Wide Format Printers 60+"

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

There's a couple ways to avoid banding. Make sure you run a printhead alignment and make sure that it completes successfully. Also in the paper menu, there's a 'advance calibration', pick the option to 'restore factory'.. in case someone tried to do this before you. I've never had this calibration help anything, and people usually cause problems by running it incorrectly. So restoring the factory calibration is a good starting point. Also in the driver, always use 'optimize for images' and 'maximum detail'. This changes the printer from 600x600 to 2400x1200. Of course if you're printing larger pieces you may not need that since it will be viewed from a greater distance. But it does increases the passes made by the carriage and helps hide banding even further. Just be ready for it take a small eternity to print something.

Kiran

[reckless]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

There's a couple ways to avoid banding. Make sure you run a printhead alignment and make sure that it completes successfully. Also in the paper menu, there's a 'advance calibration', pick the option to 'restore factory'.. in case someone tried to do this before you. I've never had this calibration help anything, and people usually cause problems by running it incorrectly. So restoring the factory calibration is a good starting point. Also in the driver, always use 'optimize for images' and 'maximum detail'. This changes the printer from 600x600 to 2400x1200. Of course if you're printing larger pieces you may not need that since it will be viewed from a greater distance. But it does increases the passes made by the carriage and helps hide banding even further. Just be ready for it take a small eternity to print something.

Kiran

So I got new super gloss paper today. No Banding issue on it. When I loaded paper there was a submenu which type of paper: coated, heavy coated, high gloss photo, poster paper, canvas. I chose high gloss photo. But now there is a 5 minute ink dry time. How do I stop that? This dries instantly on paper.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

In the Ink menu, you can select a different drying time, or none.

Kiran

[reckless]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

Thanks I put that in. Hopefully next batch won't be an issue. New glossy paper is super awesome for some posters. Debating how coated paper vs satin resin coated (basically less glossy) will compare. The coated paper is 4 times less cost. Anyone want to give input it will be appreciated.

[slimslob]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

Thanks I put that in. Hopefully next batch won't be an issue. New glossy paper is super awesome for some posters. Debating how coated paper vs satin resin coated (basically less glossy) will compare. The coated paper is 4 times less cost. Anyone want to give input it will be appreciated.

Many times high gloss coated paper is for use in fluid ink or gel printers only. the coating can melt and damage fusing rollers in laser type systems. Most satin resin coated are able to be used in laser printers.

[reckless]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

Congrats on the 800. They seem to run forever, are inexpensive to use and easy/cheap to repair. But after the 800, ink and parts get a bit more pricey. I don't know if you'll ever find a printer that works as well as the 800 and is as inexpensive to maintain.

Don't know about the rubber band thing.

You might want to look for a Designjet 5500PS 60". These do beautiful photo work and are, I think, reasonable to operate. They came in both UV and dye ink. To switch from dye to UV ink you need to replace all the printheads, ink tubes and ink cartridges. Gets expensive. HP used to supply a change-over kit but no longer. But you can still buy them on Ebay. There's a company in CA that I've used several times for complete ink replacement kits. (Tubes only, no ink or printheads,) Runs around $300 with trade. You can start checking Ebay for ink prices (hp 81 dye, HP 83 UV). The ink tanks are quite large (680 ml) compared to the 800 but they last for a very long time.

Where you might run into expenses is on the printheads since they're beginning to get harder to find brand new. Uses 6 total, one per color.

I've used Designjet 5000 and 5500PS models for years. Have repaired quite a few. Easy to work on, easy to find parts and full service manual is available for download PDF. And used models are pretty easy to find, depending on where you live.

But be aware these are very large machines. Almost 7' long if I remember correctly. Weighs around 275#'s.

I see quite a few Desingjet Z6XXX 60" printers for sale also on Craigslist and Ebay. I think the last one I worked on was a Z6100PS 60" that did very nice prints (better than the 800). Only available in the Dye ink though. Need a total of 8 printheads because it uses the wide swath printing feature so that can be expensive.

Be sure you're looking at a PS model since it does photo work better than a non-PS and interfaces with Mac machines. If you are using a Mac you will want to check the HP website for compatibility of operating systems. HP doesn't support newer Mac OS. But these printers will run on Win 11 and all they way down to Win XP, possibly even Win 95.

