[Chris Wool]

Don’t make them any more but used to use the Roland on clear as the sandwich

[Chris Wool]

That does not sound like the cover signelite offered me at a hideous rate plus it is linked to the total value of the vehicle and your covered agreed max amount.
It was such a minefield that we just won’t drive a customers vehicle on the road……

[Chris Wool]

just class love it

[Chris Wool]

you will have to run your own tests
if its cut only accuracy then tell the plotter to cut a 1000mm box then measure it, normally in the plotter menu is a compensation value you can enter in percentage. but that will only work on that particular vinyl. probably different if you laminate it.
the scan width should always be correct

if its to match a print has the printer printed the correct length to start with.

don’t know your system but the roland is self compensating my graphtecs report the scanned printed distance and allow me to alter before sending the cut data.

[Chris Wool]

Quite agree with you.
the base alignment has a lot to do with it what mean is the placement of the media before you set the arms off on its travels
It should report back to you the distance between the marks so you can check calibrated distance against what it should be

[Chris Wool]

All depends what you call accurate over a4 sort of size you
ould be within at least 1mm
we have Roland prirt and cut . graphtec fc7000 and they can be married up your biggest problem is likely to be cutting master trying to be cleaver.
Standard vinyls should be all default settings and must use the 4 point alignment

[Chris Wool]

Hi jon
is this on mx material does it start correct then go off put a pen in in stead of a knife
till you get confident

Hows the edge if you bought one

[Chris Wool]

2 different types either one looks a bit more involved

[Chris Wool]

Carefully the shaft is held by 2 c clips remove one and slide out the shaft
The wheels should have a red dot one side which if I remember correctly go on the outside need to double check that. Will check a manual when I get back.

yes red dot to the outside of the machine

[Chris Wool]

good one simon 😀

of interest is there any bow in the feed direction of the edge of the print as i wood of expected to try and print in a big arc.

[Chris Wool]

oh nasty

don’t know the exact reason but this is what i would do
give the heads and machine a good manual clean all the fumbling about should get rid of all static.

try a bit with the head speed slowed to 400mm /sec uni-direction might be a bit of ink starvation from a low level cart.

else if new roll material could be suspect.
best of luck

[Chris Wool]

just my view you can not wrap a bonnet with the washer jets in place remove them.

looks like compression marks as apposed to stretch some people call them fingers shrink them out as you come to the end of the panel. but then again i get them some times. cos i am not perfect

[Chris Wool]

by the sounds of it i would remove the pipe from the damper and give that a suck, if ink comes then the damper or head may be blocked.
i would not force fluid through the head cos of the spray if goes wrong will go all over the electronics, best pull from the cap top tube.

[Chris Wool]

in the graphtec plotter menu is a scale
mine is under function 1 and should say scale 1

[Chris Wool]

can only think a scale is applied
in cm s properties does the job size show as correct
or look on the plotter to see if scale has been added

[Chris Wool]

just a thought because its a print and cut machine have you concidered wasatch don’t know how the others handel the cutting but wasatch seams easy enough and printed every thing i have thrown at it so far ?

[Chris Wool]

If in a sentence I think you would say
children’s and baby ware

What is right don’t know but its what you would say.

[Chris Wool]

Thanks it did go on to a clean painted wall very nicely.

[Chris Wool]

What’s wrong with taking a card payment

[Chris Wool]

Guess lay a strip of masking tape over the front edge after set up either feed forward a bit or remove it.
But then never used a latex printer

[Chris Wool]

looks like a ps style added to the text very difficult to match unless you have the same style.

[Chris Wool]

i can’t comment on a summa other than it should be good its dear enough.

quote :

The fc7000 doesn’t have a perf cut feature

my fc7000 does ??

quote :

Something that also pics up the registration on long prints, 3m +.

the xc540 should when it stops looking at 3mts press the pause key, it should continue. thank shane from down under for that one.

quote :

We also make m/x graphics. We would like a new plotter which will enable us to di-cut the stickers to save hand trimming time.

any roll plotter will be a pain for predicable consistant results use a flat bed cutter. we do

quote :

reading registration marks for small sticker cut accuracy after lamination

never been able to better roland for this its all in the setup. over a say 2ft sq area should be able to cut down a printed hairline.

all based on own experiences

[Chris Wool]

needs more investigation Josh as I understand it cos the new type pump is more efficient it needs to run for less time which is in the latter firmware saving some ink.

