Sold Large Format HP L25500 Latex printer

[ChrisFormela]

My dear "Big Bertha"
HP L25500 Latex Printer Wide format 60".


In good, working condition. Comes with 3 spare inks. I've been using it as a hobbyist for last 2 years for small, random prints. Stickers and mainly pinball related things.


- 61% used maintenance kit
- All printheads recently replaced for mix of brand new and refurbished.
-LED light and switch added.
-New carriage guides (copper) and felt installed.


Comes with 3 spare printheads and 5 Full inks!

New printheads and inks can still be easily purchased at very low prices.

I can help buyer to obtain FREE copy of the RIP software for it.

Also PC with installed and working RIP software available for additional £200.

Can be seen and tested prior collection.

Requires large van and 2-3 people to load. (I'm happy to help).

Really good business starter or even to print pinball decals, vinyls etc. Was serving me very well as a hobbist's machine. Recently used it to print my Flintstones pinball backbox decals.

Only selling it as I have purchased newer model at very competitive price and need space.

Keep in mind that it is 180kg monster

Price £900

 

[Pick Holder]

Out of interest - what would you say a set of decals costs you to print on this? Including media and ink.....

I am doing quite a bit now with jukes, pins and arcade games and just want to ask running costs so I can do some sums.

Feel free to drop me a PM.....

 

[ChrisFormela]

I can reply here. TBH got no exact idea.
Decent Oracal vinyl cost about £2 per meter (depends on width). Ink's usage can be calculated by the software but I have never needed it. Inks can be purchased for £40-70 per colour (775ml) and this will last you many, many meters of vinyl.
Probably £1/m for laminating. I don't think that printing full pinball decals would cost you more than £30 max. Biggest work is to prepare decent project. Most time consuming job. Also it is a latex printer - more surplus to solvent printers but it is using maintenance kit to clean the heads before every run, so it's better to print few projects at the time but on the plus side, you can leave it off for few weeks and the heads dont dry. Also print is ready to use, laminate straight after printing and more scratch resistant even without laminating.

Hopefully I'm not stepping on anyone's toes. I'm not the professional - yet

 

[ChrisFormela]

BTW. HP Latex Printers got built in spectrophotometer so it saves you £500+ to begin with if you are just starting the adventure. Every media can be colour calibrated by the printer and the software.

 

[Pick Holder]

So the laminate youapply by hand afterwards?

 

[ChrisFormela]

Can be done by hand but obviously easier if you get the laminator at some point for bigger and more projects. I still dont have one but I'm considering purchasing one, once I get some funds/space.

 

[russdx1]

Wow that thing is cool

 

[Nickbs]

We ran the slightly later version of this model (L28500) in our business for over 10 years, producing many,many 1000s sqm of print.
HPs latex print offering was very innovative and solid at the time.
original cost of this sort of kit was in region £15K-£20k + maintenance cover. They haven’t held/ increased their value like pinball machines!!

We had to ‘retire’ ours in the end as HP ‘ end of lifed’ some of the key consumables (inks, print heads’, maintenance kits and at that time (depths of pandemic in August 2020) the offerings from 3rd party suppliers were very limited. I believe that situation has much improved now.

Running cost wise we probably used to reckon on £6-£8 per sqm to produce print for media and ink/consumables - I guess it would probably be in region £9-£12 now.
the machine is best suited to longer print runs (eg 2m/5m+) as you typically use 1m or so to feed through at start of run.


One of the advantages of the latex inks (aside from being generally more eco friendly than solvent based inks) is that they sit more on the surface of the media rather than biting in’ which makes the media easier to handle/apply without lamination.
The print can be used direct off the print for a lot of applications (posters, stickers etc) but, that said, for anything large and going in an environment that could be abrasive, I would say that lamination is highly recommended. That helps enormously with longevity as well as ease of application.

For larger prints and regular use I’d definitely recommend looking at use of a mechanical laminator, which can probably sourced 2nd hand for between £500-£1000. That’s based on speed and quality of finish.

 

[ChrisFormela]

Yes. I do agree with everything above, however initial 1m of the media is needed only if you are using pick-up reel. It normally wastes only about 10cm at the beginning and few cm margin at the end.
Cost per meter is still about £6-8 in my opinion. Inks are at the same price or lower than new 831. More annoying is the maintenance kit, so as mentioned, bigger prints, batches are recommended.