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I am both amazed at how clean you are getting that and traumatized by the flashbacks of dealing with my MK1 at the same time. My slider board was greyish-purple and coated with a good 1mm of old ink and the retainer tabs for the head were all snapped as well, but looks like you lucked out there.

Sounds like a job for hot glue!

As long as you didn't try pushing the cleaner through the nozzle plate, it should recover. Best bet is to set the head in a thin layer of cleaner and gently pull the ink through the port, or use an old cap and use that to pull from the bottom of the head. Those DX7 heads are super easy to damage...

UV inks are composed of photoinitiated compounds that respond to the specific wavelength (395nm if I remember correctly), so typically pigments will not change curing properties. Even using UV reactive pigments like Dayglo and glow in the dark on custom mixes we've done will not cause issues...

Put the print outside on a sunny day for 15 minutes. If it cures, check your lamps to see if there might be ink on the glass. If that doesn't do it, might have some ink doing funky things due to a bad batch, expiration, etc. Better yet, make a test print divided into ink colors so you can check...

Are people at FastSigns hobbyists? I know a few locations run the JFX200 which can easily do 4x8ft. My current unit I got running was an older unit from one in Tulsa, and Mimaki even offers deals to their franchises for that model. Sure, they all won't have one, but a good shot.

Interesting looking pattern on the first image. Since the orange is on the far edge of the head, there is a chance the head is starting to delaminate. Wipe the edge around the nozzle plate as clean as you can, then let the printer sit overnight (powered) and see if you can see any ink leaking...

We're almost all UV printing here, less maintenance and cheaper, more fade resistant inks Also, running flatbeds. Roland's UV stuff has a long way to go. People keep bringing me samples from Roland/GSG and I just print them a copy with higher DPI settings, and they think I sold my soul to Satan...

Want some? I know a guy, totally not me..

Service manuals do call them dumpers.

Oldest ink I got to work was 4 years off date without major issues. Print quality was crap, but great for testing. Shook the crap out of it first of course.

Just toss a Hobby Lobby/Michael's $4 canvas on a flatbed and do a unidirectional print to avoid ghosting artifacts if it isn't perfectly flat. JFX500 works great for doing a whole bunch at once. If you get a misalignment or messed up print, do what I do and pop them over a coworker's head...

Make sure to put the dampers in exactly as shown in service manual. There are 9 easy ways to install them, and only the hard way actually works without letting air in. Save up a lot of obscenities as well. For the special Mimaki damper deflate tool, a bent stick works just as well.

For absorbent pads, I use bulk oil absorbant spun polyester material usually sold to mechanics. Almost identical, good for ink soak pads, especially when doing rebuilds. Just cut it with a nice sharp hobby knife and scissors.

UV printers are great about being recoverable, as long as you keep UV and sunlight out of them, they tend to clean up decently. For cleaning up old ink inside the body, orange cleaner wipes like Tub o' Towels work pretty well.

More what?

Just wait until you see the crap I'm doing with the JFX500's in the shop!

Had a MK1 6042 in similar condition, scrapped it. While it uses Gen4 heads, you MUST get the long cable versions (basically the Mimaki version) and those set you back a couple grand each. Getting the head bolts loose is a bloody nightmare and the dampers are tricky to install right. If time...

Roll your clock back if chips are expired under the #ADJUST menu. Take your flush and fill each bottle tank to the lower inner lip where the bottle would seal so the floats see the ink as being 'full' by pouring it in slowly. This avoids cross-contaminating your flush with different colors. From...

On some items, perforation is best done with a ruler and a rotary perforation cutter. Not bad for small quantities at least.