Chris Wilson
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Do you have carpet down? Am told this makes it worse. Am not sure why. But it can effect printers as well according to Roland.
You do get a anti static spray from Grafityp. I bought once but we all fell about giggling so it’s sat in a tub since.. maybe something else was in the air.
One of the boys is has a serious static problem. Card machines won’t even work for him. It’s bizarre. It also brightens my day though when I hear the pops from the workshop. Sometimes 3 or 4 in a row.
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+1 for all the juicy details. Currently putting ours out to Ultima.
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Polymeric all the way and agreed on clear backing unless they want it grey. We sometimes suggest frosting on the inside to blurr it out a little as you will see the graphic in reverse.
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Keep seeing everyone mentioning the epson printers on here. Red and white ink etc..
we have a Roland to but would be my first port of call. I think they are cheaper or around the same as the tru-vis. Worth a look anyway. -
We work outside.
Very few problems. We don’t use metamark though. We use Avery. And to be honest of recent not an air release. But no problems from it to my knowledge (touching wood)This time of year I tend to go over the vehicles with panel wipe and then IPA.
If it’s raining not a hope. -
We do a fair bit of garments but never took the punt until now/near future with a brother GTX.
It’s all been rapidly improving.
There are others but there not cheap new.Old machines on eBay etc.. there dirt cheap for a reason. White ink was a big problem. Lots of cleaning cycles, blocking etc..
Epson do machines but these are ship and drop packages. Not any training really. Machine wise though they are good. Ink is slightly more expensive than brother if I remember rightly as it’s smaller carts.
You’ll also need some way of pre-treating the garment first and a heat press.
Never been to the textile show but I would these are the main fancy kit these days so I would imagine there is a few there for various players.
You can pick up the brother GT 381’s on eBay now for around 6K but you would be taking a bit of a punt. I would set aside money for repairs on top of this.
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Or victory design. Victory stuff weeds a bit better.
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This is certainly causing a 50/50 divide, it’s almost like brexit all over again.
To through in something else I would consider the time involved in this and then the time involved in explaining what they can’t and can have for X price.
Multi van discounts etc.. then different types of vinyl.. it’s a mine field. I tried to do this for some of our basic products but it gave me a sore head after a while trying to put down a rule of thumb for everything so if I am away the boys can quote.We are the same as mentioned above. We get a rough brief and then tell the customer your going to be in the ball park of X but depends on the final design.
Then there is web design etc..
it might be better off running a solid media campaign for next 3 months on and off with Facebook and Instagram reaching your local area using a tag line of vans from X amount working to to be X amount per day seen by X amount of people blah blah.We all shop around for the best price on things but vans are be-spoke and that needs a quote.
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YPS sell these ones in the UK.
I saw a video of them and thought wow, but then saw the price.
Don’t know much about them so maybe these ones are not up to spec.yourprintspecialists.co.uk
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Yea we are the same with lead times.
Give it a shot and see if it works I suppose. Can always take it down if it’s not benefiting or more hassle than it is worth.
We are becoming really strict on payment. On a side note I’ve started upping prices a fraction and then offering a 3% discount for pro forma payment before we even lift a finger. So far it has a 100% success rate.
Won’t work for everything if there is a lot of artwork. But so far for likes of shop signs etc where size is what the size is it’s going well.Re: reviews I saw something horrifying but also funny on vice the other week. YouTube “fake London restaurant”. I know trip advisor is different but certainly made me think.
My bad for taking it so far off topic [emoji23]
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I think those that shop for the best deal are normally a pain in the arse and not worth it. They always pay late, want jobs with silly lead times and want to Change the colour an hour before they are due to pick it up.
If those vans are that cheap they will be busy fools am sure and have a long lead time.
Those that care about there vans and have successful companies and companies they are looking to grow tend to just find one supplier and stick with them or ask for recommendations from peers and go to the best. That’s what we find up here now we are 3 years deep. The contracts we are picking up that are of good value and good payers and from “such and such that got there cafe light box done” etc..We did something different on ours website.
