Storing/Transporting Roland SP-300V

[Signstein]

Our shop is in the process of replacing our 30" Roland SP-300V and I'd like to do everything possible to keep it operational and hopefully convince my employer to let me take it home. So, there are a few things I'm hoping you fine folks could help me with. The setup guide says the printer only needs to be powered on once a month so it can perform the self-cleaning. That seems like a long time to not do manual cleanings - shouldn't the printer remain plugged in and still be cleaned weekly?
The guide also says to drain the ink with cleaning cartridges and to lock the printheads, but doesn't actually tell you how. Does anyone here have the instructions on how to lock them down? There's a small blue metal piece attached to the back of the machine - I'm guessing that's the lock? And sorry for all the questions, but how could I best position myself as the potential new owner of this printer? I mean, I don't want to sabotage it so they'll just give it to me as junk, but I also don't want to go out of my way to make it look like a gem that they'll want to auction off or something. Thoughts?

 

[weyandsign]

Once a month is OK in my opinion. I've went 3 months without a problem. Unscrew the blue metal piece from the back, stand it upright with the label facing forward. Screw it down in the screw hole at the very right edge of the print surface. You will see to the right of the cutting carriage where the 2 metal grooves fit.

 

[Zoogee World]

Depending on the state of the printer and the condition of the print heads, they typically go from 1000 - 2000. If you really want it, maybe let your boss know and make a reasonable offer. If you're hoping to get it for free, you could still have a talk with your boss and explain. I certainly wouldn't do anything less than the proper procedure for storage, which means, clean out the lines thoroughly with cleaning cartridges, once drained and powered off, very gently with a clean cleaning swab pat the surface of both heads to make sure they are cleaned of any residual and dry, then clamp the lines after the cap tops, fill them with cleaning liquid and put back into place with securing the printhead. Then, if you're moving it, use that blue lock and secure it into place.

 

[Signstein]

Thank you both -

Do either of you have experience with transporting? Anything special there? Or just fork it onto a pallet and then onto a flatbed?

 

[Zoogee World]

We recently bought a donor SP-300V printer which was perfectly working, except it needed a new main board. After the pre- transport procedure I mentioned earlier, it was just put it in the back of my boss' truck strapped down and transported to our facility. Once we got it here, we ended up swapping the board and using it instead of one of our older units that was in worse shape and worked like a charm.

 

[petepaz]

depending on when you are planning on using it i would keep it plugged in till you move it and then plug it in once you get where you're going. also run test prints and perhaps run the attached file once in a while to keep the ink flowing.
if you won't be using it for a long period of time i would use the procedure recommended by zoogee

 

[Signstein]

Perfect - thanks!

 

[Signstein]

depending on when you are planning on using it i would keep it plugged in till you move it and then plug it in once you get where you're going. also run test prints and perhaps run the attached file once in a while to keep the ink flowing.
if you won't be using it for a long period of time i would use the procedure recommended by zoogee

Thanks! Yes, I think I'll just keep it plugged in next to the new printer at first. Then once we figure out what's going on I'll do the flush, lock and transport
And thanks for the test file!

 

[petepaz]

Thanks! Yes, I think I'll just keep it plugged in next to the new printer at first. Then once we figure out what's going on I'll do the flush, lock and transport
And thank

when you transport it definitely lock the head in place but if you are not traveling far and it won't be off for long, meaning once you get it where it's going you can plug it back in then it should be fine but if you have to put it in storage or won't be using it for a long period of time then you should flush the lines. over the past 23 years we have moved our rolands 2x and neither time did we flush the lines and they were fine. we moved and when we got them to the new location we plugged them back in and fired them up with no issues

 

[truckgraphics]

We've moved couple of Rolands. An SP and a VS.
We locked the head with the little blue plate. I don't remember the procedure.
But in both cases, the printers, for whatever reason, didn't work very well for the first several prints.
My advice, if you experience the same thing, is don't panic. Just do a manual cleaning and run some test prints through the machine.
It should come back to normal.

 

[netsol]

if you place any value on the printer, i would keep it plugged in and clean 2-3 times a week & do nozzle checks twice weekly

if the captop doesn't have a PERFECT SEAL, the ink will dry out and clog the head

i make arrangements for SOMEONE to stop in and do a cleaning & at least a nozzLE check on every printer in the shop EVERY DAY

 

[damonCA21]

I would agree with all the above advice, but also if you aren't going to be using it much at home, make up a file with some 2 inch squares of cyan, magenta, yellow and black - enough to fill the width of the vinyl - and print this out every few days. It won't use much ink and will keep the ink flowing through the system and heads, and also the carriages moving, cap top station working etc.... Rolands don't like to be left standing not working, so this just keeps everything moving

 

[Signstein]

Thanks everyone. This is all happening pretty quickly - we've attempted to replace this printer three times already, but lost the budget each time. Now, apparently we have the money and senior leadership is rushing it through. Which is good, but I'm kinda scrambling to figure out what to do with the old Roland. I'm leaning towards a more middle-of-the-road approach: definitely not cleaning once a month, but also not every day. A maintenance file is also a great idea - thank you all for the help.