[Chris Wool]

i use the roland versaworks
that epson is some fine bit of kit presume you have to buy a rip to get the best out of it, see it comes with drivers but don’t know any more, if i was buying tomorrow it would be serious contender. it could replace and improve on our vs for its main work we do on it.

[Chris Wool]

if printing just white then you tell the rip to double print it will change the mode and lay the ink twice in one pass in a controlled manor.
the rip will handle wht and mt different from cmyk , normally if you set up a file eg. yellow filled circle with some black text it will print the yellow except where the text is and fill the text with black ink so there is no yellow under the black text. change the yellow to white and it will print the entire circle wht and the black text on top of the wht ink.
same applies with the mt. if thats not what you want then you have to knock the text out of the white area.
you can tell the rip to print the white on the bottom or on top.
if doing a window sticker for outside on clear then white first then cmyk if for inside cmyk reversed then white all that accomplished within the rip.

[Chris Wool]

quote Jason Davies:

Trying to help out a local school who have a SP 300. Unfortunately the power was turned off last summer and everything seems to have dried up. I’ve cleaned the heads, we have new wipers on their way but a test print does nothing. Looks like the heads are blocked.

Can I soak the heads, there is a sponge they sit on on this model. If I can what do I soak them in? I guess anything is worth a try as the machine will just be scrapped as they can’t afford to have new heads fitted.

Thanks

would have thought it should have cappings like your old vp, if its been that long i would expect a lot more trouble, shake the carts, remove the dampers and see if ink comes, cleaning fluid is best but keep it away from the electronics.

[Chris Wool]

interested in the difference between the roland and epson wht met i run the roland pleased i got it and use it but what a pain the maintenance of the wht is. the met is fine just keep it agitated.
the white does not have to be as dense as you think in real life in cmyk wht the amount of wht is trimed down compared to just wht print then double striking is fine but the problem is the media can only except so much ink.
increasing the passes etc prints in a finer drop size and gives more drying time as it prints.
there are lots of pitfalls using the wht met but as you understand whats happening more you can be more adventurous.
have fun

print the wht + met on coloured vinyls really nice effects

[Chris Wool]

could be your screen could be a bit bright and not showing the tint, i am not a lover of vw for picture printing but when struggling open the file in photoshop or similar and pass the eye dropper over the area to see what colours are actually there i bet its not pure white. may be able to use curves to neutralize the problem.

[Chris Wool]

presume this is just print then cut straight away.
probably down to media expansion it would take longer to cut them than print, also notice its out more in the middle which indicates the media dragging under knife pressure. also the cut requires to be rather accurate over to big a area.
possible cures try first off printing and cutting with more pinch rollers accepting you may loose a couple to roller damage.
use 2 ft material still with extra rollers for best results.
print with crop marks but no cut, then do find marks and cut, still with extra rollers.
the knife has to be spot on to avoid media dragging or bunching.

[Chris Wool]

The screen gets a bit mixed up if left for to long but still cuts.

thought it was just my two, must admit the problems i have had with these has put me off a newer one, apart from the screen issue the mk2 is still going well, i turn it off if not cutting for a while.

but the older graphtecs i have still going strong JX and flat bed. just seams to be the 7000s

[Chris Wool]

+1 for the olfa knifes have not seen the 30 deg ones before need to keep to the oe stainless blades others wander a bit

[Chris Wool]

think the R is just a standard R with a little gigery pokery whilst fitting.

the long word only visualize it in a oblong lay a straight edge around the ball touching the two bottom corners of your oblong the gap in the middle is the distance of the arc. type the word out to the length and height required and bend it the arc distance.
at the centre of the ball will be no arc alteration the further away from the centre towards the top the more the arc distance
or hows your maths and find the radius, bit of string to find the segment length then magic happens.

although i would try marking the base line the cutting the word out as normal and slit the app tape three quarter down between the letters and fit. bending the tape to the line as you go.

[Chris Wool]

depends how big these things are, for really awkward shapes a bit trial and error but cover the area you want with application tape draw on it the shape of the area to letter in and remove, carefully lay flat, scan or photo the tape.
this is the guide of the shape of the base lines for the lettering, the side angles show the perspective.
using the tape gives you a indication of how far you can go before it creases so will the vinyl.
other one line pull a pin line on the object and cut the application tape between the letters a fit one letter at a time on to the pin line.

the envelope tool in corel i use to pull the text to the shape looks all wrong till you fit it then looks straight.

