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Inbetween a rock and a hard place

V

Valentino

New Member
so my Valuejet of 6 years decided that it is done printing. I am still going to have a Mutoh tech come to my business and give it its last rights and make the final call.

The unit needs a new printhead, and maybe the f2 fuze will need to be replaced as well. As you all know the DX5 Printhead runs about 2100 from mutoh direct....throw in some $43/piece dampers....and the f2 fuze ($35.00)...along with the service tech...I am looking at around 3500 or so.

Do I replace the engine of my 6 year old car...or do I just get a new or a refurbished car?

Dave over at GRS gave me a great quote price on a Refurbished 1204 unit, The only issue is that I am in Arizona, and they are in NJ...so I won't be able to get any of their top notch service calls if there are any problems.

I am a small little shop, and I only print product vinyl labels for a few clients....would I be able to look at say an Epson T3000 or Canon to print on vinyl for said labels?

-Kevin
 
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petesign

petesign

New Member
look at it this way, a new print head and dampers and you go another 6 years. If you dont have a problem with the print quality or speed, already know how to use and maintain this printer, why bother with spending 3-4 times the cost of a replacement head to just keep going?
 
ProWraps

ProWraps

New Member
that is unless a head board goes out, or main board goes out, or .........

6 years for a digi printer is pretty much its end of life. for that printer, its end of life, decomposition and all snuggly warm in the afterlife.
 
anotherdog

anotherdog

New Member
to use the car analogy, it's always cheaper to keep an old car on the road than make payments on a new one.
 
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artbot

artbot

New Member
or buy a compatible head from a reseller for $1k, 8 dampers for $10 each, and a fuse then pop it in the best you can. if you having issues calibrating the head, you can always call the service tech to come by for calibrations only.
 
petesign

petesign

New Member
I hope to get 10 years out of my Mimaki... and by that time have it printing something other than vinyl because I have some new dandy latex or whatever is great and wonderful by then... I agree with anotherdog.... cheaper to maintain something than replace it... the company I used to work for has their old jv3 converted to dyesub.

other question is... are you doing anything different now than six years ago to justify getting something bigger / better / faster?
 
Z SIGNS

Z SIGNS

New Member
I am in the same boat.Got an old jv3 and now it needs a printhead.
Not sure what I going to do with it. Probably going to just junk it and get a new one that I don't have to worry about.

I disagree with the "it's cheaper to maintain old equipment theory"

I am a firm believer in "newer is cheaper"

One time we had an older boom truck and broke down on the way to a jobsite. The job was 2 hours away from the shop,3 guys on the truck,a crane, electrician and concrete truck waiting for us to show up.You don't want to know what that cost us.

Same thing goes for printing equipment.$3,500 here a $1000 there plus your down time.
Heck for few more bucks you could have a brand new machine under warranty.
How can you make any money if your printer is down even for a day?
 
V

Valentino

New Member
I am going to have the tech come by and give me a verdict.

Maybe 4000 to fix or 8995 for new VJ1204

If I only need a 30" to 48" machine what is the best option for new or referb? I am not stuck on Mutoh

What is a good price to sell my current VJ for parts?
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
Earlier in the year our 1604 did exactly what yours has done.
I replaced the head fuse which is a mission in itself as the fuse is so small.
But on replacing it the magenta channel was flooding the print.
The big problem is and luckily not in our case is that when the head fuse goes it might take out the mainboard!
We bought a main board (which was on return if we didn't use it), a new head and a new genuine head cable (as this is probably the main cause).
We had a tech check the board which was thankfully deemed OK and he replaced the head and cable and set it all up and running again.
I think in all the bill came to £2000.
Find yourself a good tech and the job is relatively simple.

On a further note 5 years is more than good going for a print head and the failure was probably the head cable that had failed due to ink contamination and age.

Having the printer down cost us in production about £4000 - £5000 and due to how finances are at the moment having it repaired was the only option.
I am pleased to say the machine is now like brand new.
We can once again use lower resolution print modes as their are no nozzles missing upping turn around time. Yes our machine is coming up 6 years old but in reality it has cost very little to run and maintain.

If having the machine down has learnt me one lesson it is we rely on this piece of machinery so much now that I am on with refurbishing an old Mimaki JV3 to be used as a back up / banner printing machine as we cannot afford to have a machine down.


SC
 
S

Stealth Ryder

New Member
New 1204G cost $9995.00, Comes with 1 year onsite warranty, inks, FREE Shipping, and Flexi Cloud... Just saw this at ISA last week... Good deal...
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
Surely a machine needing a printhead shouldn't be scrapped?
I would expect one of these machines to last longer than 5 years.
It probably has had light use if this is on its first head.
I now look on the print head as the tyres of the printer. And like tyres printheads wear.
But you wouldn't change your car because it needed a set of tyres!
Or are we in such a throw away society that we are keen on wasting money and getting a new one.

SC
 
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