[Graham.Scanlan]

coxy and george, im sorry you’ve had a your problems with europoint, and if you message me with your telephone number i will give you a call and we can discuss getting you set up,

i dont understand what the delay has been but i can look into it for you. meggage me asap.

regards graham

extremely limited colur range as well (i dont understand this comment)

[Graham.Scanlan]

maybe orafol should include 5 gold tickets in the rolls of vinyl and whoever wins the tickets get the tour

oh hang on thats been done before i think

hehehe

[Graham.Scanlan]

kappa will not expand like a sponge as the middle is made of polyurathene (excuse my spelling)

and this is perfectly ok for outside, and the edges can even be painted for extra protection.

its the liner you need to be thinking about i.e a plastic or paper (paper is not for outside of course)

[Graham.Scanlan]

hope this helps

its half way down the page for use in photoshop

http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseS … 2&pgsel1=2

[Graham.Scanlan]

Versacamm SP-300 (30”)

is not the best machine for wrapping its to narrow if you want my comment.

[Graham.Scanlan]

you name the supplier (the big players) and they have a wrap film for your machine, mactac,kpmf,oracal,avery even hexis

you guys have spent a lot of cash on your printer, did you do the research?

[Graham.Scanlan]

you guys are correct 751 just got upgraded to cast
however the uk there will still be a mixture of both film for a short while, and watch out in the near future for the launch of the 30 or so extra colours.

yes its nice to get a free upgrade, however remember your working with a cast film thats a little thinner so you may need to adjust your blade depth and above all make sure you use a nice sharp blade or you will get weeding problems…..

have fun…

[Graham.Scanlan]

you could try basing your selling price around 55.00 pound a square mtr and you wont be far wrong..

[Graham.Scanlan]

guys, guys,guys,

before you advise about head cleaning and soaking,
there are a question to ask.

are you using the correct profiles for the media?

the cadet comes with some profiles but not many,

i’ve noticed that if you save money on some machines you lack some support of the profile kind,

remember the cadet is a bastadised machine,

but i know it should run ok, and im sure it will given the correct settings

[Graham.Scanlan]

toffi tape is stocked at europoint display

and they call it coribind
it comes it 2 thickness’s

hope this helps

[Graham.Scanlan]

foamalux is not available in orange as far as i know,

amari foam may well be,

but like rob said buy white and cover in orange vinyl,

[Graham.Scanlan]

the cadet etc is a rebadged versacamm anyhow, i wonder why roland didnt put a more agressive ink from the start? my idea is this….

roland looked at the sign market and i think has come up with the nearest machine to low maintenance cost efectivness and as close to plug and play as possible.

no messy cartridges, no blocking of pipes, self cleaning, sealed heads when not in use etc pretty much trouble free i guess.

the only drawback i see with the converted machine is how the full solvent will effect the internal workings of the machine?

i’d be intrested in seeing the price of the service contracts for both machines for the second year of use…

maybe this would give us all a better idea which is the more reliable and i guess most cost effective machine in the long run.

[Graham.Scanlan]

we have fewer price increases than we do price reductions in the substrates market so my advice is to look at passing the increase on, and as for the saying little profit is better than no profit, i wonder how long your business would last based on that?

as for suppliers absorbing increases, im pretty crap at maths but lets say a supplier turning over 15 million pounds a year obsorbes a 5% prince increase how much does he loose anyone?

hehehe

have fun

[Graham.Scanlan]

orajet vinyl’s work to from europoint 🙂

3651 5 year monomeric
3751 7 polymeric

[Graham.Scanlan]

hi there shiver,

i think this subject gets flogged to death, but here goes

solvent inkjet, i.e converted rolands etc was the only way to buy an affordable solvent printer, this means buying a machine from a company that has converted the original machine so there is potential for problems and there have been a few,

over the last 12 months we have seen solvent printers that have come into the market already made for solvent inks, but this is only a short period of time in the scheme of things and the market in my view is just starting to settle down.

as for making a buying chioce, its depends on your own needs and pocket and space.

from the new encad to the mimaki jv3, for wide format, then you got small grand format machines over 1524mm wide.

do you want to invest in a laminating machine? or will you produce more banners than vinyl graphics?

so many things to consider i think and so many variables

[Graham.Scanlan]

Hi Innocent….

ok for what its worth may i comment here, if i was in your shoes i would ask the following, if i lost out to another company,

are you printing the prints yourself? if your competition is i bet the sqm2 of the print will be around £10 ish sqm2, is this your cost?

dibond, are you buying di bond or a cheaper version, and are you paying the best price? my guess that this being one of the higher priced materials that could lose you a job,

are you laminating your self?

and are you fitting yourself?

