[David Wilde]

Me too, I find myself zooming in incase a little bit of the ‘sidewalk’ has edged in to the next square!

[David Wilde]

Thanks Rob,

On the example Captcha you supplied, are we to include stairs that exist within the buildings or just those we can actually see?

[David Wilde]

🤣 was a good course! Best bit was the tray of sandwiches they ordered in for lunch, there was only 3 of us, had a tray each!

I’m literally looking for a course to show the real basics to be honest. I’m showing him myself but it’s a bit like teaching someone to drive, I have my quirks and because I’m confident and experienced with vinyl probably skip a few steps here and there or use different methods without even thinking and im pretty sure thats confusing him tbh.

He probably need to learn how to drive properly before I teach him how to 80mph on the motorway whilst eating a McDonalds…

Will check out antalis though, they might have something.

[David Wilde]

Thanks Rob, that’s a really good idea!

We got rid of the last of our screenprint apparatus last year but still have a fair few half empty tins of Apolo Inks knocking around. I’m going to take your advice, thin them down and pour them in our Roland! Should save a pretty penny….

[David Wilde]

Thanks Rob, as always very helpful advice 👍

[David Wilde]

Thanks David I will take a look at what they have to offer.

[David Wilde]

Thank you Paul, that’s a great help.

[David Wilde]

Bit late to this thread by the look of it, however we often don’t weed the graphic and only tape over the plot sections. This helps preserve the integrity of the sheet whilst we squeegee out application fluid (the tape can become soggy quickly). Allow to dry a little (not too long). Spray the applications tape to loosen it and remove it slowly. Finally weed the graphic on the glass.

Doesn’t work for all graphics but we find we have fewer issues removing the app tape and laying the vinyl perfectly flat this way.

[David Wilde]

Hi Charlotte,

This seems to be a registration issue. Presuming you are using Rasterlink do the following:

– Immediately after creating the special plate (white) select the tab below the special plate tab

– Here you will find options for thinning and thickening.

– You need thinning. Thin the plate by a few pixels. This cuts the white inside the colour plates

– Once complete you can carry on with the layering process

You may need to play about with the number of pixels you thin but from experience you need only have this set to a few pixels.

It also works if you wanted to thicken the plate (ie you wanted to add a white border

Hope this helps.

[David Wilde]

Hi Simon, I’ve had latex printers for about 10 years now and lost count of the number of hours I’ve spent manually holding 550gsm banners to prevent this.

The closest we got to ‘success’ was to reduce the heat on the curing module which prevented the sticking and then give the banner a waft with the heat gun to cure. Not ideal obviously.
I believe there are Banner materials with a release paper available for this purpose but haven’t looked into it. We use other machines for banners now.

[David Wilde]

Hi Neil,

I’d be interested in the rotary cutter and alu tressle/staging, where are you based?

[David Wilde]

We were able to print direct to some using our UV printer. The vinyl was supplied by the customer though so can’t be sure that all holographic vinyl would be the same and don’t know the brand ofthe vinyl we used.

[David Wilde]

I tried getting some of these a while back and was told I had to buy the whole spindle.

Please let me know if you have any luck, nearly all of mine are snapped now.

[David Wilde]

Hi Paul is this a new issue? Have you previously printed to this media before without issue?

[David Wilde]

Hi Martyn,

We supply graphics and labels to 2 major train companies in the UK. Spec for these is absolutely specified and yes, it’s all 3m vinyl and laminates. 3M paid for the accreditation on these vinyls and therefore dictate the price. An example I can give is the photo luminescent vinyls we supply. Metamark and APS have a photo luminescent vinyl at £40pm. The accredited 3M version is £150pm. They will only take the 3M version despite the obvious cost implications. The reason I raise this is, they are fully aware of the vinyl/material costs, what they are buying is the print/installation process. If this is where you can meet their expectations, you should absolutely take this opportunity, if you intend on outsourcing then the margin probably won’t work for you.

Also, we reluctantly work on 90 days payment with the companies we deal with, they are prompt on that and rarely question our quotes/costs but a larger project might be an issue if you have an initial outlay.

We quoted for wrapping some trains recently, they took the print from us (small margin for us) and took on full time wrappers for the installation rather than pay what we wanted as it was more cost effective for them.

I suppose my point is that unless you feel you are strong in this area I would tread carefully.

Hope this helps.

