[Colin Crow]

The Stahls range are excellent and very substantial. Target Transfers are the UK contact and will offer the best price.

http://www.targettransfers.com/

They even rent heat presses if you aren’t ready to buy yet.

I bought one of their pneumatic presses a year or so ago and received great service.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

We use our most days for mounting although rarely mount full width boards so haven’t has as many problems as others here. The centre roller seems to close up the gap but I am concerned that the top roller could deflect upwards too?

Ironically I have never had success with taping vinyl despite many attempts with medias and layout so have given up with this use. Mounting onto boards up to 4’x3′ is a breeze though and although I have never had a powered laminator, I feel certain that the ezytaper scores on ease of use and speed of setup. I have looked at laminators but the additional bulk and complication has always put me off, especially given the cramped conditions we have. We rarely have large runs of work so the messing about of pre-feeding lamination film for one or two prints only to then unravel the whole lot to mount the odd board would drive me nuts!

You could perhaps check your stand with a 6′ level to see if there is any deflection in the centre? Maybe some packing pieces between the mdf and the stand could straighten any bow?

A lot of the success with larger sheets is down to the feed of the material and this only comes with practice. Unfortunately its an expensive lesson when you are messing up large digital prints. For larger board mounted prints we have changed to thicker (100 micron) vinyls and found that any problems with bubbles have all but been eliminated.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

You could use PET or PETg sheet for this purpose as it is much more resilient to shattering than acrylic. Its available from usual plastic sheet suppliers in thicknesses from around 1mm and up. I know you can get clear and white but not sure about opal. It has a slightly softer surface than acrylic so will scratch over time but this shouldnt be a problem for photography work as the lights will obscure the imperfections. If you want a matt surface then a flood coat of white vinyl will do the trick and on clear would give you a degree of translucency.

Not sure if you are in their area but NE Plastics at sidcup (very nice guys) can get this for you (0208 308 9990)

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I have experienced similar banding to this on our mimaki with some medias and like you, tried various settings to correct. The stripes are irregular and not like those caused by a defect in the print head so I have been looking at the environmental conditions. We have a air-conditioner in our print room which blows in the general direction of the printer and it occurred to me that depending on whether someone was standing/moving around in front of the printer the temperature across the platen could vary giving this subtle striping effect?

I mean to do some more experiments on the suspect medias but its interesting that I never had this problem with our valuejet which had a fully enclosed platen when printing!

Do you have anything in your print room (a/c, drafty window, fan etc) that may be causing similar effects?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks for the update Andrew, your conclusions could be helpful in future.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Version 14.0.0.701

I have tried to see if there are any further updates available but drawn a blank.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Lexan is a form of polycarbonate which should be fine. Its only really PVC which is a problem as it gives off both cyanide gas and also hydrochloric acid in the form of vapour which "melts" your machine over time.

The vinyl print on the back would be a small problem but this can be overcome by printing onto polyprop or polyester?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

"cutting it may require a thermic lance but can work on that."

Or a laser? If you get stuck and want me to try on ours (arrives next thursday) just let me know?

I know the LexEdge material is designed to do exactly what you want but I haven’t used it so can’t vouch for its properties. Alternatively, we can also back up in white on the cjv30 if you get really stuck. As you say, its always worth having options!

All the best

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Chris

Would be interested to hear if you manage to do this with the soljet. I know there is a a lexan for the edge for this purpose but unsure how well this cuts. Most times when cutting pvc its only possible to score surface rather that cut right through into the material beow although I guess several passes may achieve this?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

To be fair, the envision holder is a posh anodised aluminium body as opposed to the Mutoh plastic one, although probably not worth the £400+

Colin

[Colin Crow]

The ones I had were fully interchangeable and worked fine so I doubt anything has changed much.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Doesn’t sound like they are too keen to sell these!

Chris, give me a call re Summa S class cutters when you get a chance.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

In that case I would buy the Fasttrack 650 holder for your envision – it must be a bargain! 😀

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Spandex sell these at around the same price and also the envision blade holder is identical if you can find one cheap?