We took an average customer spend and split is down over 3 years (normal van lease) and advertised it as working out at 6p a day or whatever it is. Pennies anyway. 6p wouldn’t get you very far on Facebook or google. -
We use QuickBooks.
Fairly easy system to use. My accountant has just sent me a quote for the next year and honestly thinking on telling him no. All he does is glance over them and submit them.
We run payroll etc through it to.What I would say is there is ALOT of features so it takes a while to link everything up and work it all out. I would also suggest everything gets paid by card or BACS.
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Am one that sticks to genuine.
The way I see it is a job that uses 5ccs of ink let’s say, cost me £0.75, where as 3rd party will be £0.40 or there abouts. It’s not actually giving me much of saving per job.
I’ve seen local jobs go up from folks using 3rd party, signs that were yellow are now shiny white in less than 6 months. That could be related to other issues also. Am sure it’s just like any other copies, some are really good, others are rubbish.
We are also covered with Roland, and after last weeks head strike, it’s worth it for me to remove that risk or possible doubts.
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quote Chris Jarvis:quote Chris Wilson:Hi Chris
You need to set the IP address to what is on the machine I think. Am afraid my business partner is much more tech savvy but am sure there is some YouTube videos about what I have suggested
There’s this one, but there’s only 1 port showing in the USB box on mine, and it doesn’t bring up the BN-20:
youtube IP USB BN-20Chris
Sorry mate we have a Roland Vs 540 and I wouldn’t know where to begin when it comes to this sort of stuff. I will ask James tomorrow and see if he can explain better.
On our machine the IP address of the machine is in the menu settings, possibly sub menu. I think you then set the IP on the computer to the same number as the machine. Ours moves around from time to time. That said if your using USB I think that’s completely different as we are Ethernet…..
Sorry can’t be much more help than that. There are plenty of techs on here which will hopefully pick this thread up.
Being able to reply on here is about the extent of my tech abilities. -
Hi Chris
I think the AJ 1000 is default for versaworks. We have been here before. You need to set the IP address to what is on the machine I think. Am afraid my business partner is much more tech savvy but am sure there is some YouTube videos about what I have suggested
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Was going to suggest a static cling or metamark do a low tac vinyl that’s ment for labels etc.. so you can stick to stuff without damaging. We were going to use it for a removals company so called printmax but never got as far as ordering it. I’m pretty sure it can 1370 wide.
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I have seen something similar to this below with the following
https://www.manomano.co.uk/workshop-pre … gLiovD_BwE
Get a metal die made up to the size/shape.
Flood coat 3mm foamex with your design, chop up and then crush the die through the foamex. I believe the die needs to be hot, saw it being warmed up with a heat press every few goes. Might take a bit of effort but at least you have control of each one and can line it up as you like and not have to trim round each one.No idea where you get the die from. I would imagine a local metal workers.
Olly might still browse these forums from time to time, he would be the man to tell you.
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There we go gentleman.
We changed the set-up a little to get rid of the pole we had to put in.
Worked well. 25 minutes to get through a 50m roll.
13,000 labels on it, admittedly we did lose maybe 50-60 ish. 90% of that is down to our cutting strip I think. Maybe could of done with a bit more tension for the labels going into the roll at the back would of saved a few.All in all though a success on my side I think. We will do it again. Can’t upload a video here, but there is one on our Instagram story (creativesignandprint)
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quote Den Chandler:Genius, :praiseyou: will be using this idea several times in the new year with our annual prints for a couple of customers. I have resorted to providing unweeded labels in the past because of the cost of manual weeding but this will make life so much easier.
:claps:Might take a bit of tweaking. Will get a video tomorrow. Labels are on the machine this now. Should be done by 9am (rolls eyes)
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Price for magnetics that are triple the size or really small. When he picks up tell him it look really big on your monitor and he agreed
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Hi Kev,
Yea that’s where I got the idea from pretty much. Just popped into my head at 11 at night as these ideas do. Bit of tinkering around to make it work. Had to use a pole from one of the vinyl racks to stop it from sticking to itself. I’ll get a video of it in action at start of the week and share it.