[Chris Wool]

Other thing on my fc7000 you can tell the arms the distance to the marks.
Advantage is it ignore s any think within 20 mm of the mark except the mark and goes straight to it at higher speed.
Unfortunately using a roll cutter for mx stuff still has a load of problems which you will have to work out as you go

[Chris Wool]

quote :

they need to be completely outside of the artwork..??

thats because the head eye will find the graphic not the next mark and fail. but a bit of tape over the area will stop the eye seeing the graphic and continue to find the next mark.
the graphtec will also give you the option for the distance printed and measured by the plotter v the drawing distance so compensating for the thicker material distance moved.

[Chris Wool]

raining in cornwall
so we have the same thoughts i have been chatting to spandex but yet to actually speak to some one with a real working knowlage of the software and machine. perhaps i ask the wrong questions.
at present we print on rolands and cut and di -cut on a graphtec flat bed but as you are thinking a edge could be handy.

[Chris Wool]

Thought that was the problem I have looked hard at that my self and there are some rad panels you won’t fit in the area. They say 300 mm but I used 295 for my workings.
Where about are you in the country.

[Chris Wool]

Can’t see how you can use the grey ones but you should be able to invert the black ones.
May I ask why what printer and cutter I recognise the type of shape

[Chris Wool]

check the carts one may be empty

[Chris Wool]

good move think you are on the right track

[Chris Wool]

quote :

cleaning mode and the black cap top looks clogged up and full of ink,

so the pump may not be working as well with solvent machines use it or lose it, presume you leave it all switched on between using it.

[Chris Wool]

Just had a thought is it set on photo or spot colour in the driver
should be spot colour for graphics
and should print real black that looks a little light

[Chris Wool]

probably the carrier sheet is favorate but some graphtecs have a buit in perf line in the condisions used it on paper to good effect.

[Chris Wool]

well done

the vs returns as soon as its finished the first print, the key to doing it this way is smalller areas of print because the cling in my experience is unstable as its warmed and the second print does not line up quite right on larger areas.
as a note i would do the cut on the second not first print incase a corner gets lifted slightly.

[Chris Wool]

if the length of the usb cable has no effect.
dont waist material test with the knife out.
what software is driving the plotter and did the install load a named graphtec usb port.
best ring graphtec support nice people should fix over the phone

[Chris Wool]

don’t know your software or printer but look in the manual for max width printing, posibly a margin in there some where.

[Chris Wool]

I think most usb ports can go to 5mts

[Chris Wool]

presuming its a old serial not usb
the problem is to do with the handshaking and it used to happen a lot, the lead has to be high quality and screened from interference manly from mains electric other things switching on or off, flow control set to hardware. early plotters had such a small memory that the fault showed up almost instantly latter plotters with bigger memories the fault can occur minutes before it shows up.
if the plotter has a std printer port use that but you will lose the polling command.
cutting a box requires 5 x-y coordinates a arc is made up of x-y coordinates every point 1mm software does vary that with size else a 1000mm circle would take to long to cut.

[Chris Wool]

might even be someting to do with the computer going to sleep

[Chris Wool]

dave

remove the knife and set it up send the same file, whilst it thinks its cutting very gently lift the wire half a inch on the plotter end of the lead then the computer end, then any where where it could be walked on etc.
if the plotter goes haywire then repeat till you can fail it at will.

