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Is there a "Complete Idiot's Guide to Wide Format Printing" or something?

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fatkatguy

New Member
Hey everyone!

I recently came across a killer deal on a wide format printer that couldnt be passed up. Now that I have the printer (Mimaki JV3-160SP) I am stuck! I literally have no idea what to do with it...what it can do, where I get supplies, etc.

The only thing I have been told is that is must be on at all times so the heads dont clog/freeze.

I have experience with direct to garment printing so I am hoping it wont be too hard to catch on to.

Any help, guidance or anywhere you can point me I would greatly appreciate it!!

Thanks in advance
 
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fatkatguy

New Member
Google? Really?

So much for the banner below the messages that says "Thank You For Being Helpful"....

Absolutely useless, you are.
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
BadMoodMoose said:
So much for the banner below the messages that says "Thank You For Being Helpful"....
Click to expand...

It's hard to help when the question is as general as "I have a printer. Don't know what to do with it. Can anyone tell me what and how"?

Should someone in this forum take the hours which are needed to explain to you all about LFP-RIPping, Solvent-Printing and so on?

I'm shure you will get more useful answers when doing a little work yourself and ask more specific.
 
particleman

particleman

New Member
There isn't one. It also needs to stay plugged in or the solvent will dry in the heads. Have you printed with it yet? Are you sure the heads are good? If you are using the SS2 ink set it needs ventilation.

Hopefully you have the manual that came with the machine. That will at least get you in the right direction of actually using it. Check the "merchant list" or "merchant directory" for where to buy supplies.

The printer originally came with rasterlink and a USB dongle. If you have that you can make it print, if not you are sort of stuck. You need to get wasatch, caldera, flexi, or Onyx postershop otherwise. You need a firewire card/cable also to connect to the printer. The parallel interface is not recommended.

I know you're on the cheap with this but an afternoon with a wide format tech or experienced operator would go a long way in your situation. Most "first timers" receive some real training in order to learn to use their machines.
 
Bigdawg

Bigdawg

Just Me
Not sure why you would buy a printer you don't know anything about... have you seen it printing? The costs associated with fixing said printer may be more than it's worth or you paid - making it a really expensive paperweight. Just a thought.

As far as jumping in to give you advice... my best advice is to start looking through the forums... after you determine whether the thing will print or not. And after you get some kind of software RIP to drive it. Then at least you will have some idea of what questions to ask. Otherwise no, there really isn't a one-size-fits-all-printers-and-software answers we can give you.

What program are you designing in and what do you currently know about color printing? DTG is pretty different than wide format printing.
 
signage

signage

New Member
You could print really large documents for old people so they don't need glasses.


Why would someone buy a stage coach before having the horses?
 
SightLine

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
Hopefully not and there never will be. We are trying to make a living at this and with all the older machines like the one you bought (10 year old model) on the market for next to nothing there is unfortunatley nearly as many people buying them, running them out of their home and selling the products for next to nothing. This is depressing pricing and hurting profits across the industry. Fortunatley the products being produced by this sort are very inferior quality on junk materials due to the operators lack of knowledge about color, materials, finishing, good design, installation, managing these machines, business, etc, etc, etc. Sadly customers out there are getting burned by jumping at the stupidly low prices but on the plus side they come back around once they realize the error they made.

I apologize if I'm coming off as harsh. I'm just tiring of those coming along with zero overhead, zero skills or knowledge, trying to get into wide format with only investing a couple of grand at best. While those of us who have invested tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and some even in the 7 figure range with overhead, a staff of experienced professionals, etc are working hard at this the right way. Dont get me wrong, we do make extensive efforts to educate clients (existing and potential) on the differences between our shop where they can come sit down with a professional designer, are told about the variations in materials and finishing options, professional indoor installation facilities, etc, etc... versus the other dirt cheap options they are seeing around.
 
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fatkatguy

New Member
Not sure if you realize the name of the forum this was posted in....NEWBIE. Let me help out a little with the definition....

new·bie
/ˈn(y)o͞obē/
Noun
An inexperienced newcomer.

By definition alone, it means I have no idea about the business. As a matter of fact, read the subject of the thread for chrissakes!

Why I bought it is because I wanted to and had the ability to and I never said it did or did not work...which it does. Quite well from what I saw.

Now I know that its common to bash the new guy and all that happy horse sh*t...hell, Ive done some of that bashing myself in other forums in my time but never in the newbie areas. Great way to get your little clique that you all seem to have to push people away.

To CheapVehicleWrap, Fred Weiss and particleman (aka the only ones with any real help)....Thank you. I didn't see the Mimaki forum and will definitely check that out. Same goes with the Sign Warehouse angle.

Now with all that being said, I formally bid you all farewell as I have no need to post in this forum again. You have made your thoughts well known and I need nothing else from you...especially the smart a** comments despite whatever ego trips you all apparently have. I look forward to driving prices down in your areas soon.

Have a great day everyone!
:toasting:
 
CropMarks

CropMarks

New Member
I came from the water based printing world of the HP and knew ZERO about solvent printing when I got my Roland FJ540 converted to ecosol. This site has been insanely helpful to the point of myself probably not making it to where I am today. The way that I started out was using the search feature of the forum for all the wacky problems and "how do I do that?" issues and questions. A lot of times you will find manuals (especially if you're a premium subscriber).

But really, the only time I've seen members kinda loose it on someone is when they see "I'm tired of paying the sign shop, I want to do it myself".... and the thing you did in your second post.

So, take a deep breath, start over and see what you can find.... still can't find something?... then ask. There are boatloads of JV3 owners out there that could help. Also, don't be afraid to fiddle... the worst you can do is break the thing. Hook the thing up... install some rip software that might have come with it. See if you can make it do something.
 
Border

Border

New Member
I suspect you are not new to this forum, rather an existing member with an alter ego conducting an experiment to see how your post would be received.

No soup for you!!
 
Bigdawg

Bigdawg

Just Me
Whoa there big guy... no bashing here. Just honest WTF questions. I'd ask anyone who suddenly bought a printer with no experience, no idea what they were doing and no software the same questions. Running the physical printer is one thing - learning to use the software that drives it to get the right output is another.

If you think this was bashing... I'm afraid you might be too thin-skinned to make signs. This was nothing compared to the irate customer who expected a burgundy sign and got pink. Good luck to you though.
 
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