large format printer 66 Responses

Last post: 11 months, 1 week ago | Thread started: Jun 21, 12, 11:31 a.m.

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• fooler

  I work in a small shop but we still spent about 1M in large format prints last year. We're thinking of buying one and some kind of laminating machine to cut costs. Anyone try and do this?

  Jun 21, 12, 11:31 a.m. – Permalink

• monospaced

  Sounds like a good investment, considering the outsourcing costs you incur already. I know that if you buy a large-format printer they often come with a maintenance fee for whenever anything goes wrong. I remember having techs come by regularly to calibrate and check up on the large format printers at an agency I used to work at. Even still, the price of the printer, ink, paper and technical maintenance won't even get close to $1M in the first year. Good luck.

  

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  Dog-earJun 21, 12, 11:43 a.m. – Permalink

• fooler

  I've worked at 2 other places (one med sized agency and one major corporation) where this idea went completely sideways. No service contracts or tech support so they weren't used up to their potential.
  I think we might need a plotter to cut things with too. I was hoping someone here as any info on doing this and had any tips one what we need to get up and running.
  I think we're looking at this printer...
  http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/co…

  

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  Dog-earJun 21, 12, 11:53 a.m. – Permalink

• bjladams

  that printer is expensive. I've used one, the bottom dollar price is between $7-8 a sq ft. by the time you've considered supstraights, inks, laminates, waste, labor, maintenance and cleaning (i'd spend about 3-4 hours a week just in cleaning). you might want to look at the mimaki brand, their JV series is slightly lower per sq ft in costs - we've estimated it around $5-6 sq/ft there.
  roland are a cheaper machine too, but cheaper all around.
  but still, i can outsource to larger print houses for around $3...

  i've got quite a bit of experience on these machines. worked on them for 5+ years. feel free to email me if you'd like.

  • thanks! we just had our first meeting today about it. I'll hit you up later.– fooler

  

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  Dog-earJun 21, 12, 12:09 p.m. – Permalink

• zarkonite

  http://www.mimakiusa.com/

  

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  Dog-earJun 21, 12, 12:23 p.m. – Permalink

• i_monk

  test bump

  

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  Dog-earJun 21, 12, 12:45 p.m. – Permalink

• akiersky

  our firm bought a HP Z3200ps about a year and a half ago:

  http://h71016.www7.hp.com/Middle…

  I think it was about $4000 when we got it, It has 12 ink cartridges, that run about $60-70 a piece but they last quite a while, maybe 50 feet or so of prints depending on the amount of color and whatnot. It takes large rolls of paper and cuts them at the end. Overall it has really helped our business with printing things last minute and previewing comps before sending to press. So it's not our final output but it could be depending on the situation.

  

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  Dog-earJun 22, 12, 11:42 a.m. – Permalink