[Chris Wool]

quote Bernard Gallagher:

Make them email it to you typed so can be copy & pasted or else slap them with a hefty design charge. They will always type it & they need it typed for there till systems as well anyway

i am with you all the way Bernard, that is how you typed it, its your spelling

mind you could give the voice to text ago

[Chris Wool]

quote Iain George:

How odd. Have been playing around with all the colours on the shelf even ones covered in dust and have shrunk in from the edges. All cuts fine apart from the newest M7.

think you proved the point its faulty, in the past found it best to change makes quick while they sort the batches out else you will keep getting the bad stock. you have to earn a living and its not testing there stock for them.

although its manufactured in the uk all the ingredients as far as i can tell come from the eu, so perhaps the eu are sending the crap over early. just a thought 😉

[Chris Wool]

until the black test print looks as neat and tidy as the magenta one the black prints will be poor. age or poor maintenance is the problem. difficult to see from the pics but what material is that it looks saturated.

[Chris Wool]

751 highly over rated we found it under performed especially on horizontal areas, then a absolute nightmare to remove.

suppliers at the time no help either.

[Chris Wool]

copy the image make it as dark as possible , convert to black white, or 8 bit gray then trace it, delete middle bits. is one way not necessarily the best.

[Chris Wool]

thank you

[Chris Wool]

what you described in the beginning was glue migration as you said the glue joining its self back together, and is a right pain.

quick test is to cut a few letters and weed immediately if weeds ok but left 15 mins ish results in poor weeding then thats the issue. think manufactures know about it quite well had a roll changed before now.
dont know the technical reason presume the glue is too stringy thats a good description

[Chris Wool]

mathew a edge is a thermal printer

colin where do you by kernow stuff from years ago i had a account with them then they stopped end user accounts had to go through agents that never stocked anything. there canvas material was fantastic compared to all others so they stopped making it. all very cornish made down the road from us.

[Chris Wool]

not yet found a printable mirror chrome or gold that does not curl like hell if any ink near the cut line, laminating then cutting is ok.
currently have some grafityp same problem.
other go around is to laminate clear on to the silver then print and cut but on to the cheaper non printable orical mirror silver that works well, depends how you are going to finish them no finish , dome, or laminate.

thermal print on the cheap stuff is good.

[Chris Wool]

a loupe was the best thing i ever bought for checking blades and just looked so cheap now.

[Chris Wool]

nice idea makes a lot a sense but cant clarify if it will take 2500 x1250 sheets which are quite common now.

[Chris Wool]

excellent thank you been meaning to do that for ages

[Chris Wool]

one off the rotis family my guess

[Chris Wool]

possibly tangential off more pinch rollers +1 on offset quality 2 i think speed 20

[Chris Wool]

have a look at
windows xp in windows 7 virtual machine but are microsoft stopping 7 now

we use this to overcome some of the problems with older software. on a win7 pro 64bit
other older stuff that really requires xp seams to work in compatibility mode but on a 32bit win7 pro as well much to our amazement.
will have to start delving in to win 10 before long see what happens

[Chris Wool]

hi Jason

i have the same plotter and had similar before never really got to the bottom of it except virtually every thing i did cured it for a little so has to be a poor connection somewhere.
clean the optical eye behind the head that reads the pinch roller. because it has miss read the outer roller in the standby position the head will not have reset the cross cutter blade leaving the normal blade down turn the plotter off and exercise the head full width from engaging the cross cutter with the sticking out pin on the left to the dis engaging ramp on the right. the machine should do it its self but to see where its failing.
mind you have probably fixed it by now.

i managed to find a mk2 second hand and just seams to behave so much better in all areas.
getting parts is very difficult now pot luck if they have any thing for it.

