Need a printer that will be safe and oderless

You won't find an oder less printer.

Solvents aren't safe... The new green ink ones are supposed to be better but I believe still need ventilation.

Latex is water based and while the ink is safe... There's still a smell from the vinyl heating up. The cheaper vinyls have carcogens in them.... So while I'd consider it the safest of the bunch I wouldn't put it somewhere your kids/family will be breathing in.

No latex machines with a built.in cutter... But there are bundles.

Uv I think is safe.. Ours doesn't need be ventilation. However it's the smelliest printer I've ever had. I bring prints home sometimes and the wife screams at me even after they're 8 hours old.

You're not going to find a printer that meets all your specifications. Youll need to sacrifice somewhere.

 

Will you need a laminator to go along with that ?? Also, what size are we talking about ?? Hoping you have ample door space and well secured floors to set all this on. First floor I presume ??

 

as mentioned earlier, no printer (solvent, UV or latex) are something you would want to run in a spare bedroom in your house, these are all production machines. The solvent and UV inks put out a strong odor, and the latex heats up so hot that it makes the vinyl itself stink, not to mention needing 2 - 220v circuits, something most homes don't have.

My advise, partner up with a local shop, you mentioned that you have a Gerber Edge, not too many of those around anymore, you might be able to find a local shop that needs some of the more specialty items that the edge can do and you can get a client and supplier in one stop.

 

Not to mention that if the house burned down from anything related to a commercial use going on inside, the homeowners policy would likely not honor a claim. The same happens when people put these commercial grade ovens and ranges in. Its cool to have, but the higher BTU's involved and added risk has not been overlooked by insurers. Same thing with turning your home into an AirBnB space.

 

Sub out to Signs365 for your bigger products like banners and then you have no smell.

 

If you find a printer that meets all your specs I’d be very interested to see it!

As others have said, every type of printer has its pros and cons. You’d need to find one that suits you. I’d avoid solvents completely unless you have lots of ventilation in whatever room you’re putting it in.

Within 30” is also pretty limiting if you want to do banners etc, most people want banners around 8’ x 4’ as standard for us so if you’re making the plunge I’d get a printer that can do those. Granted space will be an issue for banners unless you have a large space to make them in.

For now you might be best subbing stuff like that out until you’re ready to make the plunge and get a production printer.

If you do go the home route, and it’s not going to be running all the time I’d probably suggest a HP latex as they don’t mind being left idle as much as the solvents.

 

I would agree with most here in saying i would sub out most of your larger items until you can get your shop into your garage or something with more space (and not a second floor). HP Latex is probably your best bet though once you have your space issue figured out. low odor and the ability to sit idle without much maintenance in between jobs is going to be what you want. Why limit yourself now when you can plan ahead for the necessary items and build your shop on what you want to offer in the long term. I would assume youd like to be out of the 2nd floor library at some point in the future?

also what everyone else said about liability.....thats huge.

 

I bought a latex 110 for my garage. Two home insurance providers denied me coverage. The third, made me pay as a business and I'm paying a $60 a month premium on it. My insurance for my little townhome went from $350ish to about $1000". Something I didn't know before I purchased my printer...

The kicker is I don't even really use it for business... It's a personal printer. But you did bring up a good point to anyone with a home based business... Make sure you get the correct insurance.

 

There's no all-in-one to fit all of your needs. start with what you NEED to work with, and that's the ability to operate inside your household.
which means, Latex. easy answer. the HP 26500, which i still run, is selling for next to nothing now since they've introduced a few newer versions in the past few years. plug&play maintenance parts & almost entirely self-cleaning.

just shop a vinyl plotter to run alongside it.

Solvent printers will give you a headache in enclosed spaces, and waste containers of ink are just asking to be spilled everywhere to-from your office, even if you figure out a proper way to dispose of it....which would most likely be pouring it onto a pile of newspapers in your trash bin, and now your garage will wreak like sharpie markers and give you headaches there as well. My office floor still looks like we murdered a Mr.Game&Watch, and I stopped running our old solvent printer 6 years ago.

 

Bigups for the mr. game&watch ref. DEEP cut

 

lol yeah, I was always pretty good about keeping that area clean but one day the ink pump lines disintegrated and siphoned all the ink out of a pair of cartridges and onto my floor. ugh!

....and I love me some Smash Bros.

 

I've seen references to solvent ink disposal here that suggest cat litter and then once the solvent has evaporated, the remaining ink residue is considered benign. Benign to who, I don't know. Just saying that is what has been described in other threads here about it. Most local waste and recycling centers hold at least annual hazardous waste disposal drop off days.

While living in Portland, OR, the waste center collected waste paints, blended the similar ones together and resold them at deeply discounted rates. The color choices weren't great, but at least they did that.

 

Do any of you guys even run solvent printers? Although with my old Mimaki JV3 that used true solvent inks all the things you guys are saying were true, and I ran it in a separate room with exhaust venting to the outside, the new ones aren't like that. I have an Epson S70670 right in our front office area. You don't get solvent headaches from it. Our local Staples store ran an HP latex fright in the front of the store at the copy center and nobody had problems with it. I can't speak for any of the Roland or Mimaki print and cut machines, but I think we should reserve comment on the new versions of those to people who actually have them.

Waste ink overflows generally do not happen with OEM cartridge systems. Most times the problems with overflows come with bulk ink systems, which a small time operator isn't going to use.

And yes, we do the kitty litter thing with the waste ink, it works fine, and it is what our state Department of Natural Resources tells us to do.

 

yeah, that's why I made the newspaper reference. It has to be dried-out to no longer be "hazardous". Even the ink cartridges had to be cut/drilled open to allow to dry before you could throw it away, unless you found a place like Office Depot that accepted old ink cartridges to be "recycled". But that waste ink container, when you get around to emptying it, was approx. 1-Liter of solvent ink that I would find very difficult to "easily" dispose of in a regular household.

edited to add: my solvent printer was a Jv3, and I was running OEM at the time that siphon-out happened. The ink system runs on a siphon-effect, that caps-off when parked on the capping station that has a closed line operated by the ink pump. buuuuut the ink pump is operated by a rotating gear "squishing" the ink line open/closed, which refreshes the siphon, and when that broke down so did the "stop" on the ink flow.
...and I wouldn't doubt if newer versions of solvent printer/inks are a bit easier on the vapors. I'm just pleading a case for the latex machines that only exhaust water vapor, and any water-based ink-mess is easier to cleanup.

 

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I run my latex printer from my basement. Yes, there is a heat smell with some material but it go off after few hours. As for insurance, I have a home insurance and separate business insurance that will cover all equipment related to the business.

For your printer, the first one that come in my mind is the Roland BN-20. But I've heard it is difficult to find 20in vinyl. You can buy a 60in roll and made it cut in 3 I guess. A used LED-330 could be another option.

 

Also be aware that depending on which latex (we have a HP 310 series) these things are HEAVY not suitable for 2 people to carry up any sort of stairs.

 

I think your garage (if you have one) would be a better place. I have two Roland Eco-sol machines, they stink, and a Roland UV flatbed.... it stinks worse. The flatbed has an air scrubber on it.