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Solvent ss2 inks used in home?

bwrapped

New Member
Hi all. I've been given the oprotunity to bring to my home a jv3-160sp. This machine is clogged and I have no knowledge of the print side of vinyl. Slowly I am going to hopefully bring this monster to life and be able to print some media! I'm excited. The problem is my garage is not temp controlled. I was wondering if this machine in my house with an exhaust running out a window would be enough ventilation to not damage my families health? I know keeping the printer and trying to print in a garage will just give me problems. Thanks to all.
 

Letterbox Mike

New Member
I wouldn't do this.

A. If the heads are clogged, you're looking at significantly more money to get it running that the machine is worth. Easily $4000-$5000 in parts alone for new heads, dampers, pump, ink lines, etc.. Plus labor if you aren't mechanically inclined enough to install and calibrate yourself.

B. A non-climate controlled environment is going to cause a lot of problems.

C. Putting it in a spare bedroom with a window fan is going to give your dog cancer. If you invested several thousand dollars in a high-end air scrubber meant for solvent printing, you're still risking your family's health. Solvet inks are no joke, and Mimaki SS2 inks are particularly unpleasant in small environments.

D. Have you given any thought to finishing your prints? Solvent prints are not necessarily ready to go right off the printer. They are going to need to be trimmed, laminated, hemmed, mounted, etc.. You're going to struggle with finishing without dedicting a lot of space to decent sized finishing tables to trim and hem, some sort of laminating and/or mounting solution (either a costly laminator or a large table and a Big Squeegee), and probably a 54"-63" plotter with registration mark sensors so you can contour cut your creations.

To summarize, it is not advisable to bring this into your home. You are looking at a commercial-grade machine. Not necessarily industrial, but certainly not spare-beadroom hobbiest either.
 

bwrapped

New Member
This machine worked a few weeks ago and was left sitting I do belive I am capable of restoring the heads to be properly working thanks to all the tips on the forums. What if I were to use this in my garage with some way to keep it decently cool and room tempture? Would this be of use still. I would like to be able to at least print banners or posters with this machine. Is it of use for that. It came with rolls of lam, perf,banner material, magnets, ect. I'm really wanting to make use of this considering I have NO Overhead cost! Which is huge to me! It's like part of a bussiness was handed to me for use. Thanks for your input.


last known test had yellow and black but magenta and cyan were hardly there, I personally did not see the test but am wanting to test and figure this out quickly, before I get my hopes up
 

artbot

New Member
a few weeks is a death sentence. i'd freak out if my jv3 was off for a day. that ink will be oowey goowey delicious by now.
 

bwrapped

New Member
Thanks artbot for the reply, so ur betting this machine sitting in a hot garage unplugged is pretty much a big paper weight? This is sadning considering I never had the money to fork out for a printer and one was pretty much handed over to be used and make money off!
 

artbot

New Member
yes and now depending on how much you want to get it going. you could do the "poor man's jv3" routine.

you could try to recover the heads. but the problem is if a tiny set of nozzles just won't clear you'll be stuck with bad prints (which can be compensated for by running the printer at insane pass counts a bit). the jv3 160sp can run off of two heads. you could buy two heads used, two that are decent, and just keep the other two clogged heads in the printer. ...they need to be there as proxies to shake hands with the firmware. set the printer up as a CMYKlmlc** printer. in rasterlink, just use CMYK only profiles, the printer will ignore the lm and lc channel. then you are onto the rest of the guts. you could get a gallon of acetone and dunk the capping station and pumps in it. you can even ultrasonically clean them (dampers too). you'll want at least pump tubing, to be fresh from the capping station down. plaqued up waste lines lead to clogs quickly. i'd also get a set of clear carts and jet MEK backwards through the printer toward the carts (from the carriage side). that may get those lines clean enough to not drop clogs into your day of printing.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
HaHahahaha! Might need a couple bags for this mess!

And a mess it will be.

While it may look attractive to have gotten something for nothing, once you start Pandora's box will have been opened. If you are up to pouring thousands and thousands of dollars into something that may never work correctly by all means continue. But, if you don't have the money to buy a printer you won't have the money to fix the "freebie".

We've had a digital printer for 6 years and you know what I learned? We sub out more than we produce in house. I like that. While someone else babysits, cleans, repairs, and worries about botched jobs I stay worry free and go lock down another client.
Only thing our printer gets used for is the quick turn, same day/next day products.(and we don't do many of those because they are a PITA)
 

bwrapped

New Member
Saturday my friend and I are going to do all we can by taking it apart cleaning with ultrasonic cleaner. He himself is a screenprinter and had much more knowledge of inks and cleaners than I ever will, hopefully with his experience and the Internet a miracle can happen. I realize replacing the heads cost thousands to replace. Now the guy who has this seem pretty determined to make this thing run, he also seems like it wouldn't be a problem to spend some money to fix. If he is willing to go that far would it make more sense to invest that money into a decent printer that doesn't have the problems I am running into.? By the way he said a few months of sitting not a few weeks! Ugh
 