[Chris Wool]

phil did you find a email from me

[Chris Wool]

mounted the inners of a bic pen in a old holder before now. made a led lit bomb sight from a old graphtec pen. but the real thing is convenient as long as you remember to put the cap back on

[Chris Wool]

why reverse the file before cutting ?? i don’t, sorry just thought depends on the work flow.

i just stroke light pressure a new blade around the reg marks and remove the white vinyl only the idea of the masking tape is good, saves cutting to deep.

not a lot of help really but i started so i will finish.

enjoy

[Chris Wool]

have not needed them for a while but made up specials used banner box seamed reasonable price and good gear and quick

[Chris Wool]

in days gone by polling only worked on serial then usb not parallel or network, but if its got its own built in network card i would expect it to work. as you say handy to know how much room is left on the width, with out guessing.

a lot of people going back to cm3 may be try that

[Chris Wool]

Did you cut through print or a white boarder
If really cold I normally warm it up a bit with a heat gun after fitting to give the adhesive bit of a chance.

[Chris Wool]

will the available acrylic sheet meet the 2019 regs ? and remember a routed edge will be dull not shinny.

the glue tapes shown we use and would possibly fit the bill, when you remove the carrier its just glue left behind, but unfortunately you need full plate size rolls if you try to apply strips it will show the joins i had to make some special one off HD double side warning signs for windows and it showed a bit.

just thinking out loud and boring :sleep: the other members to death :smiles: :tongue:

[Chris Wool]

long time since i did them.
i applaud you wanting to make a top notch product but getting someone to route them is going to be rather expensive unless he cuts a big sheet up at a time. possibly the glue will be a problem
so
with a deep score line and over a sharp edge the plate will snap dressing with a file, razor plane finely set and 1000 grit paper the edge can soon resemble the uncut edge. try it if you have’t.

if you use as many off the shelf components as possible saves a lot of hassle with conforming. if the acrylic has a bs no etched on it use that part of the plate.

[Chris Wool]

there are two main systems for making plates one with glue on the reflective ..one with glue on the acrylic.
as you say you use illy and a laser with a straight through tray and you don’t mind cutting the acrylic down i cant see much of a problem with that system shown. all the ingredients are there.

its not certified for laser printers but i have printed to standard clear sign vinyl, play with settings for best results, your risk.

the thermal printers do this well

done the sandwich method with a solvent printer using both glue methods. one you reverse print on the clear.
if its bespoke size and design then its your imagination imo that’s missing.

[Chris Wool]

would have thought you could make just about any thing from this selection presume the glue is on the back of the acrylic
https://www.jepsonandco.com/plate-components/

[Chris Wool]

quote Dan Giddings:

Hi guys,
Yeah I’ve been bypassing since I’ve had the machine, otherwise it ends up timing out.
25 is the lowest it goes before switching off. Just seems strange that it does heat up, just very slowly. The heater is something I haven’t found much detail on.

could be the bed heater is not working and the heat is coming from the dryer there is a separate fuse for the heater system on some 2 fuses one for bed one for dryer.. remember its mains voltage
as it shows a slight increase over time would say the temp sensor in the bed is ok so possibly the element is not being switched on or failed. if testing the voltage is pulsed on and off as the temp heats up. the on pulses get shorter as the temp gets near to the set temp. to stop it going over the set temp.

[Chris Wool]

unless there are loads of them could end up with more money on the shelf than you made

[Chris Wool]

Hi Dan. You can bypass the warm up period by pressing the pause button.

thanks for that gem Phil saves a lot of time while the white ink is setting up on the vs

have a good year

[Chris Wool]

if it starts at 25 must be a very warm environment unless the sp does not show below that, use your infer red temp gauge to see if something is lying got a feeling the sensor is iffy. warning the heater wiring and element wire is mains voltage.
or if its cold and no vinyl loaded the fans cool the bed heater making a slow warm up

[Chris Wool]

pleased its sorted .. not quite sure whats going on with versa works at the moment as there seams to be several different versions. and as usual my machines are to old to update. perhaps just as well really.

[Chris Wool]

i would be tempted to look at vw help under Initializing VersaWorks resets all configurations such as the settings of printer and ink to default. i am quite shore that the aj should not be there

and start again. preparing to use vw

[Chris Wool]

looking at the video he does say after the drivers and utility is installed, as you say the utility does reconise it so it now probably down to vw ??

in the video it does show the top line to read auto select not aj1000 this is where i think the problem is. also the nick name i think should be blank..

the aj1000 as far as i know does not have usb

never done this, just on the info you have given so think before applying

[Chris Wool]

think the bn20 is usb only so no ip address as i understand it
why did you reinstall vw
do you have to install the bn 20 usb driver first what does the manual say
try a different usb port on the computer that often wakes windows up to do something
try a new usb cable

[Chris Wool]

but to take the shape of the hinge creases – the same with the tops.

if these fold flat for transport etc, think vinyl over the creased edge hinge will fail quickly

[Chris Wool]

richard just noticed the prices for the summas are the new price steff will say the selling price latter and nothing wrong with summa plotters generally considered top of the range by some.