But to be honest, since using the smartknife I wouldn’t go back to standard blades now as the quality of the "cheap" blades is so variable and the original blades are ridiculously priced.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

The configuration of the heads means that the white ink is laid down immediatley before the colours so two passes wouldn’t help as the sequence would be white/colour/white/colour. Its this that slows down the printing as it is effectively only using half the width of the head to get the white down first. Its very clever but when using lots of white ink, the immediate laying down of colour over the white can result in flooding if you do not allow enough time.

We do have the lc and mc carts and I do feel these make a difference for our type of work. We used to run a 6 colour Canon prior to switching to 4 colour valuejet and I could definitely tell the difference for the photographic and canvas work which is why we have gone back to 6 colour.

The fans are fairly noisy but no worse than the valuejet and at least it turns off really quickly from the front button when not in use (something missing from the VJ).

Contour cutting is usually 100% although I have found it can be variable if you are only using the outer rollers for cutting. The material flexes in the centre quite a bit when being pushed and pulled from just the edges so I always now run the centre rollers on the low setting so that they do not make an impression on the print.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I can’t vouch for the colour quality of the mid range Samsung lcd monitors we use as I know you can pay an awful lot more for similar size screens.

I notice you mention the Huey profile – does this mean that use a huey device to callibrate your screen? If so which one as I have found it hard to get good opinions on these devices (ie colourmunki, spyder, huey one etc)?

I am always shocked when working in Corel and outputting to acrobat (ready for sending to printers) just how different the colours look in the two programs. At the moment the acrobat files gives a much truer colour representation. At present I have the arrow from internal RGB-srgb greyed out (broken) to monitor which has generic profile (the samsung one is faulty and was unloaded). There is an arrow between generic CMYK printer profile and Monitor. I have no idea if this is correct though.

Thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

is this what you looking for?

Colin

---

Attachments:

[Colin Crow]

Alan

Is there much point using the colour manager without some sort of profiling device?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I know that the 4 colour setup uses 2 sets for each colour so it would make sense that it halves the amount of passes required. I haven’t tried printing from signlab to the Mimaki as I have got used to using a separate rip for this purpose and anyway signlab is often tied up printing to the Edge and cutting vinyl text.

I need to spend more time with the multitude of settings until I arrive at the most consistent profiles that offer the best speed. In order to lay down a really solid white ink I have found that 32 pass with a second delay on each pass works perfectly however it takes an age to complete the print. Good job most of our work with white is small valuable products!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I spent a good while on the Summa stand at sign UK last year where the very nice guys there explained the reasons for the problems.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

This is trickier as all the short term removable exhibition grades will leave a residue over time.

The only adhesive I have used that doesn’t leave any residue is Neschen’s Gudy range of double sided mounting films. You an apply this to any plain or printed substrate but not contour cut it. Having said that, Drytac do a similar product and Allprint have a banner material with adhesve back which has simlar properties.

If you cannot print the substrate maybe you can apply a "panel" of say 200mic semi-rigid pvc using this adhesive and apply your vinyl over?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Could you be a bit more specific? Are the stickers to be printed, are they to be cut and shaped like text or square cut like posters?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

The foil selection is not as good as similar printers (gerber edge, PC600) with particularly metalics missing from the range. Also no independent suppliers to offer economic alternatives.

Worse was the banding on solid colours. This is due to a built in lap on each pass of the 100mm wide foil. Without the lap there is a chance of a white stripe due to the inaccuracies of each pass. It wouldn’t work for our products but may be fine for sticker work that fits between passes?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I think Boldscan can print up to 5M wide. Although not strictly trade the trade prices offer scope for mark up.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I’m with Dave on this one. By using the Pantone pallete you stand a better chance of arriving at repeatable colours. If you are printing, print a pantone chart on your chosen printer, match these to the job and select from the pallete accordingly. Ignore the onscreen colours unless you have managed to calibrate your screen to your printer and media.

On this note – Has anyone used a colour Munki to calibrate screen/printer successfully?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I would be interested to hear if anyone is running one of these too. My investigations showed a couple of flaws which may be possible to work around but never found anybody to ask?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Hexis KG9000 range – KG9234 is very close.

