Power Cut = Both Ricoh's Purge.. Gutted

[NikGrey]

Interesting Day..

Supplier called to tell me that my materials were in for the Tee Shirt job which was due in today (just delivered them to customer) - Great I thought so started to get ready to go out and guess what ?? Power Cut.. that's all I need as I got this order at 5PM last Thursday and due to the Bank Holiday (Hate those, and we have far too many Holidays as a whole in this Country) it was not until today I could get the materials needed..

Anyway, went out in torrential rain to collect my Flex - lots of REALLY BAD driving - people going far too fast on flooded roads, that's another story (and gripe).

Got back in, still no power but the missus told me that the power DID come on for a couple of minutes when I was out - I was also told my printers were making strange noises for that whole duration ! Hmm - I thought they had been just 'Booting'..

SO, a bit later the power was restored - Printers started.. great I thought, all is well... until.....

They didn't stop, constant 'Waiting' on the screen and showing ink levels - back to 'Waiting'.. this went on for what seemed like ages !

Both of my Ricoh's had purged - it takes about 25% of each cart each time these purge and at £180 a set this was expensive.

I looked at the Sub printers web page a day or so ago and had about 50% cyan, Magenta was slightly more - Now I am down to 17% and I have done no sub work as been doing vinyl.


I am going to dig my UPS out again - I stopped using that as I discovered it was using 20watts constantly.

This knock has seriously dented my liking of Sublimation - the ink is far too expensive to just waste like this - Purge when new (25% ink in tubes - not so bad), and a random purge after a power cut - not for me i'm afraid.

I think, after this I will be concentrating on other things - I just cant afford to lose money like this.

Pi**ed off.

[Keith Coppuck]

Always worth having a UPS and, in case you haven't have an offsite (cloud based) data back-up. A small generator off eBay may also be worth investing if this is a regular occurence?

[socialgiraffe]

Am I right when I read this and think you had two dye sublimation printers turned on?

If so why?

I know I punch out a heck of a lot more dye sub than you (not bragging Nik, just you and I know that I do) and I only ever have one sub printer turned on.

I know that a power cut is a royal pain in the neck, but you can take steps to prevent too much wastage, for example when you get a power cut unplug all the machines and turn them on one by one as and when you need them running again.

[pisquee]

+1 for the UPS, all our computer kit and printers run through one - mainly as the last place we were had terrible electics that would cut out at any time (especially in damp/wet weather) even just unplugging something, or turning something on cut cut the power out. Having this happen in the middle of a few metre sublimation print was a right pain, or losing power while in the middle of a Photoshop edit, and losing a load of work etc etc.

As far as the ink cost goes, you have chosen a printer where you are locked into Sawgrass' overpriced inks, which is especially a shame if this is what is going to turn you off sublimation.

[NikGrey]

Only One Sub printer but they happen to be the same make/model/time of purchase (within months) - the other one has standard inks in for receipts etc (but I like uniformity - so have a 'Printer Stack' - 2x Ricoh's, One Oki and an HP).

I do have a WD 3TB 'MyBook' drive for backups (although this is a new one sent as the Mac doesnt like to keep it alive for long - Ignores it after a few days and I have to power cycle again).. ongoing with WD who I must say ARE on the ball and listening to me.

Been considering my options - I still want to offer Sub stuff so.... all I need do is prove I own a Wide Format Printer (not asking for advice on this as I know it's against forum rules) in order to get ink at a far more reasonable rate.. My problem is NOT the cost of a wide format but the place it would live ! I have given this some thought and may have a solution.

I think I posted a Panoramic view of the largest room in our house which is taken up with all of my current gear - I do however have a lot of land and could easily build a small room to house a wide format printer (not sure if it works, but I could have One - at least a 42 inch printer - I'm looking for One with Blocked Heads)..

I will not let this beat me - I just need to find a way of remaining in business with Sublimation and those that know me.. well.. I just cannot allow this kind of thing to happen again.

.. And My Tall Friend - I envy your business, I know what you do in there

[socialgiraffe]

Been considering my options - I still want to offer Sub stuff so.... all I need do is prove I own a Wide Format Printer (not asking for advice on this as I know it's against forum rules) in order to get ink at a far more reasonable rate.. My problem is NOT the cost of a wide format but the place it would live ! I have given this some thought and may have a solution.

Not sure it is against forum rules.

I presume you are referring to what dye sub ink to use. With wide format you have a huge variety of supported inks which are all considerably cheaper than Sawgrass carts. Pisquee is probably the authority on dye sub wide formats and will favour a certain ink (I would name it if I could remember it!) as he is a dealer for that ink I am sure its pretty good as he wouldn't use it otherwise and I seem to remember it works out at about 7-10p per A4 sheet including paper.

[pisquee]

Although I am a dealer for a certain ink company, the inks is just a sideline to our main business of printing for our own brand. And I only started selling the inks as a sideline once I was sure that I was happy with it for our own work.

[pisquee]

can't remember my costings off hand (the spreadsheet is on another computer) but I can remember that for a metre square, the sublimation paper is about 75p, with the ink being a lot less than that.

[cumbriakevin]

That's horrible losing that much ink/money over a power outage. I live in a rural spot where it is not so unusual for the power to drop out for a few seconds. I couldn't justify ups for one printer and a titchy set up though. Can anyone tell me; if a switch was set up that left the Ricoh off when the power returned. And then the printer was turned off correctly and then powered up, would it still purge?

[cumbriakevin]

To elaborate, If the printer will purge every time it loses power then only a psu will resolve it. If though it could be turned back on from the machine and not purge maybe something else would work. I'm thinking of a way whereby power can only come back to the printer after an outage when a reset button is pressed. Which means you could switch it off before the power returns then power it up normally from the machine.