[David Wilde]

To echo the above, in my opinion this is madness, we sell signs. He should pay for a new sign.

Ikea sell furniture, they don’t come round and clean your old units up instead.

Personally, I wouldn’t be entertaining the idea.

Sorry if this sounds blunt.

[David Wilde]

For what it’s worth, I stopped doing them in house ages ago. I quote £70 + Vat for ‘Budget’ stands and buy them in online for £27 delivered to the customer direct. I always used to offer prices for quality stands and laminated print, nobody ever seemed interested, always looking for the cheapest option they’re a race to the bottom I’m afraid and most decent brands/companies/venues try and distance themselves from them these days in my experience.

Had more luck offering fabric stands and fabric pop ups recently, bought in of course, but this has been of more interest to companies who aren’t just after the cheapest possible option and want a reusable product.

[David Wilde]

We use the image perfect vinyl. Prints well and is as clear as any others we have come across. Had no issues as yet.

[David Wilde]

Never heard of this before? Be interested to see how many on here have use this method.

We’ve never really had an issue with vibrancy though, we use Opal Perspex and Translucent back-lit vinyl printed on the correct profile for the vinyl (which usually is the highest quality/longest print time).

Have to say I’d be concerned about doing a double layer though.

[David Wilde]

To be honest, I doubt that’s the case mate.

Pantone 7603 is a medium/dark brown and heavy in ink saturation….

[David Wilde]

When we bought our Roland, the engineer raised his eyebrows considerably when I mentioned the 6 hour gassing off period. We have found 24-48 hours is usually needed and that’s for flat sign panels.

The issue with the cutting does seem to be a gassing off issue from how you describe it though.

If it helps we have some old milk crates in the corner of the vinyl room which we loosely stand the rolls on to gas off. Definitely improved the times compared to just standing the rolls on their side.

[David Wilde]

I cant help with your current issues I’m afraid, but I can pont you in the right direction going forward.

1) never use high tack vinyl on a wall. Use a specialst wall covering. These are easy to position/reposition during install and adhere better after being left a few hours. We use a woven wall covering from Image Perfect but there are plenty out there. This also solves your ‘stretch’ issue, as these generally do not stretch even under significant pressure.

2) Never laminate a wall covering, it’s a recipe for disaster. Going 2 ply on a wall covering not only adds weight to the graphic but also expansion/contraction issues. Often, laminate and the vinyl are fighting against each other which can result in lifting/bubbling because the surface is porous unless a primer is used.

Hope this helps.

[David Wilde]

Ha! Wrong…

They wanted the banner for £22 (Inc VAT).

Said that’s what they’re used to paying.

Quite why anyone would sell a banner for that little is beyond me.

[David Wilde]

Update.

We now use UPS. Good pricing, daily collections and, to now, reliable service.
https://www.ups.com/gb/en/smallbusiness/home.page

[David Wilde]

We run 3 printers using different inks. Previously used 3rd party inks and had nothing but problems (the worst being a printhead replacement- although that was some time ago so no doubt things have improved since).

These days I will only use the manufacturers inks. Ink isn’t expensive providing you are costing your jobs correctly. In my opinion, ink is a product which we sell, not a running cost. I personally wouldn’t take the risk with 3rd party ink but I know others on here are doing fine with them.

[David Wilde]

Thanks for the replies.

The couriers may be over stretched but it was moronic accounting on TNTs part which has caused the main issue.

Parcelforce is looking like my best non-TNT option at the moment.

I’d personally rather crawl down the motorway naked with the signs strapped to my back than hand them over to Hermes, had nothing but problems in the past.

We send a fair bit out and the prices I’m being quoted are 3 times what we are paying now. Looks like I will just have to pass the costs on.

Thanks again

[David Wilde]

Thanks for the responses.

George I have sent you a DM

[David Wilde]

I supplied a full printed wrap only this week.

Before it left, I demanded to speak with the fitter direct, explained the material I had used, the gassing off time I’d allowed and that the artwork had been supplied to me print ready.

Customer thought I was going over the top but I explained that I wasn’t going to take any crap from the fitter, blaming the material/print if it all went wrong, as I’m almost certain it will.

[David Wilde]

Biggest issue I have with strict mark ups is this:

If you buy a sign tray at £100, and sell it for £150. The value of a sign tray becomes £150.

When Pete down the road starts knocking out sign trays for £80, you only end up selling it for £120.

