printer ideas please

[The Housewives Favourite]

Hi there everybody, new to this forum but have been reading it for a while so thought i had better join up anyway...here goes! right then, i have at the minute an S22 epson, which i now know to be a bag of plop, constantly blocks up and prints varying results as soon as you turn your back, i should know better as we are a print and sign firm for the last 20 years and used to do dye sub in house then farmed it out to a guy called "mick the mug" as he could produce the quality cheaper than us, however he retired and i missed the opportunity to buy his kit and kind of went back into this without realising just how bad the S22 is, so i am now looking for a new printer and keep seeing good reviews on the ricoh, i have used ricoh in the past for laser printers etc and have usually found them ok, but in terms of inkjet dye sub i have no idea? also i know the new ricoh ships with 29ml cartridges, can you buy bigger? how many sheets would you expect to get from 29ml cartridges based on medium coverage keeping the solids to a minimum but not as sparce as loads of white on a mug (basically designing the job to suit a good return of ink) and my next question is do these ricoh printers not nozzle block and if so is it as simple as just a nozzle clean on maintenance? and if its stood for a week or two without use do you have to throw a couple of sheets through each week to keep it lubed up as such or do they tend to be ok? sorry to ask so many questions but coming back into dye sub is a bigger mindfield than it used to be as there is so much choice available
cheers for any help
rob

[Justin]

Welcome to the forum You'll find plenty of discussions on different printers here including an excellent thread that is 'sticked' to the top of this printer section in this forum.

[RogerC]

HiRob...welcome. Ricoh printers are great. Just use them as you would any normal printer although they should be left on all the time to allow for it to 'do it's thing' and no nozzle blockage. I have the 7700 and it is great. It is used as and when required which means sometimes it sits for a week or so with no problems.

Have a look on BMS web site. (Google printerowners.co.uk) which has a great reputation. It will be worth your while speaking to them as they are knowledgable about all things dyesub. I got my kit from them and have found them to be excellent. They are also active members of this forum.

http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/technical ... -per-print
The link will give you an idea of costs in terms of ink usage.

[The Housewives Favourite]

Thanks Roger, was looking on their site last night so will probably end up buying from them, but was a bit confused about the size of in cartridge, i know its a gel ink with higher viscosity etc (i watched the video) , but was wondering about the return as if i buy a dinky cartridge for my inkjet and do say 40 t shirts with heavy coverage then its gone, so was trying to work out cost per sheet based on medium coverage, also how come the ricoh doesnt clog as much? just curious thats all

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Rob

Do a search on this forum and there is a link to the Sawgrass website which has a PDF showing unit cost per page. Would do it myself and repost but am a tad busy right now

[RogerC]

Thanks Roger, was looking on their site last night so will probably end up buying from them, but was a bit confused about the size of in cartridge, i know its a gel ink with higher viscosity etc (i watched the video) , but was wondering about the return as if i buy a dinky cartridge for my inkjet and do say 40 t shirts with heavy coverage then its gone, so was trying to work out cost per sheet based on medium coverage, also how come the ricoh doesnt clog as much? just curious thats all

The best way of getting the information is call BMS. They can tell you excatly what the potential costs per sheet are although the Sawgrass link above does give a pretty close estimation. You will find the 3110 works out more expensive per sheet than the 7700 because it only uses the smaller cartridges whereas the 7700 uses 60ml carts as opposed to 29ml. The carts for the 7700 are not double the price of the 3110 carts ergo cheaper per sheet although you are looking at a lot more for the 7700 printer (although this does give greater flexibility if you need to expand your product line) and is expensive if you have no need of an A3 printer.

[The Housewives Favourite]

cheers to both of you i appreciate your time, i will have a scan on the sawgrass link, i do very little at A3 size to be honest, obviously i could but the bits we do are add on bits apart from the litho print and the signs, to keep people interested and coming back to us, like mugs mousemats etc, ie: the smaller stuff, and badges as well so i know its sods law i get A4 and an A3 job comes in but its few and far between and the money side is probably a little bit more than i wanted to spend, not being grinchy and mean but £300 i can justify easily, £800 not so sure?? i may just buy the A4 and if i find its going well can always upgrade to A3 or have it running along side i suppose, do you find the ricoh a lot more maintenance free than using epson with a ciss for arguments sake? i already know the answer but just checking going to turn my S22 into a door stop i think

[The Housewives Favourite]

right then....just an update, rang BMS and purchased the ricoh SG3110DN.....wow!!! what a difference to my bag of pants epson S22, up and running within the hour, not too hard following the sawgrass instructions but its best to do it with peace and quiet and a brew...in my case with 3 screaming kids but still managed it, what a total difference in colour and quality, absolutely ace!! mugs and badges produced in half the time it takes to even set the S22 up....time will tell on any problems with the printer etc but i have to say for now the money outlay was well worth the spend as it really seems to be you get what you pay for!! and a big thank you to BMS for some outstanding service, i thank you (takes a bow)