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Post Your Printer Modifications/Improvements
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Christian @ 2CT Media
Active Member
I have a L26500 and I added antistatic string to the feed and output.
That's about it though.
That's about it though.
DravidDavid
New Member
We have planned a tube and bottle system upgrade for our little BN-20.
We also have custom made cardboard inserts for the cover switches on our Roland Solvent machines so we can actually see what the hell is going on while the printer is running.
We also have custom made cardboard inserts for the cover switches on our Roland Solvent machines so we can actually see what the hell is going on while the printer is running.
I converted my Mutoh RJ900 into a faltbed/hybrid printer. Have couple of Epsons to do for clients - there is a good market for aqueous flatbed printers believe it or not.
Could you show use some pics?
SightLine
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There have been a couple of threads on it before but I added LED strip lighting to the upper inside of our JV33 as well as a small strip in the bottom of the cleaning area. To power ours, I added a small 12vdc transformer in the compartment with the mainboard. The other mod I actually just recently did was to add anti-static (carbon impregnated) Teflon fabric to both the front and rear heat platens. This is similar to the factory option from Mimaki except Mimaki only offs the option for the front heat platen and they want $500+ to buy the option to add. It serves 2 purposes by having it on both sides. 1 - since it is carbon impregnated and is in constant contact with the metal of the machine it is grounded and acts as a huge anti-static sheet. 2 - it is Teflon and very slick which makes the material glide through very very smooth with little resistance. Since both the front and rear heaters platens are steel this helps greatly if you every try to direct print thin .015 magnetic material which we occasionally do for refrigerator magnets. I can also direct print the .030 car magnetic but generally don't since I'm not terribly happy with the print quality on it unless I want to reset the machine to the thick head position, then run a dot position correction first, then switch it back to thin and run yet another dot position correction.
At the front heater there are factory screw holes for attaching the factory optional static sheet kit. I just bought 1/16" x 1/2" aluminum strips, cut to fit, drilled to match the factory holes, wrapped the carbon impregnated Teflon fabric I bought around it to secure it at the top then used banner tape to secure it at the bottom. On the rear platen, I wrapped it around the edges to the inside - on the rear you also have to cut a hole for the media sensor and its a lot of small cuts where the upper screw holes are, also using banner tape to make sure it stays down nicely at the edges. I sourced the fabric from http://catalog.cshyde.com/viewitems...tfe-coated-anti-static-semi-conductive-fabric - to fit I needed to buy 2 yards so it was still over a hundred bucks (I still have a bunch left over too - probably a 20 x 80 inch piece). Plus the cost of the aluminum and the tiny metric screws I had to find locally. In all it probably cost me about $150. It was a couple of hours of work to install as well. Removing the front and rear heater platens is tricky since there are cables attached to them. Under the printers left end cover (where you manually clean the head) you need to remove a second smaller cover to get at the connectors for the heaters. Under the right cover by the pumps you will also have to disconnect a couple of connectors for sensors. Once done you can completely remove the heater platens and work on them on your cutting tables. This is also a good opportunity to clean your print platen suction fans which will be very dirty and probably quite clogged (our print platen suction is greatly improved after that cleaning).
To do both sides is a bit of a tricky mod but was worth it.
Other mod - bulk ink system. Triangles Easy Fill Pro which uses 2 liters sealed ink bags and an electronic interface to the chip system to always keep the machine thinking it has full cartridges. Part of that mod was I also removed the Mimaki factory shelf that sticks way out the front to support the 440ml cartridges. Since the bulk system uses small sub cartridges I did not need that big shelf in the way anymore.
My next mod..... I have a small dedicated room for our JV33 to control fumes and dust. The room has a dedicated 500CFM exhaust so there is no exhaust connected directly to the printer. We manually cut the rooms exhaust on by a switch on the wall which is fine but on overnight or unattended print runs over the weekend the exhaust often is unnecessarily on for several hours or even a couple of days. The printer controls its built in fans via 24vdc on the accessory plugs. I have a 2 pole relay (capable of 10 amps) with a 24vdc coil that the coil only draws about .25 amps. I'm going to tap the printers 24vdc power for the factory fan option, extend a wire out to control the relay which will automatically cut the big room exhaust fan on and off just as if it were the printers own factory exhaust fan.