[Chris Wool]

does seam a bit steep but as Richard says snags and you are in the middle of London.
other question is after spending a guess £1000, plotter some stock vinyl, app tape etc. do you have the time to do it out of your normal day. a1 size full of 15 10 mm letters takes a well set up plotter to do with out wanting to kill something.

i would be wanting to print the small stuff..
on similar type job i gave the customer a choice and cost difference – just hand over the cut vinyl he to weed etc. or finished job, he tried the weeding etc. himself came back the next day and said fair enough you do it all please.
having said that if your doing regular exhibitions etc. then the flexibility could be a god send.
enjoy

[Chris Wool]

there is a hidden setting within arms that you set the distance between the marks.
this is used as a quick find as it travels at full speed to within 25mm of the mark then searches for it.
i use it on a repetition job which speeds up the reg a lot.
or
does the machine report the correct media width when setup completed.

[Chris Wool]

keeping it simple, if its white and printable then one of the generic profiles should be fine if it thicker or thinner than standard then you may need to adjust the feed, advantage is more consistent colours when moving from stickers to banners etc.

ducks for cover

[Chris Wool]

wall paper steamer is my weapon of choice, works very well and you can put it down with out burning something and less chance of damaging the paint.
also i can say that they glow a nice bright orange just before they go bang through running out of water

[Chris Wool]

can’t remember your machine but think a newer roland
for that material i would try
feed 0
generic vinyl 2 standard quality or high quality, sign and display
but slow the head speed down to 700 temp 38
make sure there is slack material behind so not pulling the roll for this test

show a nossel test please

[Chris Wool]

if the feed rate requires changing during the print then bed temp to hot for that material and or to much tension for the rollers to pull the material consistently equal each pass
changing material thickness normally requires a feed adjustment but but should be consistent for that material

looking at the pics i think there are missing jets and fluff on head, + as you say feed incorrect. lighter shade areas could be static or material contamination. or just poor material try another brand

[Chris Wool]

are the originals quite hard to the touch (poylester or casting epoxy resin) unlike the slightly soft feel of doming.

speak to the main doming suppliers manufactures acuflow.. liquid lens,, think i have seen a tint available some time ago

you can get lots of colour pigments for polyester resin and will give you the finish i think you want, the resin may have similar characteristics to doming but will not stick to a gloss vinyl. you super glue it back on after.

[Chris Wool]

If any help it actually looks fairly close and I feel not really the problem you have.
With all of the defections you will struggle to get top print
If your using Roland inks the captops and pump system needs a good sort out basicly the heads are not being looked after. I feel the black may be past it’s life blue mag may improve
Best of luck

Chris

[Chris Wool]

Neschen product didn’t find a cast thou
I wouldn’t worry about it quote on what you are happy fitting for the job in hand. Tell the customer why then up to them

[Chris Wool]

As others have said been there
Looking at the last picture the head surface needs cleaning and I don’t think the cap is seating correctly and probably not cleaning it’s self due to poor seal.
What I have learned with the vs is the cap seal must be perfect and must be checked regularly.
Don’t normally recommend power cleans or chock as puts a very heavy use on the pump and ink use. In my experience no gain. If the system seals pipes etc all good a medium is the most required

[Chris Wool]

http://www.graphtecamerica.com/cp-downloads
As I say don’t know a thing about Macs don’t want to either

[Chris Wool]

Looking at the white vinyl. Looks like the vinyl is bunching in front of the blade which blade type are you using should be standard 09 type 45 deg .in the conditions set to this blade
If the media does not stay flat on the bed whilst cutting the joins will never meet and change of direction cuts will not be straight or rounded corners as shown.
Also the blade never seams to be in alignment at the start of loops so probably needs a new holder or the above or you are using a 1.5 type blade too big for the job in hand

[Chris Wool]

Try graphtec America site or Japan legacy potter drivers

[Chris Wool]

There is a straight forward Windows driver which will cut any vector with a black hairline it’s on the web site. Can’t stand cutting master.
I use all the time with coral haven’t got a clue about Macs and illyfustrator

[Chris Wool]

Have a look at dafont.com or similar by outline disk I
Ment the motocross bike disks. Almost any thing goes but be readable incase the transponder packs up. colour of the backgrounds are important.

