looking at buying a Roland SC-545Ex SolJet II opinions on it?

[Quickpoint9]

Hello i am new to the forum...... i have a screen printing / vinyl signage shop we have been looking to get into the digital printing due to the amount of banners we do a month. The ol vinyl cutter is becoming to time consuming for a 1 man show.
so i have been seeking the used market for a Roland print cut machine i came across this SC545 ex solvent printer and just looking for some incite on it.. its running on bulk ink with a take-up reel it seems to have really low hours for being 12 years old 7xx some scan hours 1300 printing time with 22,000 hours spent in sleep mode.
The print test looks fairly good seem all heads are under expected life i have a history report ill attache i have around an 8,000 budget should i keep looking or move on this one ?
Thanks for any input in advance

 

[Solventinkjet]

If you have good credit, use the $8000 as a down payment and get a new printer. You would only need to finance around $2,000 - $4000 and the machine would be brand new with a warranty!

The machine is decent but old. Six heads means a lot of head aches, no pun intended. Heads are expensive and on older machines it's only a matter of time before they fail and it means big bucks to fix. The machine is slow and the quality is not so great but I am mostly comparing it to today's standards. When they came out, they were top of the line.

You actually have a decent budget compared to most people who come on here asking for advice. Use it to get a new machine or at least go look for a well taken care of Mutoh ValueJet, Mimaki JV33 or Roland SP540V. Each of those machine blow the SC545EX out of the water and you should be able to find 54" versions of them used for well within your budget. .

 

[Quickpoint9]

An SP is like Rolands "entry" printer isant it? i have looked into the new marked was quoted on a SG-540 right at 13000 i try to avoid putting debt on the books if it can be avoided tends to raise operating coast witch i know i have to spend money to make money. if push comes to shove ill just have to wait out a few more months only reason i am looking at print cut is due to the extra floor space of the plotter im about maxed out my 1300 sq shop.
As far as the used marked im out of ohio and there's not much within a 500 mile radius that i have found

 

[Solventinkjet]

An SP is like Rolands "entry" printer isant it? i have looked into the new marked was quoted on a SG-540 right at 13000 i try to avoid putting debt on the books if it can be avoided tends to raise operating coast witch i know i have to spend money to make money. if push comes to shove ill just have to wait out a few more months only reason i am looking at print cut is due to the extra floor space of the plotter im about maxed out my 1300 sq shop.
As far as the used marked im out of ohio and there's not much within a 500 mile radius that i have found

That's too bad. Mimaki just had a major sale and was selling CJV150-54" printer cutters for $10,000. Unfortunately the sale is over.

 

[eahicks]

Hello i am new to the forum...... i have a screen printing / vinyl signage shop we have been looking to get into the digital printing due to the amount of banners we do a month. The ol vinyl cutter is becoming to time consuming for a 1 man show.
so i have been seeking the used market for a Roland print cut machine i came across this SC545 ex solvent printer and just looking for some incite on it.. its running on bulk ink with a take-up reel it seems to have really low hours for being 12 years old 7xx some scan hours 1300 printing time with 22,000 hours spent in sleep mode.
The print test looks fairly good seem all heads are under expected life i have a history report ill attache i have around an 8,000 budget should i keep looking or move on this one ?
Thanks for any input in advance

Used to run one. Great printer, required minor daily upkeep (manual head cleaning/ink station cleaning/etc). But traded it in for our 2nd HP Latex and realized how much time even that little maintenance took. I would seriously invest in new tech, a new printer, instead of buying a 10-12 year old machine, that may run fine, but limits you in many ways. Eco-sol still requires 24 drying time before lamination (I know, I know....we laminated stuff right off the printer too - not recommended). Latex is ready to go off the printer, even more so with the 5XX series.

 

[Quickpoint9]

I would not be against latex but that being said I have next to no knlowage on that type of printer etc I might do a little research before I pull the trigger

 

[ProPDF]

Eahicks are you guys still having de-lamination issues with your Latex machine as mentioned in this post?

HP 360 de-lamination issues

The latex vs solvent will be a constant debate. It all depends on the shops position, needs and market availability. One of the factors we consider revolving around quality is how many years did Roland make the Soljet II and Soljet III machines? The Soljet II series were laying down water base ink before solvent really got going and before latex was a stain in an HP underwear drawer. The Soljet II and III machines are TANKS. Roland didn't change much in them for various reasons but one being they just worked. The parts are readily available both used and new including a huge user base for online help.

Eco-Solvent works for us. We never had de-lamination issues or color shifting as mentioned on this forum. Banding? Yes but we get around it. We laminate right after printing also with no issues. Sometimes we will bake our prints with external heaters but not all the time. HP hopefully will get their issues figured out with each model moving forward as we would like to try them out. We hope Roland can find their identity again cause their new printers are lacking IMO. Sure all the new printers will work. How fast will you get tech support is extremely important if not the most important going the new route if the warranty is a big selling point for you.