New guy with RJ- 4100

[phxsi]

Hello from Phoenix :signs101:

First of all this site is great. I have been reading for the past few weeks trying to suck up as much info as I can. I am no strange to the world of vinyl signage, graphics design and electronics, however I am very new when it comes to solvent based digital printing.

I have been in the market for a used and relatively small solvent printer. I found a Falcon Jr for for a few hundred bucks that needed work and took it home. The thing fired up and went through its motions and dances with no issues except an waste bottle error which turned out to be a faulty switch. Easy fix.

As I looked under the cover, I noticed the cleaning and caping station was a mess. I took the front panel out and removed the station for cleaning using arbots acetone and butyl carbitol solution. I unclogged the lines, clean the caps replaced the wipers, inspected the pump and gears and put it back together. I pushed fluid through the cleaning lines with no problem or leaks all the way to the waste bottle.

Next came the dampers and heads. The dampers I tossed, the heads were removed and as I expected they were clogged. I used solvent, ultrasonic bath, try to push cleaning solution with a syringe, soaking, pray to print head gods, NADA!.

The lines from the carts to the dampers are not clogged. so thats a plus I guess.

All of the above sit well with me except that EPSON apparently no longer makes DX2 heads and whoever has them is taking price gouging to another level. I was lucky to score a black head from ebay for a 120 bucks or so, but the color heads are very scarce, luckily I got one yesterday for a reasonable price of 190 bucks.

Sorry just want it to tell my story and advise future newcomers of the following:

Before you buy any printer, check how much your heads cost and make sure they are still being manufactured

Now I feel better.

Just for the record I this is a side venture for me and I just needed a solvent base printer for small decals and labels NOT STICKERS!

I'll report back once I get the heads are in.

This is the path i am going to follow just from common sense and knowledge gained from the site and other reading.

Pull cleaning solution from the carts station all the way to the damper feed line for each color to flush the old ink.

Install the heads

Install the dampers and prime with ink.

Connect the dampers to manifold and fire up.

I am assuming the head rank gets entered after the machine is put back together right?

What sort of procedure should I follow before trying to print? head cleaning? alignments?

Thank in advance for the time you guys take to help others.

 

[FrankW]

Regularly the RJ-4100 isn't a solvent printer. Are there media heaters at this machine?

Yes, the Head Rank should be set at the machine, and the heads should be aligned. But it is not possible to explain head alignment in a forum post for my opinion.

 

[phxsi]

I think this printer it's got multiple names. It's a Falcon outdoor Jr and yes it does have a heater. I found a maintenance manual which explains the process of head rank entering and head filling, alignment and tilt .

 

[FrankW]

OK. There are no Falcon Outdoor available in Europe, the Outdoor-Versions are named "Rockhopper".

 

[phxsi]

So I got the printer back together with new heads, inks, dampers. I flushed the line prior to the new install, and entered the new headranks. I tried doing a series of test prints using Flexi 10 but i can not get a clear print at all! and the colors look like they are way off and the image is very grainy. Here are a few pictures. Anyone have any ideas before I scrap the whole machine out?

 

[phxsi]

Now I am getting a undefined paper error

 

[CRD]

First get the machine simple CYMK test print to work and showing all colors as I see yellow and cyan are missing gradually or am I mistaken. Some cleanings might do the trick or print some larger CYMK blocks. Is there inkflow while the machine cleans to the waste bottle. Undefined paper could be a dirty sensor on the carriage or you reuse the vinyl and it reads the print. Align also the vinyl correctly on the right hand side.

Paco

 

[phxsi]

Thnx for the reply. I took care of the undefined paper issue. I removed the sensor and cleaned it with some alcohol and qtips. I went ahead and printed the large CMYK blocks as you instructed. As you can see in the picture seems like its laying ink just fine but there is some banding present. The heads are new so I don't know what could be causing the issue. I already cleaned the encoder and blew air over the sensor. Any ideas?. Also there is ink flow to the waste bottle from bothe heads.

Thank you in advance for any help

 

[CRD]

If you print in flexi you can add the CYMK bottom and top test print lines which are horizontal which then are horizontal. Hard to tell if this print blocks is left to right or top to bottom and if the banding is transport or nozzles missing. How does the machine simple test print look like when you print the blocks before and after in one view?

So start with the test print, then the blocks and the the test pritn again.

Paco

 

[phxsi]

Paco.
Funny thing I discovered this evening. Looking at the capping station, I noticed the insert/pad was missing. Originally I did not even know there suppose to be one in there since I did not have nothing to compare it to but after I looked closer at a few pic of the new station for sale a figure the pad was missing which explains the color cross contamination and possibly other issues.

Since I am using flexi, I am going to print the the test line and a new test print after I get the new capping station. The blocks you see were printed bottom to top (stacked)

 

[CRD]

Ok that is good news.
Let us know the result.

Paco