i guess if all the parts of the job are handled internally, you should question your buying prices, and hourly rates, if your happy with them, let the competition have the job at little profit, because you wont win,

if your out sourcing some of the above, maybe that was the problem

get a feel for your local competitors, try to know them like you know your customers, how low will they go, are the in the game to make money or just to stay busy,

do there margins drop when they are quite,

i sell into the sign market, and granted i gather lots of knowledge about my competition i believe the expression is having your finger on the pulse 🙂

i know its not as easy as that when you run your own business but maybe you can pick a little bit and use it,

regards and good luck

[Graham.Scanlan]

i guess the only solution is dont speed,

i cover over 30,000 miles a year and it took me a few years to understand what i was doing wrong,

but now i read the signs (haha) and keep to the limit and if im not sure i do 30mph,

cant afford to lose my job just yet!

also i have some customers who produce plates using black reflective digits for the flash camera,s not sure how they would appear a night if the law was behind you,

also take a look at this,

http://www.radarexpress.com/lrc100.html

i heard about this little gizmo and was impressed

[Graham.Scanlan]

also did you know if you get yourself a oracal vinyl colour card the colours have the ral number on them also

not sure about other manufacturers

this is a point not an advertisment

[Graham.Scanlan]

does your xp have service pack1 installed?

because since i installed service pack1 i have the same error on some programs.

strange,

[Graham.Scanlan]

dont forget your supplier of vinyl 😛

no vinyl no cutty

[Graham.Scanlan]

you can use either serial or parallel cables with your roland,

i would start by using a standard printer cable that uses LPT1 to test your software with.

if that fails do a self test on the plotter.

if that works look at buying software maybe something like vinyl master pro, as this is inexspensive to buy.

there are also demo discs knocking around, of the said program

so you can test it 1st.

[Graham.Scanlan]

yup mirc for me 🙂

i use it all the time if my pc is online (always) so is mirc
but you all neet to agree on what server you guys will use,

i and i think most gamers sit in on quakenet or something linked to that network,

[Graham.Scanlan]

i will check on monday if any are left,

🙂

and welcome to the boards

[Graham.Scanlan]

produce a foam pvc sign and chain a guard dog to the bottom of the post,

[Graham.Scanlan]

most foam pvc’s are class 1 fire rated now, and if you are thinking of going down the 10mm route then consider alucolor etc

it would be a far more stable sign material

i know that forex comes with a class 1 fire rating & 5 year warranty (white only)

and foamalux comes with class 1 fire rating

[Graham.Scanlan]

can i clear this matter up for you guys,

the paper company was born 12 months ago, from the sale of the paper division of Bunzl Plc, BUNZL FINE PAPER, (Europoint Display is or was a trading division of this company)

The buyer was a company called PAPER LINX an Australian company, with the sale came the need for a name change from Bunzl, so the Paper Company was born,

now the tricky bit,

Paper linx is also in the process of purchasing the Buhrmann Paper Merchanting Division, ie COX PLASTICS, ROBERT HORNE PAPER, A&P DISPLAY, M6 PAPER, HOWARD SMITH PAPER, PARAGON ,

dont think i’ve missed any.

hope this clears every thing up, and this is general nowledge on the paper linx web site so im not talking out of school. 🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

try using foam either gloss of matt and laminate with anti-graffiti film,
this is a polyester film and as long as you use water based dry wipe inks there will be no problem taking wiping the ink off,
by far a cheaper option and you can tailer the sizes to whatever you wish,

Anti graffiti film from all the usual places,

europoint,
cox plastics
hexis
spandex etc

also using just gloss foam, over a short period of time the ink causes ghosting or shadowing, (been there done that 🙁 )

[Graham.Scanlan]

Andrew,

did you also see in the beta testing of the signfoils + range CMYK how close the colours are to the OEM’s infact i think the flesh tones were even closer on signfoils,
Incredible output, and also the new cartridge is interesting, will be hard for the competitiion to keep up after the this year is over,and all the old stock will be gone, and all the + range will be shipped out. I also understand that the clear protective will be sold also as a UV inhibiter offering longer life than the guaranteed life of the foils.
[/left]

[Graham.Scanlan]

hi Dave

i’ve heard that the signfoils + range has improved durability and the white is more apaque, infact with a double pass on black vinyl against a double pass on the oem, comes out better than oem’s, have you witnessed this yet?

also do you encourage people to wash down prints with isopropanol?

cos last time i looked its not available through you local car wash.

does this mean if i put the ribbon in the oven to bake at 180c it also fails?

just a point!

[Graham.Scanlan]

Europoint Manchester keep the 3″ red ones in stock 🙂

ask you local branch,
am i correct in thinking they are the hard rubber rollers?

