which HP?

[Big House Signs]

Hi there!

Wishing everyone a fun filled Halloween!

Looking for advice. Our mimaki jv3 is on it's very last legs. Was pondering getting one of the new mimaki series that just came out but the price of head replacement and ink smell has deterred me. I am loving most of what I have read on the hp 300 series. Right now I have the money to get the 310 or should I wait to get more money together to get the 360? Is the 360 worth the extra 5k?

Thank you!

Paula

 

[bigben]

I currently have the L260. And yes, just for the print speed the 5k worth it. But the ink collector, big screen and on-board profiling is worth it alot.

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

I have an HP 310. Love it. We do a lot of 4 foot wide banners so its perfect.

Quality is great -- good speed --

Best purchase I made all year.... bought ours from LexJet.com -- they did a really good job taking care of us. We power ours with Onyx 11

 

[dypinc]

I currently have the L260. And yes, just for the print speed the 5k worth it. But the ink collector, big screen and on-board profiling is worth it a lot.

The on board profiling is not that great.

1. There are large number of media settings where you can not use the on board profiling.

2. While you can get adequate profiles from the on board for the media it will allow, you can get far better color management by doing it yourself. I also noticed that if you do your own color management you can control the pure colors where if you just import the profiles from the printer you can't control the inks in the way you need to to get the best matches for spot colors and pure colors like printing black as inkjet black. You might want to consider whether spending a little more for a good RIP with profile creation capabilities is more value to you than adding the extra cost of the L360.

For me I went with the L360 but I do my own calibration and profiles but the ink collector, big screen and other features were worth it.

For what it is worth on the L360, a RIP that will utilize the on-board spectro might be something you want to consider but you will use more media for calibration/profiles and it probably, especially over time will not be as accurate as a hang-held spectro.

 

[Big House Signs]

Thanks for the feed back. I guess it is going to come down to if I can keep the mimaki limping along til I can get the 360. I refuse to put anymore money into it. But if she goes down anytime soon it's the 310. I need to have a printer here and i want to pay for it in full.

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

The one thing I did find out about the 310 vs 360 after i bought it. HP disabled something in the firmware on the 310 to disable the cutter on the printer, so whenever it its done you have to cut your media loose with a scissors which is kinda of a pain. The 360 apparently cuts the material. The tech that came out and installed said the carriages are the same between the 2. One more thing to make you spend more $$

I make all of my profiles with an iSis so I really don't care about the onboard profiling. I can tell you that many of the canned profiles that come with the printer really do a nice job and print very pleasing color.

 

[HulkSmash]

I have the latex 360. It's worth the 5k.
Differences?

the 360 has a take up. It has a cutter to cut media off, and it's faster. the 360 is 64" wide...
It also has a huge touch screen display and displays an image of the printed image.. pretty sweet setup.


the Other machine doesn't have these features.

 

[dsgn4]

coloradosigns

i see you also use the forward brand banner...that is the only banner i have found that works great with latex...have you found any other that is trouble free like that?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

We used key banner on our 25500 and it worked perfect.

 

[dsgn4]

with the key banner..i had issues with pinch roller pattern showing up in some colors..and or darker stripes from what i think is static from the mylar fingers used to keep the material flat at the rollers

 

[BigfishDM]

Pro Wraps on here is selling 3 of his 26500's for around $7k I would buy a few of those instead of a new one.

 

[dypinc]

with the key banner..i had issues with pinch roller pattern showing up in some colors..and or darker stripes from what i think is static from the mylar fingers used to keep the material flat at the rollers

That is from plasticizers coming to the surface on PVC banner media. Ultraflex is the worst. I have not had much problem with key banner. Wipe the media down with alcohol and you can print just fine. And no the Latex Optimizer in the L300s make no difference.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

So do you think what dsgn is experiencing is from the pinch rollers pushing the plactizer through the banner to the top?

 

[SqueeGee]

There are lots of used 26500's coming into the market. $7k seems to be going price. Like you, we've been running a JV3 for a long time and have been looking to upgrade. $7k for a lightly used 26500 vs $18k for a 360, we chose the 26500. We're going to keep our JV3 running banners as long as we can.

 

[dypinc]

So do you think what dsgn is experiencing is from the pinch rollers pushing the plactizer through the banner to the top?

No not pushing it to the top, just pushing it around enough so that you will see the roller marks, but it will show up everywhere not just where the rollers hitting it.

 

[PRS Bryan]

The one thing I did find out about the 310 vs 360 after i bought it. HP disabled something in the firmware on the 310 to disable the cutter on the printer, so whenever it its done you have to cut your media loose with a scissors which is kinda of a pain. The 360 apparently cuts the material. The tech that came out and installed said the carriages are the same between the 2. One more thing to make you spend more $$

I make all of my profiles with an iSis so I really don't care about the onboard profiling. I can tell you that many of the canned profiles that come with the printer really do a nice job and print very pleasing color.

I just want to be sure I understand. There is no sheet cut feature on the 310. At the end of a print you manually cut the printed graphic free from the roll?

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Correct -- only way to cut it loose is with a pair of scissors or a razor blade in your hand. That is the only part of the whole printer I have found that I don't like. Not a major deal...

 

[PRS Bryan]

Correct -- only way to cut it loose is with a pair of scissors or a razor blade in your hand. That is the only part of the whole printer I have found that I don't like. Not a major deal...

Thank you for confirming that. My rep has been telling me otherwise.

I have to say I am a bit stunned. It seems like a pretty basic feature for a 12,000 printer.

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

I haven't had any issues with roller marks on banners. I have been running UltraFlex and HP's banner materials.

I have found that when I print on cheaper vinyl (Achieva brand one of my dealers wanted me try) it gets really wavy from the heat and I do get some head strikes. Back the heat down and then the ink wasn't fully curing. I have found that I can run Oracal vinyls all day long with no problems -- guess you get what you pay for...

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Unless there is a cutter setting somewhere in the LCD panel that I'm not seeing -- pretty sure its not there...