Looking at two 64" printers at auction

[dgberg]

I have been looking at some equipment for sale at auction in our area. An Nemko SII IP-6620 Color Painter M-64s solvent printer. Also on the block is a 44" HP Q6652A Design JetZ6100 Color Printer with Vivera inks. Plus several laminators and several cutters.
I am really interested in the solvent machine for canvas printing. A $27K printer when new it is presently sitting at a number to cheap to let go. Anyone interested in the Hp if I bought it too?
Any one using either one of these, input is appreciated.

Label says Seiko/Nemko? Is this a knockoff or a brand name and who would service it? Still digging. My google search did not give me the answer.
When you google the machine it comes up under OKI.
Anyone interested on going in on some of this stuff, hardly any bidders.

[langier]

Those look like "six pallbearer" printers, meaning six weight lifters are needed to move them up and down stairs.

I have a "4-pallbearer," just an Epson 9900. It took a bit of effort to put it in place. After ten years, the head went and I was having anxiety attacks on replacing it with any one of several I found on eBay, a couple sounded good BUT. Called my service expert and he talked me out of it and I was relieved. He replaced the head a few days ago and it's back to cranking out the prints. I bought this printer second-hand for a large project of hundreds of large canvas prints. As the head was on its last leg I was able to coerce one last canvas run that more than paid for the head replacement. The 9900 more than paid for itself for the past decade and I'm the second owner.

On any second-hand printer, take a look under the hood, ask lots of questions and do some testing with your work  before making the plunge. If you know a repair tech and can have them look, it may be worth the money for their expertise. Check the counters and any service records and if you know anyone with similar printers, ask them what to look for.

Also, find out the cost of the consumables to figure if this can be a good match. Though the costs per unit (ink) is lower with larger, usually, the cost of a cart can be a pucker-factor. That 44 inch printer may be the better of the two overall. Though solvent printers are great for signs including vinyl and canvas, they are a lot more costly at the git-go though I'm not certain how well they output for photography. If it's just 4-c, then that may limit the gamut for output and there's also the factor of the ink stability. Same story on the HP, if may be optimized for signs/plotting where color can be close but not the best. Research is your answer!

I found that 99.9% of my work could be done with a 44-inch printer though 90% of the time, 24" is enough. In years of large-format printing, I've farmed out only print that was too large and even in the last job, a 60x40 gallery wrap, I was just able with the 2" wrap to make it work.

If your budget is deep and you have the space, and the printers pan out (don't forget to see what's available for substrate, also!), I'd say go for it, but with open eyes. In my experience, it's paid off quite well.

[dgberg]

The good news is that there are 20 unopened new solvent inks that go with the printer a $5k value. They also have two completely full wall racks of printing materials, most are vinyl.
I have almost a 4000 sq. ft. shop so space is not an issue.
I got the printer service companies phone number, now the bad news. A service call was done on this printer in june and the quote was $3500. The owner did not go through with the repair which means the printer has sat idle for almost 4 months. It had one bad head plus some other repairs that needed accomplished. The heads are just over $2k each and it has 7 of them. To have them move it and set it up with a new RIP can be from $2k to 3K. Just the minimum for the repair, move and setup would be $6k plus the purchase price. If it needs a couple more heads all of a sudden I am at 10k. Free is never free. Right now it is sitting at $200, anyone else interested I am out.
They sell for $27,000 new so if $10k is in your budget it would probably be a good buy even it it sells for a thousand especially with the ink.

[langier]

I once bought "distressed" items needing repairs. Much of it languished as I ran out of enthusiasm and money, biting off more than I can chew... Unless it's a quick and easy fix, I now walk away...

The advice from my repair guru was if the printer was new old stock, then repair what you have and you'll save in the long run in both $$, time, hassle. Though some of the features on the newest Epson iteration sound great, they are not enough to convince me to do the upgrade dance...

[Lessbones]

Do you have a closer shot of the nozzle check?  It looks like all the channels are at least present.  That machine has independent heads for each channel, which can be really nice.  It appears to have 7 colors, CMYK, LcLmLk if I'm not mistaken-- the great thing about running these industrial machines is that the RIP software often can be configured to turn off a channel or two if it's not working properly, then you can re profile and be running fine (although, a little grainier) without one or two or even all of the dilute channels.  You will still need at least 4 good channels for the CMYK though.

If your intention is just for canvas and not for doing major runs of signage (read: low quality, high quantity) then I think you'd be better served with the machines you already have...

If going bigger is your issue (I think last I heard you max out at 44"?) then I think you'd be better served by getting an Epson p20000.  They're insanely fast for printing on "low res" materials like canvas, and the quality will be better than with eco-solvent.

Really, unless vinyl is your goal, I'd stick to aqueous pigment--  Solvent is awesome for big bad vinyl prints, but for pretty much everything else there's a better option.  Even Epson just announced a new flatbed UV printer, and a "resin" (latex) printer so there are some more new options coming down the pipeline--

[Stephen Ray]

I have been looking at some equipment for sale at auction in our area. An Nemko SII IP-6620 Color Painter M-64s solvent printer.
I am really interested in the solvent machine for canvas printing. A $27K printer when new it is presently sitting at a number to cheap to let go.
Any one using either one of these, input is appreciated.

A good machine in its day but now it's very outdated. Inkjet printers are largely considered as expendable. One would be much better off with a new Epson eco-solve which comes with a RIP as well as current availability of service and supplies. The newer machine will actually produce a faster, better, cheaper (and competitive) product.

[dgberg]

Wanted to go solvent to get rid of the bottleneck in the spray booth. It is so easy to get drawn in especially with all the included extras. Too many unknowns in this case.

[NAwlins_Contrarian]

Label says Seiko/Nemko? Is this a knockoff or a brand name and who would service it? Still digging. My google search did not give me the answer.
When you google the machine it comes up under OKI.

Seiko is Epson. The corporate entity is Seiko Epson Corporation. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko_Epson.

[LenR]

Hi Dan,

I'll give you $300 for the Summa.

Len

ALSO: If you need a rip for the ColorPainter I might be able to help.

[deanwork]

You need to find out if these still can be serviced. Unless you know someone who works on Discontinued machines and can get parts it’s super risky.

Hi Dan,

I'll give you $300 for the Summa.

Len

ALSO: If you need a rip for the ColorPainter I might be able to help.

[dgberg]

Auction is over the Hp sold for $1500 and the Oki ColorPainter for $9301.