Valuejet 1204 or 1604?

[FatCat]

Our business is looking at purchasing a large format printer for banners and vehicle graphics. From all the glowing reports here we are going to take a hard look at the Mutoh Valuejet line. (We are also going to look at Roland machines.) However, our main concern with the Mutoh is size. We plan on getting into vehicle wraps and are wondering if the 48" machine is big enough, or does it warrant the 64"?

*FWIW - Our local Feller's rep. said there are several shops he deals with that say the only mistake they made was going to the 48" format due to size limitations on materials. Mentioned something about not being able to do vehicle hoods in 1 piece with a 48 inch machine?

I guess Roland has everyone set up for that 54" size, eh?

-TIA

 

[Urban Image]

The 48" is a great machine for banners and decals (with the Ultima) but if you're looking at a large emphasis on vehicle wraps I would recommend the 64".

 

[juan45215]

I agree. If you are going to lease the equipment it is ony about $50 more a month for the 64" machine. If your customer wants a 4 ft banner with full bleed, you need to be able to load 50" media.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Personally, I'd never choose a 48" machine...you cannot print a full-bleed 4' wide panel! If it were me, I'd be looking at 54" minimum, and look HARD at a 63" or better machine.

 

[3dsignco]

Just Got our 64 Mutoh set up yestreday and we love it.. (After a few learning curve Headaches).. One issue we are running in with our Printer is we do a lot of double sided banners and the mutoh has no way to line up material for the flipside.. So after some experimentiation figured out a way to align the 2 sides by using REG Marks and a ruler.. A pain but it works.

 

[PMG]

I have the 1204 set up and am very happy with it............................also i think ( have not did it yet) if you buy the 54" media and have it cut to 51 the max width for the 1204 it will print 48",here is a banner i did with 48 inch media.

 

[kirkbedtelyon]

Personally, I'd never choose a 48" machine...you cannot print a full-bleed 4' wide panel! If it were me, I'd be looking at 54" minimum, and look HARD at a 63" or better machine.

I print full bleed with our 48" Valuejet. The 48" material we get (3m-180c) comes 48.5". The printer will print a full 48". It's a little tricky laying it out but it works.

If you're going to be wraping vehicles, I'd suggest the 64" as most hoods are over 50" wide. Also, there's a lot more material available for the 64"!

Good luck!

 

[bob]

I agree. If you are going to lease the equipment it is ony about $50 more a month for the 64" machine. If your customer wants a 4 ft banner with full bleed, you need to be able to load 50" media.

Not quite. Since 48" wide banners traditionally have a finished width of 46", printing anything wider than 46" roughly centered on 48" media will do just fine.

 

[Valentino]

the 1204 is for starters, the 1604 is for starters who want to do bigger.

the difference between the machines is the size of media, the included media take up and the ink handling. The 1604 only has a few more square feet per hour then the 1204. I believe it's under 150sf/h.

Personally, I purchased the 1204 to get a handle on the printing learning curve and to understand more about wideformat printing being my first printer. My next printer will be a Toucan/spitfire/soljet/or the advance jet, because although the valuejet is nice, it's not as fast as I want. Although the 1604 can handle the bigger media it's print speed is very slow, if you do alot of printing look into the Mutoh Spitfire.

 

[FatCat]

Don't know if any of you are near the midwes, but currently the only vendors I see that service Ohio are Piedmont Plastics and Fuji. We have contacted both and are getting proposals. Anyone have other recommendations?

Also, we'll be looking at a laminator would love to hear suggestions on those as well. It would have to be a fairly close match for the 64" printer.

 

[Matt Cuellar]

I'm based on the West Coast, but do a lot of sales & service in the midwest. Ask Buddy (Contributing Member), we'll take good care of you! =0)

We've had tremendous success with the ValueJet and our customer base is definitely sold on our understanding of color management and profiling. Email or give me a call if you'd like to hear about us!

Matt Cuellar
Unica digital media
(425) 774-3136
mattc@unicadigital.com
www.unicadigital.com

 

[Urban Image]

To be completely honest, I would avoid Fuji. I have had customers come back to me after using them and tell me horror stories. Then I had to fix Fuji's mistakes... I haven't heard good or bad on Piedmont but they seem like a credible company.

 

[FatCat]

I haven't heard good or bad on Piedmont but they seem like a credible company.

Well, the only thing that struck me as odd was a "holier-than-thou" attitude prjected by the sales rep. The sales rep. grilled me on my "graphic knowledge" and actually told me; "Well, we don't sell this equipment to just anybody."

*It's like I had to convince him that 13 years of prepress experience using Adobe software and other high-end software, Creo, Fiery and Heidelberg RIPS, plus a heavy background in digital printer/press/copier experience wasn't enough to warrant us buying a machine for our print shop.

I dunno' maybe it's a good thing, or maybe he's just protecting other customers from "wannabe's" entering the market.

I don't know, just looking for other options - but thank you to those who replied.

 

[FatCat]

I'm based on the West Coast, but do a lot of sales & service in the midwest. Ask Buddy (Contributing Member), we'll take good care of you! =0)

We've had tremendous success with the ValueJet and our customer base is definitely sold on our understanding of color management and profiling. Email or give me a call if you'd like to hear about us!

Matt Cuellar
Unica digital media
(425) 774-3136
mattc@unicadigital.com
www.unicadigital.com

Matt, sent you an email.