The photo shows the shiny dark grey carbon impregnated Teflon fabric on the front heater platen and you can just see the small silver screws where it attaches near the print platen. There is a slight drop down from the print platen to the heater platen right there so the screws do not interfere with media in any way.
At the front heater there are factory screw holes for attaching the factory optional static sheet kit. I just bought 1/16" x 1/2" aluminum strips, cut to fit, drilled to match the factory holes, wrapped the carbon impregnated Teflon fabric I bought around it to secure it at the top then used banner tape to secure it at the bottom. On the rear platen, I wrapped it around the edges to the inside - on the rear you also have to cut a hole for the media sensor and its a lot of small cuts where the upper screw holes are, also using banner tape to make sure it stays down nicely at the edges. I sourced the fabric from http://catalog.cshyde.com/viewitems...tfe-coated-anti-static-semi-conductive-fabric - to fit I needed to buy 2 yards so it was still over a hundred bucks (I still have a bunch left over too - probably a 20 x 80 inch piece). Plus the cost of the aluminum and the tiny metric screws I had to find locally. In all it probably cost me about $150. It was a couple of hours of work to install as well. Removing the front and rear heater platens is tricky since there are cables attached to them. Under the printers left end cover (where you manually clean the head) you need to remove a second smaller cover to get at the connectors for the heaters. Under the right cover by the pumps you will also have to disconnect a couple of connectors for sensors. Once done you can completely remove the heater platens and work on them on your cutting tables. This is also a good opportunity to clean your print platen suction fans which will be very dirty and probably quite clogged (our print platen suction is greatly improved after that cleaning).
To do both sides is a bit of a tricky mod but was worth it.
Other mod - bulk ink system. Triangles Easy Fill Pro which uses 2 liters sealed ink bags and an electronic interface to the chip system to always keep the machine thinking it has full cartridges. Part of that mod was I also removed the Mimaki factory shelf that sticks way out the front to support the 440ml cartridges. Since the bulk system uses small sub cartridges I did not need that big shelf in the way anymore.
My next mod..... I have a small dedicated room for our JV33 to control fumes and dust. The room has a dedicated 500CFM exhaust so there is no exhaust connected directly to the printer. We manually cut the rooms exhaust on by a switch on the wall which is fine but on overnight or unattended print runs over the weekend the exhaust often is unnecessarily on for several hours or even a couple of days. The printer controls its built in fans via 24vdc on the accessory plugs. I have a 2 pole relay (capable of 10 amps) with a 24vdc coil that the coil only draws about .25 amps. I'm going to tap the printers 24vdc power for the factory fan option, extend a wire out to control the relay which will automatically cut the big room exhaust fan on and off just as if it were the printers own factory exhaust fan.
The photo shows the shiny dark grey carbon impregnated Teflon fabric on the front heater platen and you can just see the small silver screws where it attaches near the print platen. There is a slight drop down from the print platen to the heater platen right there so the screws do not interfere with media in any way.
Attachments
here are some videos:
[video=youtube;2PyXcrOqC4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PyXcrOqC4g[/video]
[video=youtube;oybTJP3kTp0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybTJP3kTp0[/video]
[video=youtube;KaqyzyA0aqM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaqyzyA0aqM[/video]
Last edited by a moderator:
We made a anti-static bar that lays across our Seal laminator at the point where the liner is removed. It used to shock the living you know what out of the operators to the point where it was a safety hazard. Since we made the upgrade, nobody has been shocked in over a year. It isn't pretty, but it works really well.
Desert_Signs
New Member
mark galoob
New Member
i have a base seal 55" lam, and the mod i did was 2 fold...first i added roller bar wheels to the front so i can bring my whole finished print from the mutoh over, set the bar down and start the lam...next i used an old strip of cutting mat and glued it to the back where the lam comes out so when i cut the laminated material im cutting on the cutting mat and it gives me much more control than cutting on the metal.