Alex Crosbie
Forum Replies Created
-
Totally agree with chris, I have a summa which I’ve used the perf cut on but I found that someone had to watch it perf cut just in case. Also if the perf cut doesn’t work perfectly then you may end up scrapping the sheet.
We do large runs of stickers that need to be cut to sheets, it’s much faster to kiss cut them on the cutter and then cut them to sheets on a bench, that way the cutter can get on with cutting the next job while you’re cutting to sheets.
To speed up the operation a little further we use a powered rotary trimmer to trim to sheets
-
Cut the sheet after applying the vinyl to it?!
Stanley knife should create a cut clean enough that shouldn’t need any sanding.
Then you won’t have any dust or swarf from the foamex.
Hope that helps!
Alex
-
David Stephenson, have you ever considered a job as an MP?! Or possibly a government advisor [emoji23]
-
I don’t think it does attach, from memory it just sits in the slot at the bottom of the track.
I’m sorry I’m not hugely helpful, it was probably about 6 years ago when I put one together!
-
Where the tool slides up and down it drops in to that groove. It’s just to stop the tool going too far down
-
Plus one for Omar and the mounters mate, awesome machine and service.
For those that are knocking a roller table then all I can say is you haven’t used one!
Alex
-
Robocarv.co.uk do this kind of thing but it’s not printed, tends to be carved out of blocks of material.
Never used them but their work looks epic!
-
If you must use the frame then zip ties in the top corners with mag tape down the edges would be about as much as you could do.
Personally if I was in that much of a rush I’d probably go to a timber merchant and create something from scratch. Quicker, easier and stronger than trying to fudge a pop up together. That way you could cover the ends to make it look neater.
Good luck though!
-
Put half a day aside if you’re calling edward Mathias! Lovely bloke and knows his stuff about anything cutter related but my god he can talk!
-
If it’s happening on the cab too then it can’t be a surface problem as they’ll more than likely be different paints painted at different times.
Adds up more to being a vinyl issue to me
-
Nothing wrong with the artwork, that’s a material issue.
Is the light blue vinyl definitely M7 too as that’s not showing any signs of shrinkage.
Could you talk me through how you clean the vehicle prior to how graphics are applied so we can be sure there aren’t any issues there.
Are the vehicles being cleaned with truck wash by the client? Its a pretty aggressive chemical if not mixed correctly and not removed quickly.
Are they being cleaned with a heated pressure washer?
Do the vehicles travel as far as the south of Europe or even in to Africa?
Regards
Alex
-
Hi Shawn
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but did you ever get to the bottom of this one?
I have a very similar issue on the same machine but mine is printing yellow and off to the other side!
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Regards
Alex
-
Yep totally understand, it’s very annoying to have to change blade position to perf cut.
I’ve got a summa cutter which can perf cut without having to change blade position but always found it so slow I could cut them by hand quicker and get a better finish. (Never liked the slightly fluffy edge you get from the perf cut)
I now use an electric rotary trimmer which is super quick at cutting sheets of stickers.
-
A stand-alone cutter would remove the bottle neck….. print and cut machines are good at space saving but painfully slow, you could get rid of the XR and replace it with a cutter.
The ej will happily print multiple rolls of material per day and a stand-alone cutter will be much faster than the XR.
Unless I’m missing something! Always happy to be proved wrong
-
Hi david
Have you checked the vacuum is set to 100%?
You can tell the machines when you want to clean (or turn it off altogether) it’s in the sub menu under periodic clean.
I have an ej but don’t print much poster paper but completely understand the situation you’re facing, is the head crash situation the same in the summer as the winter?
Do you like to run the machines overnight due to the volume of work you have (ie are they running all day at full capacity or is there another reason?
Cheers
Alex
-
Just a follow up to say thank you all for the recommendation!
Andy was very fast in his response, extremely helpful and did a fantastic job of servicing our machine, can’t ask for more than that!
Thanks again
Alex
-
You shouldn’t need to stretch the text, if they want the letters to end in the same place it’s called “full justification”, it’s an option in coreldraw in the same place as left and right aligned text. Im sure it’s in illustrator in the text alignment docker too.
