Mamiki Jv3 160sp (Bringing it back to life)

[chadconger]

Hi everyone,

My name is Chad Conger I'm new to the forum. I have a small vinyl sign shop in Eddyville KY.

I have been losing customers because they are wanting full color printed banners rather that vinyl. I happened to find a Mamiki Jv3 160sp for sale for $1000 and I talked him down to $500 because it needs work.

I've got the owners and service manual but I am looking for a place to start (there are a lot of pages in those manuals). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The printer turns on fine and seems to perform all functions that is is supposed to. The heater is working fine too.

Here are the problems that I can see...

1. No ink flow
2. The guy I got it from said it had one new print head 6 months ago (it hasn't been used since) but it needs 2 new ones.
3. The tubes going into the ink pumps have dried up ink in them.

I know this is going to cost me but I really want to get this thing going.

I just need some guidance from people with experience on what to check before I order $3500 worth of parts.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[artbot]

the ink pumps come apart. there's a tube inside. clean out the tube, put it back together. the capping station, throw it in a bucket of acetone (add retarder if possible),
heads will be about $1500 for the two, get after market wiper and dampers (i use solventinkonline, there are lots of good suppliers). the encoder strip is probably dirty the tubes from the caps to the pumps also clogged. one thing to look for, if the heads. one new, two bad, one iffy? good possibility that all of them are bad. he'd have been better off selling the new head for $450 used and selling the balance for parts. you may need $3k in heads.

 

[eforer]

I actually just took out 3 decent heads out of one of our old JV3 machines. I would part with them very cheap. All the nozzles fire, just some deflection. Throw 'em in and print. Shoot me a PM.

-Ed

 

[4R Graphics]

Artbot is a Mimaki JV3 master listen to him he knows his stuff.

Ok I have a JV3 and here is what I would do if you are any good at DIY stuff go to youtube and look for the head doctor build a system like theres it will save you alot of money in the long run of owning one of these printers. As Artbot already posted take apart the pumps and clean the tubes out. I would just replace all the tubing in the whole printer its not that much check solventinkonline good guy down in Miami. I would clean the caps and capping station and get new dampners and new orings for the dampners and then just replace all the parts with new ones you bought and wash those heads that will get you at least running some what enough to know if you need other stuff such as new heads etc.

As for cleaning the heads Artbot posted a homebrew for Flush (cleaning fluid) it is 5 parts butyl carbitol and 1 part acetone. You can get the butyl carbitol at sherwin williams for around $80 a gallon and acetone at any hardware store.

Good luck and post up any other questions or problems as I have done a lot of refurbing on our JV3 and Artbot does some awesome stuff with them so your in good hands just ask questions and be safe some of these chemicals are not good for you and remember not to play with the printer when its powered up or you will have an expensive boat anchor.

 

[artbot]

i appreciate all the compliments. i don't know if jv3 owners are gluttons for punishment or what. it's kinda like the car that just won't die and you don't want to make car payments. my latest endeavor is to gut an encad and run mimaki latex in it. just bought my victim 850 ten minutes ago. i might have to modify the boiling temperature of the ink ...who knows.

 

[bill426]

Have you tried sending your heads out to get them cleaned

 

[chadconger]

Thanks everyone for your input! I'm truly greatful to have people to consult on this overwhelming task.

the ink pumps come apart. there's a tube inside. clean out the tube, put it back together. the capping station, throw it in a bucket of acetone (add retarder if possible),
heads will be about $1500 for the two, get after market wiper and dampers (i use solventinkonline, there are lots of good suppliers). the encoder strip is probably dirty the tubes from the caps to the pumps also clogged. one thing to look for, if the heads. one new, two bad, one iffy? good possibility that all of them are bad. he'd have been better off selling the new head for $450 used and selling the balance for parts. you may need $3k in heads.

Thank you for you suggestions. I've replaced the tubes in the ink pumps. I used fuel line from NAPA. Is that okay or should I go ahead and order the actual printer tubing?

I think that I will go ahead and replace all of the lines because I'm just not sure about them and I'd rather them be new anyway.

I will try the other cleaning today.

If I can get this thing running for $4000 I'll be happy. Their are no large format printers for sale close to me that I can find especially not for under $6000.

After I clean everything as you suggested and replace all of the ink lines will there be anyway to know that it will work when I replace the heads?

I'm just afraid I will put 4-5 thousand in it and it still not work:Oops:

Thanks again.