[Chris Wool]

many thanks jamie could not remember the name kept thinking about boat engines 😮

[Chris Wool]

used to come across this years ago on a serial driven plotter, the lead may be faulty, and not controlling the flow of data. other was the serial setting on the computer not set to hardware

[Chris Wool]

i was watching this cos i need something along those lines a few months ago some one mentioned a plastic suitable but i can’t find it.
any help please
need to do some POS stuff

chris

[Chris Wool]

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontmesa/brewmaster/

did you try goooooogle

[Chris Wool]

had a closer look and i think the ink is being rejected by the surface as i said diffecult type. like water on a polished surface.
you could laminate print vinyl on to the magnetic then print.
in answer to the static question yes static can be a big problem but normally shows up as a goasting mist.

i use metamark cling with very good results but that is on my VS printer that lays the ink down better that the dx4 head machines.

[Chris Wool]

both the products are difficult surfaces to print on to. and vary wildly from make to make.
you could try slowing the head speed and a higher quality mode which will give the ink time to dry a bit between passes.

[Chris Wool]

Apart from the cutter being set up well. The file may need altering to make it easier

other things that will help polish the bed and use as many pinch rollers as possible
tried most blades and keep returning to the 09 type even for fine stuff also some makes of vinyl weed fine stuff better than others

[Chris Wool]

Sounds like the plunger is sticking in the windings or think there is a spring to pull the head back upmay be missing or not connected correctly

[Chris Wool]

Difficult to make that out but poor ribbon alignment or the small black roller degrading. Or poor ribbon

need better pic
If you wind the ribbon back so yoan see where it has been used and should not be close to the edge. When the ribbon is out of alignment will leave a faded edge in the print

[Chris Wool]

Can’t remember who said it but it was a 100 $ tip.
Leave a Mt of media on the take up roll to tape to.
I read that as you say after grovelling on the floor

[Chris Wool]

quote :

So what I should be doing then is pushing them in and tightening up, then locking the black collars flush to the media rollers, pulling out some media, clamping the pinch rollers down then reverse the media back to the roll to see if it’s running out.

sounds about it

quote :

Do you find it easy enough to get the whole thing running straight even when attached to the take up, over long print distances, say 10 to 20metres

don’t know i would never do it, but quite often do several 3mt prints with out resetting the media.
i know people do leave the machines running but i would not, the pros do not over come the disaster and costs that you could be left with.

[Chris Wool]

quote :

I’m putting the circular media rollers into the ends of the media cores so it rolls off nicely from the back – although I’m finding they have a tendency to work their way back out over a distance, particularly on full rolls of vinyl or banner

do you have the push in ones or the later push in and tighten type.
on the metal rollers on the back should be some collers to lock the media end rollers in place. when loading i pull evenly out about a mt then clamp, setup. then watch for any run out as the media is pulled back to the start point.

if using heavy banner use more than 2 rollers
if still running off have a good look at the rollers etc.
ps fantastic bit of kit good move.

[Chris Wool]

Line is a user adjustment and as you have tried must now be returned to default.
The feed calibration to be found in service mode and with the use of a service manual.
As service mode is all flashing lights its not to be entered lightly. Ha lot of care I mean.
What are you printing on to just how bad is it. Black won’t matter but lighter colour will be quite noticeable.

[Chris Wool]

Quite agree with you Ian and think they are safer in some ways but not by the insurance company I spoke to about it.

[Chris Wool]

Ian have you tried to explain the use to the insurance company heat gun is bad enough.

I have used one, but don’t think a watching customer would appreciate it

[Chris Wool]

Classic took a while

[Chris Wool]

see you had a chat with roland what was the out come

[Chris Wool]

Nice to have met you the other day

enjoy

[Chris Wool]

as said head may be fine have a look at the feed rate adjustment in the user manual

[Chris Wool]

as its still quite new speak to roland before doing anything else to keep it under warranty if any bits needed you need there bits only

it is easy to change needs care

[Chris Wool]

normally a sign that the capping station is blocking

just thought 6mts time to change it anyway

[Chris Wool]

Alan you could create the first outline as a rounded pen, convert to object delete inner path. then duplicate and move for the drop part, weld all together.