This is a cast vinyl and around £7/Metre

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Of course I don’t mind – especially as you have the scottish connection 😉

[Colin Crow]

Darn! I was sure it was just his cup tea – Tasteless & Tacky javascript:emoticon(‘:-?’)

[Colin Crow]

We are running the SS21 full solvent inks with 6 colour + White. We also run a gerber edge specifically for white work on clear so this just helped it tick another box for us.

The SS21 inks are definitely smellier than the eco inks used in the valuejet we had previously and have necessitated a 9" extractor being installed directly behind the printer. Having said that, they do stand up to rough treatment a little better and as a lot of our printing is solid colour and often black this helps a lot without having to laminate.

I am a little concerned how quickly the waste ink bottle is filling which I think is a result of the more aggressive inks needing more cleaning but time will tell. The information provided by the rasterlink is excellent and the ink usage data makes it easy to price jobs. The control you have within the rip is daunting at first but brilliant when you get stuck in as you will have to if you run the white inks!

One gripe is the single Mimaki blade that came with the unit lost its tip within 2 days and a quick call to Harry at Edward Mathias confirmed that these are prone to the very slightest of damage. His smartknife replacement has been working perfectly ever since.

So far (other than white ink issues) almost every profile has been working on every vinyl/banner/popup I have thrown at it so I am not sure how much of an issue profiles are? I noticed another thread on here recently where people were talking about using 8 pass profiles for higher quality but I only have 12 pass as a minimum on my list of profiles. Again this may be down to the white ink configuration of my printer but does anyone have a less pass profile?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

My guess is Ashley (Cole)

[Colin Crow]

We use Oramask all the time. If you would like an A4 sample pm or email me your address and I will send in the post.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Rasterlink has just been upgraded to 5 and is available by download from their site. It was still brand new when mine was installed so we didn’t try it then but I may look at this option shortly.

We got a fantastic service (and deal) from I-Sub digital on our Mimaki after a recommendation from John on the signboard and I would hesitate in passing on the recommendation, but they seem to concentrate on the Metamark range of vinyls which are a little unknown to me.

There are quite a few vinyl companies that sell the CJV30 (Hexis, Robert Horne etc) so I dont see why they cant provide the correct profiles for their vinyls.

Its a fantastic printer that has huge capabilities so means a lot to take in after the "simple" Valuejet we were used to but we are now getting there. We equipped ours with the white ink which meant an additional learning curve too but I know most people don’t go down this route.

Good luck and have fun!

[Colin Crow]

HI Ian

We installed our CJV 130 3 weeks ago and have been playing with medias and profiles as you intend.

If you are planning on using the rasterlink bundled software you will find profiles included for Avery MPI200, Oracal 3164 and others (but not mactac).

Who are you buying your Mimaki from as they should be able to help with profiles if they also sell the vinyl.

Having said all this, the generic gloss vinyl profile included seems to print on pretty much anything (vinyl, banner, synthetics etc) without any adjustment.

Regards

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Paul

Just sent you a PM re this font.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

First I would say I don’t have one of these but surely the clue is in the reflective setting. If the head doesn’t have to read the roller positions in this mode (although I would think its reading the vinyl edge if the reflective is the problem) then it does sound sensor related. I am guessing either a dirty or faulty sensor, possibly resulting in an overrun of the head?

Have you tried cutting normal vinyl in the reflective mode after changing the settings accordingly?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Can the Carl/Karl that contacted me by telephone regarding this please call again to confirm, as I do need to move this urgently – Thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Yes – I have had a couple of enquiries but they were too far away.

We are based in Croydon, Surrey if interested in seeing it working?

I will need to move it shortly and was thinking about advertising locally but if you are interested I will hold fire.

Regards

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Brilliant

Many thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Spandex supplied mine some while ago but I think its a stock item. They refer to at Polyester label stock ref P23WH

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Very similar and both good machines (we use both Summa and Graphtec albeit higher end models) with little to choose between them.

