Film Printer - Suggestions on Models, Maintenance, Fixing Issues

[MNTS]

Hello everyone! New to the boards here, but one of my screen printers told me I ought to check into here for answering things.

I've been doing this for 3 years now, and I have always had issues with film printers. They run great for all of 4 to 6 months and then crap out. I've used Epson 5000s, Epson 1430s, Epson P400, Canon Pixma Pro-100, and it seems they always end up giving out eventually. Just wondering if any of you all have any suggestions for models that work for you, ideas for maintenance that may be causing issues, or anything that could help the company I work for from having to constantly replace these things.

We're looking into the Epson T3270 and wondering how that works being that it's advertised to be directly compatible and covered by Epson to print films.

Thanks a bunch in advance!

[rusty]

Yeah, I was just looking up plans for a catapult so I can see how far my printer would go...

I am also looking at the T3270 but looking at the WF 7210 for a quick fix cause my 4800 is on its way out no matter how much I call it pretty or say I will change. Flowers and candy ain't cutting it.

Anyway, I will be watching this thread.

[MNTS]

When you build that catapult I expect videos hahahaha It's seriously the bane of my existence these printers.

I'm with you. I've tried so many of these damn things, and not being able to find a good solution has me suffering early male pattern baldness.

Let's hope someone has the magic solution! We almost consider direct to screen, but it just doesn't suit our work environment. Hoping this T3270 happens to be a gem of a find. I'm so tired of fighting with these things.

[farmboygraphics]

Using the T3270 with Accurip and have had zero issues. Running OEM inks and roll film from Mid-States Graphics.

[MNTS]

How long have you been using the T3270 farmboy?

[farmboygraphics]

How long have you been using the T3270 farmboy?

Was a year in July. Got it from B&H.

[Sbrem]

We've been running our T3270 since January of 2017. We've had almost no problems, but twice I've had to make a Paper Feed adjustment, but that's a 5 to 10 minute task. Learning how to do that was the hard part. We haven't used any 3rd party inks, all Epson, and it works fine. Our films aren't jet black, but they make screens just fine because they filter out the exposure wavelengths as needed.

Steve

[Nation03]

Once this Canon Pixma dies I think I'm just going to get the Exile Freestyler. I don't save films anyhow so I might as well make the switch to CTS, even with the lower volume of screens I do, I'm so sick of film printers. The Canon has been okay but like you said, after around 6 months they start acting funky.

[MNTS]

Hoping to get my boss to get the Epson, but I'm battling another person in the office who now wants to give HP a try, and I'm nervous about that. Anybody have any experience using HP for films? The T3270 sounds like it's actually built for it, so I'd really like to give it a try, and it sounds like quite the workhorse. Thanks for the replies everyone!

[repogolfer]

I was buying all 1430's all the time when they were available.  One would get used and one would sit unopened on a rack just in case since it always happens at the worst time.  8 months was the typical time frame for us before they crapped out.  We bought a T3270 in Oct 2018 using filmdirectonline black ink in one slot and 4 filmdirectonline cleaning solution cartridges in the other 4.  We have not had one issue as of yet.   I didn't like dropping that much coin especially after we had a bad experience with the 4880 and felt we didn't get our monies worth from that one.  We felt the 1430's were just a disposable printer and at $300 every 8 months it was OK to do that, until they were discontinued.   But now we love our 3270...so much faster and so far it is holding up just fine.

We still have a new in the box 1430 up on a shelf...just in case.

Jon

[blue moon]

Hoping to get my boss to get the Epson, but I'm battling another person in the office who now wants to give HP a try, and I'm nervous about that. Anybody have any experience using HP for films? The T3270 sounds like it's actually built for it, so I'd really like to give it a try, and it sounds like quite the workhorse. Thanks for the replies everyone!