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Not one label so far.
Only did a 5m test to be fair today. Going to leave a 50m roll printing through the night and giving it a bash at the start of the week.
I’ll post up a video of the full set-up all going well.But all going well we are going to be done and dusted with these labels in 15 minutes (WOW).
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Tend to stick to Avery MPI 2800 for vehicle graphics and flat panels. We always try and avoid any recesses though in the design if we have full control.
7 year polymeric Calendar acrylic based, although much less when printed obviously. Think we are around £300-£350 for roll and laminate bundle.
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Sorry wrong topic (rollseyes)
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https://www.signholdersdirect.co.uk/?gc … gJlYfD_BwE
Not sure if these guys would be any use. Used them for H&S boards with acrylic. Pretty sure I saw they do pollypockets if some sort.
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I just found this out too David and had to ask the girl to repeat what she had just said.
We had a “payment issue” and it turned out we had actually paid Europoint but the world pay was saying Armani and of course, didn’t match the Armani amount.
I wonder how many people call a year moaning about the other.. it’s likely moaning to one twin about the other twin, not knowing they have a twin. *shrugs*
And what happens in the board room of vink. “Well done folks, Armani sales are up by 20%, europoint are down by 17% though so you all sacked”….
All jokes aside am guessing this happened when Europoint went under. If our local competitors went under and I purchased them I would most likely keep the name, providing it’s reputation was good enough.
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You get a motocross vinyl that is pretty thick with a laminate (I think). Never bought any but printmax and MDP sell it.
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Again a similar thing happened to me but on this occasion it was the shop owner that phoned me up to complain that the arrow was pointing in the wrong direction on the double sided A board I had made for her.
Is it pointing in the wrong direction on both sides I asked?
She thought for a moment then said.. err yes…
Turn the sign around then I said… :rollseyes:
I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity of some people :awkward:[/quote]
And they say we have one of the best education systems in the world. Just wow!
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quote Alex Crosbie:
In there you have lots more control of how the pdf saves ( and file size )
Nice one. Will check it out. Cheers.
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Were using Corel draw so was exported.. never come across a publish button, doesn’t mean am not doing it without realising though.
It’s mainly down to the graphic designer. 10 million layers and even old layers underneath that had been hidden when showing there customer, but not when they came to us. Never understood that, if we are every designing something and the customer changes a font we don’t type it out on top and hide the old one.. odd way of working personally.
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Name and what you do is the most important now. Personally. Everyone picks up google or Siri or whatever and there you go, there’s your info, website etc..
That said sometimes we encourage customers to put an address on. I think that helps joiners etc.. instead of looking like possible cowboys with a mobile number if they want it on.
We put our address and telephone number on the very bottom right door of the van, just incase there is any oldies out there with a pencil and paper.
Depends on space and design I suppose but if it is cluttered then a defo no from me
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We did a little bit of digging on this. The idea being to offer big contracts the chance to pay over time. I didn’t do enough digging and haven’t picked it back up as haven’t had time.
However what will happen is the car will quoted at full price. They apply for finance with the customer. If the customer is approved the money gets handed over in a lump sum, customer then pays the finance company £25 a week for next 52 weeks.
There is a bit of paper work to go with it. Everything has to be very safe for all 3 parties.
If they can’t afford it, it’s not your problem. You keep your money, you’ve done your part and effectively just recommended someone to get a loan and a loan company in the process.Very few brokers will touch this industry though, I would imagine less with wraps.
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Here’s what all the fuss was about.
Finally got it printed midday on Saturday. End up saving at as JPEG at full size, adding the cutline on top and exporting as a PDF.Interestingly enough the PDF was only 500,000 KB smaller than the EPS but imported and ripped in less than 5mins. Where as I left the EPS for over an hour and it made it to 20% on the rip.