[Chris Wool]

Think there are some on the outline disks but mainly stylised by the designer

[Chris Wool]

Being a Roland fan it saddens me to hear about this but if they can’t make a plotter cutter after all these years not holding much hope with the new printers.
When the new plotter was announced I needed a new one so tried to buy one … lucky they could not supply one and a nice second hand graphtec came up.

[Chris Wool]

The vs should have come with extra pinch rollers you clip on as required.
A environmental check is done automatically on every set up that’s why the print head goes over with the cutting head on setup.
As said if the print cut alignment is fine in one area not in another then it’s normally down to the media swelling.
This time of year with cold and high humidity makes a poor media next to impossible. Stand the roll on end on the floor and I would imagine the first few turns are wider than the rest of the roll. This is moisture in the backing paper. When you start to print the heat plays havoc.
Also a slightly sticky blade holder and slightly blunt knife will bunch the media as it cuts moving the media slightly side to side back and forth giving you the impression the cuts off.
Well it is but not understood why
Some times I use the arrows keys to move the vinyl out over the heaters and back a few times. Time consuming but I should keep the materials in a better environment

[Chris Wool]

morning

i recently had to remove strip and clean the wiper housing as it was starting to stick easy enough take pics of the metal work as slightly odd fitting. i unfortunately found that the sensor had become very brittle from the solvents around it and it broke the connection. only a few quid but time to get a pain. the mechanism is well protected from the ink mess but can do with a tidy up on older machines.
new scraper and wipers on rebuild

[Chris Wool]

Can only guess check all cables you may have dislodged one
As you say don’t want to bin it yet.
Do you have the manual

[Chris Wool]

If the machine is set to machine settings you can change the cutting speed and presure..while it’s cutting.the new setting takes effect after finishing cutting the loop.
If it’s set by the rip don’t know what the effect will be as I don’t use that

[Chris Wool]

As you say that sequence is dram check no good

Doing a bit more resurch

[Chris Wool]

That’s better well done
. A few extra manual recirculation don’t go amiss

[Chris Wool]

never get pics right and max2 white

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Attachments:

[Chris Wool]

just slapped this on a coffee jar was on cling film but should not alter the outcome

chris w

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Attachments:

[Chris Wool]

I use white would expect better than that.
You sure all the white nozels are working …..do you do extra manual circulations after shaking the cart.
I use the standard clear adhesive profile

[Chris Wool]

At those pressures and passes surprise you are not getting miss cuts and sounds like a flat bed could be a way forward

[Chris Wool]

Upside down backing paper with stickey spray mount on did the trick one day
Graphtec do a proper sheet also found on a auction site
Enjoy

[Chris Wool]

A right can of worms
We have a sra3 Xerox on click.. you know where you stand on the click your costs are fixed just paper cost as a extra.
Don’t be misled by the number of copies a toner cart will do that is only at the industry standard of 5% coverage = a small paragraph of text.
A full sra3 page of colour costs many many times that so making the click more than sensible. The cost of the consumables. Toner belts drums fuser is outrageous again the click covers the lot.

Enjoy

[Chris Wool]

Looks like droplets as the head changes direction
Wiper poor. Pumps not working or more sinister would be a air leak around the damper
Possibly if third party inks over filled tanks

[Chris Wool]

3m diamond grade can’t remember the number available william Smith 150mm by the Mr also the yellow is 3m
Ask to speak to the ladies that deal with the chapter 8 materials always very helpful

[Chris Wool]

Ha waiting for that sorry
Think the xc has the same as mine
Where the wipers go and park in the small box is a wiper that wipes the main wipers called a wiper scraper.
This gets forgotten about or not known about but helps to keep the head wipers in better knick

[Chris Wool]

Normally the sign that the capping top . wipers and pump not doing there job
Could be more sinister like air leak on head

