and her shipping business, also a simple photograph which will become a large poster print for another Customer.

Hey, maybe I should print a hopscotch banner for my Grand kids. Thanks Colorado for that idea!!! :U Rock:Maybe we could produce a game similar to that old "Twister" game too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game)

Okay, showing my age now!

TTYL!

 

[pro rapper]

lmao

I can play hopscotch on my banners when they're done. BONE dry off the printer.

 

[Suz]

banner... first project on the latex!

 

[Suz]

more photos, my layout table is 4'x8', the banner is 28" x 16'4", I have a 2" border all the way around, which I will turn under, sew down, then add my grommets about every 2 feet top and bottom.

 

[GypsyGraphics]

wow... must have felt like christmas opening that beauty!

was that banner your very first print?

i'm down right jealous, but so excited for ya Suz!

 

[Suz]

I'm a Gypsy, I'll steal your clothes and wear them if they fit me.
Cause I'm a Gypsie, are ya comi'n with me, I'm a Gypsy!
-love that song.
I have a friend named Bev I sing that song to, she's a Gypsy!

Thanks for your post... Glad you like it. You are a beauty too, by the way!
I like that pic, I thought you were Shirley Temple... but she's cute too!
Thanks for being so excited for me. I'm so thrilled and scared all at the same time. This machine purchase is like buying a car! I'm sure it will pay for itself, but it did not just start up like a car would. Reminds me of the days I spent learning a Mac like 20 years ago, then the PC was a piece of cake. But hey, before that was slug type and lino-type! That is progress!