I need advice - Looking to buy a Roland Soljet Pro III XC-540

[camille kindle]

We currently own only a vinyl cutter and know absolutely nothing about printers or printer/cutters. We are going to meet up with someone on the 12th to look at their Roland Soljet Pro III XC-540 Print & Cut. What questions should we ask? What should we look for before buying? This owner has had it for 2 years. They said its in almost new condition. They said an extended warranty can be purchased from roland.

Should we buy the extended warranty? Is there certain things we should ask about print heads, circuit boards, blades?

This person is selling the printer for 21,000 with media and inks.

Is this price worth it? Like I said we know nothing about printers except for what we find on google and on these forums. I want to make sure we ask the right questions.

Also how long do you think it will take to get our investment back? Whats the average income you can make with a printer? We live on a military base and assume most of our income will come from making homecoming banners.

Thanks in advance for all your input. This forum is always very helpful.

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

1. Ask for the History Report - Check the print hours on the printer -(not the hours the printer has been turned on).
2. Check the shot count of the heads. Head shot average life is about 6 billion (XC has 6 heads...actually 12 if you count correctly).
3.. Look at the Error history and check the codes that the printer failed with. You will need to ask a tech for the codes and what they mean.
4.. Do a test print... with solid colors....checks heads for scratches.
5. Ask who services the printer, call the tech and ask about any issues they know of with the printer.
6. Perform a print/cut and check the quality of the cut.
7. Is the printer under Roland warranty now, good idea to have a warranty(but the XC is VERY reliable.)
8. For $21k you can get a new VP540 - not as fast or 6 color, but it's new with a 2 year Roland warranty and full support.
The time to recoup your investment is on you and customer base. It's a good price is the printer hasn't been running 24/7 and has scratched heads - 6 heads at $895 each + labor for a tech could cost $$$$. As a tech to look at the reports (History and Service).
Why are they selling? (They may be upgrading to the metallic XC 540 printer) if this is the one I know of for sale.

 

[WDP]

DY hard printer

 

[Charlie J]

Extended warranty? Yes.

 

[Mainframe]

If you are planning to print mostly the type of banners you described, along with some general signs, I strongly suggest getting the VP540 new over a used XC. If you buy a new VP you will have no problem printing & cutting a massive amount of material all with awesome quality-all with a 2 year warranty, and once you see how complex these machines are, you will be glad you have the coverage.

 

[ackerman139]

The XC is a badass machine. Plain and simple. Mines been through hell (Not really, but more than I thought it would do and still survive, just little stuff). Unless your printing a TON and printing large wraps or skin tone photos, or will convert it to white, Buy the new VP. The six color really isnt worth the extra money to be honest. It is really just a bigger sexier machine. Mistakes happen, and the 2 yr warranty is a no brainer.

 

[camille kindle]

why are they selling?

They said they are selling because they dont have enough people in there shop to keep it running as much as they'd like. I am assuming they have other printers.

Metallic inks???

So the older xc 540's are not compatible with the metallic inks? We thought those were kind of cool. I noticed them on the Roland website. This printer is about 2 years old.


Skintones and wraps???

Many of the banners around here have pictures of people so I think we will be doing a lot of skin tone colors. And when my husband returns from deployment and as we get our feet wet with the machine we may want to delve into wraps and other things. We want to get the best machine for the money and really keep our options open and not have to buy another machine too soon down the line. 2 years ago we bought a small cutter, last year a bigger one. Now when we buy a printer we want to ensure its the best for our budget.

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback everyone. I definitely would not have known to ask those kind of questions.

 

[Salmoneye]

If you are just doing a small volume of banners have you thought about subing them out? There is a vendor on here that is selling printed banners for about the price that you could print them on your new xc. Unless you are doing hundreds and hundreds of them this might be an attractive hassle free alternative.

 

[camille kindle]

If you are just doing a small volume of banners have you thought about subing them out? There is a vendor on here that is selling printed banners for about the price that you could print them on your new xc. Unless you are doing hundreds and hundreds of them this might be an attractive hassle free alternative.

We have considered it. We are currently very busy with the small vinyl cutting business we have now. But we are confident if we are able to print our own graphics it will save us time and be more profitable in the long run. We have turned a lot of people away because they wanted actual printed images. We eventually want to go deeper with our business. But right now my husband is active duty and I am a SAHM with 3 kids under the age of 5. We are also both graphic design students. Most of our sales are done online and the bulk of the work is done at night.

This is most likely the only time we will have the money to pay for a printer of this quality in full, so we figure, why not? We know it wont pay for itself overnight but we all need to start somewhere, right?

 

[Mainframe]

I print a lot of photos on my VP540, they look awesome, just like the original, & you can print a boatload of wraps on a VP540 if needed & still have a 2 year warranty. Also the new VP540 has RIPC technology which makes it print very fast. Make sure you see a VP540 in action before you make your final decision, you may be surprised.

 

[Brob86]

Only been in the buisness now for four months but I do recommend this machine. I use a 54 inch Rolands Xc-540. It work great for all around sign making and car wraps. Just my two cents wish I could be of more help. Mabye in a year or two.

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

Metallic inks...Yes! There is a new Roland XC540MT that prints with metallic ink, but the older XC's do not covert.