Newbie Struggling With PC 600 PLEASE HELP

[Charlie J]

About 2 months ago I bought a PC 600 on ebay. It worked fine until after a few weeks I began to notice thin lines in the print. First the lines were only in the color black when I printed in Spot colors. Then they started to appear in the Magenta. I have talked to Beacon Graphics and Zeronine about this problem. Beacon has only told me to do a line pitch adjustment, which I did and did not help. Zeronine sent me a new cartridge to see if the lot of cartridges I had were a bad batch(also didnt help). I dont think that my head its scratched because the test print is fine and the lines don't always appear. In fact, sometimes it works fine. But other times I want to throw it out the window. I am using FDC calendered and Zeronine cartridges. I'm going to order some Roland Cartridges this week to see if they work any better. I will appreciate any help.:

 

[Techman]

its a very common problem with this machine,, and is why they are not highyl thought of.. You will learn to tweak this machine to get what you epxect.. but it wil ltake time..

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

for the short time i owned this machine before i made the decision to get rid of it as it was never going to fit my needs, i printed with some off brand ribbons (zeronine) and had the same results with a brand new machine, and when i went backto rolands the problem disappeared, well that problem disappeared....

 

[Gino]

As Dan already suggested, get away from aftermarket ribbons. There is a true reason why 'Roland' ribbons work and others don't. If you're sure the head isn't scratched, than get back to the correct ribbons.

 

[Jackpine]

I printed on ShineRite with DuraCoat ( no longer made) ribbons with no problems. Look into Print1.com they sell very good quaility ribbons also. I think the advertise in Digital Print mag....the ribbons are fron England and have US distributor......good luck

 

[Charlie J]

In another thread someone talked about having banding issues with the 1/2" print head. What is banding?

 

[Baz]

What is banding?

Lines in the print.

 

[Westcoast Sign Guy]

cj your one step ahead of me, I have a 60, bought it brand new and it's been sitting ever since. One day I tell myself, one day

 

[Charlie J]

so is there any way to fix banding?

 

[Charlie J]

...without having to buy roland cartridges

 

[stevelv]

I just purchased one of these as my first machine (great price) and I have just replaced the printhead ($540) and the print quality is now superb. I have heard that setting the printer to only print unidirectionally rather than bidirectionally helps to reduce banding but I can't authenticate this yet. Mines only for hobby use so it's probably fine for that where price isn't an issue.

 

[Mike Paul]

Try tightening up the line pitch a little more.
How clean is your calendered material? Your print head may be picking up debris on the material. Try cast vinyl. You'll get much better results unless it is a pixel going bad on the print head.