6 weeks printer down

[gabagoo]

6 weeks ago came in on a Monday morning and my Mimaki had an error message (jv15- -130) Called my tech and he was in Spain until the following Tuesday, so put the printer in a nozzle wash and killed all the power. I am very dependent on the printer and without, basically out of business. Thankfully my screen printer around the corner has a jv 100 with Flexi like mine so I made a deal as he never really uses his much and basically daily go over there to do all my printing in batches. Tech reviews the error codes and follows the proceedures outlined by Mimaki and he says that everything checks out so he is pretty sure it is the motherboard and we order it for $1600.00 Wait another week and he comes back installs it and now the problems continue as he tries to update the firmware and get the board to know that I run a jv130. So now we need a com IO board ( which I replaced once already a couple years ago). Wait another week and now we have a new IO board $ 2200 or something like that. He is here today and I know he is super frustrated. He is getting new error messages and he had a spare slider board and tried that but that is not the issue. He gets on the horn with Mimaki technical and now the guy tells him to replace all the ribbon cables as there is a communication error and this is the only thing that it can be. I have no idea how much farther this goes but I just replaced the print head in April and I have the drainage tubes crimped and keep the printer in a permanent nozzle wash but each day I slide the head out and I can see the liquid is down and have to refill it although I can see nothing going through the tubes... I am frustrated, he is fruistrated...I am now worried that once he gets it up and running how is that head going to be..... I think I have basically in 5 years re built this printer. I have to say though that I really am happy with its print quality so it has been good to me. Just don't know how far down the rabbit hole I have to go to be able to print again. Sorry just had to vent. The tech is a Mimaki trained and I have used him for quite a few years so I know he knows his stuff...

 

[Solventinkjet]

The 150s were great machines for a long time but, as they've aged, I've noticed major electrical issues with them. We've had to completely overhaul the electronics on multiple printers. At some point, they changed the slider board design and if you put a newly designed one in with too low of a firmware version, it would blow things up. I'd never seen firmware in a printer be able to blow a board until then. I suspect there were issues that Mimaki addressed but never came out and officially said was a major problem. So your tech isn't in a unique situation with that model, that's for sure. What error message is he getting?

As long as you keep the head capped and do the head soaks like you're doing, the head should be just fine, although the older it is, the more likely it can have issues.

 

[truckgraphics]

Let me suggest - remind us all - that our printers are our lifeblood. And most of us are printers, not printer repair people.

In my recent case, my printer went down after at least 10 years of trouble free operation. (I don't remember when I bought it.) It's a Roland VS-540 btw. Anyway the tech suggested it could cost up to $5,000 to fix it. Maybe it needs a new head...maybe some new cables or just more head soaking. So $500 to $5,000 to get up and running again while $5,000+ in business was ready to be filled.

The dealer - from whence the tech came - had a refurbished SG 540 for $8.000. Maybe they were trying to move the machine, I don't know. But the next day I had a working printer. With a warranty.

I'm probably spoiled, but I like to come into my tiny shop, have a cup of coffee, press the on button and make some money. I can't do that if I'm worried about the reliability of my printer....

Now, because I like to tinker, I will probably try to get the VS-540 working when I have some free time so I can sell it for more than its cutting feature. Getting it running might be worth up to $2,000 on the resale. I may even ask you good folks for advice on repair.

For now, the old workhorse is in the corner of my shop until I can tend to it. I may have to shoot it, but I can't keep calling the large animal doctor for veterinary treatments.

To me, reliability is priceless

 

[gabagoo]

The 150s were great machines for a long time but, as they've aged, I've noticed major electrical issues with them. We've had to completely overhaul the electronics on multiple printers. At some point, they changed the slider board design and if you put a newly designed one in with too low of a firmware version, it would blow things up. I'd never seen firmware in a printer be able to blow a board until then. I suspect there were issues that Mimaki addressed but never came out and officially said was a major problem. So your tech isn't in a unique situation with that model, that's for sure. What error message is he getting?

As long as you keep the head capped and do the head soaks like you're doing, the head should be just fine, although the older it is, the more likely it can have issues.

 

[White Haus]

Let me suggest - remind us all - that our printers are our lifeblood. And most of us are printers, not printer repair people.

To me, reliability is priceless

Agreed. We have multiple printers for this exact reason - if we were down for 6 weeks we would be out of business. Last time a printer went down on us (Roland XR-640) we traded her in for a new one. I'd sooner cut my losses and use an old dead printer as a trade-in rebate rather than keep dumping money into it.

But all that doesn't necessarily help the OP in this current situation.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Gabagoo, if we were closer I'd gladly print your jobs for you. (Still happy to if you're in a pinch, but shipping from Winnipeg would delay things for you)

Just out of curiosity, are you working with an ND tech? We've only bought one Mimaki from them but I've always been blown away by how helpful and knowledgeable their techs are.

Hope you get back up and running soon, let me know if I can help with anything.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

If you're a real business... why after 6 weeks have you not bought a replacement printer? If this was your car and the mechanic couldn't fix it in 6 weeks, you're still borrowing your neighbors car to get around. At some point you got to make a decision to end this and get a new printer. Sounds like a rabbit hole with all those problems.

