Summa DC3 – what can it do?

[David Rowland]

Dennis, I am afriad I don’t know anyone who has the DC3… a few of us that regularly post have Gerber Edge machines and some have Roland PC range. Sorry cant help … just bumping this post so it doesnt get missed.

[Robert Lambie]

there are a couple with dc3’s mate. there is a reguklar here that bought one about 6 months ago, his name slips me but hes from the states.
ide say he would be best to advise, if i remember who ill link to one of his threads.
as for print width. if it is sprocket fed then you will be limited to the width of vinyl you can use.
if sprocketed you wil be limited to garment film and the like that has sprockets.
i would imagine, like the pc600 and edge that you can print onto more than just vinyl. garment films, chrome, gold mirror for sure.

sorry i can be of more help. 😕

[Gordon Forbes]

Ah now i know what bumpin is lol

[Robert Lambie]

here is the guy taht can help you best ide recon, hes on the site pretty often.

http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … ght=#97827

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

thx robert, appriciate it, hope the guy has some good advice,
in 4 weeks i’ll get the summa so i will let you all know the ups and downs of the thing.

mabey a few pics of the prints i’ll see…..

anyway thx alot

[cyberdine]

Hi, I bought my DC3 few months ago, and I can tell you its a very nice machine. There are goods and bad about it…
The goods: when using the 3M vinyl (sold by summa) the prints are awesome, the quality is superb, whether you’re printing process or spot, easy of use, friendly, durability is great without lamination, although I’d suggest lamination for anything outdoors for longer than 3 years. If your prints are going to be on a aluminun sign outdoors it probably would be ok for longer than 3 years, but for a vehicle wrap that is subject to continuous abuse, car wash, chemicals etc…than I would laminate.
Prints are scratch resistant.
I haven’t seen any machine to do a contour cut like it…precision is called Summa…they’re the master of precision (I also have a D-60 cutter/awesome) The ribbons are very easy to install…machine keeps track of how much ribbon you have left, so you don’t run out in the middle of a job.
The bad: you can only use 40″ media to it…Some people have used other type of vinyl on it successfully, like Arlon and Avery. I don’t know of any aftermaket brand of ribbons.
There’s a company in Arizona whos trying a banner material on it…I am following on that, and let you guys know as soon as I learn anything new.
Thats is basically it…
Feel free to ask any question in case I have left anything out.
One other thing…this machine is a thank…build to last, very sturdy.
And one other thing, is the way Summa builds them…repair friendly should you need anything done to it…parts were made with costumers in mind…you can change the print head yourself and others as well.
Good luck,

Alex

[Dr Mohab Fahmi]

hi

being a tecchie myself, i give a very impartial opinion, irrespective of economic detriment to my company so i am glad to do that as long as it is in an informal gatehring of this sort!

regards

(mod-edit)

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

the 4 weeks have passed and i have the machine,

i went experimenting on it right a way:

i havent done al the experiments yet butt so far some are good and some are bad:

the good:
it prints very nice on white and transparant from 3m

i even managed to do a grafityp kind of oneway vision:
i wandered that if you use the grafityp oneway vision you first have to print in mirror on transparant then applie a black and white vinyl to the rint, stuff it back in the plotter and cut long and narrow retangles:
this seemed like alot of work so i tried it on the summa dc3 for my one with a twist:

i used 3m transparant, printed the image in mirror and reversed the printing order and added two primers: white and black.
i also put the cutting info in the design so al i had to do was press ok and walk away, when i came back i had my oneway vision al finished with only 2 minutes of working hours:

here’s what i did:

had the design witch is normally printed like this:

process black
process cyan
process maghenta
process yellow
transparant vinyl

i then added the two primers to get this:

process black
process cyan
process maghenta
process yellow
spot white
spot black
transparant vinyl

then i reversed the printing order:

spot black
spot white
process yellow
process maghenta
process cyan
process black
transparant vinyl

i also put in the retangles to cut:
retangles as wide as the job
height 2,5 mm
1 mm space between the retangles

it worked beautifully (hope i spelled that right)

when i came in it was all finished, al i had to do was a 2 second weed and application tape and it was finished no real time taken.

i also printed on bache (banner, sail, some other english words,…)
butt that did not work well, you could see that the relief of the banner came through lots of little white squares in the job really ugly.

it also prints on macfleet (for wrapping purposes)

for the moment that’s all the experimenting i did,

i’ll fill you all in later when i did some more mabey even with some pics if i can manage to find some batteries that aren’t dead.

talk to you all later

regards

Dennis

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

the dc3 cannot print on avery signflex and sorts of bannervinyls.

other findings will follow

[Stephen Sill]

Greetings Dennis and all-
First, Dennis – you got a whale of a deal on that DC3 they are selling now for $20,000. Your findings parallel my own – Haven’t found any other material that works as well as the 3m white and clear that is specified for it. I, too will be interested to find a banner material that I could direct print to!

I’m still happy with my unit – still feel a little robbed by the fact that there’s no other choice for either media or ink, but that may change over time – it has for the Gerber Edge machines. But my costs have evened out at around $24.00/M^2 and I am presently turning out 1.5″x9.5″ racing cycle name tags for a local team – they’re buying 6 sets a week or so

In a couple weeks I’m moving the whole sign shop into its own premises so I will have to move the summa – will have to hire a crew of musclebound lads to help

Best of luck with your machine, and happy holidays to all!

S

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

the material i find it best on to print is not 3m

i have been given a testrol from http://www.multi-fix.be
they gave me “digital white ultra glossy 6005 series,

it works pefectly and imo even brighter colors and better imaging(the way the print looks) than 3m

if you take it by 1m widht it costs 3,97 euro +tax
it’s a soft calendered film like macfleet works very well even with deep corrugations.

[Stephen Sill]

Now that’s good information! I have sent a note off to multifix to see if they have a US distributor!

Thanks, Dennis, and good luck!

Steve

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

you’re welcome 😎