 

[chadconger]

Have you tried sending your heads out to get them cleaned

Nope. I just picked it up Saturday. I looked up getting them cleaned and it was around $300 each and they only guarantee 50% improvement so I think I'd rather replace them. I just hope it works after I do.

 

[chadconger]

I actually just took out 3 decent heads out of one of our old JV3 machines. I would part with them very cheap. All the nozzles fire, just some deflection. Throw 'em in and print. Shoot me a PM.

-Ed

I'm not sure what deflection is. I'm really new to this printing thing. (I've never even done it yet)

I'll pm you to find the price though.

Would it be a good idea to try these first if I can get them at a good price just to make sure some ink will flow through the printer?

 

[chadconger]

Artbot is a Mimaki JV3 master listen to him he knows his stuff.

Ok I have a JV3 and here is what I would do if you are any good at DIY stuff go to youtube and look for the head doctor build a system like theres it will save you alot of money in the long run of owning one of these printers. As Artbot already posted take apart the pumps and clean the tubes out. I would just replace all the tubing in the whole printer its not that much check solventinkonline good guy down in Miami. I would clean the caps and capping station and get new dampners and new orings for the dampners and then just replace all the parts with new ones you bought and wash those heads that will get you at least running some what enough to know if you need other stuff such as new heads etc.

As for cleaning the heads Artbot posted a homebrew for Flush (cleaning fluid) it is 5 parts butyl carbitol and 1 part acetone. You can get the butyl carbitol at sherwin williams for around $80 a gallon and acetone at any hardware store.

Good luck and post up any other questions or problems as I have done a lot of refurbing on our JV3 and Artbot does some awesome stuff with them so your in good hands just ask questions and be safe some of these chemicals are not good for you and remember not to play with the printer when its powered up or you will have an expensive boat anchor.

Thanks for the help. I'll see if I can look up that home brew.

 

[mopar691]

The fuel line from napa will not work, Solvent will soften that stuff up pretty quick.

 

[artbot]

if you really want to stock up on lines go to smallparts.com they have every imaginable type of tubing. or you can buy it by the meter from suppliers. but with smallparts it's not considered "sacred" printer tubing so it's very cheap.

 

[chadconger]

if you really want to stock up on lines go to smallparts.com they have every imaginable type of tubing. or you can buy it by the meter from suppliers. but with smallparts it's not considered "sacred" printer tubing so it's very cheap.

Thanks. Does that mean the tubing from there won't last as long or does it mean you get the same stuff without the label for cheaper?

 

[chadconger]

The fuel line from napa will not work, Solvent will soften that stuff up pretty quick.

Thanks. I'll swap them out when I can get some more lines.

 

[artbot]

they carry the same tubing found in the printers at the same quality and also provide tubing that exceeds the OEM specs. same stuff without the label but cheaper. that really might not matter for regular use, but i am constantly replumbing, doing odd things so i go through lots of tube here and there.

 

[chadconger]

they carry the same tubing found in the printers at the same quality and also provide tubing that exceeds the OEM specs. same stuff without the label but cheaper. that really might not matter for regular use, but i am constantly replumbing, doing odd things so i go through lots of tube here and there.

Thanks again. They have a lot of tubing! Which kind do I need to get? Also, how much should I order to retube the whole printer and have a little extra?

 

[artbot]

that you will have to guess. even a printer supplier will probably leave it up to you. i doubt you need to do the ink lines. for that get those clear carts and agressively syringe solvent toward the carts from the carriage side. you can use anything, straight acetone, MEK, doesn't matter. it's just tube. keep in mind that the faster the solvent evaporates, the higher the condensation. condensation coagulates the ink and ink residue adding moisture to it which will clog heads and ruin them.

get too much whatever you do. say you get a clogged waste line. you can sit back there and massage a tube for ten minutes and in the end you have a filthy tube, or pull it, toss it, and pop on a brand spanking new one in one minute for fifty cents.

 

[4R Graphics]

Just replace the lines you will be in a better postion knowing the lines are good.

Also for the heads before I bought anything I would try running flush through them with a syringe you should be able to get the heads cleaned enough to test the system out then you can either try cleaning them with a homebrew and an auto cleaner as I posted earlier (see youtube) or by some new heads.

good luck.

 

[Robert M]

Pumps

you need to use a solvent resistant tube designed for peristaltic (cam) type pumps. I sell a Tygon brand that works well if installed right.