However I only got half the cut line with the PDF.. and had to do the rest by hand.
Jamie- can you do that? We only have a Roland vs 540 so print and cut, we don’t have a stand alone plotter, so we work off the print file. If I was to add the cut line on separately in future would versaworks marry the two of them up?
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We use generic profile number 2 for DG cal monomeric which we have tried. Actually quite like there clear film. It’s just that little bit thicker than most and nicer to apply I find.
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Well at full size with the graphic saved as a Bitmap with a cut line over the top and exported as EPS we are… 1,708,854KB.. wish me luck haha.
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Try those already, although not at 25%. Will give them a bash.
Wondered if there was perhaps a setting on versaworks that keeps the quality low..Thankfully it will be a one off as it came from a graphic designer and I have no idea what they have done but it must be made up of at least 200 layers. It’s insane.
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To my surprise the form search pulled it up straight away.
Am going to get one of these. Quite like it.
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Where about to do our office and looking for different things.
Looking through the sign waves catalogue and get some sort of stand, or the LED Perspex displays that’s are on wires that are normally for shop windows.
Saw a really cool pop up banners in a S style shape from a company someone recommended on here instead of ultima displays.. i was going to get one for us instead of our boring flat rectangle pop up.
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We use a 220GSM from grafityp. Quite cheap. 60m roll and 1370 wide.
Don’t do lots. Can’t say we charge a cheap price for either.
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Watch your not getting cleaning fluid in the capping station. I had that for a few mornings in a row. Missing nozzles and then after sorting a few things out they would come back. Eventually penny dropped.
Doesn’t help with your missing ones.
If it was the dampers I would of though more would go.. but am no engineer. I would also imagine it would move around.I would think it is a tiny blockage on those nozzles.
Someone I know since sold a machine with missing nozzles at a knock down price. He dropped it off to the guy and after its journey they had all come back. -
Yea head soak it then a few powerful cleans and then a normal clean. That should blast it it.. hopefully
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Just installed this yesterday
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I have seen them before. £60k a year guaranteed I read somewhere. Must if got a unit rent free and there must be a lot of money to be made in window tinting
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Personally I would look at this in a different way.
Am guessing you have a budget of around £4-5k. I would look at the VS range or VSi and stick the rest on finance.
First up these will be a lot faster than a SP. you would also be buying through a dealer (there’s plenty of horror stories on these boards from eBay purchases). Most will come a warranty but there is also Roland care packages (which we have and I recommend). I would also if it’s not already get it swapped to the eco sol max 3 ink. I’ve never ran the eco sol (or two) but the drying time is faster. I see a few others on the board panicking about gassing out times and we do from time to time have to print and produce health and safety boards or rush jobs in 24 hours. There’s no curl from the media once laminated and despite these meaning to be temporary they have been up for months at time and no failures or faults. Not that we rush through permanent signs, we leave them for longer than recommend quite often.
From my limited knowledge of computers a XP system will be old and slow. We bought a new system last year that I sought advice over and it nearly went in the canal last Friday trying to rip a 8ft x 4ft board with lots of detail. It took longer than expected. Nearly an hour out of my day. When we first bought the machine we had a old laptop to run it and even simple garment prints took a minute or two to rip.
Lastly I would look at where you want to be in the future. Having a machine that can cope well with your work load now is fine, but if you intend to double or triple your work rate you will never keep and end up working long hours, stress and making mistakes.
Don’t forget the Mimaki machines also. I have been temped a few times.
Sorry for long post and apologies if it’s thrown a spanner in the works but a possible option, certainly one I would explore.
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For the same reason I avoid. Bought some once for a sign. Was pretty disappointed. Thankfully the sign is about 20ft up in the air so not noticeable. I did try giving it a good clean with various cleaners but it stayed the same.
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I would second Neil on the outline.
Paper application tape and keep it tight.