For no reason whatsoever, the customer has made a significant saving on his sign, yet you and Pete made less. Rather than just saying a sign tray is £150 and you making the 20 quid saving.

Plus, while this is all going on, the rest of the industry is becoming inundated with requests for 120 sign trays. So this becomes ‘standard’.

It’s a bit like the roller banner situation. They used to sell for £100+, now everyone wants them for £35.

[David Wilde]

50% Mark up on all materials, minimum. However I’m personally not a fan of marking up according to percentages.

Any less than 50% though and I believe you are doing the customer a favour. They don’t have the time, inclination or the contacts to source the materials themselves so why sell yourself short.

Sometimes we undersell ourselves in this industry.

Just this week I had an enquiry for a plain sheet of foamex. I roughly doubled the price we pay (told him £40 . He also asked for a 1m vinyl logo cost, which I gave him (£30ish – was fairly simple).

He then added the 2 prices together and offered us an extra £20 if we put the logo on the board for him.

He wanted to pay £90 for an 8×4 foamex and a 1m vinyl logo. His math was reasonable. £20 to stick a logo on a piece of PVC isn’t unreasonable.

I told him it was £160 because he was buying an 8×4 sign.

He tried to negotiate, one of us hung up.

You don’t walk in to a cake shop and ask for 500g self raising flour, 4 eggs, 250g of butter, some sugar, icing and a cherry, then offer them a tenner to throw it all together do you?

You pay for the cake.

IMO, the cost of a sign is significantly greater than the materials plus labour. If we continue to just use mark ups on materials and throw a bit on for labour then it’s a race to the bottom.

Pick the price you think is fair and acceptable to you is my advice.

[David Wilde]

Gotham Bold I think

[David Wilde]

Hi Jamie, do you still have this?

[David Wilde]

I have to say though, if he is telling you how much he wants to pay, he doesn’t seem like the kind of customer you are ever going to be ‘winning’ with. Every future order will be subject to further negotiation and like Dave mentioned, you could be doing other ‘full paid’ work instead.

[David Wilde]

Like others have said, if he’s after a cost which you are unhappy dropping to, I would either walk away or see if you can get them online.

That said, I’m not against discounting for volume on this kind of thing. Not huge discounts but trying to get somebody to take the remainder of the sheet and charging multiples of each sheet going forward.

Ie, 1 sign is usually £25, i might get 6 signs from a sheet. So I may charge £120 for 6, £240 for 12 etc.

There is still a bit of ‘set up’ involved for digitally printed signs. Artwork / Ripping, Printer set up, Lamination, trimming etc. Although the margins are small I have found it better to spend an hour selling 6 signs than 45 mins selling 1.

[David Wilde]

I’ve heard/read about this phenomenon previously. However I’ve never had it happen to me or know of anyone it has happened to.

I think the theory is based around black conducting heat during the day and then causing cracks as the temperature drops suddenly in the evening. Something like that anyway.

It doesn’t enter my thinking when planning window graphics to be honest.

[David Wilde]

If this PDF is made up from 4 artboards/pages.

You could SPLIT the file in Acrobat. I think the option is under ORGANISE PAGES. In this instance, it would create a single file for each artboard/page whilst leaving the original unchanged.

I use this feature fairly regularly.

Hope this helps.

[David Wilde]

I dont have this model printer, however I’m fairly sure adding white is not just a case of getting a white cartridge, I think the whole ink system need flushing and there maybe some issues on the printhead. I have a Roland printer we considered converting for white ink and I was quoted nearly £1000 for the conversion.

Like I say, I don’t have a mimaki, so they may be different but I’d be surprised if you could just swap the colours to suit.

[David Wilde]

If its screwed in to a wall at no great height we would use 5 top, 5 bottom and 2 centre (sides). If you have used the correct drill bits, plugs and screws this should be fine. Anything at height we would use anchor bolts on though.

You can over do it though. I sent a Foamex A3 sign to a golf club near us for use on an internal door. A few months later I was on site and noticed they had used 8 screws to put it up. I presume they were worried someone was going to nick it…

[David Wilde]

Thanks to everyone for assisting me with this. Shane sorted out a new set of prints and got them shipped to Perth in the end!

Top man who, worryingly, doesn’t seem to sleep…

[David Wilde]

My pricing is much the same as Hughs, we also use 4mm as standard.