 

[Johnny Best]

If you're a real business... why after 6 weeks have you not bought a replacement printer? If this was your car and the mechanic couldn't fix it in 6 weeks, you're still borrowing your neighbors car to get around. At some point you got to make a decision to end this and get a new printer. Sounds like a rabbit hole with all those problems.

Insightful information Tex! I think gabagoo is waiting to get a new printer. He has been around long enough to know the circumstances of what he has to do.

 

[gabagoo]

Insightful information Tex! I think gabagoo is waiting to get a new printer. He has been around long enough to know the circumstances of what he has t

I am 68 years old. I need an exit strategy and I have no want for a new printer at this point. I have over the last month or so come up with a plan to take the biz home. I have a pretty large space in the basement that I can set up a work room and take the printer home as well as my plotter and laminator. Use the garage for the panel saw and substrates..... Originally I thought I could sub out the printing to wholesalers but that would mean a lot of running around. My actual thoughts are to keep the company alive and basically do mostly decals and small signage and dump the vehicle graphics ( unless the customer has indoor heated facilities). I want to slow down, but I also want to keep some of the valuable write offs that business gets to help me afford retirement ( I think I am good anyways) and also keep myself a little busy, but not have the responsibility of renting a unit and having to be here 5 days a week. If I had no intentions on scaling back... 100% true would have bought a new printer by this point. Like I mentioned before, My screen printer has a jv 100 and it prints pretty much the same as mine and we also have the same software so a 2 minute drive and I can print what I need for now. I have done him so many favors helping him with the printer that I will basically pay for his ink and then throw him a lump sum when this is all over. We shall see what this week brings to the table.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I am 68 years old. I need an exit strategy and I have no want for a new printer at this point. I have over the last month or so come up with a plan to take the biz home. I have a pretty large space in the basement that I can set up a work room and take the printer home as well as my plotter and laminator. Use the garage for the panel saw and substrates..... Originally I thought I could sub out the printing to wholesalers but that would mean a lot of running around. My actual thoughts are to keep the company alive and basically do mostly decals and small signage and dump the vehicle graphics ( unless the customer has indoor heated facilities). I want to slow down, but I also want to keep some of the valuable write offs that business gets to help me afford retirement ( I think I am good anyways) and also keep myself a little busy, but not have the responsibility of renting a unit and having to be here 5 days a week. If I had no intentions on scaling back... 100% true would have bought a new printer by this point. Like I mentioned before, My screen printer has a jv 100 and it prints pretty much the same as mine and we also have the same software so a 2 minute drive and I can print what I need for now. I have done him so many favors helping him with the printer that I will basically pay for his ink and then throw him a lump sum when this is all over. We shall see what this week brings to the table.

I can understand that. you got caught in a bad place throwing money at this thing that's turning into a money pit.. that sucks. hope you get it resolved. do you Canadians not have something like signs365 that can wholesale out? makes owning a printer optional.

 

[SightLine]

If you dont have it, and might not be interested in poking around yourself anyways, the service manual shows the details for the errors. Shoot me a message with your email and I'll send you a copy.

 

[Solventinkjet]

The error 811 means that the communication between the main board and slider board and/or the main board and I/O board isn't working. The 1C1 error means the the main board can't see the COM I/O board. I'd check every connection to make sure it's plugged in perfectly and without damaged cables. Unfortunately, you may need a main board next. Your tech might have done this already, but attached is an electrical troubleshooting guide to test the COM board. Might help him out if he doesn't know about it.

 

[gabagoo]

Thanks Guys...

 

[kcollinsdesign]

I've been out-sourcing pretty much everything (including printing) for years. I order exactly what I need and eliminate the cost of buying and maintaining equipment, inventory, material handling, space requirements, ventilation and air conditioning, and production payroll. We are able to offer competitive pricing (usually between 40% – 60% profit margin, essentially double my total cost), drop shipping, and reasonable turn-around.

I do not understand your comment about "running around". I do far less running around than I used to when we did everything in house.

This may not work for a big plant printing for the industry, but for smaller shops doing <$500k – $1M a year it is a sensible and viable option.

While we do make profit selling printing and fabricated signs (all out-sourced), most of our income is derived from design, project management, and especially installation (installation is local and cannot be sourced from the internet). There seems to be a dearth of experienced installers; we get installation requests from all over the state (mostly within a 150 mile radius, but increasingly find that people are willing to pay the travel costs once they find out we can do it).

 

[White Haus]

The difference is that our wholesale game up here in Canada is pretty pathetic. They're few and far between, overpriced, garbage quality, and will snake your customers from you, and/or are incompetent as a whole.

OP is in a bigger market where there are probably a bunch of local "wholesalers" but I personally wouldn't trust them.

I recently got set up w/ S365 and quickly wrote that off - they were talking a week with shipping to get some banners to us, not to mention quoting the project in USD and couldn't even guess how much we'd be looking at for freight/brokerage/tariffs etc. Certainly less than ideal. How do you expect someone to take your job and mark it up and sell it if you can't even tell them what it's going to cost landed?

The ONLY wholesale partner we fully trust is Gemini - what you see quoted is what you generally pay and you don't have to worry about exchange rate/shipping/brokerage surprises.

We wholesale print for lots of local shops, and I wish we could find a supplier that treats us as good as I think we treat our customers. When they come to us and trust us with their jobs/clients, we take it seriously and treat it as if we were doing work for one of our best clients - in terms of quality standards - not poaching their clients from them.