New Here from Portugal

[Alexandre Carinhas]

Hi all,

just to introduce myself, I'm Alex and I own a surfschool/Surfcamp/Surfshop in Peniche/Portugal. I've been doing some T-shirts and Sweat shirts with a DTG printer Epson F2000 which always gives me a bit of headheak. So if the was not enough I bought a Roland XC-540 in not functioning state and already with all the posts here I've been able to almost putting to work(missing a fuse and two heads I need to buy), after replacing the caps, the Dampers, the pump tubbing and 4 heads(2 are working but not ok), a fuse, ressoldering the yeallow channel in the Head board finally I got all the channels ok(less the two I think I sitll need to change it).
I registered to say thanks and share some experience I had with this printer and gather all your expertise also.
Thanks alot
Alex

 

[Reveal1]

Welcome. Seems like a tough way to enter the wide format business with all of the low cost options available on newer equipment. But hats off for figuring it out and best of luck. Once in the digital print wide format, you'll quickly figure out there's much more profit in it rather than shirts. Been there, done that - never again. Completely different customer, higher transaction value and less transactional cost in wide format.

 

[Alexandre Carinhas]

I produce mainly internally in our two stores, so higher margins in t shirts....but that's the idea of entering also the digital wide format, our business works mainly on the summer months and we want an activity also for the winter months leveraging the investment.
You spoke of other cheaper ways of entering besides the XC-540 second hand, do you have any recommendation? I can always sell this one and buy another one for the price. I'm spending at most 5000€ buying and recovering the printer for a 54" profsisional grade, I din't found anything on that range that was interesting, but anyway I'm a newbi

 

[Reveal1]

Not in the 500 euro range - but for around 5000 euro you can get into a brand new latex printer with warranty. Here in US someone looking for a 500 euro solution I would consider as hobbyist and not a serious business. I get that you are a seasonal business, but wonder if outsourcing the wide format and focusing on design of products to sell might be a better strategy. Just a lot of knowledge, time and effort to keep a wide format productive is a business unto itself, so I would think you would want a business model that generates enough sales volume to justify that. Different area, different business so I may be completely wrong.

 

[Alexandre Carinhas]

I understand it's risky, but my engineer background and not design making the eventually bad decisions as I also like the challenge of recovering things. Let's see, I invested the 5000 € not 500€...didn't know there was Latex printers from a good brand at this cost. This is a work horse, old but still in very good shape. Thanks Reveal1, all the best to you too.

 

[balstestrat]

Not in the 500 euro range - but for around 5000 euro you can get into a brand new latex printer with warranty. Here in US someone looking for a 500 euro solution I would consider as hobbyist and not a serious business. I get that you are a seasonal business, but wonder if outsourcing the wide format and focusing on design of products to sell might be a better strategy. Just a lot of knowledge, time and effort to keep a wide format productive is a business unto itself, so I would think you would want a business model that generates enough sales volume to justify that. Different area, different business so I may be completely wrong.

Show me that brand new 5k€ latex. It's closer to 10k€ than 5k€.

 

[Reveal1]

Show me that brand new 5k€ latex. It's closer to 10k€ than 5k€.

Can't vouch for HP pricing in Europe but new HP115 selling in US for $7299 US so actually around 6200 euro if my calculator is correct. FYI bought my 560 demo at a show for 20% off list w/ full warranty. Point being if you're in a business where a couple of thousand euros/dollars is a game changer, probably shouldn't be in that business.

 

[balstestrat]

Can't vouch for HP pricing in Europe but new HP115 selling in US for $7299 US so actually around 6200 euro if my calculator is correct. FYI bought my 560 demo at a show for 20% off list w/ full warranty. Point being if you're in a business where a couple of thousand euros/dollars is a game changer, probably shouldn't be in that business.

Is that with tax included or not? Cheap if it's included. € usually includes all taxes (not always).
It's true that Portugal is on the cheap country list so it might be cheaper there than in the more expensive European countries.

 

[Reveal1]

Is that with tax included or not? Cheap if it's included. € usually includes all taxes (not always).
It's true that Portugal is on the cheap country list so it might be cheaper there than in the more expensive European countries.

Wouldn't have tax on manufacturing equipment where I'm located in US. Check out https://www.lexjet.com/printers?spe...0&capcid=74010958316334&cadevice=c&orderby=10 although all HP dealers generally sell for about same prices. Occasionally HP will have trade in promotions as well.

 

[The Big Squeegee]

to from OK

 

[Alexandre Carinhas]

HP115 it's around 11000 € here in europe from what I found out

 

[balstestrat]

Wouldn't have tax on manufacturing equipment where I'm located in US. Check out https://www.lexjet.com/printers?spe...0&capcid=74010958316334&cadevice=c&orderby=10 although all HP dealers generally sell for about same prices. Occasionally HP will have trade in promotions as well.

Yeah so that's why it's so cheap. Would be closer to $10k if it had tax I imagine.
Another difference is, we can't sell even the L115 with a customer self installation. It always comes with a tech installation and training. That has to be calculated into the price as well.

 

[Reveal1]

Yeah so that's why it's so cheap. Would be closer to $10k if it had tax I imagine.
Another difference is, we can't sell even the L115 with a customer self installation. It always comes with a tech installation and training. That has to be calculated into the price as well.

Wow - 3K tax? Most include install and training here as well.