The rolls on the laminators are everything; they must be in great shape or you will be redoing a lot of graphics.

There are two kinds of used equipment. The first type is the kind you purchase directly from the previous owner—and you need to realize that you may be buying a lemon that is looking for a new home. The second type is a factory reconditioned unit. It might be refurbished and/or reconditioned by either the manufacturer or a manufacturer-certified technician. In most cases a professionally reconditioned unit is more costly, but it comes with a warranty. Typically, the same unit you can get online for $7,000 will run about $9,000 from a certified vendor. If you’re looking at a digital die cutter or a wide-format printer, your best bet is to purchase from a certified technician.

 

COMMON SENSE

This story would not be proper without issuing a common sense warning: If you are not technically proficient or don’t have access to a good technician, you may not want to buy used. 

 

Here is a motherboard that costs more than $6,000. These must be purchased from the manufacturer.

For more than 20 years I have been buying both new and used equipment for both work and home, and generally, used is a great way to go. The issue that everyone has with pre-owned equipment is that if something goes wrong, you are responsible for the repair. New equipment comes with a warranty and a very clear support system. 

 

You must determine the risk versus the return on the purchase. Many pieces of used equipment have a very low risk associated with them—like a film laminator, panel saw or sewing machine, for example. The worst that can happen to a film laminator is that the rollers might need to be re-skinned or a motor might go. Either way the cost to fix, in most cases, is less than $3,000. 

 

If you purchase a $24,000 laminator for $8,000, then this risk seems reasonable. But it’s another story if you purchase a $20,000 wide-format printer for $8,500. Let’s say that shortly after you buy it, your printer blows a motherboard and takes the four printheads with it. Ouch! Now, you are into this for about $8,000 more for the new motherboard and printheads, plus labor. Again, risk versus return.

 

Make sure you get all the parts with the machine.Make sure it can do everything the machine is capable of doing. No one wants to say no to a client.

One final bit of common sense advice: If the used equipment costs more than $10,000, be sure to visit the site where the equipment is running to see it working first-hand. The $400 airfare is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

 

Let’s review some of the most popular items in the digital printing industry that you might consider purchasing used and consider what to look for and what questions to ask during the buying process.

 

DIGITAL PRINTERS

I break digital printers down into a few points to consider:

Type—roll, flatbed or hybrid

Size—printer width options: 54", 63", 72", 96", 120", 196"

Ink Type—aqueous, eco solvent, hot solvent, UV-curable, Latex, other

Availability—popularity of the printer, i.e., VUTEk 3360 versus a NUR Tempo.

Support—local repair people and available parts

Print Quality—can I really sell the output that this older printer is producing?

 

The most important point for you to consider, what market demand do I want to fill with this printer. It is expected that you can get a four-year-old printer for less than half the retail price. In many cases, it’s much less than half. What you need to be aware of is that some manufacturers called printers the same model but would add an “S” or something very small behind the model to identify a change in the printer. Mimaki, for example, made the JV3-160 in a few models, one had three heads and six colors (two colors per head), while the other had four heads and eight colors. What was so great about the four head version is that you could double up on the CMYK and double the printing speed. I made the mistake of not understand the small nuances and ended up driving 10 hours with cash in hand and with a rented van, only to find out the printer was the three head unit and I did not want the three head unit. Remember: Do your homework first, and ask the right questions.

 

Here is the inside of a liquid laminator. As you can see, it has a lot of parts. Something goes wrong here, you will be in trouble.

Let’s look at a purchase I made from a print shop where the owner passed away and the printer was unplugged and put in a storage bin in the dead of winter. I purchased this 63" printer with a bulk ink system for $4,000 from an online service. I drove from Boston to Ohio to get the printer; it was a mess! I took it back to my shop, took it apart, soaked the heads in acetone for a few days, and within four days had it up and running. Now five years later the printer is still running, my total cost since the purchase date has been six heads, a few vacuum motors and some services calls for about $7,500. Now for the ROI, this printer makes me about $70,000 profit each year. Now I will say I have a few great service people local to me, I know how to fix the printer myself, and I know where to get parts.

 

LAMINATOR

Pre-owned non-liquid laminators are not as likely to have difficulties because most have very few moving parts and almost no electronics in them. A motor, a few gears, two drive chains, and a few rollers, all held together with a large heavy steel frame. A good laminator is over $20,000 but a good used laminator is between $6,000-$12,000. What you need to look out for on laminators is the rollers. Slits/cuts in the rollers will affect your laminating and can cause bubbles in the lamination. The roller skin can also get hard over time and make it difficult to laminate as the hard rollers will sometimes cause the media to walk or you will get lines of small air bubbles through the laminate. Laminators that are pneumatic are more complicated than hand crank ones, but I will say the pneumatic ones are great. 

 

DIGITAL DIE CUTTERS

Before you hire your next finishing person, get one of these amazing tools. Most people only cut and route with these devices—and they all do this. Now the newer ones do much more than that, and come with many more useful tools that greatly increases the types of jobs you can run on the table. But when you consider that a new die-cutting table can run $160,000 and a very basic six-year-old unit can go for less than $80,000, that is a lot of cutting to pay the difference. 

 

Just because the manufacturer does not make the printer any more, does not mean it will not be a great investment. You just need to make sure you can get parts for the unit.

Now you should remember that these devices are complicated, and I would highly recommend you pay the manufacturer to send out a technician to help you set up and tune the machine that you purchase. There’s lots of technology involved, and you must know what you are doing in order to fix these machines. Most are either 4' x 8' or 5' x 10' so size is not a huge issue, but software will be. You need to make sure that your RIP will work with the software on the cutter. If you don’t, your process will be burdened greatly trying to set up every file to work with the software on the cutter. 

 

When considering other pieces of finishing equipment, I believe that panel saws, grommet machines, vinyl welders (RF and hot air), glass light tables, etc., are all reasonable used purchases, when considering the above caveats. 

 

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge in business is to get to the point where your equipment is paid for and earning you money free and clear. At this point, your risk is reduced and your fixed costs are reduced, and as a result your business should be more profitable. 

 

If you purchase a new printer ($20,000), new laminator ($22,000), new digital die cutter ($6,000), new panel saw ($3,000), new welder ($45,000), your total cost is around $96,000 or $2,300 per month (based on four years at 8 percent). Now if you purchase the same equipment used you can expect to pay about $35,000, or $880 per month—you would have to take a personal loan for the used equipment as most banks would not finance used equipment. This is a savings of $1,500 per month, but please remember the warnings we’ve discussed.

 

On the other hand, buying a new piece of equipment will earn you money for a longer period of time since the used equipment is already old when you get it. 

 

Good luck, and be smart with your money, and I will see you on the show floor.