[Chris Wool]

With out a better pic I think the fade of the print pic and the company name design will cause to many problems. . Not keen on wrap on wrap and as said door shuts . Sills etc. Very time consuming

[Chris Wool]

Appreciate the problem similar with me and if I wanted to move away from image perfect for my general stock.

Mixing makes of similar types I have not had trouble with but would only do it on flat surfaces

[Chris Wool]

Bit late late but similar used to happen with colourrip if any of the rip folders had too many files in the list.
Does look like a memory problem.

[Chris Wool]

Vote with you orders elsewhere that’s the only way they take note
I have still not forgiven avery from many years ago

[Chris Wool]

white ink is quite a heavy load so i would have only used 2 rollers or printed with marks and left for several hours before cutting with extra rollers
as its not laminated only two rollers would have been fine imo

[Chris Wool]

Good one. From corel and versa works I would expect the silver to print and the cmyk on top givinga slslightly different look

[Chris Wool]

just had a play with versaworks

1000 25mm squares 720×720 dpi middle good quality print – print and cut aprox 1h 20mins on a 400mm width roll. non including lamination time
down to 35 min on a 1340 width machine using 1250 print width.
with any metallic content aprox 1h on 1250 print width.

those could be cut down posibly by a third using a pro4 printer. two heads better than one

+ plus finishing area time labour materials – ink etc.

think i got me maffs right

[Chris Wool]

Good question Jason bit of a change from the hundreds first mentioned. The goal posts just moved.
😀

[Chris Wool]

john Colin i know makes a lot of small wonderful stuff and what he says about the mimaki inks are true with the roland.
i have a vs 540 wt met and do similar you can go to one of the roland demo sites and see all for yourself.
but the met is not as bright as you may think and the white is not as good as you might think. you need to see it.
for the use we bought the vs its not quite fitting the bill due to those things quality of the print is not a issue at all.
if you want chrome alike type silver then it has to be a thermal machine such as the spandex edge this will also give a creditable white but that machine is more expensive to run.

Jason Davis on here in south Wales has a full label set up for sale

the mimaki and the vs are way abouve your original budget but will open up other areas.

[Chris Wool]

First thought is the head data cable starting to fail difficult to pin point with out a gentle fiddle with it.

[Chris Wool]

print1
will be able to help

[Chris Wool]

hi simon

change your profile this happened to me after i tried to do my own profile and is probably the white point not set correctly.

[Chris Wool]

should help you

http://www.graphtecamerica.com/graphtec … mk2-series

sorry bit slow been flat out all day just finishing

[Chris Wool]

have not a clue with flexy but the plotter is receiving the wrong language

change the plotter to ghgl from hpgli think it is. and check that the step size is .1

[Chris Wool]

pressure not to heavy good. speed i would use 200mm /sec both cut and up speed.
if the knife is sticking out too far from the holder can cause slight snagging in the tight corners, watch the vinyl it has to stay perfectly flat on the bed if you see it buckle slightly then it will start to go off.

[Chris Wool]

quote :

Metamarks highest tack vinyl MDP-H-200 comes off after a day or two.

if thats commiing off that quick i would guess application temp too low and or pressure washers

some times the thick glue types need heating

[Chris Wool]

out of interest what cutting pressure are you using.

as said slow the machine down and also the up speed. it goes out of alignment because of the drag of cutting and jerky movements, pleased to hear you used all the pinch rollers.

[Chris Wool]

jamie thanks may be what i am looking for for a different project

jason would you print that in reverce then laminate the back or not

chris

[Chris Wool]

some media due mainly to there thickness feed at different rates so this compensates for it
Md5 is md5 so should always be the same for that media put in thick 500gsm banner and you will normally see banding.

however the vs does not suffer from banding like the older machines so most standard media will be the same only really needs adjusting for the really thick stuff or very thin paper.