Here's a link to a sample on Ebay of the 5500PS 60". Needs to be fixed but comes with both ink systems. (If they were closer I'd consider buying them and fixing for resale myself.) 2- HP Designjet 5500PS Large Format Inkjet Printer 60" UV Inks | eBay

If you're in CA, here's a pretty good deal on a pair of Z6100PS models:
HP Designjet Z6100ps, working condition, needs supplies. BONUS second printer! | eBay

They probably both need work but are not hard to service. Parts are available but printheads are pricey and you need 8.

I think other techs will want to chime in as to repair costs/procedures. I see quite a few of these getting trashed because no one wants to work on them because the owners don't want to pay repair costs but for a few hours of your time and a fistful of dollars, you can get one of the working and enjoy printing some beautiful photos. These shouldn't be hard to find used in your area. Check Ebay and Craigslist.

BTW, thanks for the link to the coated paper on the HP forum.

I found a 42" Z6100PS near me for $200. Needs ink. Should I bother with it (is it much different than Design jet 800)? I would like to print on 4" plastic rolls and not sure if I need some special ink to get it to print. I have my HP DJ800 but not sure if thats considered dye ink?

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

I don't think you can print on plastic with aqueous ink. It will never dry. You have to use eco-solvent or.. di-sub? I don't know.

Kiran

[D Hook]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

Too bad you're not closer to me. (Omaha, NE.) I just had an offer of a free 42" Z6100PS. Needs some new printheads is all. I hate to turn down a free printer but with the cost of printheads for these I'd never get my money back out selling it. I'll probably just take some parts off it and let them dumpster the rest.

The 800 also uses dye ink. Like Kiran mentioned, it will never dry on those bags. You need a whole different approach to print on the bags. Not sure what that is though.

Edit: The 800 and the Z6100 is worlds apart. Z6100 is an industrial printer for making photo prints, like what's used at a Kinkos or places like that. The 800 isn't built to do that kind of printing. Z6100 is very heavy duty, like the 4500. Z6100 also uses aqueous ink so won't dry on the bags and will fade over time without UV prevention treatment.

[reckless]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

When I google Z6100PS I see in some places mentioning UV inks. Is that a typo? Is it pretty much same type of ink as DJ800 just more colors? I thought it might have been solvent based.


I have read that they put a special corona coating on the paper to make it printable. I will have one test set in 1-2 days will report.

[reckless]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

Edit: The 800 and the Z6100 is worlds apart. Z6100 is an industrial printer for making photo prints, like what's used at a Kinkos or places like that. The 800 isn't built to do that kind of printing. Z6100 is very heavy duty, like the 4500. Z6100 also uses aqueous ink so won't dry on the bags and will fade over time without UV prevention treatment.

I am not to familiar with what kinkos uses. Does the vivera ink (Z6100) really make that much of a difference? I was impressed by using my 800 with resin coated paper. It became a photo printer to me using right media stock. Most of my posters are on the cheapest $9/roll paper as give aways. Using $2 ink my 4'x3' posters are much cheaper than business cards. Will vivera ink come off different/better on cheap CAD stock paper? Cheapest ink seems to be 14x the cost of DJ800. I don't care about long lasting ink as I can print another poster for $0.15 using cheapest paper stock.

I imagine more colors may make it slightly better but reading HPs report on vivera ink it seemed slightly subjective to me? From HP: "Brilliant Photo QualityHP Vivera photo-versatile inks offer vibrant, true-to-life color for stunning color prints andexceptional black-and-white images. In independent quality evaluations of photos printed onvarious consumer photo printers available in the retail market, prints produced using HP Viverainks were preferred by home photo enthusiasts and professional photographers over traditionallyprocessed (silver-halide) prints. When asked to judge the overall quality of photos, studyparticipants worldwide indicated a clear preference for prints produced with HP inks and photopapers over those from either lab-processed or competitive inkjet printing systems."

I do want to buy better wide format printers but want to pick my battles with the printers. Not looking for a graveyard of printers but select best ones for various uses. I want to find something way cooler than aqueous ink. Not sure if there is UV or chroma ink wide format machines. I see some cool piezo inkjet machines from china but they are running $10-15k.

[D Hook]

Re: Wide Format Printers 60+"

There may be others by HP that use UV ink but the only one I know of for sure is the Designjet 5XXX series. See post above.