Roland Fj50 - and a Thank You to all of you

I recently purchased a Roland FJ 50 at a very good price and figured no gamble no gain... ($1200 for the FJ50 with the take up roll system) When I evaluated the unit one thing was clear it did not work. The issues was a print head and when the unit was turned on just before I took it home the unit started to smoke at the left print head…. Normally burning electronics are never any good and the person that was selling it was not too happy I took a 2nd look since it was not smoking when he first showed it to me. None the less I figured it is a component issue not a core unit issues so I can fix it… ( I thank my father for that attitude he and I fixed everything.. can’t break it if it is already broke he always said. The print head had a burn mark on the back of head so I was going to need new heads no matter what so I gouged the seller and took her home. I think I will name the printer Jenny J. Long story short I took it home. Ordered two parts. One from a vendor on this site and one from ebay where the part came from Japan. Controller board, new ribbon cables and guess what... today I got around to putting it all in, listening to lots of advice from this site in all sorts of posts and the printer now seems to work. The unit allowed me to get to the menu, perform a test print with no ink in it since the cartridges are empty but mechanically and so far electronically it is sound. NO SMOKE

Why am I telling you all this... Because I made a few posts after researching old post and got some awesome answers from people who offered assistance within hours of the post. Get this a person from Canada even sent me 2 technically sound print heads ..they are not good to print with but technically sound and he did this all out of his own pocket and goodness to help a total stranger. This person is so awesome when I asked to at least pay the shipping he said make a donation to Arlo.. which I did…. This site is filled with great comics….. and people who are very knowledgeable in many aspects of the print business and or technology.

Mr. Canada you know who you are and I really cannot thank you enough. You are very kind. Another person was so good at sending me answers to my dumb questions I want to say thanks to Artbot... Really just want to let the community know I am thankful for a site like this.
I have some new heads to buy, a capping station and some pigment ink to see if this Roland FJ50 will really work but this is a nice project I started on. Look out ebay, craigslist and other recently converted FJ50 to ecoSolvent printer owners I may be looking for your old ink.

mrfern

Roland FJ50 (Sorta)
24 Vinyl Cutter
Adobe CS4 Master Collection

 

I plan to go to ECOSOL once I get the hang of it working as it is. I plan to use Dave at printerconversions.com. The goal is to produce banners for short life runs. I generally do about 40 banners every 3 months and once I print my own I will then go after a larger market. So far subbing the work out to print is a win win. For now I will have a go at my own prints once I figure out a few more things. My kids can not wait for me to wrap our trailer... One day I tell them.

mrfern