If you are thinking of the D120 then build quality will be very similar but this will sound more rattly and less substantial than the graphtec.

A few points that would favour the Graphtec for us are:

Our FC7000 is significantly quieter than our Summa S class which in our small office environment makes a big difference to telephone conversations etc.

Graphtec support is UK based and very helpful

Optical eye is superior at recognising red based marks (only really useful if running a gerber edge)

Hope this helps a difficult decision!

Regards

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks George, that should be fine!. Didn’t think to look on BotW.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I can’t post files in this forum so if you PM an email address I will send what I have?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thought you said it wasn’t a big job 🙂

[Colin Crow]

From memory the the full official spectratone catalogue was around £300 from Spandex when I bought my Edge. The only problem being that to make every colour in the book meant you had to have a huge array of foils and you could guarantee the colour you really needed would require a new weird and wonderful foil (kumquat, beige and aqua seemed to feature a lot!)

Signlab also has a feature for producing you own simple 100% on 100% swatch for all available colours but its very time consuming in swapping the foils and uses quite a lot foil in the process. Its also out of date the minute you buy a new colour foil but its a start. I think the spectratone catalogue has every available option of foil but also at differing percentages for each colour which makes quite a difference. Again signlab can produce a two colour swatch from any two colours on the palette with 5% variations and this was the easiest way of matching a specific colour. I have loads of these squares hanging up waiting for future reference!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Neil

You will have two options for matching a customers logo;

1 – use CMYK foils to replicate the colours albeit with a dot pitch much greater than that of a current inkjet printer or

2- convert the colours in the customers file to spot colours and attempt to match with available foil colours or duotones using 2 or more foils overlaid.

The method will depend on the suitability of the logo for conversion into spot

Both have been used successfully and its also worth remembering that even colour matching a customers logo on an inkjet can be troublesome with differing medias and profiles.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

No, tints are easy including graduations if you have the software (we use signlab) but due to the limited dpi the dots are noticeable. However, we produce several products that use this process and if you want to see examples just pm me and I will point you to our website where you can see images.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Third party refills make edge slightly cheaper to run, many more spot colours and specialist coatings available for edge, initial outlay is less (usually), but crucially for us, the Summa suffers from banding at 100mm intervals due to the lapping of the foil. This is a built in feature to prevent the possibility of white stripes appearing if each run isn’t perfectly aligned. Its more noticeable on some colours than others but for our solid colour work it was unacceptable. I also suspect that it will cause problem with the mirror foils as it not possible to print on top of the mirror so lapping would be a problem?

I know the DCs have their own advantages, (width, print & cut etc) but the edge is a little more flexible and attainable.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Like Dave, we find our edge indespensible even though we also have valuejet. When we started digital printing with our edge we used it for everything including large digital cmyk prints which are just joined as panels. For spot colours even the best inkjets struggle to get the same solid colours and the whites, chromes and specialist medias make selling the higher cost output relatively easy as it has a high value look/feel.

Other than this, its worth remembering that when starting in digital its likely it will take a while to build up enough work to keep your printer working every day. This is no problem for the edge as there are no inks to dry up and no cleaning cycles to worry about. Its probably the easiest way to get into digital and very few people part with them even when they buy bigger printers.

Additional colours can be created by combining two spot foils as most are translucent which save costs and problems of CMYK. Its also possible to create other effects over metallics and even apply matt coatings.

Downside can be complicated files with multiple spot colours, overlaid in the correct order and with bleeds to allow for slight misregistration.