HP is a no go, different head technology and is not suitable for film positives.

we've been using 4800's a 4880's for about 10 years now. I think we get about 5 years out of them and run into issues when we switch to CTS only and they sit for a while. If printing every day they have been fantastic. You can get them used for very little money on ebay. I bought several and used them for photo printing too. Have a lot of ink cartridges (1,000+) you can have for cost of shipping (on your UPS account).

the trick for film printing is to load all the unused slots with head cleaning solution so the channels don't dry or clog up. Also, you have to run nozzle checks periodically and make sure everything is working. You only need one color to work in order to print the films so if one gets clogged just switch to a different one. We had one printer with only yellow channel being open and printed films with it for years.
With some RIPs you can configure other heads to print at the same time, just set them for 5% ink flow. that will not impact your print quality, but will keep the film positive ink going through those nozzles to keep them working.

pierre

[blue moon]

Once this Canon Pixma dies I think I'm just going to get the Exile Freestyler. I don't save films anyhow so I might as well make the switch to CTS, even with the lower volume of screens I do, I'm so sick of film printers. The Canon has been okay but like you said, after around 6 months they start acting funky.

most CTS units are just as much headache or even more than the regular wide format printers. You will not be getting much of a return on investment with CTS at low volume.
Film can actually produce better screens than CTS from what I've seen. And while they have some extra steps in productions, it is really not that big of a deal.

pierre

[Nation03]

Once this Canon Pixma dies I think I'm just going to get the Exile Freestyler. I don't save films anyhow so I might as well make the switch to CTS, even with the lower volume of screens I do, I'm so sick of film printers. The Canon has been okay but like you said, after around 6 months they start acting funky.

most CTS units are just as much headache or even more than the regular wide format printers. You will not be getting much of a return on investment with CTS at low volume.
Film can actually produce better screens than CTS from what I've seen. And while they have some extra steps in productions, it is really not that big of a deal.

pierre

Thanks for the info Pierre. My volume is increasing at a pretty steady rate. My theory being, if I can cut down setup times on the multi-color orders with CTS, it will give me the ability to print another 2-3 jobs per day, giving me a better opportunity to scale to the next level. It might be overkill, but even at 50-75 screens per week I feel like some of the more budget option CTS units make sense. It won't be something I'd consider adding until we move to the new space, or at least until trade shows come back (if they do) so I can see them in person. That being said, I think when I have a better pin-board setup for pre-reg of film, that will also make my setup time dramatically better, so we'll see how that goes first.

[Doug S]

Once this Canon Pixma dies I think I'm just going to get the Exile Freestyler. I don't save films anyhow so I might as well make the switch to CTS, even with the lower volume of screens I do, I'm so sick of film printers. The Canon has been okay but like you said, after around 6 months they start acting funky.

most CTS units are just as much headache or even more than the regular wide format printers. You will not be getting much of a return on investment with CTS at low volume.
Film can actually produce better screens than CTS from what I've seen. And while they have some extra steps in productions, it is really not that big of a deal.

pierre

Thanks for the info Pierre. My volume is increasing at a pretty steady rate. My theory being, if I can cut down setup times on the multi-color orders with CTS, it will give me the ability to print another 2-3 jobs per day, giving me a better opportunity to scale to the next level. It might be overkill, but even at 50-75 screens per week I feel like some of the more budget option CTS units make sense. It won't be something I'd consider adding until we move to the new space, or at least until trade shows come back (if they do) so I can see them in person. That being said, I think when I have a better pin-board setup for pre-reg of film, that will also make my setup time dramatically better, so we'll see how that goes first.

I still have the rocket launcher i image.  I definitely don't have the volume for cts but it's paid for itself in quality of life alone or "should I say more of a luxury at work" and when we are busy I can print more jobs per day because of the much lower setup time.  I keep mine running just fine by printing a small block using all of the nozzles on a dummy screen everyday to keep the ink flowing.  Being a small shop producing signs, banners, applying truck lettering as well as screen printing with just me and my wife, the cts helps me have the time to do it all. 

That being said, if my cts dies on me, I'll be in the market for a refurbished or economical cts because I can't see going back to film.  By the way, I'm only averaging around 25 screens per week although this year due to covid I'm not even close to that.

Good luck with whatever you go with.

[MNTS]

Thanks for all the info here! This definitely helps to make a more educated decision for whatever route we decide. The cleaning solution sounds like a great solution regardless of which printer because that seems to be the issue these printers end up facing. It seems that even if we do everything we can to avoid a clog, something runs down on them, and from what I'm thinking it's the head cleaning mechanism getting clogged up as well. So that cleaning solution must help there too. Really appreciate all the help on this! It seems to be a nightmare we've all faced or still seem to face. I
ll let you all know when we decide what we go with and keep updated on how well it works for us.