VERSACAMM – TAKE UP ROLLER -on the cheap ideas??

[Stephen Ingham]

hi danny, i would be very interested in such a piece of kit to fit to my versacamm

cheers
stephen

[Mike Grant]

quote Kate:

( for leaving jobs overnight, long jobs etc. )

Cor blimey would you trust it to track properly overnight. No matter how hard I try I wouldn’t trust it for more than 4 meters at any one time. 😮 🙄

[Simon Kay]

I’m with you Mike.

We’ve got a PC60 and no matter how pedantic you are in the set up it always wanders after about 4 meters.

No way I’d leave it overnight. 😕

[Nicola McIntosh]

yep i have to agree mike… 😀

i have had so many folk telling me….yes i run my plotter every night to cut my work for the next day 😮 i would have thought you would manage to a point with sprocketed material…..but anything else..the thought would keep you from sleeping!! 😉

Nik

[Rodney Gold]

You can set the machine to prefeed the media , it feeds all the media out , re rolls and starts printing. This way you know it will track true thru the job.
You can’t really use a take up unless you get an aftermarket drier unless you want to come back to prints stuck together.
I would never leave my soljet printing unattended , we always have a “minder” when doing long or big jobs.

PS those that have Versacams , Roland have introduced a new ink (Roland in South Africa has , Roland in america have not , but this , according to my Roland agent is a pukka roland ink and not an aftermarket)
The inks evidently come in larger carts , are 15% cheaper , less odour , better colour gamut , and according to the agents are as durable as any solvent if not better.
Remains to be seen if the claims are true , but its a step in the right direction.

[chorley signs]

never had any tracking problems with our SP300, just the same rules as with a cutter- keep the rollers and grit clean and take care when loading the media to get it dead straight

Rob

[Peter Shaw]

Rodney,

Although the prefeed will tell you if it’s going to track OK, what do you do about all the dust etc picked up on the vinyl that spills onto the floor?

That’s why I don’t prefeed.

Peter

[drogers4]

Rodney,

Have you heard anything of a timeline as to when those inks might be available to the US? I will be receiving my versacamm next week and this already sounds like something I will be interested in finding out more about (as any roland owner would be I am sure). Especially the claims of more durable prints. Thanks

Doyle

[Mark Candlin]

I asked Roland UK about the new inks last week, they were pretty tight lipped, but did suggest that something would be anounced as to regard new inks for the versacamm in the near future. Iam looking forward to seeing how much more durable the inks are.

[Rodney Gold]

Ours will be available as from 1 September , our dealer is not sure whether the machines will need a flush when changing over , he seems to think that you just load the new ink in when the old cart runs out?
Yeh , dust can be a problem , we use ionised air on our vinyls to kill static and remove dust ( use it for pex fabrication for the same purpose)
Also we have the machine sitting on a big rubber mat type thingy instead of a carpet cos of dust (and the fact the machine shakes a lot when running at real high speed and was making clanking noises when on a solid floor and carpet – didnt think it was good for the thing)
Static is actually a big problem when printing.

[Stephen Ingham]

Although this is all very interesting i think we have veered off the original path!!

TAKE UP ROLLER!!

any ideas yet??

cheers
stephen

[Rodney Gold]

Im sure you can kludge a roller by using a core and 2 extra of the core inserts and a home made bracket , just drive it with a real simple stepper motor. All you need to do is have some sort of microswitch which is based on the tension of the output.
IE if the output is under tension , it switches off the stepper (IE rolled up tight) , if there is slack , the stepper drives the roll till there is tension again and switches off.

[Simon Kay]

Maybe you could centre your machine between two tables. Let’s say two 8′ x 4′ tables. You could unroll all your vinyl on the feed side and have loads of clear space to run off on the other. If you want to guarantee that it goes straight what about screwing some 610 wide sides on (or whatever width you are using) and / or having a roll support at the end of the feed table. By the time it got to the business end surely it would be going straight.

You’d need a fair amount of space. Probably about 20′ x 6′ 😀 . But it might just work.

By Golly it might. I’m off to the patent office now. Nobody read this until I get ba

[Stephen Morriss]

The takeup roller on my hp3000 is about halfway up the stand, then there is a optical eye at the bottom, when the media breaks the light beam the takeup roller winds up by a preset amount. This gives the media about 1.5meters drying time.

So try and find an old hp, there should be plenty around, and rob it as it’s an independent unit with it’s own power supply.

Steve