Best results for us are with Europoint Oracal 651 and 751 vinyls with either gerber carts from spandex or print one, signfoil (best white) or Duracoat (Hexis) refills.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

The envision uses a similar blade holder to the Mutoh SC series and they are fully interchangeable ( i used to have both). You may find one of these cheaper?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks George, I think we will go with that in the absence of an "official" guide. Its only for some china mugs so don’t think we will get a great match anyway!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

You could possibly get someone to do the prints for you using Magic Touch TTC which transfers onto cotton no problem? cant imagine its a very big print for a bib so say 9 up on an A3? cost should be around 30-40p per piece. We don’t really get involved in the T shirt market so don’t carry a lot of stock of TTC but someone on here maybe able to help out?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

dc3 & dc4s by summa do a good job and work on wider material in a similar way to rolands but do definately band at approx 100 mm intervals. The print overlaps slightly to avoid possibility of White stripes so lays down a double thickness of foil. Cost is said to be similar to edge although less opportunities to buy non oem foils means prices locked in by summa. Looked closely at these some time ago and for solid colours they take some beating but don’t have the res for full colour work.

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Gavin

Thats one we currently use on our valuejet so could be interesting to try if I get around to a demo on the Mimaki

Colin

[Colin Crow]

A gerber edge will only print colour where its required but just one dot across its 300mm print width will use the same as full coverage. Its very hard to calculate the cost over a large area unless you can see the design.

2 colours x 2 square M will cost around £14 for full coverage using normal spot carts or double that for the exotic metalics and chromes.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

What vinyl are you using Gavin as some have said it makes a big difference to the curling problem?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Well done Warren – brilliant job!

So you made a profit and saved spending a bundle at Sign UK, so win-win then 😉

All the best

Colin

[Colin Crow]

We would usually use a polymeric for most work on the decal side although occasionally use monomeric and cast when the need arises. If a better vinyl will solve the problem then this may be the answer although I will have to make sure we know what is being used for the demos as I have had this before when you find out later that they were using the very best vinyl available!

It would really be a big benefit to us to have the ability to print a white primer onto clear vinyl as we do on our gerber edge which with 6 spot colours makes for a long winded process currently. Not sure of the white ink will make the process more likely to curl on not.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Jason, I agree that separate print & cut is quicker when you know what you doing. My idea is to automate this for routine legacy jobs which means that two people other than myself will have to be familiar with the process, which as I have said, can be a bit hit and miss at times. Speed is not a big issue for us as the printer sits idle for 90% of the week due to the nature of our work.

Thanks everyone for your help on this but I guess I need to get a demo and some proper samples done of the actual printed products.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Try this

Colin

---

Attachments:

Mormaii.pdf

[Colin Crow]

We currently do separate print and cut onto a summa s class but I want to get away from transporting the media across. Registration can be a hit and miss affair and it just feels like double handling, not to mention the waste vinyl back and front on the small jobs.

However, the curling issue will make it all irrelevant if it is a problem.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Dave

A large proportion of our print and cut is through the bleed to produce edge to edge printed decals. We currently get a small amount of shrinkage which is acceptable but if they start curling off the sheet and exposing the adhesive then we may need to think again.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Andrew

With the various attributes and competitive pricing I am a little surprised to not have heard of more of these in use.

As far as current prices go, there wasn’t much on offer at sign uk, just RRP with bundles of media from the various sellers but there were lots of people selling it so there is plenty of competition. I guess discount will depend a lot on what the margins are?

I can feel a proper demo coming on!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Andrew

Are you still happy with your CJV30-130?

I was looking closely at one at SignUK yesterday and couldn’t see any downsides. Are you running the white ink+6colours or the 4 colour setup?

Think this may be a suitable replacement for my VJ1204 as it seems to have the quality of the mutoh with the benefits of the versajet + the option of white print.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I used Flexisign 14 years ago that had all of these features, including a whole variety of leading options including saving back individual leading values for pairs in a font, but to be honest I think I probably assumed these features were common across this type of program. Sign Lab now has most of these features too, though if I am really honest I don’t dig into them too much as the fonts supplied with SL sort most of the problems. I guess it helps to explain why you will pay 10x more for a "proper" sign package?

I use Corel more for print work which tends to be less text size sensitive than cut vinyl text where letter height and gaps are critical to the final layout. However, when SL is busy it makes a half decent effort with Graphtecs Cut Master plugin and for free!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Alan, I knew you would know the "proper" answer.

Thanks for the response and nice to know I’ve been converting correctly.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Yep, thats what I have done in the past when I had the default text size set to points, But I like the idea of using it as a weeding box!

