Roland PC-600

There is usually one on ebay, but I had a pc 600 and hated it, a lot. I had a friend who had a pc 60 and traded for a 600 and then wondered why she did it. They do nice prints on t-shirts but that was the only thing I can say positive about them. Of course the dealer told us when we bought it that it was "cutting edge" technology and that most shops would not be able to compete with us. As it turned out 3 shops in our town of about 20000 all had ink jets and we could not compete with them. Have you looked at a used ink jet or a gerber, just my opinion but I really think you'd be a lot happier.

 

I too am in the market with a budget and was looking into a PC-600 What would be a alterntive to it with out spending over 5k ? Sorry I didn't mean to steal your thread but i figured why start a new one.

 

Honestly with a PC600 you are going to be very limitted in what you can do and your not going to be able to compete with the cost of the people with inkjet printers. With my inkjet printer I can print for about 35 centes a sq foot (Both vinyl and ink), I believe the PC-600 is about $2.50 a sq foot.

The PC-600 can not do larger prints without banding (from what I understand). About 4-5 of my wholsale customers have PC-600's and they still outsource prints to me because its just easier and cheaper for them.

Also PC-600's are known to blow heads quite frequently, and they are not cheap to replace.

Oh and Yes you can print on trasnfers with inkjet, just like you can with the PC-600...

As for getting into an inkjet used, your probably looking at atleast $7,000-$10,000 for a 30" Versacamm or Small Mutoh. I dont think you will really find anything cheaper than that unless you get REALLY lucky.

 

Actually our cost if you included the ribbons and vinyl was closer to $4 per sq foot and there is no comparison between an ink jet and the pc 600. Our color gamut was so limited that a customer would come in and want something printed to match and we almost never could do it. Never have that problem now.

Oh and we had the thing 1.5 years and it was gone for service 6 times and lost 2 heads. Thankfully we purchased the extended warranty. I did see a mimaki used on ebay that needed some work but it was about $2000 if I remember right. I think you would need a cutter too which the hybrid machines like the versacamm we have now does not need.

 

Wow $4 a sq foot? I sometimes wholesale at that price...

 

Wow $4 a sq foot? I sometimes wholesale at that price...
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Barry @ PrintingDigital.net

I know, we do the same. It is just so much nicer having the versacamm, I think I would buy just a good plotter/cutter and farm out the print jobs before I even remotely considered going back to a PC 600 or I would try to find a used PC 60 in good shape as you can buy them for less and according to Kim she had a lot less trouble with it than the PC 600, at least you could do short run t-shirts and decals but I sure would not try anything fancy (we did and regretted it time & time again). (really we were just oversold on the pc 600, then after we got it all we heard was "it is really just a decal machine" or "it just was not meant to do that". As a opposed to when the dealler was selling it to us "this is cutting edge technology" and "99% of other sign shops won't be able to compete with you", "you can ditigal print anything with this, it will do over a million colors". I can't begin to tell you how much I wish I could have had a forum like this one to get other opinions before I jumped on the PC 600 deal.

 

SSK sign supply has a new Mutoh Jr 36 eco solvent inkjet printer on their buy/sell fourm for $8,000.00

 

ok folks, is anyone doing work with a HP 5500 UV or similar plotter? what is the cost per sq. ft.?

 

Im assuming with that printer you will have to use coated media which costs more than the uncoated stuff. Everything will also have to be laminated.