Looking for advice on a printer/plotter.

[hammered]

Ive been cutting on a Designtech for about a year now and love it. Problem is, for every diecut job I sell, I have to turn down a job that requires me to print and contour cut. Having a Designtech60 rules out the idea of buying a printer due to the fact I dont have registration mark sensors. I guess my question is, "What do you more experienced guys/gals think of the Roland PC series plotter/printer in one machines?" Thanks in advice.

[Barry]

Right now Roland is having a big promotion on the 30" versacamm (Great machine BTW). For the month of March you can pickup a Versacamm SP300 for $11,995 (normal price $14,995)

[uneedasign]

I do not have a Roland printer, so I can not speak from experience, but it is my understanding that Roland has developed their ink to only work well with their own media. This could be completely false, but worth looking into.

[Barry]

I do not have a Roland printer, so I can not speak from experience, but it is my understanding that Roland has developed their ink to only work well with their own media. This could be completely false, but worth looking into.

That is completely false. Roland inks will work on pretty much any media out there that will except solvent type inks.

Just an FYI, Epson makes the eco-sol inks for Roland & Mutoh, they both run the same inks.. :)

[uneedasign]

I guess I should take what a sales person says with a grain of salt.
Thanks Barry

[learned the hard way]

I think Hammered is asking about the old PC-60 and PC-600. I've never worked with either one, but I did read up on them back when I was interested in buying one. From what I have read, the PC-60 is dead slow and goes through ribbons quickly. It rolls all the ribbons the same amount even if it's not using a particular color. The PC-600 is better on ribbons, but is very sensitive to dust and needs cleaning every day. Also prone to printhead problems and printheads are expensive. Back when I was researching the 600 it was selling for about 10 grand. I think you can get one for around $3500 now. They're pretty outdated but they are Rolands, so I'm sure you can still get parts for them. I would save my money and try to get something better.

[cinemasign.grafix]

Kind wish i had not sold it. As far as maintenance , swab the head with the cleaning pen before and after printing . No big deal 10 sec. routine. In three years i replaced 1 head @ $495 That was do to my error. Had media loaded with a kink in it and had a media jam . The only downfall is print cost.