Start by cleaning and checking the capping and that the pump is clearing all the excess away. Perhaps clean or new wipers and don’t forget the scraper blade

[Chris Wool]

Might be called OptiCut on the summa

[Chris Wool]

Morning
Don’t know about a summa but on a graphtec it’s called blade control
Set within the menu and can be 2mm inside or outside a starting path loop

[Chris Wool]

Some help points
In corel unless your cutting software alters it
It will cut in the order you drew it or you can make a object you have just drawn cut first by putting to back of the page
It will cut in the direction it was drawn you can reverse it by change direction under bezier menu
You can draw just a straight line space them and change direction and order of cut
Food for thought
The reason some machines cut off the material by cutting from near the centre out then just the little bit left in the middle is for the material to fall straight down from the machine.
If it’s cut from one side only it normally falls away awkward

Enjoy

[Chris Wool]

Well done respect..

A tip I learned some time ago when getting a plotter to do things the designer did not think of is remove the cutter whilst testing..
Don’t know you’re software but sounds like prefeed is activated and possibly media movement reduction
One step forward.

[Chris Wool]

See you have a plan there and I don’t think it’s a bad one.. best of luck with it.. trouble is you know what you want now to find it

[Chris Wool]

Sounds like you need to set up a production line on the bench
Roll holder for the roll. full width trimmer to cut and marks on the bench
Pull material out under the trimmer to marks activate trimmer.. repete
Unless I have missed the point think it would be quicker.
I have a flat bed and roll cutters still think I would do it on the bench.

[Chris Wool]

Never seen nor heard of that but by the looks of it probably due to being over tightened all the time.
Nothing wrong with the smart knifes but for not a lot of money you can get holders and blades from the e place that work just fine. I have several holders with different blades in for ease of changing over.

[Chris Wool]

Need to find someone with a silver print roland vs or a edge thermal printers
Might know someone with a vs but not allowed to say nudge nudge wink wink

Enjoy

[Chris Wool]

Thanks for time and effort sadly arlon is not a brand I have any faith in from my own experience.
I would stick it on a wall or floor though.

This project i don’t want the shrinkage associated with monomeric

[Chris Wool]

I always find it best to draw your own it’s not difficult and stops you paying for a load of stuff you will never use

[Chris Wool]

Could be coincidence
Or the wires from the sensor I think come out of the bed just next to where you have been fiddling
Warning the heater element wires are mains voltage

[Chris Wool]

as said cap tops definate posibility also if the tank was quite full and the end of the waiste pipes come into contact with the waiste ink it will then syphon more ink out of the carts

just a note as 440 carts last a long time best they are shaken once in a while especialy black

[Chris Wool]

Many things could have changed over the period of time
You have changed inks
Posibly changed profile
Changed or new material even a different batch
Versa works probably upgraded
Some materials accept ink differently as the humidity changes

I would print the colour swatch for the blues pick the one you want and change the file to a new one to suit
Now if that blue changes while printing posibly the printer faulty
I am not a grand lover or vw but that’s the only way I can hit colours I want

[Chris Wool]

Bit hard to tell from the picture but
Some ideas looks like over inking
Double check the temperature with a temp guage
Fluf hanging of the mag or cyan head
The total ink limit has changed normally around 250%
Poor media

[Chris Wool]

As Kevin said that’s quite poorly and needs love and attention
When I have half a head go down it has been lack of ink for one reason or another
But with what looks like burnt bits is not helping
Lot of defections is this aftermarket inks or poor capping stations and or pumps
Hopefully you’ll get it sorted then align the heads better and you have one of the best printers roland made

[Chris Wool]

It’s called full width scan and best left as is
With it on each pass interval is the same time so the ink is layed equal and dries equally
If turned off then the scan width and time intervals alters and if to short will lead the over inking in some parts

[Chris Wool]

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&sourc … WjevKb9u-Q

Hopefully got that right

[Chris Wool]

Not a member so can’t pm
Google mrsticker I am at work now till 9.30 ish

[Chris Wool]

Daniel by the questions you asked please don’t attempt with out the manual a lot more can go wrong than with the older head system
There’s a special sequence for air removal

Why do you want to change them

[Chris Wool]

if its the same place on every file you cut then guess the main ribbon data cable is faulty having a intermittant contact

[Chris Wool]

Just a redo or 2 in word it will be fine