A new toy [42" wide-format printer]

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[Chris]

I just got this a few days ago. It's an HP 42" UV wide format printer. I have two spools of 36" white paper, and a spool of 36" sepia paper (not sure what I could use that for). I'm going to be ordering some 42" vinyl spools so I can wrap my box truck. After I'm done doing that, I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for. I was thinking about purchasing a 42" vinyl cutter so I can do some cool stuff with the pair, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

This thing is so freaking big, it's almost 7' wide, 4' high and 2' deep. It takes up a BUNCH of room! l should put a soda can on there as a size reference. I have it running on a dedicated APC SmartUPS 1000VA to make sure it gets some nice clean power. Maybe I'll make myself some really cool custom wallpaper for my house  

[Chris]

Never updated this post I see

This was in October. Old, incorrect photopaper, but it looked good!


Printed the photo for my friend on some drafting paper in low-quality. Colors are very washed out! 8.5 x 11 photo underneath for size reference.


Started printing out stuff on a nice new roll of the correct photo paper.


Excuse the shitty cell phone picture, but this is in my living room. Soda can for size reference.


Printed out a picture of Miranda Lawson, and my cat used it as a fucking toy.


Picture of Kitteh, but good shot of some posters I printed out in my computer room.

[94 olds vert]

Nice cat. LOL I have a black one like that as well.

Those printers are nice. I had access to one at school and there is a lot you could do with when the teacher wasn't looking...

[Chris]

Yeah, it's pretty damn cool. I'm enjoying printing shit for around my house and office at work... Up until I need to replace the ink cartridges

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

sweet! i would love to see my pictures on print, that big

[04SuperchargedSS]

Yeah, it's pretty damn cool. I'm enjoying printing shit for around my house and office at work... Up until I need to replace the ink cartridges

haha no kidding. i can only imagine what a cartridge replacement would cost.

[Chris]

haha no kidding. i can only imagine what a cartridge replacement would cost.

$350 each. The heads are also $150 each.
$2,100 for a complete ink replacement and $900 for a complete printhead replacement.
I have a $6,000 box of heads and ink not including what's installed in the printer.

The printer's ink & heads are worth more than all of the vehicles I own, combined. And that's not even counting the cost of the printer itself

[04SuperchargedSS]

Sweet baby jesus. i hope those last a loooooooooong time between replacements

[Chris]

Depends on what I print and the quality I set it at. I have a LOT of people wanting me to print stuff for them, but until I can find software to calculate the cost of each print (RIP software is supposed to do this), I can't give them an accurate estimate.

I've offered to print something free to the first person that can find me RIP software - but no bites yet.

Legitimate RIP software costs more than the printer and all the ink I have! I was hoping for some open source stuff, abandonware, or someone that had a copy they weren't using to give/sell me but no luck thus far.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

thats nuts!

[Chris]

I’ve officially given up trying to find the correct software for this thing so I’m going with an average cost I’ve been finding of $10 per square foot which rounds up to $.07 per square inch for prints on photo paper.

I was thinking of charging $.10 square inch and $14.50 per square foot to cover media costs and time, but I think that might be a bit too much. After calculating some large prints it seems that $.10/square inch gets expensive QUICK! Maybe I'll charge that rate for small prints and $.07 for larger prints. We'll see how screwed I am once I have to reorder ink!