I did get sent a link for printed correx boards by a potential customer asking ‘how much can you do these for’.

Clicked the link, the website was selling A2 correx boards for £2.20 each.

Told him it wasn’t even worth me quoting.

[David Wilde]

Not an expert but, it sounds like you are ripping over the network. We copy all files to the local machine (with the rip installed) and then print from there. Also this machine is used solely for printing to avoid conflicts.

This way the network is only really performing one job. Also, does your Rip print as it rips or rip then print. Ripping before print reduces the strain on the network too.

Like I say, not an expert but it sounds like you may be asking a bit much of your set up

[David Wilde]

Sorted Now!

For anyone who may have the same issue:

As Richard points out copying the cutplot2378 folder from illustrator 2020 to the illustrator 2021 plugin folder is the key.

However Creative Cloud appears to delete this folder when it upgrades so you have to roll back to 2020

Workaround:
1, Uninstall “All” Adobe Illustrator Versions and Cutting Master 4.
2, Re-install Adobe Illustrator 2020.
3, Re-install Cutting Master 4.
4, Copy the cutplot2378 folder to the desktop.
5, Uninstall Cutting Master 4 and Adobe Illustrator 2020.
6, Reinstall Adobe Illustrator 2021.
7, Reinstall Cutting Master 4.
8, Copy cutplot2378 to Adobe Illustrator 2021 plug-in folder.

This worked for me!

[David Wilde]

We have bought loads of these over the years from various sources. Its fair to say you get what you pay for (which is also the case with pavement signs and such).

My advice is to buy from an established business such as UKPOS and resist the temptation to buy lower cost offerings from the likes of Amazon and Ebay.

Also, on amazon and ebay, buying the more expensive listing doesn’t guarantee quality either.

[David Wilde]

Hi Gary,

Surely its cheaper, quicker and easier to print than apply cut out vinyl?

We only use plot vinyl on banners for colours we cant print these days.

[David Wilde]

Thanks Rob, they look great. Will have to have a think when the floor is finally finished.

[David Wilde]

Its a smooth polished and soon to be painted floor. The warehouse is fairly new. Thanks Rob

[David Wilde]

Sadly thats not an option, the graphics need to be printed as it contains images.

I realise there is probably not a perfect solution to this but just need the best possible option.

[David Wilde]

For the record, I’ve no problem achieving the colours they want, just not form the artwork they supplied. I ended up resetting one file myself just to save the arguments.

[David Wilde]

Ha, yeah amazing how some customers are picky until the point it might cost them.

To be fair I have done something similar with some colour charts Hugh sent me a while back, this weeks problem customers are over email though. I’ve talked them through the reason why their RGB jpeg doesn’t print the same as their back-lit monitor shows it, but its still my fault…

They’ve ‘never had this problem with their other printers’ apparently. Which can only mean 1 thing.

Yep, one of you lot has got a magic printer on the go…

[David Wilde]

I’m torn,

On the one hand, she’s clearly been given the world’s worst car wrap.

One the other, she wanted her car turning bright pink.

Its hard to pick a side…

[David Wilde]

Sounds plausible Rob. I have to say I’ve never had any issues with personalised balls fading or the logo chipping in the past so there must be a way around this.

[David Wilde]

I should point out that its the ‘dipping’ bit I think is the problem, not an extra layer of overprint.

[David Wilde]

I’m a golfer, i’m almost certain that ‘dipping’ a golf ball in any sort of lacquer or resin is entirely detrimental to the ball quality and also, I think, against the rules.

Printed logos usually with stand a decent knock and in my experience the logo usually lasts longer than I can manage to keep the ball itself.

[David Wilde]

Absolutely. These kind of audience numbers are useful for advertising a new product or previously unseen service in order to get the message out there, but for a service like ours they are basically irrelevant

[David Wilde]

To be fair to them, they had 40k plus followers. Which isn’t bad for a small independent. However the chance of even 1 percent of those followers seeing, liking and ordering similar for their company is next to zero in my opinion.

I did a canvas print for a ‘pop star’ and his ‘popstar’ girlfriend once. Both of them promoted my work online to over a million followers. Not sure Ive done any canvases since…

[David Wilde]

+1 for sign elite. Yet to need a claim but they understood our needs perfectly.

