can i get away with 30inch printer?

[rawjahprintshop]

yes i know it equals more seems, but even for wall wraps too, do you think worst case I can get away with it? yes i know it will be smaller than 20 inch also. and then overlap...

thoughts not just know it alls, please.
thanks

 

[signheremd]

30 inch vinyl and laminate is readily available. Decals and logos for vehicles can often fit on 30 inch vinyl. Obviously a printer that can print on 54 inch rolls can print the same graphics and larger. But your choice - influenced by your budget. I will say, in the 80s all we had was the Gerber Edge printing at 11.8 inches and layers of vinyl. So yes, a 30 inch printer can be put to work as long as the clients like the finished product.

 

[petepaz]

not sure what your business is like or how much you get but yes you can get away with it. i will tell you we got a 30" printer and within 6 months we ended up buying a 54" printer to go along with it.
you can always use smaller vinyl on the bigger printer but not the other way around. think to the future and save some money but buying the larger printer from the start

 

[rawjahprintshop]

30 inch vinyl and laminate is readily available. Decals and logos for vehicles can often fit on 30 inch vinyl. Obviously a printer that can print on 54 inch rolls can print the same graphics and larger. But your choice - influenced by your budget. I will say, in the 80s all we had was the Gerber Edge printing at 11.8 inches and layers of vinyl. So yes, a 30 inch printer can be put to work as long as the clients like the finished product.

haha wow yes very true. I actually have an FX in new/used condition. 20 prints on it. I do it for a few specialty colors and medal colors still but yeah its definitely past-dated!!!

 

[rawjahprintshop]

not sure what your business is like or how much you get but yes you can get away with it. i will tell you we got a 30" printer and within 6 months we ended up buying a 54" printer to go along with it.
you can always use smaller vinyl on the bigger printer but not the other way around. think to the future and save some money but buying the larger printer from the start

I just want to offer them on my website for now, im not ready to upgrade yet. I have had a 30 inch for a year now and wasnt doing them then, and want to start and work my way to a 54inch machine sooner than later. But for me, that will come with a new laminator, and, all the new tables in the shop. so its going to be quite the upgrade around the shop too. We still get away with a manual 36inch laminator at this time... Motocross graphics and all! 21 Mil

 

[Stacey K]

I guess it depends on what you are doing. I do a lot of 4'x8' signs and I'm glad I got the 54" - I was thinking of getting the 30" also. Glad I sprang for the 54".

 

[gnubler]

What are some recommended makes/models of 30" printers?

 

[petepaz]

we started out with roland eco-solvent print/cut machines. (went from 30" to 54" to 64"theory behind that is you can buy one machine so less footprint in the shop.
a lot wll argue that it slows your production down but we never had an issue.
as you get busier and need additional machines if you have the roland print/cut machines they are interchangeable in that you can print from one and cut on the other

 

[Gino]

If you have it, they will come.

If you think you can get along with a 30", you'll need a 54" in no time. In the time it takes you to print 4 panels to do a double sided 4'x8' sign, you'll have many extra hours in, plus a bottleneck cause you can only do a sign in 3 hours, instead of 1 hour. It's very easy to make excuses why you can't afford to do it, but when the jobs are starring you in the face and you can't get them out, you'll be up that famous creek without the paddle. Guess what you'll be thinking.............

 

[netsol]

If you have it, they will come.

If you think you can get along with a 30", you'll need a 54" in no time. In the time it takes you to print 4 panels to do a double sided 4'x8' sign, you'll have many extra hours in, plus a bottleneck cause you can only do a sign in 3 hours, instead of 1 hour. It's very easy to make excuses why you can't afford to do it, but when the jobs are starring you in the face and you can't get them out, you'll be up that famous creek without the paddle. Guess what you'll be thinking.............

i was just thinking, if he sticks to a 30" printer, ALMOST EVERY customer who comes in will have a request for larger.
we have had to send out a good number of larger than 54" work. (now that we have a 65" printer it will NEVER happen again, but, so what)

 

[ikarasu]

If you plan on printing full vehicle wraps with a 30"... Id say no.

It won't even be wide enough to do a door without a seem... You can get away with seeming certain areas, but if you have to seem every door, the hood twice, trunk twice, it'll look like a hack job.


If you're just printing decals you can get by with a 30". You'll be wasting more material... If someone wants a 16" decal you can't put 2 side by side, now you have almost 50% waste. So you're more limited, but you can get around that by running promotional items / other stuff along side it.