Andy allowing the machine to pull vinyl of the roll while printing. although it will do it I don’t think its fair on the feed motor so making it ware quicker. imo

[Chris Wool]

think you have the answers there but i would have a look through the outline book and open a few large vans aswell. to to check

[Chris Wool]

quote :

we want to get a profile that prints bright / gloss look colours

i think thats really down to the material.
we use the roland colour system for the tricky stuff but thats really for removing any guess work.
tried too many other profiles and keep comming back to the generic 2 or3 never 1

set up queue a as you think you want it and select part of the colour library you are interested in the spot colours should show in the file format window.
and remember if the finished job is laminated then laminate the test bit.

[Chris Wool]

Create a template of the finished cut shape
fill with a image.
Print and cut
apply

those or similar images may be under copyright if you intend to resell
don’t understand what you mean by cutting at a angle

[Chris Wool]

Create a template of the finished cut shape
fill with a image.
Print and cut
apply

those or similar images may be under copyright if you intend to resell
don’t understand what you mean by cutting at a angle

[Chris Wool]

just 6 heads to set up not 2. but once set up will not need touching again except normal cleaning etc.

with a good profile and well set up your SP should give you excellent results the pro3 will just do it 3 times faster.

[Chris Wool]

wow now i know what to do with my off cuts 😉

[Chris Wool]

quote :

At this point, is it a worthwhile purchase? Do they still suffer from the drop out banding we see on the versacamm?

if its faulty and poorly set up yes

the pro3 was a top of the range work horse 6 heads 12 carts fantastic bit of kit but not for the feint hearted. i think you can have a firmware upgrade to drive it with the Roland pass control if it don’t have it already, helps to reduce banding in the faster modes.

if set up with care is capable of very high quality prints

i don’t think it will use any more ink to print the same image but because of the 6 colour print the range is slightly wider.

[Chris Wool]

looks to me as if the lights are inside not outside. giving the shadows

[Chris Wool]

That’s them I will look up the paper I have in the morn
solvent 220 satin I think I use it for high quality posters and large photos

[Chris Wool]

Paper graphics is the best I have found to date . quality solvent paper is not the fastest drying so more care if larger prints. Good enough to call photographic

[Chris Wool]

Yes that can be a pain like you we have a selection of computer s that do different things.
We created a directory of all the fonts from all the machine s . Then loaded that to the computer s that would need them all.
Have to update it now and again as you may add a font for one job here and there.

[Chris Wool]

tried but did not work sorry

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Attachments:

[Chris Wool]

have printed and clear over refective even double clear on a dumper as long as flat and the edges are short of the panel end should be fine.

[Chris Wool]

sorry can’t help but it looks like someone has treaced (poorly) a known font.
it just don’t look right

[Chris Wool]

just been using and disapointed with the 3mm wrap-cut, tried before as well same result. not impressed a tall

[Chris Wool]

quote Kevin Flowers:

Dave
just found out that http://www.antalis.co.uk/ stock orale as well

that web site is a pain in the butt see if they want to charge £20 dilivery and 1.5% interest

[Chris Wool]

Something not right. Not happened to me yet.
I buy very little from them but that would stop if they did that.

[Chris Wool]

Hi Martin

i would have said that due to thinking that the word laminate over clear vinyl that the laminate would be more optically clear and more dedicated to the job,
years ago clear vinyl was not that clear would yellow etc. and the glue left a lot of silvering.

the latest round of modern clear vinyl’s are a lot better than before making them very usable. but as said matching is so important.
large digital printing and wraps we always use the manufactures match. but for smaller stuff we mix and match according to the end use so have a range of different clears each with there own plus points
some wrap lams will print well for fine stuff, oracle 751 very clear high gloss does not print well to the very thick MX laminate plus stuff in between.

[Chris Wool]

welcome, made the mistake of going W7 64bit on the latest computer now have a couple of machines it will not drive. due to lack of 64bit drivers.
i bought the pro ver of W7 64 which does sort out some of the 32 bit programes but not drivers

graham don’t think roland will be over helpful due to it not being a roland cutter.

i found this may be of help
http://download.rolanddg.jp/en/cutting.html#gx24

if the cutter was driven by roland software then just the printer windows 64bit driver may be ok, which means you don’t use the plugin just drive straight out of corel or illyfustrator