Do the half and half technique with some tape and magnets. Keep the application tape tight though, not don’t stretch it. Work with the squeegee horizontal. It all comes down to squeegee technique.You could try keeping the squares in. Then weed out on the van. We do this with frosted glass. Helps a lot. Might not help at all in this situation though. I have never tried.
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There’s a 3164RA [emoji50] we use the 3164. Prints a lot nicer than most monomerics and has a thick liner.
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Yea unless you have said to your customer it’s bomb proof it’s hardly your fault and shouldn’t be replacing it FOC. I would re-quote them as a full print.
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An extra layer of film won’t stop them from being removed am afraid.
Personally I would print the full sheet. That will take them a while.
I would also move to skybond instead of foamex as the next thing will be kicking it till it breaks.
Maybe put a wee CCTV sign in top corner or something.
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Yea sorry it is back lit with LED’s, but I think I have found the stuff through spandex at an ok price.
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Cheers David. Just quoted our customer.
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We print load of AWDis items everyday and not seen this one.
As all suggest above would be my first thoughts. However if the garment was that fluffy it would be noticeable and you should also be able to pluck that fluff of with your hands if it’s that bad.
Could be a cold spot on the heat press.Personally I think you will find it’s the material and not enough adhesive on it. I would move to siser products.
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We do a lot of 5mm foamex site boards, nothing to big, maybe 600 x 600mm max and I’ve seen some in circulation from 2 years ago still. Most of these go on fences or a wee wooden post.
Biggest issue is them
Being mounted against the wall as they will warp on the sun.Hoarding board might Better, about half the price of a skybond sheet. Can still warp, but a few extra screws will help with that.
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We buy poster paper from Grafityp. It’s a 60mm roll. We also get a 220GSM.
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It is actually pretty insane argument really.
Paint gets dull from sun, dirt and salt. Sun, dirt and salt can’t penetrate vinyl, so paint work underneath remains as it was the day the vehicle was done.
Vinyl comes off- Rest if the vehicle is now worse. Customers complains.If you ask me he should be t-cutting it himself. Even if there is a little scuffing or marking from glue. Your not a miracle worker at the end of the day.
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Yea I would tread careful. We once took out an advert with a TV company that look legit. £4K later, no TVs and 6 months doing the line it appeared us and 170+ others had been taken for mugs. All looked above board though.. still remember the salesman’s names. He even came back a week later after we he first came in to “give us time to re-search and think about it, see if it’s right for your company”..
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As Phil says.
However double check you don’t have a “lite panel” from I bond or skybond as that’s a pain in the arse, if not impossible to fold. I would of thought regardless of the cutter if it was through to the second
Aluminium skin it should practically flop over.Make sure your bench is solid. This could be why the router but is cut through the second skin in parts and not others. Again been there.
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Same as you. I feel sorry for the guy who had put the effort in. Nice design personally
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quote Phill Fenton:quote David Hammond:You could forget to lock your unit up one evening and not get robbed… but would you do it every evening?
Granted that has happened to me before….which is why every day after I leave work I often end up driving back to check I have locked the door even though deep in side i’m pretty sure I did lock it – I have to go back and check anyway. :awkward:
The customer that drove off without paying..that happened to Peter Normington BTW
And me. We had ones turn up with a spare key. Aww looks great chris.. BYE BYE
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Ah ok. We’re on eco sol max 3 but was the cyan also. Happened just after we put new carts in.
Fingers crossed you get it sorted soon
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We use panel wipe. Everybody up here uses it. Again about £14 for a 5 litre tin. Get it in most hardware shops or car part warehouses.
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I feel your pain Martin. Was a nightmare.
Try the cleaning trick. Maybe even soak the head on a lint free cloth as that might soften up some of the hard stuff for a few meters till more comes.Are you running eco sol max 3 out of interest?
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quote Martin Cole:Thanks guys,
I am suspecting the pump but having switched the outlet pipes. You would think it would effect another head.. maybe?
