Well, this is it.

I've been wanting to get into digital vinyl printing for awhile; I have plenty of experience with cutting and such, using plotters, but I really wanted to be able to get the jobs that I had to turn away or send to someone else done myself.
So, after keeping a watchful eye on Craigslist for a long time, I found the perfect printer: a Mutoh Falcon Outdoor 48".

Sure, some may say it's not the best printer, that it's rife with issues and is old technology, that much newer things are better, but the real issue is that new printers are very expensive ($15,000). I wanted something somewhat inexpensive that I could work on and get parts for. (Roland ColorCAMMs are TOO old)

So, I'm now the proud owner of a partially-working Mutoh Falcon!
Here's a little about the machine:

• It can do 1440x1440dpi color prints onto vinyl using eco-solvent inks, which are good outdoor for a year or two. More if you put overlaminate on them.
• It can print up to 46" wide!
• It has a take up roller, front and rear heaters, and huge ink tanks!
• The person who sold it to me was really awesome and gave me his old copy of Flexi 7.6, which is a RIP used to rasterize graphics into a format the printer can read.

However, things are not all roses:

• The machine has been sitting for about 3 years without being run. Most of the time I've read that machines sitting even six months will need new heads, but I'm going to try and revive these, I think it may be a lost cause though.
• I'm going to need all new supplies for this system. Vinyl, inks, etc, which are not cheap.
• The printer will need to be run, at the minimum, through a cleaning cycle every couple days to keep the ink from solidifying in the heads and elsewhere. 
• I'm going to want a larger plotter, with optical registration to be able to contour-cut the stickers I plan on printing. 

However, I think I'm up to the challenge. I have a good working knowledge of inkjet technologies and printer mechanics, and with a relatively small investment (~$1500) I hope to have this machine up and running. I'll be posting photos, my victories and my defeats, in the hopes that someone else who is looking to do this can get some useful information.