Trials and Tribulations
I’ve learned a fair good bit about this UV printer of mine over these first few months. It’s capable of printing on just about any material, for the most part. Some materials, such as glass, can still be annoying to work with. Materials that are not truly flat or are porous can have poor printing results. Another thing I’m learning that I don’t like too much about my UV printer is that although it is a flatbed printer, the print bed moves during printing. Which is not a major problem. It’s just not as ideal as having a UV printer where the print bed is stationary and only the printhead is moving in the x and y axis. Again, not a big deal but it’d be nice to have (maybe one day, they’re kind of expensive).
With white ink being responsible for the base layer of any print, unless the material itself is white, you really need to understand just how particular the white ink can be. There is a reason why the white ink has a circulation system and the other ink colors might not. The white ink is prominent to drying out much faster than the other colors. Plus when the white ink starts to show issues during prints, you really need to understand how to fix those problems before you make larger problems. I made the mistake of not keeping up with it like I should and had more stress due to these issues than I would have liked. So what did I do when I started to notice extra spraying and spotty prints?
Well… When you have issues with a print, it’s a sign that you need to clean the printhead a little bit more than the UV printer already does at the capping station. I took off all of the ink dampers from the printhead manifold and disconnected the wiring. I then filled a heavy duty paper plate with 91% isopropyl alcohol about 5mm high, just enough to let the printhead soak but not anywhere close to getting the circuit board wet. While it was soaking I also used a syringe plunger to pull some cleaner through the manifold. The soaking process took about 10-15 minutes. I then immediately put the printhead back in to the printer (big mistake). Long story short, I started getting what looked like watery prints that still had overspray. I thought this might have then been a problem with the ink and ordered new ink dampers. After those arrived I swapped them out with the dampers that were originally on it, but I was then having issues getting ink to the dampers. After hours of trying to get it to work, I eventually learned that the dampers that came in were faulty and were of no use to me. So I put the original dampers back on after a few wasted hours and ordered a refurbished printhead because it was 10% the price of a new one. When the refurbished printhead came in, I swapped it out with the original one and pulled ink through the capping station from the waste point. Now I know that ink will go through the system and try to run a nozzle check. But nothing prints from the nozzle check. Try to do a test print and nothing. Have the UV printer do a few head cleaning cycles and still nothing is printing. So I get annoyed from this struggle and go to bed. The next day I try again for a little bit, but still nothing is working. In a moment of desperation I put the original printhead back on and it is working perfectly fine… Where I went wrong originally was not allowing the printhead time to dry after soaking and cleaning it.
So after all this time, I’m back! I’m going to start getting ready to make social media posts as well as trying to get setup with local businesses to see if I can make anything for them. Plus I still need to add the customizable golf balls to my website. I also can always make custom quotes for anyone even if something isn’t on my website! Anything that is flat and size A3 or smaller, then it can be printed on for easy customization!