To cap it all, out of desperation I thought id try another damper and i have gone and snapped the f..ing manifold.. 🙁
That’s exactly why the pump was ruled out on our machine. As it was just the cyan. We are running a VS 540 with eco sol max 3.
Am told the dampeners feed he ink down and it sits on top of the head. So the reason the nozzles where changing around so much on the tests was due to thick or dry ink sitting in there. This is why we needed a new head also.
Roland first came up and replaced the dampener and he head and that worked for 24hrs then the problem came back. They then stripped the whole machine down, tried everything, new head again, checked the pump, put need columns in the back for the ink etc.. that didn’t work at all.
So 3rd time round the came back up, new head again, new ink lines for all and off we went and no issues since.I know a VP might be different but I was pulling my hair out with it when it happened. We were down for about a week and half.
I did find a work around for small items and that was to do a few powerful cleans on the machine and then and normal clean for each job you put down.. at say no more than a meter in length. This seemed to stop the nozzles from dropping out but at the same time wasted a fair bit of ink.
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Hi Martin,
We had this exact problem at the start of the year. Roland did everything you have.
They decided it was dry ink in the line from over time and replaced the lines and head. We’ve been back and running since. -
For me personally we don’t do a lot so when we do I charge what I feel my time is worth.
I always at least double up on media price to, as if you make a mistake and need to order more or use more, it’s lot of money gone. -
Used the KPMF stuff to. It’s ok. Doesn’t look as good as expensive stuff but does the job well if it’s a fairly flat surface.
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Unless and I’ve got the wrong series 878 is now called leaf green. Is it possible they have changed the name? Looks similar on screen though.
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Sky blue and greys are always on point personally.
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Victory are good. We deal with Kim there and they always try and help, just for future.
Avery do a phone app where they have all the CYMK codes for each colour. (Although I had to punch the RGB to get it spot on) but we printed some blue on a Roland Vs 540 CYMK and it came out practically perfect.
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Yea Armani plastics do big sheets, europoint probably do but never asked.
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Aye that’s 3 for 970RA. Save about £10 a meter on average compared to 3m and Avery. I like it
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This is half a moan/half a view point.
Last week we had a job to get on with. I put 2 (really 3) on the job to get through it at a fair and steady pace.
However it became clear on Friday that I would be in all weekend to finish the job.
So I brought it up the morning. Which has lead to one peed off workshop today.
Over the weekend I weed 90 backs in 6 hours (quite complex) pressed 160 of the said backs in and hour and half and then 36 sleeves in 25mins.
Contrast this to the boys. Between 2 of them (one part time we recently took in) it took them 14 hours to do 82 backs. The other lad, was taking over 2 minutes a sleeve effectively…
I brought this up this morning but the finger has been pointed at my mismanagement instead of being able to go faster or was there to much carry on. I’ve thought about this and although one of the boys is trained to the run the print machine.. I also going through a stack of work on my own on Thursday/Friday which they could not do.
I am always fair. Am not the fastest and it don’t expect the boys to go as fast as me, however surely 1 sleeve per minute and a logo every 6 mins (like I was told was the case as this job was done when I was away on holiday perviously).. and not.. well I don’t even know.. around 10 minutes providing the part time boy was doing nothing.
So you guys are a good jury. Am I taking the mick and being unfair, or being taken for a mug?
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Is it the same nozzles missing on each test print?
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All about practice.
As David mentioned it’s all about how you hold the squeegee to allow the air to escape.
Some squeegee ares easier to use that others. For example i tend you use a felt squeegee for big print applications. Where as on a van for cut text I use a rubber squeegee with a felt edge.Air-realise. We use this for big applications we want to get done quickly and take away an element of mistake. They are more expensive. Only really available in wrap and digital print though to my knowledge. Tend to be a wee bit thicker than normal vinyl though, wrap vinyl anyway. Not ideally for cutting in a plotter.
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Am not the best person to answer this as my business partner handled them.
