what are the preefeed problems with my versacamm?

[Chris Wool]

quote :

I love prefeed on the versacamm. Totally puts my mind at ease.

WHY ?

chris

[Peter Shaw]

The prefeed is a wonderful way to get your nice, clean and untouched by human hand vinyl covered in dust, hairs and all the other detritus of life that exists around your sign shop.

Peter

[Kate and Danny]

– because if I’m running through a huge job, i want to know that it’s going to stay within the pinchrollers…
Feeding it manually through with the direction buttons is very time consuming.

– Or am i missing some method of pulling through say 5 metres of vinyl that guarantees it will stay straight, as we have had this problem since we started

The rolls we use are split ones, so always one edge of the roll isnt as dead straight as the other

Any helpful responses to the problems I have indicated, would be most appreciated

Thanks

Danny

[Peter Shaw]

Sorry if my reply seemed unhelpful, but I meant every word of it.

Once you have established a roll of vinyl feeding straight on your machine, the sheet cut-off cuts it square and this is the guide for further loads. Align the cut edge with the platen – job done.

The other way is to establish a correct load and then mark the platen with a pencil at the vinyl edge to give a line for further loads. This is a similar method to the front/back guides on cutters.

The third method is to shut your eyes, load the vinyl and hold a rabbits foot for luck.

All 3 of these methods are better than prefeed!

Peter

[Kate and Danny]

Okay thanks,

But I’m not really wanting to get into a discussion about the yes and nos of using prefeed .

Does anyone who does use it have any solutions to :

Problem 1) It always prefeeds much more than the job size ( say the job is 2 metres long it will prefeed 3 metres ), which when near the end of a roll causes problems.

Problem 2) When putting through a sheet to cut after lamination, if I forget to turn prefeed off, it will register the black dots, start to cut correctly, and then halfway through the job, start prefeeding and drop the sheet on the floor, ruining the job.

Thanks

Danny

[Shane Drew]

Danny, I have to agree with Peter.

I usually just manually feed out a metre of material, just so it does not touch the floor. Line your good edge up to a predetermined straight line, and watch it as it feed out.

If it runs straight over the meter, it will run straight over the roll.

As far as running out of stock, I’ll note on each used roll the accumulated length that I have printed, and subtract it from the known length. When I get down to the last 5 metres, I will put it aside for smaller runs and start a new roll. Ot, I’ll run it out on a clean table to check the measurements.

Just my way of housekeeping. I do it with my computer cut vinyl too. Also lets you do a quick stocktake toward the end of the month, so you can order more stock in the new month, to maximise your credit.

Cheers

[Shane Drew]

sorry mate, typing whilst you were posting 😳

[Rodney Gold]

Danny
Your problem is caused by the rolls you are using , you would save yourself a lot of heartache and angst about vinyl feed if you simply changed to a supplier that can slit dead square.
Loading the roll and using the roll feed mechanism and guides are vital for good results , you can’t possibly use this effectively with compromised rolls of media.

In general : Cut the edge off new rolls square by rolling the roll tight , taping the vinyl down and drawing a line from one end of the roll to the other perpendicular to the edge and cutting it on that line – you now have a square edge with respect to the roll.
Register the square edge with one of the machine strips and manually feed 2 ms thru and make any adjustments and now you have media square withboth the roll and the machine. You are almost guaranteed to get perfect results loading the roll time after time if you use the machine to cut off the graphic. The edge will still be square. Problems with end of rolls dragging the core along are always avoided if the roll isnt taped to the core, but you are not to know that , so perhaps if you know it does 3m prefeed for a 2m print , send a smaller dummy print with a determined prefeed and then send the print without. Like have a 1m , 2m , 3m standard template that will advance the material.
I have no idea whether prefeed is switched in your rip , but if it is , you can easily create a profile cutting that wont prefeed and just use it. Put a note on the machine – like "IS prefeed on or off" and you wont forget:)

I still think your best strategy is to get a new supplier and use untaped square ended rolls.