Walls your fine - when we have a customer buy a wall wrap and want to install it themselves, we split it up into 26" pieces so it's easy for them to handle. yes, you get more seems... But there's a reason most wallpapers are in small under 30" rolls... I doubt any customer could put up a 52" panel and join it properly.


Most people who have a 30, or get a 30, end up upgrading very quickly because the 54 is more convenient and cheaper to run.

Do you have a laminator? Finding a 30" laminator is somewhat of a pain too, unless you go manual.

 

[netsol]

If you plan on printing full vehicle wraps with a 30"... If say no.

It won't even be wide enough to do a door without a seem... You can get away with seeming certain areas, but if you have to seem every door, the hood twice, trunk twice, it'll look like a hack job.


If you're just printing decals you can get by with a 30". You'll be wasting more material... If someone wants a 16" decal you can't put 2 side by side, now you have almost 50% waste. So you're more limited, but you can get around that by running promotional items / other stuff along side it.


Walls your fine - when we have a customer buy a wall wrap and want to install it themselves, we split it up into 26" pieces so it's easy for them to handle. yes, you get more seems... But there's a reason most wallpapers are in small under 30" rolls... I doubt any customer could put up a 52" panel and join it properly.


Most people who have a 30, or get a 30, end up upgrading very quickly because the 54 is more convenient and cheaper to run.

Do you have a laminator? Finding a 30" laminator is somewhat of a pain too, unless you go manual.

or a daige (on ebay/craigslist/offerup/facebook marketplace) [daige makes no effort to keep any parts any more]

 

[Gino]

If he/she doesn't quite have the market for digital prints, they can easily use a liquid or spray clear on the smaller prints. Once they have the need, they can figure out a game plan on setting up a laminator.

 

[rawjahprintshop]

If you plan on printing full vehicle wraps with a 30"... If say no.

It won't even be wide enough to do a door without a seem... You can get away with seeming certain areas, but if you have to seem every door, the hood twice, trunk twice, it'll look like a hack job.


If you're just printing decals you can get by with a 30". You'll be wasting more material... If someone wants a 16" decal you can't put 2 side by side, now you have almost 50% waste. So you're more limited, but you can get around that by running promotional items / other stuff along side it.


Walls your fine - when we have a customer buy a wall wrap and want to install it themselves, we split it up into 26" pieces so it's easy for them to handle. yes, you get more seems... But there's a reason most wallpapers are in small under 30" rolls... I doubt any customer could put up a 52" panel and join it properly.


Most people who have a 30, or get a 30, end up upgrading very quickly because the 54 is more convenient and cheaper to run.

Do you have a laminator? Finding a 30" laminator is somewhat of a pain too, unless you go manual.

all answered above!

 

[bob]

I have a 48" Mutoh and 99.9% of the time I print on 30" media. The reason being that I don't want to wrangle anything much larger than 30" by myself. It's not that I can't do it, rather it's that I don't want to do it. So buy a 54" or whatever and run smaller media in it. Then you're ready for anything.

 

[gnubler]

If you have it, they will come.

Which is kinda my thinking on getting my first printer so I can do more in-house. Do I have the volume as has been discussed in other threads? Maybe not, but I'm turning too much work away being limited by outsourcing my printing. Limited to media types and turnaround time, custom jobs, etc.

I'm thinking of getting a smaller printer to start with and continue to outsource all my 8x4' prints.

 

[Gino]

Back in the early 90s there were basically no wide format printers and I got the largest one I could find, without spending a fortune. Now, there is so much available, that kinda thinking just floors me. Nah, I don't need a refrigerator or stove in my new house. I'll just get by using the microwave for most things and when I want something big, I'll go out, buy it and bring it home.

Yep, I'll just do these little signs and beat out everybody else's prices and get myself established. Hopefully, I can pay for this little printer. In the meantime, I'll just keep paying someone else, my 'printer payments' on what I really need. Yeah, that sounds logical.

 

[rawjahprintshop]

Back in the early 90s there were basically no wide format printers and I got the largest one I could find, without spending a fortune. Now, there is so much available, that kinda thinking just floors me. Nah, I don't need a refrigerator or stove in my new house. I'll just get by using the microwave for most things and when I want something big, I'll go out, buy it and bring it home.

Yep, I'll just do these little signs and beat out everybody else's prices and get myself established. Hopefully, I can pay for this little printer. In the meantime, I'll just keep paying someone else, my 'printer payments' on what I really need. Yeah, that sounds logical.

i think this was to me, the OP yeah?

 

[Gino]

Actually no, but if the shoe fits............