Also had big problems with Allianz. Over 5 years premiums paid and it turns out we were covered for next to nothing. They left no straw unclutched in trying to avoid paying out even when they were bang to rights. The week after they did pay out, they sent an assessor to our building demanding we made over 20k worth of ridiculous and unnecessary ‘improvements’. Policy also ran out that week. We didn’t renew.

[David Wilde]

We had a huge bounce back from lockdown, not enough hours in the day,all staff returned from furlough, barely any covid stuff but a lot of the work we did was backdated to pre lockdown or already due in this time of year.

Quieter now, using the flexible furlough where possible in the hope that things improve before October.

[David Wilde]

Thanks Kevin,

I’ll get in touch, just googled them, is the company based in Basildon?

[David Wilde]

We got the VG2 recently. I believe the only real difference between the two is the ink set up as the VG2 has orange.

I stand to be corrected on that though.

If this is the case however, it might be of interest to know that the VG2 is the cleanest solvent printer I have come across, we clean it weekly still but are going through the motions. Print quality is excellent and the colours remarkable. I would request a print from both machines though to compare though as the afore mentioned ink set up might affect this. The gassing off time is said to be shorter if using Avery vinyls, Roland claim as little as 6 hours. We are yet to test this though.

We also run a Latex machine mainly for efficiency, instant curing allowing immediate laminating/mounting.

Hope this helps.

[David Wilde]

Thanks Kevin

[David Wilde]

Thanks Kevin.

Can I ask which model you have?

[David Wilde]

Can ask what the appeal of the Festool is over other brands? I have no real knowledge of these. Is the festool simply better quality or is it set up differently with ACM in mind?

[David Wilde]

Agree with Myles. Best to make the join look deliberate than pretend it’s not there.

[David Wilde]

To be fair, the cost of the print heads, should be cleared up here.

Solvent printers have a fixed print head which, unless damaged through serious accident or misuse, might need changing once in the realistic life time of the printer, where as latex print heads are consumable items.

We have run both solvent and latex for many years. For every new solvent head we have replaced we have spent the same, if not more, on latex ‘consumable’ print heads.

Overall we have found the difference in running costs between the two fairly small, I personally would advise concentrating on what you want to use the printer for rather than the running costs. Look for the kind of output you want and request samples.

[David Wilde]

You’re right about the take up though Jamie. Strange that its considered an ‘extra’

[David Wilde]

quote Kevin Mahoney:

It’s the Roland Vf2 640, not been launched yet apparently, I’m being offered the first one off the blocks, that makes me nervous

I’ve got the VG2 640 with the orange ink. I believe the new offering has green ink too.

The VG2 is excellent. Quick gassing off. Very vibrant (the solid orange is nearly dayglo) and it’s the cleanest solvent machine I’ve come across. Weekly manual clean is basically pointless but I do it anyway.

I operate onyx for our latex and find it easy enough to operate but frustratingly slow when booting, cancelling jobs and tiling certain file types. That’s as much to do with the latex having to complete its curing cycle / media load routine though.

[David Wilde]

quote, Paul Hodges:quote Chris Wilson:If you are not estimating we use Trello as it was recommended on here. Increased our production of last 6 months with it. It’s free

Does Trello keep an account for each customer with a job history? Last time I looked it seemed more like just individual job cards that you could produce without all the job history just being in one place?No, Trello is just card-based. Very basic but serves a purpose. I used it mainly to keep things in order and used Xero accounting for job/invoice history.

https://www.trello.com

[David Wilde]

Went with Zigaflow in the end. https://www.zigaflow.com
Formally quick flow.

£60 per month per user.
All the features of Shopvox but fully customizable, you can literally remove any aspect from your system and strip it right down to the useful parts.
You can add your own checkboxes and drop-down menus or rename all the existing parts to suit.

E forms, delivery notes, proofing all included.

Workflow similar to Trello (drag and drop lists)

It’s not been set up for signs/manufacturing specifically but a couple of tweaks that they guide you through can achieve the results you need.
They are working on making it more specifically suitable for manufacturing at present.

Integrates with Xero and cloud-based.
If anyone tries the free trial, request a call/demo as the true value of the software needs a guiding hand (it is very simple to operate though).

zigaflow-project-work-job-management-software.jpg 202 KB Image File - Click to view

• Copy Download Link

[David Wilde]

quote Kevin Mahoney:

Selling mine, going to run with a festool track plunge saw. Mine is the bigger one in the range.