Though in my opinion you’ve done it correctly, the client is off their rocker!
If they’re asking you to do it for free (because they think you’ve done it wrong) I’d politely decline and say you can change it to how they want for a fee!
Cheers
Alex
-
Thanks Gil, will do!
-
Phil wants transparency type material, no adhesive, usually for menu stuff in fast food places I think
-
Usually really easy, if it doesn’t peel off then a scraper will get rid of it quick
-
No worries! I think I’d have done the same
-
Very interested to see how the front loading works with springs holding them in! It’s an issue I’ve come across a few times so curious to see how it works
If you could post photos that would be great
Regards
Alex
-
Give them a call, they do a few different models and spec, from memory they sent me a pdf with pricing for models and options
-
We’ve only had ours for two weeks, I wish I’d ordered one years ago!
Amazing how fast we can do panel work now and there’s a load of other uses that speed up your workflow too.The install from Omar and Craig was hassle free, I’d definitely give them a call, they’re very helpful and I didn’t feel in anyway under pressure to buy
If you have any questions then ask away!
-
Thanks for all your input guys! Much appreciated
-
I cut 200 of a customers logo yesterday at around 8mm tall (they’re logo text is quite blocky and simple)
Cut from oracal 751 silver at 800mm/s, it still took around 15 minutes to complete! I’ll post a video today if I get chance
-
What width roll are you using?
-
I run mine day in day out at 800mm/s on a mix of Oracal 751 and oracal 3651 with laminate.
The printed media I tend to try and avoid going over 3m in length, it maintains excellent accuracy.
It never skips a beat and never slips. (Probably cursed it now!)
-
Haven’t used it myself, though I have an s class cutter so plenty of experience with them.
The video on the summa website doesn’t put two s classes against each other, I presume because the difference isn’t huge.
Interesting that they’re trying to speed up the alignment time but hard to justify the extra cost.
I think if you were doing a lot of print and cut stickers where you’re up to capacity each day then it would be worth going for
-
If the staff are all as good as you then eventually they’ll all start their own businesses [emoji23]
-
It would be an MoT failure to have white reflective on the rear and/or red on the front, would have to be a fairly keen tester to spot it sometimes though
-
Be very careful with preptone on plastics, it can melt them!
And if a vehicle has been repainted in can be strong enough to soften some aftermarket paints.
-
Hi phill
I had thought the same recently, it doesn’t seem to suggest free fonts anymore.
Font squirrel is a good alternative -
There was a thread on here a while back with a link to a 3M video where they soak the windows with soapy water and then cover with polythene, leave it over night and it just peels off
Never tried it but worth a go!
Here’s the link
$this->BBvideo_pass(‘$8’, ‘$4’, ‘$7’)
-
Summa do free software for pc or Mac that run the plotters and have lots of features.
They do an illustrator plugin but it just sends the job to their software and has features like you can add opos marks.
Just google Summa downloads and you should find it
-
To give a little balance I’ve used hundreds of metres of metascape frosting to great effect. One job would have been very challenging without its use….
Though I agree with the above, if the option is there for wet applying then I would do the same
-
Hi phil, rather than trying to swim against the tide why don’t you find a way round it.
Sell all your clients blank mag panels to cover their sign writing!
Regards
Alex
-
Hi Robert
Thanks for your reply.
You’re absolutely correct, however the manufacturer tests were showing that the truevis inks couldn’t handle a very minimal amount of stretch without losing colour density.I have no vested interest from either vinyl manufacturer or a printer point of view, I’m merely relaying what I had been told by an industry contact in a chat about current printer technology.
It was meant more as a pointer for things to test when comparing printers, I wouldn’t take anything read on a forum as gospel when parting with a large amount of cash!
For the record I have used Roland printers extensively for the last 18 years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, the machines they create have changed our industry and partnered with the correct vinyl they provide the highest level of performance.
-
If you can’t find the colour with a Matt finish off the shelf then it’s a simple way to achieve it.
Or if a sign company doesn’t want to buy it in and use what they have in stock that could be another reason.
If the vinyl failed then chances are they’ve used a laminate with different properties to the base material so it’s expanded and contracted at different rates
-
Do you mean you want to try and counteract the distortion of text as it wraps around sphere?
