-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
roland pc600 pro/con
- Thread starter joezeppii
- Start date
totalimage
New Member
Well we just sold our pc600... if you planning to do small deacls the machine is great. Anything big forget about it. The tapes get very expensive and the life of the tapes are short. Large prints have alot of banding. You will need a RIP program for the machine. We used color choice from roland. We designed in corel and flexi. What i have heard and may not be right is that Roland will no longer be making the tapes for that machine. So before purchase look at zero nine to see if they are going to continue making the tapes. The head on the machine does go bad every 1-2 years and was $800.00 to replace.
Jackpine
New Member
Use ColorChoice from Roland as a RIP and Corel 10 or higher is what you need. If you can, have them walk you through the process. It is an easy printer/cutter to use and gives good results for small decals. Dust is it's enemy and clean the print head evey time after you make a print. It will extend the head life. Printing in YMC mode will save you 25% cost and you can print K mode also. Get a print from the printer and see if it has lines (banding) in it. If so print head is going out. Good luck
Jackpine
New Member
FYI not for race car numbers. The print size I stayed in was up to 15" high and it prints and cuts 22.5" wide. I used it for a ton of small decals and value added prints for general sign work. When they print good they print very good. I laminated with clear vinyl for protection. Resin prints 3 to 5 years life. Can print spot colors, white on clear, white underbase for clear back decals, heat transfers, clear window cling and many other materials. Not banners.
Todd Jelle
New Member
Ditto, on everything stated, We still have ours & use it occasionally.
We have a new Summa DC4.
Zero nine still makes ribbons, & gives 50 cents for each returned cartridge.
Buy the ribbons without the cassete( holder & reload your cartridges & save a few $$.
It Works nice for Truck lettering,doors & logos as well as smaller stickers under 24 x 30"
It is an easy way to get into printing. We used One shot UV clear aeresol spray for improved durability. Expect 3 year life on prints, We had items the lasted 4 yrs, but thats rare. Spot color choice is nice
The printer does a real nice job printing apparel transfers with wax ribbons.
We had success printing larger items, even some 6-8 ft vehicle graphics but banding can be a problems with some process colors as well as gradients. Using the spray clear lam sometimes helps hide banding.
also when printing larger items the machine will really upset you when a ribbon breaks or screws up half way thru a print, wasting your time & material. Even worse when the head goes out in the middle of what should be an easy job.
I think this is the real reson it has a bad reputation.
when it prints good its a great machine but there are times you will hate it!
In all for the money you cant get into printing for less $$.
We have a new Summa DC4.
Zero nine still makes ribbons, & gives 50 cents for each returned cartridge.
Buy the ribbons without the cassete( holder & reload your cartridges & save a few $$.
It Works nice for Truck lettering,doors & logos as well as smaller stickers under 24 x 30"
It is an easy way to get into printing. We used One shot UV clear aeresol spray for improved durability. Expect 3 year life on prints, We had items the lasted 4 yrs, but thats rare. Spot color choice is nice
The printer does a real nice job printing apparel transfers with wax ribbons.
We had success printing larger items, even some 6-8 ft vehicle graphics but banding can be a problems with some process colors as well as gradients. Using the spray clear lam sometimes helps hide banding.
also when printing larger items the machine will really upset you when a ribbon breaks or screws up half way thru a print, wasting your time & material. Even worse when the head goes out in the middle of what should be an easy job.
I think this is the real reson it has a bad reputation.
when it prints good its a great machine but there are times you will hate it!
In all for the money you cant get into printing for less $$.
Just Another Sign Guy
New Member
my personal opinion is that this machine should never have been sold as a professional sign machine but marketed and sold to hobbiests and maybe the odd business that does one off custom proofs and prototypes.
We purchased one brand new and were able to get our vendor to take the machine back approx 2 months after we purchased it as the quality of hte prints was just not acceptable. I have not seen a print come off of one of these machines that did not have banding in it, even from people that claimed to produce prints with no banding...granted if you were to view the image from 20' away sometimes you could not notice the banding but for anything that requires any kind of quality it simply is not the correct choice of equipment.
these machines are RIDICULOUSLY expensive to run and they produce mediocre results at best. sadly many people purchase these machines thinking that it is a less expensive way to get into the digital printing arena. these machines are outdated and have no place in the majority of professional sign companies, I have seen too many businesses purchase these machines only to have to turn around and sell them for a loss as it did not meet their needs or it was simply too expensive to operate to be realistic to use.
You should be looking at newer technology and if you can not afford it you should be looking to build a relationship with a quality wholesaler that can produce your prints for you. The colorcams will most likely leave you disappointed. There are many posts on these machines, do your homework. Maybe you are one of the very few shops that this will be a good machine for...if so there are many available MUCH cheaper than $2400
We purchased one brand new and were able to get our vendor to take the machine back approx 2 months after we purchased it as the quality of hte prints was just not acceptable. I have not seen a print come off of one of these machines that did not have banding in it, even from people that claimed to produce prints with no banding...granted if you were to view the image from 20' away sometimes you could not notice the banding but for anything that requires any kind of quality it simply is not the correct choice of equipment.
these machines are RIDICULOUSLY expensive to run and they produce mediocre results at best. sadly many people purchase these machines thinking that it is a less expensive way to get into the digital printing arena. these machines are outdated and have no place in the majority of professional sign companies, I have seen too many businesses purchase these machines only to have to turn around and sell them for a loss as it did not meet their needs or it was simply too expensive to operate to be realistic to use.
You should be looking at newer technology and if you can not afford it you should be looking to build a relationship with a quality wholesaler that can produce your prints for you. The colorcams will most likely leave you disappointed. There are many posts on these machines, do your homework. Maybe you are one of the very few shops that this will be a good machine for...if so there are many available MUCH cheaper than $2400