When are you planning on getting the track saw? Would love to hear how you find it.

[David Wilde]

quote David Wilde:Just sat through my 3rd ‘demo’. This time with printplanr.

I have to say this has been my favourite so far but it’s expensive at £150 per month.

I would follow down the clarity route as it would be ideal to have the support of others who use it on here but the route I go must be cloud based as I work from a number of machines.quote Ruel Maxwell:
I love print planr as well as pretty awesome software but it’s a bit expensive for me too. There’s VSign Software too they sent me a demo it’s pretty robust too but at $250 a moth that’s out my budget. I decided to go with Sign Tracker it’s not the most polished of the bunch but I had a good chat with the owner and they’re working on a version 2 that will be loads better so I’m using that for now and I’m liking it so farSign tracker looks great value but doesn’t integrate with Xero which is a shame. Apparently they are working on it though.

[David Wilde]

That didn’t occur to me…

Could well work for me.

[David Wilde]

quote David Hammond:

What size do you need cutting?

Might have a local contact who could help you out.

I have a few half sheets and such which need cutting to various sizes (A3, A2 etc).

Hoping to use these up as they are just sat there doing nothing.

[David Wilde]

Just sat through my 3rd ‘demo’. This time with printplanr.

I have to say this has been may favourite so far but it’s expensive at £150 per month.

I would follow down the clarity route as it would be ideal to have the support of others who use it on here but the route I go must be cloud based as I work from a number of machines.

[David Wilde]

I personally had this issue a few years back with my own clothing. In the end I discovered that it was my roll on deodorant reacting with sweat that caused it. Changing the deodorant instally stopped the problem.

Not saying this is what’s happening here but is it possible some sort of detergent they use is reacting in the same way that my deodorant was?

[David Wilde]

Hugh Potter:We’re using Xero accounting software which is loaded with all products and prices (most anyway), easy to make quotes etc. from there..

For organising I use paper job sheets, however, we’re now transitioning to Trello, so far I’m liking it, simple and as long as I keep it on a spare screen, easy to track what I’m doing.I use Xero and love it. Also, use Trello, it’s great for workflow. https://www.trello.com

I’m looking for the next step up though, there doesn’t seem to be one, its giant leap or nothing from what I see.

If Xero allowed you to build quotes ‘privately’ I’d be delighted.

For example, I don’t want the final quote that the customer sees to show my ‘working out’.

For example, I can add ‘digitally print monomeric vinyl’ as a product and give it £xxx per sqm. In theory, when building a quote I just make the quantity ‘x’ and we have a price. I just don’t want my customer to be given the PSM price in black and white.

It’s frustrating.

Like David says I don’t think there is an off the shelf solution to fit our business

[David Wilde]

quote David Hammond:

Clarity is OK, does the job. Not cheap, and has its quirks.

Trouble is what ever system you use, your entire business needs to work around it.

Whether you use a white board, or a CRM. As soon as you deviate the wheels fall off.

No software works off the shelf for your business, you may need to change your business to fit your software… but the benefit out weighs that, but see above point, if it just doesn’t work, and you dont use it consistently, it’s all pointless.

That sums up my position at the moment.

The idea is that we have a system which allows others to jump in and take control when needed. For that we need a fairly clear and simple solution but capable of detailed quoting/crm as desired.

Like you say, it’s no good me committing alone, whichever system I choose needs to run the business and we work around it.

I shall keep looking for now.

[David Wilde]

quote David Hammond:What was the issue with shopvox?

We use clarity, and Shovox looks far superior and better value.Functionality wise it does everything but it does everything all at once. There doesnt seem to be an easy to follow flow to things.

Its mainly the interface itself I have an issue with to be honest, a bit confusing and hard for others to follow which was my main requirement. I wanted something I could programme with the finer details but the lads could look at and see which job was up to which stage and what to do next.

It reminds me a bit like when a web designer trys his hand at graphic design and sends you some ‘artwork’.

I’ve booked a demo for clarity but reading back on this thread I’m not sure that’s the answer either from you comments?

[David Wilde]

quote Ruel Maxwell:

So my thrust continues to find the right software I saw CASper On The cloud and PrintPlanr never heard of them before.

Just following up on this, how did you get on?

I had shopvox for 6 months and couldn’t stand it. Far too complicated and not used friendly IMO.

Looking for something new to try though…

[David Wilde]

Between, 1 minute and a month

Had a latex for 5 years and never been able to gauge it.