Have you seen what you’re trying to achieve done before and if so could you post a photo?
-
Have you tried Oracal 751?
It cuts and weeds really well, the cost is a little more than M7 though.Might be worth looking at the technical specification of any vinyl you’re looking to change to as I’m pretty sure the warranty period is on vertical applications, from memory horizontal applications are generally half the life length due to the extra exposure to UV.
-
If the red above is fine then I would question what the difference is, is it the same colour and roll etc. If there’s no difference then there must be another factor.
-
Just trying to work out how the bonnet is done, is it just two layers of vinyl? White and red?
Is any of it air release?
-
Is the vinyl underneath the same grade?
-
I’ve had this many times with vehicles, especially chevrons, usually caused by removal of badges by fitters that know the chevrons will cover it and couldn’t care less about what happens when it needs to be removed.
Just explain to your customer how you remove graphics and that there’s no way you’ve caused the damage.
You know you haven’t done anything wrong so stick to your guns.
-
Was talked about here in May last year it’s like being at home, nobody listens. A versatile vehicle for sign company
-
Try Aaron at GC printing. 01452 308145.
Tell him Alex from signlink gave you his details
-
I had an exhibition trailer hang around for a couple of months before they decided they desperately needed it back! Then there was a van for a company that had recently gone bust and couldn’t figure out what they were going to do as I wasn’t releasing it til it was paid.
We recently had a brand new 18ton rigid lorry for around 10 days, the company buying it hadn’t completed the paperwork and the dealership weren’t keen on having it back as it meant sending two drivers to collect and they didn’t have anywhere to take it!
I just tell them that if they can’t collect when they’re supposed to that it gets parked outside at their risk.
We have the luxury of having plenty of flexible parking though, if it’s still there for a while then just tell them you’ll start charging storage -
Do you order from rightons Bristol? Strange if you do as I’ve just ordered from them for delivery tomorrow
-
How would you transport a 2000mm x 3000mm just put of interest? I guess it would just about fit on a flat bed / tipper van
-
A board supplier that doesn’t do 1220 by 2440?! That’s the most common size! Where are you Martyn?
-
Personally I would go the route of 1220 x 2440 panels. I’d do it that way as the panels will be cheaper and I can lay the vinyl down on each panel using a laminator or roller table.
The panels will be lighter and easier for transport and easier for install.
Depends what kit you have, how you’ll transport and how you’ll fit in my opinion
-
This subject amuses me greatly!
I don’t have a sign making qualification yet I’m considered to be qualified enough to teach an apprentice on a sign making course. Once qualified the apprentice can apply for a CSCS card yet seemingly I cannot!
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so ridiculous!
-
Ah that’s annoying!
How about disconnecting and wrapping over them [emoji23]
-
Are they aftermarket or oem?
If they’re oem are they painted?
-
That would be pop up material! Usually a grey back material around 300 micron with a heavily textured crystal laminate, most of the usual suspects will have a version for solvent and aqueous print processes.
-
Just have to try a piece over the top and see if they still work, most do.
-
For large areas of black I use 30, 30, 40, 100.
Pane is absolutely correct, it will depend on your printer, ink, material and profile as to how much ink it lays down and the density of black that then creates.
For smaller text revert back to 100 percent k, you won’t notice the black being slightly lighter as there’s less of it and the colours won’t bleed in to each other then.
Cheers
Alex
-
Hi Wayne
I have an EJ that I’ve had for 18 months, it’s not skipped a beat.
What kind of work do you do mostly? And what kind of volumes are you looking to get through on what media?
Regards
Alex
-
Selling on price is always a tricky thing. There will always be someone that will do it cheaper.
I prefer to go the opposite way, I don’t advertise any prices for vehicle graphics as every job will be slightly different, every clients logo is different, amount of details are different, material usage is different, and vehicles are different.
Going to the lower end of the price scale you’ll be going up against people with no overheads working from home fitting on their drive, if you’re a business you can’t compete with them!
As a small sign company we do on average one vehicle a day and this has been based on never giving clients a set price menu of graphics. I tend to ask them for images of vehicles they like the style of or point them at our website and give them an idea of costs of work we’ve done then create a quote on an idea I have when I see their logo and style of website etc.
