MP5 morning startup routine

3049 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by signfx77, May 31, 2012

abhobden

Discussion Starter · May 21, 2012

Hi all, thought it would be useful for all MP5 owners out there to put down what each of you do in the morning to ensure the printer works well for the day, do you have a particular routine you go through? We've tried many things but havn't found a particular series of steps that works yet.

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

abhobden

Discussion Starter · #2 · May 22, 2012

Just bumping this thread up! Anyone with some info here? I am assuming no-one has found a good routine yet...

Scifighter11

· #3 · May 23, 2012

I really don't have a set routine for say. But I do every day if I print or not run print head cleans. This makes it easy for me when I do print shirts that I don't have to do a lot of work. By leaving it set for a few days. If I go and need to do a run more then 10 I always do a manual head clean and a 10 point check clean to make sure it all is setup and ready. Then once I check and clean everything I do a fill line and purge line for 40 sec. Buy the time all this is done my heat press is ready to go. I have all my shirts pretreated and ready to go. After every ten prints I do another level one clean and then continue. Pretty much that is it.

A question for you. Do you use a reverse osmosis filters or do you buy distilled water. I'm installing a RO system to my sink for all the other devices I use distilled water for and was wondering if it would work with the pretreat.

killerwebs

· #4 · May 23, 2012

What I do is

Every morning I release the print head and clean the maintenance area and print head, do a manual ink circulation, and then level 1 clean, then nozzle check.

This has been working good for the last few weeks.

If the printer sits idle a few hours I do a level 1 clean and nozzle check before running again.

I do find that even though I get good nozzle checks in the morning, the first 1 or 2 shirts I run have a tendancy to band a bit, but doing another level 1 clean usually fixes it, I just run another pass over the shirt and it fixes any banding, then that shirt looks really good.

After that the printer runs somewhat well, I check the lines, maintenance area, print heads all the time. They should have made the MP5 case transparent, it seems I have it up , more than down.

Scifighter11

· #5 · May 23, 2012

killerwebs said:
They should have made the MP5 case transparent, it seems I have it up , more than down.

Lol. I know what you mean. Or at least put the control panel on the bottom half of the printer case. So you can have the lid up all the time.

I also wish they didn't have a back on it so I can run longer stuff though it. Like a skateboard.

abhobden

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 23, 2012

Scifighter11 said:
A question for you. Do you use a reverse osmosis filters or do you buy distilled water. I'm installing a RO system to my sink for all the other devices I use distilled water for and was wondering if it would work with the pretreat.

We are just using normal water as our water is very good here in NZ. If we have time we will use boiled water (once its cold obviously). I'm not familiar with RO systems.

Thanks for your info regarding startup

abhobden

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 23, 2012

killerwebs said:
What I do is

Every morning I release the print head and clean the maintenance area and print head, do a manual ink circulation, and then level 1 clean, then nozzle check.

This has been working good for the last few weeks.

If the printer sits idle a few hours I do a level 1 clean and nozzle check before running again.

I do find that even though I get good nozzle checks in the morning, the first 1 or 2 shirts I run have a tendancy to band a bit, but doing another level 1 clean usually fixes it, I just run another pass over the shirt and it fixes any banding, then that shirt looks really good.

After that the printer runs somewhat well, I check the lines, maintenance area, print heads all the time. They should have made the MP5 case transparent, it seems I have it up , more than down.

Thanks for the info. Are you printing on medium or fine most of the time?

Scifighter11

· #8 · May 23, 2012

Hey killer thanks for showing pics of your print head on the banding thread. Although I havent any real issues with my mp5 I did notice my print head was a lot more dirtier. When I went for training at Anajet even theirs wasn't as clean. So I just did by example and wasn't to happy with how clean theirs was. So after seeing your pics I just got done with a hour clean. It was difficult to get some of the ink off. But finally it is done and I feel better about the printer. Thanks again. I like with when people actually help and not just cry and complain about how bad the printer company is but never take and respond back to any help that they are receiving from this forum.

onthespotgraphix

· #9 · May 23, 2012

4

Well finally getting around to having some breathing room here to share some info....my start up routine as of late is the following:

1. Have a ceremonial event which includes sprinkling some blessed holy water over the MP5 to promote good performance.

2. Fire up the Keurig and load it with some dark majic espresso.

3. check my RH and room temp.

4. take out white cartridges and gently move the ink around the bladder and re-insert cartridges.

5. release carriage and slide it to the middle and wipe the bottom printhead plate and printheads down with printhead cleaner. I also clean the docking station.

6. run a nozzle check to see where we are at.

7. my machine historically has always printed almost perfect nozzle checks for colors except both WHITES and sometimes YELLOW.

8. depending on nozzle check will either do a printhead 1 or 2 clean for those colors only.

9. print nozzle check again.

10. if everything prints perfect we go grab our coffee and start printing. I've attached pics. Hope this helps.

See less See more

abhobden

Discussion Starter · #10 · May 24, 2012

Thanks BP, your capping station is remarkably clean! Think we might have to give step (1) a try

Regarding #7, we are the opposite, white are normally all good, the colours frequently have missing
nozzles and form drips on the printhead.
You mention "printhead cleaner", is that a special product or widely available?

Thanks for your info, very helpful.

onthespotgraphix

· #11 · May 24, 2012

Thank You Hobden. This cleaning solution is what I had left over from my old FP-125 and there was nothing better in my opinion to soak the printhead on that DTG to break down the inks and get perfect nozzle checks....so I figured it should do the same for this MP5.

This is the direct link where I get mine:
Head Maintenance Solution (HMS)

Right now the machine is performing flawlessly.

Reactions: 1

smahoe

· #12 · May 30, 2012

Hey OnTheSpotGraphix, how did you get the metal cage off your printing station? And are you using that solution on the printheads everyday?

killerwebs

· #13 · May 30, 2012

There are about 6 or so small screws to remove the print head cage, I really could not see what was going on in there with it on. Much better for me with it off, I can easily see any damper or line issues

onthespotgraphix

· #14 · May 30, 2012

smahoe said:
Hey OnTheSpotGraphix, how did you get the metal cage off your printing station? And are you using that solution on the printheads everyday?

The cover is held on with screws on the sides as well as on the top. I was having issues in the beginning getting ink to flow continously without air gaps and also was having problems with the dampers so I removed it and left it off.

I've recovered it now with a custom cover I made using clear 1/16" acrylic plexiglass that hinges upward so that I can access the lines, dampers, printheads or boards without removing the entire cover. I would have designed the cover this way to begin with if I was the manufacturer.

Reactions: 1

sondzin

· #15 · May 31, 2012

I don't have a morning ritual, but rather an evening ritual since I print most of my shirts at night.
I make sure my humidifier is going all day to keep humidity up. When I get home from work, I check humidity and don't do anything until it is past 45% at least. One thing I have found in getting good nozzle checks is to shake the ink cartridges prior to doing a nozzle check and prior to printing. I routinely do level 1 head clean before printing, but if your humidity is not up, you'll still get bad nozzle checks.

I do a full clean every weekend, but sometimes more frequently if I am getting issues. I've only had the printer for a little over a month, so I'm still inexperienced at some of this, but so far, aside from trying to get colors right, I have had good experience as far as inkflow.

David

signfx77

· #16 · May 31, 2012

That is awesome! Onthespot!

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