Ricoh GX5050n

[Justin]

My apologies for this oversight, I have Artainium on the brain!

The inks were from Xpres but the printer was sourced elsewhere as I was unable to get the package together. Otherwise I would ask Xpres to compensate me for the ink.

Justin

[Justin]

Quick update......

Can't find the time to call Ricoh I'm afraid right now. Not had the printer running for a couple of weeks so i thought I'd have a quick go.

Turned it on, took ages to start up. Now telling me that 2 of the cart's are close to replacement! Can't believe how quickly these have gone. Not sure how many prints I've done in total but it really seems to have gone quickly.

Couple of test prints, colours seem ok but still getting a line which is noticable across solid areas, about 1.5cm wide. I'm pretty sure this is due to a head alignment problem, been through setting that up but no improvment.

Seriously unhappy with how this first go with the Ricoh has been. I was looking at going A3, either the GX7000 or maybe a 1400, I have my doubts both ways.

Oh well, hopefully find some time to call Ricoh

Justin

[Calypso Bay]

Hi Justin,

Ive had mine sitting in the front room. I was going to use the garage but its too cold in there at the moment. Im going to have to set up in the bedroom until the winter passes. Ordered the corel draw book and hoping to get the software and the ink as the money comes in.

Fingers crossed with the Ricoh!!!

[Justin]

Everything crossed! My D120 has now decided to play up. Very strange, just did a run of prints that contained high level of magenta and now the magenta has become blocked. This is exactly what happened with my last 1400, same job, same number of prints, magenta gets blocked and can't be cleared.

Uhm.....

Justin

[JSR]

Everything crossed! My D120 has now decided to play up. Very strange, just did a run of prints that contained high level of magenta and now the magenta has become blocked. This is exactly what happened with my last 1400, same job, same number of prints, magenta gets blocked and can't be cleared.

Uhm.....

Justin

I had a similar thing with the Cyan on Monday. Looked pretty terminal. But I (kind of) followed the advice of BMS on another thread and stuffed a syringe up the underside of the Cyan cartridge, yanked a bunch of ink through it, and it's been working fine ever since! In fact it's better than before because the black-only option is working without spraying ink all over the place. Gawd knows how fixing the Cyan also fixed the Black but I'm not looking that gift horse in its cakebox...

My refillables for my 1290S arrived today so I'll be playing about with them over Christmas.

[The Phoenix]

Hi - I to have a GX5050N and I'm absolutely amazed at the speed at which it prints. I also have an Epson, which appears to have clogged heads on the black. Colours are ok, but alas .... The Epson gave beautiful quality images, but in less than 3 weeks of non use the black printheads seemed to have clogged. I tried cleaning them without success. I took the cartridge head out (CIS system) to check they were full of ink and they were. Replacing the cartridge unit allowed me to do one test print then seized up again. As yet I cannot complain of the quality of print from the Ricoh.

[John G]

Hi All, Quick update on my ricoh - I too am amazed at the speed and quality on the 5050n - also just sold the standard ink carts (quick sale on fleebay) that came with my backup 5050n so the printers themselves have only cost me a grand total of £33.00 each

Any problems so far:
Cyan was printing a bit funny but cleared after one nozzle clean.
Cyan and Magenta are nearly empty after printing just over 100 sheets. This would be due to filling the tubes/pipes when new, as it splits these colours to make light versions, and also because I was printing very, very blocky/bold magenta/cyan text. The ink empty hasn't flashed up yet but the display looks close to the bottom of the readout.

Cheers John

[Calypso Bay]

Hi John/ Justin et al,

I bought the GX5050N and looking for the best place for purchasing the sublimation ink cartridges. Please can you tell me:

(i) Would I be okay to set up the printer with the ordinary print cartridges to get the printer going and making sure it works fine and then replace the cartridges with dye sub ones, or would this create a complication?
(ii) I hope to experiment first with black ink on mugs, so should I just go for a black dye sub cartridge first, or would I need to install the complete set of four

(iii) Best place to buy due sub cartridges?

Cheers.

Mike

[John G]

Hi Mike,
DON'T put the standard ink carts in for testing, I read somewhere on a US site that once the standard inks have been in its very hard to change the Ricohs to work with sublimation ink.

There's not much difference in price across the net regarding the sublijet carts. Set of 4 at Xpres is £240.00 + carriage + vat and at BMS I think it was £235 + delivery + vat - or if bought seperately £60.00 per colour.

Not quite sure about only running one colour - not sure whether the printer would run.

Cheers John

[Calypso Bay]

John,

Cheers mate. I might sell the cartridges on ebay then and bite the bullet with the dye sub cartridges. Bloody expensive those!!!