Seems to work for us, can’t remember the last time we did a single colour design or any simple straightforward vehicle graphics
-
Have you tried giving them a call? They’re always very helpful whenever I’ve had to call them.
They’ll usually send you any new outlines if they draw them after you’ve bought the disk
-
It’s for temporary use so you shouldn’t need to laminate
-
I’d go the easy dot route, i’ve used quite a bit of it for work that’s going to be up for a week or two.
Don’t let the client see how easy it is to fit or you’ll lose future install work [emoji23]
-
SG manufacturing limited
7 Old Brickyard Rd, Sandleheath, Fordingbridge, SP6 1TEIt speaks volumes that you can’t find their address on their website
-
I had a terrible time with a company by that name years ago, from memory they were down near Bournemouth somewhere
-
Playing devils advocate, if you had declined the council workers request to take the scaffold down straight away stating that the sign is not in a safe condition to be left would the council worker have shaken you off the scaffold [emoji23]
Is there any fine that could be imposed If you do not comply?
-
Love it, prints well, laminate is very glossy, it stays stuck when you apply it.
We get through at least 2 rolls a week and never any issue. -
We went back to oracal 3651 with 215 laminate.
With our setup we tend to get lots of static with Metamark materials and the 215 laminate is ultra glossy -
I had exactly the same issues with this material that you’re having, it’s very frustrating and I do have an email from William Smith which says they’re aware of it but most people are ok with it.
I posted on here in reply to another thread asking what people thought of it and had a phone call from William Smith within a day trying offer me rolls of material to try it again! Needless to say I was less than keen! -
I have air source heat pumps which are air con units in the summer, they qualified for an eu grant as they represented a sizeable carbon saving over the gas space heaters we used to use, cost wise they’re not horrendous and they allow the whole industrial unit to be temperature controlled all round.
One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is comfort and the time saving of any manual source of heating -
In there you have lots more control of how the pdf saves ( and file size )
-
When you say ‘export as a pdf’ do you mean on the export menu or on the publish to pdf menu?
-
As a pdf the file size would be much smaller but if it has any transparency effects then versaworks won’t like it.
You could rasterise the image and then place the cutline over the top then save as a pdf.
The file size will be dramatically smaller, and you won’t have any transparency effects.
-
Tiff and jpg files tend to rip faster than eps files in versaworks.
What size is the file?
-
Hi stuart
Thanks for coming back to me, your reply directly contradicts an email I have from an internal account manager which says technical support is aware of issues with it lifting on edges, that’s why we were offered an alternative manufacturer. Quite happy to post the email here but I don’t think that would help.
I appreciate your advice on how to do a simple cut and fold around the edge of the panel with the addition of a little heat…. we did try this prior to calling for advice and found it made no difference
-
I had a bad time with the vion vp5000. Applied over a vehicle panel gap, cut and then folded around the edge it lifted back almost immediately.
I questioned it with William smith and after a little back and forth I was told it wasn’t suitable for that use and should only be finished on flat edges.
I was offered an alternative but it wasn’t suitable either so I’ve gone back to oracal 3651 as a good quality all round polymeric.
Apologies for hijacking the thread!
Alex
-
Hope you managed to turn a profit on it in the end, very frustrating when a project gets away from you no matter what the reasons are!
-
Agree with Robert on his one, 3164 has limited uses, it tends to suffer horribly from shrinkage
-
I had the same one less than an hour ago with the same photos!
-
I have the same situation with Metamark M4-OF easy apply frosting, the application tape looks horrendous when rolled though bizarrely it works perfectly every time.
Have you tried fitting it?
-
A year ago I had two members of staff leave for reasons I won’t go in to here. I replaced two full time staff with a new full time employee and instantly our productivity went up.
Compared to the previous year our turnover has increased by nearly a third (with one less member of staff)Don’t be afraid of losing staff, you’ll know when you have a good one and you’ll do everything you can to keep them!
Put a job advert out, that’ll keep the current ones on their toes or you might just find someone that’s better than both of them put together!
Good luck!
