cartoad
New Member
My 2 cents, we have had our Roland for over 3 years with a lot of learning to go with it.
Next trip your Roland Tech comes out, be his shadow, learn everything you can about it, don't expect an employee to learn and retain it. Do the regular cleaning as directed, have the tech show you how to clean the encoder strip (depending on your area needs to be done on a regular basis in our dusty area)
We have only on a few occassions done a med clean, I guess ours runs enough not to need it, we have great prints. We do the weekly cleaning and maint of the machine as advised by the Roland folks.
As for head height, our general rule is vinyl low position, banner high position. We do not print magnetic materials (head striks even in high position and hard to work with)
We also are selective as to what we cross cut (sheet cut) material with, some heavy banner or art canvas we just cut off with our knife.
To date we have replaced on head, one servo board, encoder strip and consumables, and had panic attacks on Friday's at 4:30pm in the middle of a big print job due out Monday when things did not work right. That is when we really have learned a lot about our machine.
Next trip your Roland Tech comes out, be his shadow, learn everything you can about it, don't expect an employee to learn and retain it. Do the regular cleaning as directed, have the tech show you how to clean the encoder strip (depending on your area needs to be done on a regular basis in our dusty area)
We have only on a few occassions done a med clean, I guess ours runs enough not to need it, we have great prints. We do the weekly cleaning and maint of the machine as advised by the Roland folks.
As for head height, our general rule is vinyl low position, banner high position. We do not print magnetic materials (head striks even in high position and hard to work with)
We also are selective as to what we cross cut (sheet cut) material with, some heavy banner or art canvas we just cut off with our knife.
To date we have replaced on head, one servo board, encoder strip and consumables, and had panic attacks on Friday's at 4:30pm in the middle of a big print job due out Monday when things did not work right. That is when we really have learned a lot about our machine.
. Just remember to keep a large bottle of whiskey next to your desk for those really infuriating nights 
. Take care and I hope this helped a little bit. We have all been starters at some point and Im not far off that mark myself. Synergy Jim just helped me with a very simple problem that I couldnt get because of my lack of knowledge on the cutting side so hang in there.