But what we did is called and explained what we did. Explained certain signs would be a certain height. That sometimes we fit window graphics (all it takes is one trip and your windows gone) and that we move customer vehicles around etc.. just to make sure we were covered on everything.
I believe once you get to a certain height of the ground insurance goes up.
All in all we are around 90 something pounds a month with AXA. This includes the machines including theft and fire. Better to be safe and do it over the phone. Tick boxes can easily go wrong
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Am confused as to what is going on here?
Is this a trade supplier you use Richard? Or is this straight of the street?
I have to agree with David to be honest. I think Sign industry is fairly competitively priced across the UK.
Anything that under 5 working days a slap a £50 charge or 30%.. which ever is more suited. It’s an express service after all.
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Could be the head “breaking in”
I don’t think there is such a thing. But when we had a head replaced the reds where terrible etc.. quite fuzz/grainy. After a few weeks of printing there was a noticeable difference but nothing had changed. I was told that was the best I was going to get at the time. Customers never complained. -
You’ve got to wonder if people do these on purpose? Or it’s some sort of publicity stunt.. photoshop trick..
On the other hand when working for someone else someone spotted that a bunch of signs said Gaylic instead of Gaelic. Boss told the fitters to put them out anyway. Before they even got back the customer was on the phone with an angry tone for some unknown reason…. [emoji849]
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Same ball park as everyone else £30-£45 PLM depending on how complex it is and the amount. I’ve just chopped up 15 meters.. got another 15 to go [emoji849]
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We make them from composite… can’t say I’ve ever found them to be flimsy.
Any joins between sheets we tend to frame out behind the join.
Never had issue yet anyway. There are ways to do them, certain router bits, worth playing around with the corner folds. -
Hi dan,
Atlantic tec is the company your looking for I believe. Am not sure is Stafford is allow to say due to forum rules. (Hope I’ve not got it wrong haha)
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Hi Jean,
That sucks. Hoping for a speedy mend.
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Go see a (excuse my spelling) cyropractor (hopefully makes sense).
Both me and misses have had various problems over the years (never a frozen shoulder) but amazing what they can do when others give up.
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Yea rubber matt looks quite thin. I would keep both. Best to glue them down so they can’t move.
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quote Graeme Dingwall:Just had a quick search on here and found this.
viewtopic.php?t=62962
Thanks graeme,
We bit annoyed as we only started doing them at the start of the year for one client and I called our supplier who deals on reflective and explained and wanted to make sure I was buying and quoting for the correct stuff, as it’s big construction firm and I didn’t want them or us to be put in a situation where something wasn’t correct. This was never mentioned though. Or advised. On the other hand maybe I should of looked up the information myself instead of relying on information from another.
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Ah ok. No problem.
Never seen it before up here and any time I order vinyl for them I always explain what they are for and to order the correct grade to make sure we are compliant for our customer but it seems maybe we are not… not that we do many. Will make sure I change this. -
quote Wayne Maxwell:Guys finally got my het press machine. Was wondering if anyone would give me some pointers..
1. Apart from vinyl do i also need to buy wax paper or brown paper ?
2. What timing when pressing shirts etc. Is there a certain time.
3. Do i pre press for a time before actually applying the vinyl.
Sorry for all the questions.. appreciate your help as always
Hi Wayne,
The Teflon sheets can be used on certain applications. They effectively trap the heat but stop the plate from scorching the garment and leaving a mark. We only use it for difficult fabrics. Cotton t-shirts etc.. (depending on who you are using) will be fine.
It is also used for sublimation and is a must.Garment film. All have different pressing times/heats. All manufactures have spec sheets for this. We use victory and Grafityp. There films are 15 seconds at 150 degrees. I swear by these films. I’ve used a lot of the last 10 years and none come close.
The “new” 5 second films seem pointless to me. As when doing garments I lay down the first one, put the graphic on, slap in the press, grab the next one, set it up and then by time I have done that the press is ready to lift. 5 seconds would be to short of time and actually slow the whole process down.If the garment is creased (as they just chucked in boxes) and doesn’t flatten when the graphic popped on then yea slap it in the press for a few seconds. Otherwise no.