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
Saturday my friend and I are going to do all we can by taking it apart cleaning with ultrasonic cleaner. He himself is a screenprinter and had much more knowledge of inks and cleaners than I ever will, hopefully with his experience and the Internet a miracle can happen. I realize replacing the heads cost thousands to replace. Now the guy who has this seem pretty determined to make this thing run, he also seems like it wouldn't be a problem to spend some money to fix. If he is willing to go that far would it make more sense to invest that money into a decent printer that doesn't have the problems I am running into.? By the way he said a few months of sitting not a few weeks! Ugh

Waste of time and money in my opinion. Most JV3 machines that are that far gone are generally parted out anymore. The JV3 series is pushing 10 years old. Most are nearing jus being worn out. If it were up and running and you knew the heads were fine I'd say get it going. Sitting "months"...... not good at all. You potentially will have to put $5000 into it to get it going, you will still need a RIP to drive it, plus a lot more. You can pick up a good condition working JV33 (or some other much newer machine) which will be 6+ year newer technology, far less maintenance, far less headaches, with the bundled Rasterlink RIP for just a few k more than what you might be looking at just in parts on the old JV3.

The JV3 machines were top machines in their time (and yes many still are great running machines) but there are tons of them being retired now and the market if literally getting flooded with old neglected ones that are so clogged they are just not economical or worth getting going again.
 

bwrapped

New Member
Thanks for the input. To me this is not a waste of time. This is a time to gain knowledge on something I'm not to knowledgable about. Installing graphics printed on this exact machine DAILY and the learning process is not a waste of time to me no matter if it works or not. Just leaning the parts of the machine and how to manually clean one is useful to me.
 

J Hill Designs

New Member
Thanks for the input. To me this is not a waste of time. This is a time to gain knowledge on something I'm not to knowledgable about. Installing graphics printed on this exact machine DAILY and the learning process is not a waste of time to me no matter if it works or not. Just leaning the parts of the machine and how to manually clean one is useful to me.

There ya go then :thumb: Luck to ya!

I revived a 64" full solvent printer from complete death (sat for at least 6 months with ink in it)

elbow grease and patience were all it took.

now I have a 64" full solvent printer that works quite well. Cost: $600 (and 2 weeks of sweat and tears)
 

bwrapped

New Member
There ya go then :thumb: Luck to ya!

I revived a 64" full solvent printer from complete death (sat for at least 6 months with ink in it)

elbow grease and patience were all it took.

now I have a 64" full solvent printer that works quite well. Cost: $600 (and 2 weeks of sweat and tears)

JHILL what advice would you give me, and any special techniques you used to clean? i.e. ultrasonic?
 

J Hill Designs

New Member
I didn't use an ultrasonic cleaner, just quite a few head soaks.

took apart all pumps and cleaned tubing by hand.

No real advice, sorry. I just dug in and got my hands dirty.

You WILL want new captops and dampers, since they are consumables anyway.
 

bwrapped

New Member
I didn't use an ultrasonic cleaner, just quite a few head soaks.

took apart all pumps and cleaned tubing by hand.

No real advice, sorry. I just dug in and got my hands dirty.

You WILL want new captops and dampers, since they are consumables anyway.

ok thanks! i plan on doing the same cleaning by hand and getting messy.
 

artbot

New Member
and ultrasonic cleaner can ruin a dx4. use it lightly. also after cleaning a head with or without ultrasonic, soak it (dunk it) in alcohol, shake the fluid out, and don't install for 24 hours. the alcohol will pick up the slower solvents that have gotten into the head's naughty bits and will help them evaporate. i've plugged in some "saved" heads only to *zitz* them as soon as i turned on the printer. also, fieldcenter used NMP on some dx4's recently. he said the head was saved but it did melt the little rubber manifold gasket.
 

bwrapped

New Member
and ultrasonic cleaner can ruin a dx4. use it lightly. also after cleaning a head with or without ultrasonic, soak it (dunk it) in alcohol, shake the fluid out, and don't install for 24 hours. the alcohol will pick up the slower solvents that have gotten into the head's naughty bits and will help them evaporate. i've plugged in some "saved" heads only to *zitz* them as soon as i turned on the printer. also, fieldcenter used NMP on some dx4's recently. he said the head was saved but it did melt the little rubber manifold gasket.

ive never used a ultrasonic cleaner when u say use it lightly do you mean the time frame of keeping it in the cleaner? what is NMP artbot ? i appreciate all in the info as i will need all i can get
 

artbot

New Member
time frame over all. dx4 heads are made of this extremely brittle lamination of some sort of black metal or crystal. all that vibrating will eventually cause the printhead to fail. also high pressure will cause the interior to collapse somehow. there's a hole right in the middle of the head, solvent falling down in there can short the head. nmp is an solvent. feels and smells like soap but is used to strip powder coat. it's also the active "green solvent" in HP latex ink. use with caution. as for cleaning up the printer get some acetone and a gallon of butyl carbitol and mix it about 4 part carbitol one part acetone for a home brew cleaning fluid. sherwin williams industrial locations carry butyl carbitol.
 

bwrapped

New Member
Ripped machine apart heads dampers and caps being soaked. Took apart some tubing and its really ugly inside there. Skipping ultrasonic cleaner until last resort. Appreciate all advice and I will keep posted. Replacing the whole tubing systems seems like a little challenge considering its tab through the belt. Progress is being made though.
 
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