Another work around I have found is just to Size a capital L to the size of the text required and check the equivalent of size in the text height box, then use this amended size for the work.

Bit cranky but it works.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks for all the help on this. I have the current font and thought it was different but couldn’t find a name.

Martin I have PM’d you.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Just to update, I am now running latest 1.6 version with Corel X4 without any evident problems. The new version seems much faster than the 1.2 and has automatically imported my old settings (please note Cadlink and Corel!) and ironed out some bugs with spacing etc.

AVG had to be disabled to allow installation and I am currently carrying out a system check just to be on the safe side, but so far so good.

Thanks goes to Graphtec GB & US who both repsponded quickly to my queries on this.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I have just spoken again to Graphtec Uk and they have confirmed what Jayne said so I think I am going to chance it. If all goes wrong I will let you know – assuming my computer is working 😕

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Jayne,

Are you running the new version without any problems?

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Allan,

Done that now – didn’t even realise it was an option. Funny how long you can use a program and miss something as fundamental as this.

Cheers

Colin

[Colin Crow]

The epson premium is as good as it gets for everyday use but for something similar at much less cost I use PhotoGlossy which did well in comparative tests. See http://www.photoglossy.com/prodpage.asp … &sub=PAPPG

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I can’t find the "treat as filled" option. I assumed it would be in General or Edit menus. Is this for objects that have no fill so that they can be selected by clicking within the area?

Thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks Allan

Have been pulling whats left of my hair out on this one!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

You could try Halco Products who have a very large range of hook and loop as well as D/S tapes

0845 2417526

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I have used these people before and can recommend them.

Mitreprize Limited
Mitre House
96-98 Braemar Avenue
South Croydon, Surrey
CR2 0QB

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8668 4999
DDI: +44 (0) 02 8655 8320
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8668 1487
http://www.mitreprize.com

Speak to Sam if possible

Colin

[Colin Crow]

John, a lot of what we do are repeats of large quantities of very small text. We cannot run at full speed but instead have to work out an optimium speed versus quality by trial and error, trying to maintain a certain quality at the best speed the cutter will allow.

For the smallest text we are running at around 30% full speed and because of the repeat work it is easy to tell which is quickest. For example, 16 sets of one file would take the summa S class 30 mins, the Graphtec around 25 mins but the D60 nearly 2 hours!

I would also say that the graphtec seems to be looking after its blades better too with fewer changes needed.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

I have an s class and a fc7000. For speed the graphtec just edges it but the main difference everyone here notices is the noise. While the summa is not particularly noisy, the graphtec is near silent by comparison. If you have to use the cutter in an environment where you need to talk or use the phone then the my recommendation would be the Graphtec.

I also had a D60 but this doesn’t approach either of the above for speed or ease of use. Not sure how the Pharos compares as not had one of these.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Jag sell them – http://www.jagtradesupplies.co.uk

[Colin Crow]

I have experienced same problem in past with X3 but only on my laptop. I think this may be related to the onboard feeble graphics adapter.

Although the page goes blank everything is still there – you just can’t see it. You can copy it to a new document or close the document and re-open to see again. However, it will happen again if you use the scroll zoom.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

If you think yours was a stupid question make yourself feel better and read this one

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index … 508AAKhUd3

Colin

[Colin Crow]

No sarcasm intended – had several messages and sold to a member – just wanted to save anyone else being disappointed.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Thanks for all the interest!

[Colin Crow]

no, all d60s are 60cm wide – sorry

[Colin Crow]

Humidity can cause havoc with electrostatic printers which rely on a charge across the paper. If your paper gets even slightly damp the charge is dissipated and results in a low grade (grainy) image particularly where colour is built up with more than one colour (ie blue & red). To check if this is the problem try a sheet from a sealed pack of of new paper. If the humidity is getting to your stock you may have dry out the paper somewhere warm and then keep the papers in grip seal bags. This is the reason that Magic Touch always recommend the paper is kept sealed in a bag after opening. Its also the reason that using a warm air heater may give an improvement. 15 years of experience with colour copiers and now printers has taught me to always suspect the media first before doing any work on the machine.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Just wanted to bump this as it was posted late at night and may have been missed.

