[twistedmonkey]

i just purchased the bn-20 from stahls and very excited. i know i shoud have gone with the 30 inch but $$$ with a 2 year old is not easy anyways, i did some research but cant seem to find the info. can i print on silver or gold or any other color vinyl if i wanted to? i will be usuing cymmk set up. can i just feed my regular silver sign vinyl and print on it? thank u in advance

 

[tchandler52]

Nice article. I am also considering a print and cut very soon.

 

[idonaldson]

Hi Mike,
Nice meeting with you. The question you ask has a dual answer. The BN20 like it bigger brothers is an Eco-Sol printer and as such will print on any type of media susceptible to that ink. With that said, normally sign vinyl is not used with eco sol ink, but some have successfully done so with techniques. Thanks for getting me back on this site.

 

[twistedmonkey]

so its been almost 3 weeks purchased ,my bn20. am i happy???? i would say i donno yet cause we didn't open our store yet( still in basement) for that quantity job but im happy with what i am able to do now. i am not going to say anything about the speed. its fine for me. i use the draft 2 mode and its fine fine fine. i will not argue with big boy toys i know 30 inch machine is better yes i know that. i wish i went with that yes i agree with that too but for the size we are now and what we will be doing. this machine is dummy proof. certain things im used to with Roland cutters are not the same case here so what ill learn. will i make money ? i think i will. i already made couple shirts and decals . im happy with the results and also my customers happy.

i mainly use my 7600 Epson for larger prints and stuff like canvas and pictures etc. cheaper faster and wayyyyy efficient. over all im happy with the purchase of my bn20. i would recommend to a starting guy dont be afraid and buy. go with stahls and they will help you. i had a small misunderstanding at the beginning but all good.

for a small shop that will not do crazy quantity this is the way to go. i will say again im not a huge tshirt shop , sign shop or all that good stuff. im a small shop that does everything in a moderate quantity. you can say all in one shop i used my card and will pay off in 12 months so im ok in that department as well. if any new starters have any q pm me any time. i may not be an expert o everything but i can say i tried almost everything out there from dtg to heat transfer paper to whatever u can think off ill deft try to help
have a good week all

 

[clippernate34]

I am a DTG printer and am looking at one of these to be able to print on the all poly stuff like basketball shooting shirts. Also I figure I offer stickers and small signs and expand my business which can never hurt. But I am torn if I will get enough work for it to pay for itself

 

[tctahoe]

I am a DTG printer as well and certainly have not used it and at this rate it will never pay for itself. I have printed exactly 3 shirts with the printer now in 3 months, no stickers, so we will see. It is a real hassle to convert images over so not really time effective for me that way.

 

[clippernate34]

That's what I am afraid of. Cause nobody will want that transfer over a dtg printed shirt. But I would like to do 100 % poly. And I worry there are so many pure sign people out there already it will be tough to get sign business.

 

[tctahoe]

yes, my thoughts exactly. I have done DTG for so long and everyone wants the colored shirts so I opted for this route to do some colored shirts, but the money might have been better spent on a DTG with white option. As for signs, the market is saturated so wasn't even a consideration for this model. I solely purchased so that I could do some of the darker shirts but like I said, compared to working with sublimation this machine is a huge hassle. I could have gotten 8 sub printers for the price of this and the sub printers pay for themselves quickly. I put out probably 50-100 shirts a day using sublimation and dtg but by the time I convert those images over to work with the BN 20 it's been a waste of time.

 

[twistedmonkey]

you guys are loking at the bn 20 just for tshirt purposes . if thats all you do than i would say its a waste of money i agree with uou. we got it cause we wanted to make uniforms sports jerseys etc. also able to make promotional items, small format signs and magnets is a plus.
we will still use our dtg and sublimation and heat transfers on most of items

 

[clippernate34]

yeah of course I want to use it for those things as well I think the uniforms would be great for it. The question is will you get enough work to pay it off is all.

 

[twistedmonkey]

hopefully lol. as of now im too late to get that kind of business because im still waiting for permits for signs for my new store. funny i make small signs but i cant make mu own signs lol

they want me to draw up plans etc anyways im sure it will pay for itself. we have alot of ideas to get this machine a run for its money

 

[svobo]

Using this printer and in last 2 weeks had some problems. the wiper is not returning back after cleaning sometimes and when printing it is touching head. Need to stop printer turn it of and on so its is ok. Not very good when this happend during print and you can thrhow all in bin specialy with speed of this printer. Any idea what can be the problem?
Thanks

 

[clippernate34]

I went to the NBM show this week and after that I plan on gettin something cause everyday this month I had to turn down vinyl work cause I did not have it and guys who sub it out only want to do jobs of 30 units or more. I am,earning on getting a used by 20 somewhere. None are listed locally to me so I am in waiting mode the goal is to have enough work and jump to a 54 so I could do real size banners.

 

[clippernate34]

Looks like I am buying a used bn20 my question is that it has double magenta in it do I need the white for stickers? Is the sticker media clear? Or white so in that case I would not need the white.

If I wanted to add the white how much to convert it?

If you use white what do you use it on thanks!!

 

[danikasdad]

I just downloaded windows 10 and my Roland BN 20 does not work Help

 

[idonaldson]

You can easily get white vinyl for your decals. If you are going to do clear, white helps because the ink is transparent. If you not have white it is a two step process. White is problematic, period. Ink configuration is chosen on start up and configures the head to access the channels. Once chosen it is done. There is a procedure to change but not worth the hassle if you do not know how. The 30 inch is really the entry level machine and those who jump in at the BN soon find that out. There is a market for it, but truth be told the 30" runs twice as fast and use a lot less media. Maintenance is oh so important on all the machines, but especially on the BN since everything is so cramped in there. Happy CAMMing!

 

[idonaldson]

BN unlike their older bigger brothers is a USB connected printer. USB means it needs drivers. It is nice to have the latest and greatest, but did you check for drivers for this OS. You do not need a lesson from me, but you do have a recovery point and might want to consider reversing your install of OS10. Also you might want to go to the Roland website to see if they uploaded a patch in their support section. You might have to check the Roland USA or Japan site. Japan usually have stuff before others. Also VersaStudio and VersaWorks are not seat driven programs and can be loaded on multiple machines. It is always important to have it loaded on multiple machines in cases like this. Hopefully you still have another laptop or PC you can load the programs on until a patch is found or developed.

 

[Patriot62]

What color configuration do most BN20 owners use and why? CMMYK, CMYK White or CMYK Metalic? Wondering which to order it with? I have passed on jobs because I do not have this capability yet but planning to buy one in a week or so. I want to do tshirts, windows, banners and posters.

Pedro
Ricoh 7100
Hotronix Fusion
Hotronix Cap press
Grapthtec 6000-60 vinyl cutter

 

[clippernate34]

The most popular I think is double Mag. That's what I ended up getting never once needed the white or metal

 

[r81]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone had the BN-20 Service manual?

I need to do some repairs and dont want to tackle without it

Cheers
Ryan