Wide Format Canvas Printing

[Justin]

I'm looking into expanding my range of products and have been considering canvasses. I want to be able to create large canvasses so maybe 42"-60"?

Looking at an HP DesignJet 4000 as a possible starting point but would appreciate comments on possible alternatives, how much I should be paying, ink costs and so on please. Also, costs/suppliers of canvas material.

Would be good to have a machine that could work for other media but canvasses would be the main work.

[Angloman]

i bought the cannon 8500i fantastic printer on all fromats, 60" its a great printer,give Andy a ring at condor , he might still have some second hand machine for sale have msg you his number

[socialgiraffe]

Can't help with the printer Justin (unless you decide on a Roland :wink:) but a useful site for things like purchasing wooden struts already to be made up is http://www.picturemaster.co.uk/

S>

[Justin]

i bought the cannon 8500i fantastic printer on all fromats, 60" its a great printer,give Andy a ring at condor , he might still have some second hand machine for sale have msg you his number

Many thanks....can't find any info on the 8500i?

[Justin]

Can't help with the printer Justin (unless you decide on a Roland :wink:) but a useful site for things like purchasing wooden struts already to be made up is http://www.picturemaster.co.uk/

S>

Thanks Simon, some great products there and these are things I'd also like to supply using the same printer ;-)

[Photomouse]

We get our frames from stretcherbarsframesandmounts.co.uk. All made in margate, kent, much better than the Chinese rubbish you can buy. Great quality. They can make any size and there is no minimum order. Well worth a call. 01843 232224.

[Justin]

Cheers for that link, how do they compare with http://www.canvasandstretcherbars.co.uk/ quality wise? Used this company in a previous job and they seemed ok.

Anyone any advice on a decent economical printer?

[Photomouse]

Really good quality. Solid finger jointed pine. Just a small family business. Not as cheap as the imported stuff but a much better product overall. A solid heavy frame. We use a 7880 epson. We are happy with it but can't compare to anything else as it's all we have ever used.

[NikGrey]

Dont want to take this thread off on a tangent - been looking at the picturemaster site and wondering.

Which size canvas could I produce (up to) with my Epson 4000 (17 inch, although I am not sure exactly how wide this will print in reality yet) ? Just trying to work out which Bars I would need (38mm of course going by previous conversations).

I'm guessing the answer is 14".

[RogerC]

Dont want to take this thread off on a tangent - been looking at the picturemaster site and wondering.

Which size canvas could I produce (up to) with my Epson 4000 (17 inch, although I am not sure exactly how wide this will print in reality yet) ? Just trying to work out which Bars I would need (38mm of course going by previous conversations).

I'm guessing the answer is 14".

Yes Nik.....14 inch would be correct 'assuming' you can print to 17 inches. If you want to produce 'gallery wrap' you will have insufficient print to wrap around the whole of the sides if it prints anything less than 17 inches. Even then it will be a close thing to make sure there's a full print wrap.

[Justin]

Looking at the Epsons as well, 9800 in particular. Seem to get good reviews. If anyone hears of anything coming up for sale please let me know :-)

[Justin]

Anyone use the HP Designjet 5500? Like the idea of UV inks and 60" print. I guess this is an older model now but still looks good.

Carts seem expensive but at 680ml are prob great value......and huge!

[Justin]

So, talking to a couple of suppliers I've offered a deal which sounds very good. It's for an HP Designjet Z2100. Very tempted at the price, just trying to talk myself into it!

[NikGrey]

You, young man are being very mysterious !

[socialgiraffe]

young man

Who are you talking to?

[pisquee]

I'd be tempted by the Epson, as it then leaves you open to convert it to sublimation

[WePrintForYou]

Just for some information I think we are going to be selling one of our 9800's. Very little use, currently we use it for dye sub and can provide the profile etc. Also its easy to convert it to the standard Aquarius ink, again we run lyson ink in our other 9880.

Reason for sale is to fund a DTG printer

[Justin]

Can you PM me about the 9800 please?

[TjCanvas]

We have both Z2100 and Z3100 printers and they are brilliant especially with the built in photospectrometer. Do be cautious of compatible inks as they do have a tenancy to leek which does take time to sort out when it happens. We pick up genuine Vivera at £40 inc vat for 130ml carts which is quite reasonable as the printers are quite economical on inks. If you did go for one of these printers I would recommend always having an LG cart in stock as the printers do seem to be thirsty for this colour. Also if buying second hand ask the vendor to access the error log section on the control panel and tell you how frequent the printer has a 79:04 error if just once or twice or not for a long time it's nothing to worry about as it is a generic error, but if very frequent it can mean the formater board need replacing which is quite an expensive part.

[Justin]

Thanks for this endorsement :-) I've sorted a deal on a Z2100 so hopefully be ordering very soon. Having to take on extra office space first though! I've been reading that they suffer from star wheel indentation and this can be noticeable on darker prints, have you experienced this? Supposedly it can be reduced/rectified but it was my only concern. Reviews certainly rave about this machine.

You're getting a great deal on the inks as well, not worth going third party at that price! Is this because of the amount you buy or can you let me in on your secret source ;-)

[TjCanvas]

We have 3 of these printers and never had an issue with the star wheels on any of them with light or dark prints.

The first printer we bought was a refirb one from a local engineer before buying new ones and we get our ink from him, the only one we cant get a this price is the light grey as they are always in high demand, this is why we tried a compatible but half way through the cart it leaked so it was looking like a new ISU was needed but my engineer gave me some invaluable advice on which parts to take out and how to fix the problem without the need for new part's, apparently it doesnt always work as the ink leaks over electrical connections and circuit boards. After this figured it's just not worth the risk, genuine all the way from now on. :)

[Justin]

Just what I needed to hear ;-) Cheers for that.