Looking to purchase a Mutoh 628 printer but have some questions first

[F80M3]

Im looking to take advantage of the sale that Coastal has right now on the Mutoh 628 for [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$6,794.00 with inks and stand.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From what I've read eco-solvent printers need to run daily to avoid the head clogging. I emailed coastal about this and the sales guy who replied said it would be no problem to leave the machine sitting for a week or even longer at a time without problems. He wasnt very specific about how or what i needed to do if this is even true.

Its not that I don't have the business to keep the machine printing daily, its what happens when I have to go on a trip for vacation or business? Some of my trips are 10-14days.

Does the printer auto clean itself if I leave it on? I'm just worried about that.....



the other thing I noticed is that 24" media isn't readily available. I use 24" oracle sign vinyl with my Graphtec CE6000 and thats easy to get. Will I need to purchase 54" media and have it cut down into (2) 24.8" rolls (the widest media size it will take) which leaves me with 4.4" roll of waste?

I've been outsourcing my current work and my current guy prints on 3M IJ35C and I've been pretty pleased with this. So I was looking at staying with this but my current supplier carries mainly [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]oracal





lastly I know that they just released a 628X which can be setup to do white or metallic inks. From what I read metallic isn't worth the extra trouble, and the price difference is another $1000, how likely is it that i wont be able to get parts for this printer in the next 2-3 years?


Thanks in advance!


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[MagnetStew]

You can set the printer to auto clean and also set the time between auto cleanings.

Metallic and white eco-solvent inks are a pain and don't last long outdoors so I would defintely go with the regular 628.

Wouldn't worry about parts. MUTOH keeps parts for all their printers (in my experience).

Your real issue is going to be media size. Will paying the price to have a large roll split and then still losing a percentage of the roll be worth the savings of the low cost of the printer in the long run? Only you can be the judge of that. Something to consider though.

 

[F80M3]

Thanks for the reply!

I contacted Fellers and its seems that splitting rolls of 3M is not possible. They wont do it due to contamination but they will do it for Oracal or Avery Rolls. Maybe its something to do with 3M telling them not to do it.

I asked for a quote on how much extra its going to cost me to split the rolls 2x but they seemed to just gloss over that question when replying to me. Hopefully I can find out how much it costs so i can add it to my sq/ft costs and figure out if its worth it.

the smaller 24" machine works for me cause I have a small 15x15 shop that I work out of. I'd love a bigger machine but with my current location that just isnt possible. Maybe someday I'll need to move into a bigger location and can use a larger machine.

You have set my mind at ease about the cleaning and the parts. I just need to figure out the material costs now.

I see that Signwarehouse stills Prismjet 24" rolls but have no idea how the quality is. I know that their Prismjet is just a Mutoh thats private labeled by them. I wonder if the media is similar...hmmm anyone know?

 

[thewvsignguy]

grimco and atvantage will slit rolls if you ask them nicely...