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My first ever printer is installed…
Well the day dawned last Wednesday when Grapityp were to deliver/install/set up my SP-300V. What can I say about this….well……..everything went as smooth as a really smooth smooth thing. Leigh Griffiths (Head print technician) was bang on time and his install/instruction was excellent.
From my first seeing the machine advertised on UKSB to calling Neil Stevenson (Grapityp Sales Director) to visiting them both at their place in Tamworth and again at the NEC show I have nothing but praise for the way I have been treated. Having seen the scale Grapityp operate at I soon realised that my ‘purchase’ was small fry but at no time was I made to feel like the ‘little guy’.
Anyway with a new (to me) machine to play with I did the usual ‘bloke’ thing…..didn’t read the manual…(but will do soon) and soon got to grips with working out how SignLab 8 functions. Boy is it different from Corel X3, but with SL8 anxd X3 to play with it’s going to be fun.
So armed with nothing but anticipation and an excitement usually reserved for 8 yr olds at Christmas I loaded in my banner design (previously done in Corel X3 as a test of my limited abilities in cutting/cropping a section of a digital photograph…..me on my bike)….ripped it and pressed ‘print’……..nervous? You bet I was as the SP rumbled…(well whispered actually) into life and my first print began to appear.
The result is, for me at least, everything I anticipated…..and here it is….
[/img]I’m now, with a little trepidation, getting stuck into SL8 and begining to skim the surface of this capabilities of this package…..
Many happy….and no doubt frustrating as well……hours ahead.
PS…yes I know it doesn’t fill the media to the bottom …but it was my first attempt so be kind to me…. :lol1:
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18 Replies
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Well done Roger. These are amazing machines that take a little while to get the best from. That’s a brilliant start and I’m sure you’ll find it to be a very worthwhile and profitable purchase for your business. 😀
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Exciting times Roger…….good luck!
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Roger, I got a Versacamm late last year and it took me a whole day to get the first proper print/lam/cut out of it from SL8. That was working on my own with never having seen one before.
Brilliant machines which you will grow to love.
One tip, be sure to leave it in standby (blue light flashing) and connect it via a UPS as even a momentary glitch in the mains will trip the power off.I guess you just need to hone your graphic design skills now you’ve gone digital 😉
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Enjoy your new toy Roger! they are great machines 😀
only just printed off my first banner today, was really expecting it to turn out crap but NO turnend out perfect & this was even using cheap banner material & Rolands generic banner profile…..good times!
and to think, up until last week I considered A3 large format 😉
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love to know how your finding things Roger – Graphityp are installing mine this Thursday 😀
John
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quote Roger Clements:…yes I know it doesn’t fill the media to the bottom …but it was my first attempt so be kind to me…. :lol1:But you have managed to fill the space you have used 😀
Hope you don’t mind me saying, I would invest another £20 in the book ‘Mastering Layout’ by Mike Stevens. It will help you get the best out of your new machine.
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quote David-Foster-:quote Roger Clements:…yes I know it doesn’t fill the media to the bottom …but it was my first attempt so be kind to me…. :lol1:But you have managed to fill the space you have used 😀
Hope you don’t mind me saying, I would invest another £20 in the book ‘Mastering Layout’ by Mike Stevens. It will help you get the best out of your new machine.
good advice there lol
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Many thanks for all the replies …and for being ‘gentle’ with me…. :lol1:
Phil…many thanks for your kind comment.
Peter….yes mate it’s always left on with a BIG …’DO NOT SWITCH OFF’ sign posted nearby. Also I will be cleaning (manually as recommended) every fortnight.
John….Leigh Griffiths installed mine and I have to say he was excellent…..Top bloke.
David…..I might just find £20 for the book and yes the space will be used…..somehow…. :lol1:
It was interesting to hear from Leigh that there is a ‘memory’ installed in these machines so Roland can see machine history regarding covers etc having been removed for cleaning. So there’s no hiding from them if you ‘misuse’ the cleaning schedule………wow there’s a spy in my machine…. (oogle)
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quote Peter Dee:Roger, I got a Versacamm late last year and it took me a whole day to get the first proper print/lam/cut out of it from SL8. That was working on my own with never having seen one before.
Brilliant machines which you will grow to love.
One tip, be sure to leave it in standby (blue light flashing) and connect it via a UPS as even a momentary glitch in the mains will trip the power off.I guess you just need to hone your graphic design skills now you’ve gone digital 😉
why is it good to leave the printer on stand by any reason?
Thanks Neil
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The printer has it’s own cleaning cycle, turning it completely of for long periods of time is a quick way to get big maintenance bills!
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You beat me to the reply Gavin……just to expand on this …..the machine has a self clean function which requires it not to be switched off/powered off like Gavin said. Also if yours is like/similar to mine it goes ‘to sleep’ (energy saving circuitry)when not in use and ‘wakes up’ to self clean. However this self clean does not negate the need to do a 2 weekly manual clean……unless, like Gavin said, you fancy a nice big bill for gummed up heads.
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right so is that why i go though so much ink? i turn mine off all the time and when i turn it on it does a full clean. No one told me that its best to leave it on stand by.
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By leaving it on standby it will just murmer now and then and come to life and pull some ink through the heads to keep it flowing. Every twelve hours I think.
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Bit off topic, but one quick question:
I see your SP is still the "old look" – My SP540 bought last January looks like that. But about November last year when Roland had their "roadshow" here, the SP’s had the "new streamlined look" like the VP. Are the old type still in production, or is it just old stock that needs to be shifted?? (good deals should then be offered!!)
I actually prefer the old type – it seems more solid. The old type SP300 weighs more than the new VP540. Lots of weight = solidly built in my book!
Or am I just confused between the SP and VP. Beer was flowing at the roadshow, so I’m not so sure now!!
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Were can you buy that book Mastering Layout by Mike Stevens???
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a.s. handovers, london
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quote Nicholas.Gormley:Were can you buy that book Mastering Layout by Mike Stevens??? -
Gert…my SP in the photo is an older SP. However I was informed it was one of the last of the previous SP with the updated motherboard. This means no replacement was needed to run Versaworks…..it merely required a switchover on the board to recognise and operate VW…and yes it is very solid and quite heavy which I like…as we say it’s built like a tank… :lol1: and yes again I got a brilliant deal… :thumbsup:
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