Summa Cutter in excellent condition (perfect as backup) – Looking for around £650 exc delivery

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Martin

Not sure if you have sorted your cutter, but if not we have a lightly used Summa D60 for sale complete with stand, basket etc.

These cutters are well supported and come with a manufacturers 3 year guarantee so the quality speaks for itself.

Reply if you are still interested and I will PM you with my telephone/email

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Have you tried the the equivalent IP profile for monomeric (IP2509/IP2511)?

Its one of the things I like about the Mistral/Valujet combination, it’s so forgiving with profiles.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Yep for over a year now – Love it!

Colin

[Colin Crow]

This seems to work fine and doesn’t have any of the problems I mentioned so well done.

I know if it was me though I would still be using the prototype 2 years down the line 🙂

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Have you got a semi working version of this additional roller system as if not then they may be a couple of fundemental flaws.

1 Since the roller will be resting on the print side of the vinyl directly after printing I can see potential issues with marking of the face. Its one of the reasons that all take up systems allow a large sag of material before rolling up.

2 The natural curve of the vinyl will be in the opposite direction to the slack roller so a lightweight roller may not overcome the tension in the material when near the top.

3 If the roller does make it to the bottom, by counter rolling the vinyl it will billow out at the top where entering and exiting the additional drop and if they touch it will be ink to ink and is likely to stick together.

Don’t want to pour cold water on your idea but didn’t know if these concerns might affect your design.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

TTC will work but the colours will just be dull and obviously any white will be grey. The effect is much more subtle. All the dark parts will be fine though.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Excellent – is the verdict by the users. Simple to use and no effort for the operator.

On the plus side:

1. The accurate consistent timing and pressure means that the trickier processes are easily exchanged between operators.

2. Each process can have two separate timings which alternate automatically.

3. The 9 customisable programs are a huge boon when switching between short fabric settings and longer hard substrates.

4. Heat up is much faster and quicker recovery times than previous Atkins type manual press.

5. Auto up at end of time means you can get on with other work on longer press runs.

6. Simple to switch to tack mode and also cancel press.

Down side:

1. Noisy up/down operation

2. Very heavy for installation

Wish List:

1. A buzzer to advise when up to temperature (from cold)

2. Automatic on/off of compressor with heat press (simply achieved with a computer type master extension socket)

I would definitely recommend these to anyone who does a fair amount of pressing.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Nick

Sorry, last post didn’t seem to work first time so doubled up!

I thought when I had tried to use before when I had left the dongle in my laptop it complained and shut down. What version are you using? I have new vpm from SL version 8 so may try this first and if no joy work backwards through the various versions.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Nick

I think this would work perfectly but as I understand it the dongle has to be attached to the production manager PC and since mine is already in a different printer/cutter PC I would need to buy another license.

I know production manager can handle 3 devices at once but this PC is too remote to the larger cutter to make sense. I suppose by networking back to the PM enabled PC and then an extended USB cable back to the cutter may work but I would need to check this out with Cadlink to see if this is allowed under the single license?

Thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Nick

I think this would work perfectly but as I understand it the dongle has to be attached to the production manager PC and since mine is already in a different printer/cutter PC I would need to buy another license.

I know production manager can handle 3 devices at once but this PC is too remote to the larger cutter to make sense. I suppose by networking back to the PM enabled PC and then an extended USB cable back to the cutter may work but I would need to check this out with Cadlink to see if this is allowed under the single license?

Thanks

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Have you tried a conventional matt acrylic sealer? These are usually supplied for sealing decorative wall effects (marbling, graining etc) are are available from decorators merchants and B&Q if its a decent one.

I have used these over emulsion paints to give a more durable surface in areas of high wear, but they maintain most of the matt finish unlike other emulsion based products.

Colin

[Colin Crow]

Well they look great from here!

[Colin Crow]

What did you use for the media in the end Warren?

Colin