My first service experience with my Roland SP-540v

[threeputt]

Ok, had the tech out Friday. Was here about 4 hours after a one hour drive out from Portland, Or.

Very, very positive experience! The tech, Sam, was very thorough and I learned some stuff I didn't know about my printer. He got it tuned and running so sweet!

My machine had been running very reliably for about 16 months. It's kinda cool to have the self-diagnostic software within the machine print out all the data. How many head strikes, how many medium, how many powerful cleanings, etc. Even had me for just over 2 billion firings of the jets. (they're good up to 8 billion, I'm told)

Recommend every owner get this done once a year or so. Oh, my tech is from Pacific Coast Sign Supply. An authorized Roland dealer.

 

[Replicator]

Threeputt - I just spent about an hour yesterday cleaning my Camm-Jet !

I had never cleaned it, and come to find out the previous owner that we

bought the shop from never cleaned it either.

It was a huge mess, but after cleaning everything thoroughly and sealing it all

back up, I did about 6 cleaning cycles and the machine was printing better than it

ever had before . . .

I would still like to have it serviced and I also live in WA state, can you give me

a ballpark figure as to what PCSS charged you ? total with trip charge, etc.

Thanks.

 

[cartoad]

Marc,
Check with Dan the Roland tech at Perfomance Signs in Kingston, they have this part of the state and he has taken good care of us (even when I have been very excited when things were not working right). I don't have their number here at home, but google will get it call me in the am,
Hal

 

[Replicator]

Thanks Hal,

We buy from performance quite a bit . . . I didn't know they had service techs on board . . .

Thanks again,

Still interested in hearing from threeputt !

 

[cinemasign.grafix]

Just had head & caps replaced this week (before warranty expires). I asked what i was looking at if i don't renew. $50 trip charge and $100 hour for service + cost of parts. @ 8-$850 for a head.

 

[threeputt]

Replicator, this is how it shook out for me. Labor was 3.5 hours at $120 per hour. Travel was $45.00. My encoder strip was bad and that was the biggest ticket on the parts bill, $224.00. Roland gave me two pumps at no charge. Other parts were S-caps, wipers, wiper scrapers, mist pad. Altogether the bill was $777.00

I'm actually happy with the service. Probably will get it done in a year or so. To put it in perspective, Roland's one year warranty is $2000.00.

 

[threeputt]

It seems like you can't over-emphasize keeping your machine clean! Ours is running in a part of the shop away from other dust creating equipment, but still you've got to watch it.

10 minutes every Friday at quitting time. That's all it takes if you do it routinely.

 

[Replicator]

Thanks, Threeputt . . . Great Info . . .

And truly appreciated !

 

[threeputt]

You're quite welcome. Anytime you're south this way, feel free to pop in.

 

[cinemasign.grafix]

Only thing i didn't replace was the wiper scraper (kick-kick) meant to point that out. Did you watch him replace it? how hard is it? Do you cover the printer when not in use? Keep an air purifier near the printer?

 

[threeputt]

Actually wasn't present during the whole procedure, but Jeff here at our shop was. He knows most of everything. We don't cover our machine and we have no air purifier.

One thing I didn't mention was that he tightened the cable that draws the print head back and forward. It's factory set at 15 lbs, and ours was down to 4 lbs. He re-tightened to 11 lbs. I guess like anything, they wear in and optimum is about 11 lbs for a used cable. I wouldn't have known to do that, or even have any sort of instrument to tighten it to a known tension.

 

[Replicator]

Marc,
Check with Dan the Roland tech at Perfomance Signs in Kingston, they have this part of the state and he has taken good care of us (even when I have been very excited when things were not working right).
Hal

Thanks Hal . . .

Had Dan from performance sign out today to service the printer and replace
the capping station, also got a new wiper and a total cleaning and servicing . . .

They charged a very fair price and were extremely thorough to boot !