-
Yes absolutely using the take up would be the way to go, incredibly simple to use it just takes up the slack and winds it on to the roll.
You’re correct you would set up each print and cut job with crop marks for each job.
What was the cause of your head strike previously? They’re generally most prone when first starting a print as the media tends to wrinkle during changes in heat, do you use the Roland media clamps on the edge of the vinyl?
-
A separate cutter would definitely be the way to go. The print and cut all in one is a great space saving option but that’s all it does well.
A roland cutter will be the easiest option for your current workflow and will drop straight in to versaworks. The standalone cutter will be faster at reading crop marks and cutting speed and accuracy than a print and cut machine.
You could use a different manufacturers cutter but you’ll need different rip software as versaworks won’t run any non Roland cutters.
Your current printer should easily print 50 square metres during a day shift and the same overnight if you get the jobs queued correctly. The cutter should easily get through whatever you’re throwing at it.
One thing to look at is slightly simplifying the cut path if it’s a job you cut regularly…. taking a few nodes out to make things smoother can make quite a difference to cut speed!
Hope that helps!
Alex
-
What sort of length of material are you printing and cutting on a daily basis in linear metres?
-
How about trying to make a feature of the rails rather than match anything or hide them. how about some brushed aluminium?
-
If it’s pvc based then you need to overlap or you could get a gap when it expands/contracts, if it’s paper based then you can do a butt join as there shouldn’t be any movement
-
Hi Bernard
I think daniel wants to create really accurate designs for vehicles that he can print and cut without having to trim anything on the vehicle without having to leave any border.
The impact templates are great but for doing what daniel wants they’re not accurate enough, as you say, you need to leave a border.
I personally would love it if the templates were extremely accurate so we could print and cut infill panels on vehicles without having to knifeless tape
-
The most accurate way I’ve seen is using a printed grid, draw on top of that on the vehicle then it’s easier to scale when you take a photo or scan to computer. Still not easy and always requires some tweaking to make fit.
Best of luck!
-
Is it just on the length or the width as well?
-
Decorators scraper and plenty of soapy water, I’d say around 10 minutes max for a window of that size. Spray soapy water on then scrape away!
You’ll wonder how you ever managed before!
-
Hi dan
If you like tearing your hair out then try and apply wrap material Unlaminated! I promise you’ll wish you hadn’t tried it!It tends to crease very easily and if you ever want to remove it then it’s a lot harder too.
Regards
Alex
-
Plus one for feed calibration, we had the exact same scenario with our EJ a few months back, it should be checked regularly as it can drift out.
-
Have you checked the outline is set as a hairline width?
-
Thanks Kevin! Good shout
-
I looked at this just over a year ago and ending up going for the Summa despite it being more expensive. I’ve had Summas for 15 years,I like the way they work and their accuracy.
I must admit the graphtec nearly tempted me away though
-
Had a similar job recently, I just told them if they wanted it on foamex then there’s no warranty as it will warp in the warm weather…. let them make their own mind up…. funnily enough they chose to go with aluminium composite in the end!
-
If you’re running the same ripped file on the same machine on the same material and getting a colour variation then I would look at the other variables involved.
What is the environment that the printer is in? Does the temperature change? Where are the materials stored and is the temperature consistent?
-
Have you tried creating a file from scratch and pasting in items in an order to see if it cuts them that way, then it will tell you if it’s the way the file is created or something else.
You could try exporting as a pdf or an eps (whichever is the opposite to what you’re using) to see if that makes any difference.
With our summa cutter we rarely run it on anything less than 800mm/s even on small text on printed and laminated vinyl so I guess that’s why I was surprised to see it cutting at that speed.
Hope you get to the bottom of it! -
Hi David, What cut speed have you got it on? It looks incredibly slow to me, though I haven’t used a roland cutter for about 10 years so maybe that’s just the way they are. I always thought cutters cut in the order that the artwork was created as stated above
-
Hi rich
There was a thread recently on here that was talking about the issues that truevis owners are having with the ink thinning during vehicle wrapping. Apparently some manufacturers won’t warranty issues with vehicle wrap materials on truevis printers that involve the print going light on stretched areas.The thread wasn’t very long ago so worth a search
Alex