JX1130 – On loan, worth it?

[Karl Williams]

Not heard of that one. Got a picture?

[Owen Lees]

Taken with my iphone so not the best res 🙂

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[Chris Wool]

quote :

Does the JX1130 have any kind of alignment that would enable me to do this kind of exercise?

yes but its 3 points and manual.

use mine every day as a cutter only 11 12 years old and likely do go the same again.

[Owen Lees]

Hi Chris and thanks for the answer.

Just to clarify then, its a similar procedure to the other Graphtec then?

On that I use the laser eye to manually align to crop marks on the artwork, using top-left and then bottom-left (2 point) all though I think I could do 3.

Is that the same process on the JX1130? Sorry to be a numpty but don’t want to go and get this cutter if it turns out not to be what I am expecting.

Oooh I also meant to ask you, I notice that the cutter looks like it has the same style of sliding carriage as the old Novajets (they had a phospor bronze sleeve bearing) which always gave issues with them making the head sloppy after a while and a replacement job, does this cutter suffer from that or did they move on?

Cheers again.

Oo

[Chris Wool]

whereabouts in the country are you.

using the keys to move the knife head to the points in order then send file
i never found it very accurate just adequate.

but with todays vinyls it may be better not the rubbish it used to print on.

chris

[Owen Lees]

Hi again Chris.

We are based in Moreton in Marsh in Gloucestershire.
I must admit to jumping more or less from a NovaJet to an Electrostatic and then to HP’s so I missed out on a lot of the early cut/plot days.

However the Mimaki performs really well, and I was hoping this would suffice for a slave cutter for it.

Oo

[Phil Halling]

Hi Model racer. I live in Mickleton since moving from Moreton, but would be glad to pop in and chat over your queeries if you like.
Phil

[Owen Lees]

Hi Phil, cheers for that – when we get this unit move done I’ll buzz you.

Got to get all dominoes in a row first!

Oo

[Karl Williams]

quote modelracer:

Got to get all dominoes in a row first!

Oo

That’s what you’re doing in the racing car…..delivering Pizza! 😉 I’ll get me coat. 😳

[Owen Lees]

Right….

Back on course now 🙂

I am about to make some decisions on direction for my new unit and part of that is to get my print/cut operation sorted out once and for all.

Currently I print on a JV3 – then laminate (if required) and then cut using a graphtec cutter which has an optical eye and reads crop marks that I place on the artwork when its done in Illustrator.

Because the printer and plotter are in a different building to my layout/design I want to use the afore mentioned JX1130 to cut the print after it has gassed off and been laminated.

I have been reading the forums and seen an inkling that doing the whole manual cut setup in the artwork may be unnecessary – assuming that I am using Illustrator / Corel (mainly Illustrator) to produce the print and outline files (I do two, one to print and one to cut) is there a more streamlined way to approach the whole process?

The rip is Shiraz 6 – no issues there, and thus far the post cutting process has been relatively successful – but not as accurate as I would have expected even when the registration set up is (IMHO) spot on. I am seeing inaccuracies of anything up to 3 or 4 mm on the cut process – which means that I generally drop a large bleed into the artwork to compensate.

To cut to the chase, using the JX1130 is there a software solution that will make this somewhat painful job any easier?

Oh and currently we are using Flexi offsite, but intend to use (either) Flexi or Signlabs on site – like I say its a question of setting up the new building right now and whilst we do have a process in place I’d welcome any ideas to make it less painful.

I have read that some members are using plugins to Illustrator – I’d like to know if they actually do work and in what way they would assist in the process (or not).

Oo

[Chris Wool]

quote :

Currently I print on a JV3 – then laminate (if required) and then cut using a graphtec cutter which has an optical eye and reads crop marks that I place on the artwork when its done in Illustrator.

Because the printer and plotter are in a different building to my layout/design I want to use the afore mentioned JX1130 to cut the print after it has gassed off and been laminated.

are we talking about 2 different graphtecs here

chris

[Owen Lees]

Yes. I use (currently) ‘offsite’ (ie: in a seperate building) a Graphtec recent ish cutter that has an optical eye which we do a 2 point manual registration to the crop marks which we apply in illustrator as part of the artwork.

Now I am wanting to do the same job with the JX1130 basically and whilst I dont have too many nightmares about the manual registration I think that I may be approaching the whole cutting prcess a bit wrong!

My Roland PC60 is simple compared to this 🙂

Oo

[David Rowland]

hm well our JV3 will print and along the length, you cannot guarantee the accuracy of the print. 2-5mm over 4mtrs is quite common error and then laminating will alter it again.
hense why the mimaki cutter uses 4 marks, then sorts it out.

I played for hours with it… just keep prints small is the only answer imo but long ones sometimes are a pain.

[Owen Lees]

Right! Well the majority of our prints are about 2 metres, we seem to get more discrepancy at the start of the print rather than at the end, almost like the cut creeps up the page.

I think I have to agree that keeping the prints to perhaps 1 metre may be the answer and do the graphic sets in chunks rather than one big sheet, I was just trying to save the vinyl as more prints means that I have to waste more on the trailing edge and leading edge to allow the cutter to operate. (Yes I probably shouldn’t bother but I dont like waste.)

How do you approach the process? 2 files (1 cut and 1 print?) when doing multiple shadows and strokes its a royal pain merging it all in Illustrator thats all.

Oo

[Chris Wool]

using 2 marks only aligns the cross cut, sets a new base point and does not take into account the feed difference between the jv3 and graphtec.

you have imo too variables with all the different software and machines both graphtecs can be driven direct from corel or illy.

and if using a roland printer this job would be as simple as the pc60.

i do cross from one machine to another with adequate success but dont think its a exact science unless its a matched system and software.

chris

[Owen Lees]

quote Chris Wool:

you have imo too variables with all the different software and machines both graphtecs can be driven direct from corel or illy.

chris

Thank heavens for that, I thought it was just me!

With regard to your comment about cutting from Illustrator, that sounds like a good idea, however not being familiar with the plugin technology – are these as good as a full blown app like flexi or signlabs (I know we are straying here but bear with me) or should I consider a purchase of one of these to complement my existing process?

I appreciate that I am asking questions that are never easy to quantify as all scenarios are different – but as I have the opportunity to get this right this time I thought it would be better to pause a little and take stock.

Oh yes and have you ever tried using a parallel driven cutter (like this JX) over a print server across a network? Or do they require a direct connection to operate in a meaningful fashion (for page polling etc)… I suspect I know the answer but I have a couple of these IP print servers in the stores and that would save some cabling 🙂

Oo

[Chris Wool]

its the graphtec windows printer driver and its free. and drive it just like the pc60.
you can’t poll a lpt plotter although you can drive it over the network as i do. as you would any printer or use a network printer adapter.

chris