Other than that I would suggest avoiding folding when still hot.
Easy weed films are great if it’s big detail. Otherwise it’s all gunna fall off the sheet.
When pressing make sure the garment neck is over the back of the machine, make sure hoody toggles are pulled out etc.. other wise you will get some nasty scorch marks.
Use ink block flex on football tops that need white print or any light colour.
Buy a pillow set (Grafityp do them) for polo shirts especially. This will remove the heat press mark.Heat press pressures- I walked into another persons set-up a while back and they were doing squats with all the body weight to close it. This is way over the top. And if anything damage the print and garment. Should be able to open it with one hand comfortably.
Hope that helps.
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Having read your post I would be inclined to go with a separate cutter. Much cheaper. Useful tool to have. You can also set printer to run through the night which will increase its productivity, but I have only done this for print only, not print and cut.
Looked at a jaguar plotter once before for this. I was told the two could run together. Never bought it though. Had a “cutting speed” of 60cm per sec, which is double what your machine can do, but most top line plotters can do that anyway.
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quote Mike Thornley:Chris, your reasons for not liking the poly from Grafityp?
Found it very cockily when going through the printer regardless of what I tried or did. Aware it’s a heat issue but never had the problem with anything else. Seems to have a very thin backing liner. Ended up wasting quite a bit of the roll, couldn’t leave the machine Unwatched. Tired unrolling a meter of it at a time for feeding in but made no difference. We’ve tried a lot of brands as we are fairly new to the digital printing world and seeing what is best, but all of them run smooth.
Also find there adhesive quite stubborn to remove even if the vinyl has not been on for long, this is going on the colour vinyl also though. We have in the past used it and then found a customer wants to change there mobile number on the side of there van and it just leaves a stack of glue regardless of what you do. Big difference in quickness compared to Avery 500/ 700 for example.
Not knocking them. If Avery ran out of a colour I would possibly use there product as they always get it out the door and up the road on time and the price is fair, they also do some great products.
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Was not a fan of the Grafityp polymeric that we tried at the start of the year.. but everyone has preferences.
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Prefer to work it out by CC of which we are £0.16 approx. Running eco sol max 3 (Roland) I believe running non genuine is around £0.09 per CC, just not worth the risk of such a small offset for me.
Really depends on what we are printing but I would say on average we are between 15-30cc a liner meter. Things like stickers and garment prints are much less.
Suppose the ideal is to try get as much white in a design as you can.
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We we are £90 a month with a 1,200 sq ft unit. Various computers, 1
Printer, 1 plotter, 1 heat press and 1 mountersmate laminator.. plus and employee who charges his phone all day.. everyday -
Am guessing you have tried magic touch and xpres? Subli supplies may also be a shout.
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[quote="David Hammond"]From memory doesn’t 3164 have a water based adhesive?
Might do. But we use for quick turn around health and safety boards and lots and lots of stickers.
I only brought it up as I know others near to us are quite happy to use it on vehicles. Unfortunately.
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We use the 3164 for stickers and health and safety signs. It can come grey backed. It’s there cheapest roll and they do have a range. Would of gone on fine wet, or at least any boards we do are fine.
Nightmare to remove though. If it’s the cheap stuff. -
We use victory also but try and avoid it where possible. Can’t say we do much.
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Ended up just building a frame with multiple fixing points, some second looped. Customer was happy and it worked ok.
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quote Simon Worrall:David I would have thought one of those super high – tack vinyls for wrapping concrete walls would work on this surface. I believe Arlon has one.
Second that. Did a porta cabin just last week that was like this. We use averys printable polymeric though.
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Well.. we’ve cleared that one up now. Who are we picking on next?
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Ah that could be it David. The shadow could be on the laminate although it looks on the sign…
P.s sorry if this is anyone’s sign.