I’ve had the warning message pop up and then the replace message almost instantly.

Other times I have ordered a new cartridge the moment the warning appeared and it’s been sat on the shelf for weeks.

That’s my experience anyway. I’m sure somebody could give you a more detailed explanation

[David Wilde]

I’ve dealt with Grathams for 20 odd years, can definitely reccomend.

[David Wilde]

Sorry I have no full yellow cartridge and I dont keep a stock of the maintenance cart I’m afraid.

Sorry.

[David Wilde]

What colours do you need? I might have the odd cartridge spare and I’m going in first thing tomorrow.

[David Wilde]

quote Phill Fenton:

I always apply a small sticker on every vehicle we do. Only ever had one person precious enough to complain so took the sticker off to save them the bother. :rollseyes:

It’s a missed opportunity not to do it.

I don’t bother with fascia signs though

Do you discount? Or just stick it on anyway and wait for them to complain?

[David Wilde]

Interesting,

I was referring mainly to fascia signs though. I get it with vehicles because word of mouth is invaluable in that area, we get lots of referrals from people who have seen our vehicles.

Not sure about the benefit from signs though.

[David Wilde]

Good to hear!

I’ve no real use for one at the moment but like the idea of being able to mess around bending things!

I suspect it’s something you will find more uses for now you have it than would usually have been apparent.

[David Wilde]

quote Kevin Mahoney:

Got it from Rotobend on a whim, just trying to think of other uses for it

Looks great.

Can I ask which model you went for? Have looked at these in the past.

[David Wilde]

I have both HP Latex 310 and more recently Roland VG2 solvent.

The latex works a treat for anti scuff, instant laminate and ease of use.

The VG2 is far superior in the print quality and vibrancy of colour. Also has the added print and cut capability and slighlty wider range of substrates but requires gassing off time and therefore slows down turnaround.

It wont help you, but they are both great in my opinion.

I would take a look at the what you mainly output and try and let that guide you in this decision. Pick the printer to suit the orders.

[David Wilde]

I’ve had loads of enquiries.

Priced up a rough design then spotted similar styles available on ebay for less than the cost of my materials so didn’t persue it.

To be fair, ‘sneeze screens’ have been around for decades so there are people out their who can manufacture these for peanuts.

If you shop around you’ll find a reasonably priced solution.

If nobody on here is successfully producing them that is.

[David Wilde]

Thanks Gordon, this is the kind of thing I had in mind, have seen demos at SignUk before now and found them to be really helpful.

[David Wilde]

This didn’t work, avoid at all costs. Spent most of the week scrubbing the print heads clean whilst looking a little bit like Elton John….

[David Wilde]

Hi Rob, We use this method on dry applications also from time to time. Usually on a large sheets and where the majority of the vinyl would be removed. Like you say, it provides a consistent surface tension and makes things a little easier to position. 👍

[David Wilde]

Thank Rob, the file format doesnt seem to be supported however.

[David Wilde]

Off the top of my head I don’t thinks it’s 75% smaller however it does reduce the file size.

If still not small enough, you could open the split files in Photoshop as Jamie suggests.

[David Wilde]

I’m looking for a decent poster paper, never really settled on one. Will call on Monday to get some Trisolve

[David Wilde]

Thanks David!

Do you have a company name for Shane?

[David Wilde]

Nothing ground breaking.

That said, I personally would’ve been OK if they’d called it a day 10 years ago and didn’t bother upgrading it. It’s only the file compatibility issues that keep me current.

Some of the recent additions are ‘nice’ but fundamentally everything I need Illustrator for was achievable in Illustrator 8.

[David Wilde]

Thank Richard.
This still doesn’t seem to work through, the latest version of Cutting Master 4 doesn’t want to load a plug-in to Illustrator.
The following (taken from the Graphtec workaround) doesn’t actually appear:

The install takes about 3.5 minutes.
Towards the end of the
installation and INSTALL MANAGER window will appear asking for
a DESTINATION FOLDER

Will keep looking, thanks for your help though.

[David Wilde]

Thanks David, I will take your word for it’s durability… I get some costs and price on that.

[David Wilde]

Ha, no, not expecting miracles or anything but it should be able to withstand a little footfall and maybe the odd pump truck (no spinning obviously)…

[David Wilde]

I might try the old monitor calibration trick next…