[Graham.Scanlan]

Hi Leeroy,

is the vmp rip and open rip, ie you can add profiles for other media and i think drivers for other machines, because this makes the rip a little future proof and ideal, however not many people i visit run with their cutting software rips, they invest in standalone rips, i think this is because they are faster working and also the flexiblity is greater when you want to alter the image output settings.

[Graham.Scanlan]

as a supplier of media for inkjet machine both water based and solvent based, i am very impressed with this machine, and i’ve seen a lot of machines.

its very much a plug and play machine, rip controls a lot of the setting on the machine,

the jv3 takes flexible media and rigid boards too, so you can print directly onto displayboads & foam pvc’s.

if i get asked now what machine do i recommend its always the jv3, more expensive but you do get more for your money, in my opinion.

oh and the print quality is good too 😛

[Graham.Scanlan]

Hi lorraine,

lexan polycarbonate comes in a sheet size of
610 x 915 in a number of thickness up to 500 micron (i think)
367 3m hi performance adhesive, im sure thats the correct number.
Yes it can be applied by hand or laminator,

if the 3m adhesive is to expensive you can also buy sheets of adhesive with backing on both sides , so you peel off 1 side apply onto the film then you have a remaining covered side 🙂 this goes by the name of DS2 or Orabond depending on who you go to

yes lexan film is expensive, but as far as i know its the only fire retardent clear film you can buy.

[Graham.Scanlan]

Ahem,

Cox plastics, have been suppling samples of this product,

[Graham.Scanlan]

Hi lorraine

try Lexan polycarobonate with or with a textured coating
you need to be looking at a FR grade (flame retardent)
this is designed for reverse printing and backing up with 3m tape for hi performance labels.

as for suppliers try the usual places, Europoint, Cox plastics

hope this helps,

🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

2 points,

10mm will expand and contract and will need fixings in place to allow movement.

if using solvent adhesive if the solvent gassing off has nowere to go it will come through the foam and cause the sheet to buckle (i have seen this)

and on another point why not try 2 or 3 mm di-bond/alucolor/rynabond etc

a lot less movement if any

[Graham.Scanlan]

is this the kind of chap that would carry dags in the back of his van instead of dogs?(just a guess)

beware of the 2 lots of keys scam

ie you do the vinyl job on the side of the van and park it up waiting for your customer with his dag to arrive, when all of a sudden the van drives off leaving you with a nice set of keys as payment for the van 🙂

feckin dags

[Graham.Scanlan]

try flood coating the sheet in 751 oracal , but it depends on the ral number your looking for..

oracal 751 is matched to ral colours

pot luck if you get the right number but its worth a try

the ral numbers are on the colour cards, if you cant get one tell me the ral and i will tell you if they have the colour

[Graham.Scanlan]

sounds like a pvc product called genotherm

available in 0.48 and 0.24

comes in clear and white

sheet sizes 635 x 914, 1040 x 1550

give Europoint a try

hope this helps

[Graham.Scanlan]

made me smile too 🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

a site i find very useful for all sorts of update stuff including which virus is doing the rounds and what anti virus program vendors are doing about it.

try here

http://www.iexbeta.com/

i visit most days to keep informed

only one small pop up on entry but other than that its a very good site.

[Graham.Scanlan]

same for the pvc sheets
(big in the safety sign market)

A&P also Europoint, etc

sheet sizes

635 x 914, 1422 x 914, 1040 x 1550 , 1220 x 915

[Graham.Scanlan]

you could even try genotherm,

this is a white or clear pvc sheet,

it comes in the following,

140 micron, 240 micron, 480 micron , 700 micron, and 1000 micron

1000 mic = 1mm
480 mic = 1/2 mm etc

softer than hips

[Graham.Scanlan]

Dont sell your machine just yet,
i found out today that you can convert the roland hi-fi jet into a full
solvent inkjet, with bulk ink for around £1500

the inks then will print onto complete uncoated vinyl

maybe worth a shot,

give me a call at the Europoint Sales office and ill give you the details

regards

Graham

[Graham.Scanlan]

i use irc all the time,
i use quakenet, but i think the only problem is its not that easy to set up,

downloading the program is only the start,

finding the right server and then finding the right channel,

to someone who has’nt used it before its a little complicated

although its an excellent program for chat

and you can own you own channel and control it,

also join it automaticaly when your online so the chat can be at any time not just on one day

[Graham.Scanlan]

it’s going to be interesting how this thread unfolds, as im sure we will get many views on sign uk

looking at it from the suppliers side, we had a very busy show,

we had our price list on cd rom, together with any other data we could fit on to the disc,

loads of 851 series cast colour swatches to hand out together with 651, and 751 cards,

forex classic, forex top and alucolor swatches went down well,

we presented them all together in an Orafol carrier bag,

if i counted correctly i think we had no less than 4 people available to talk to, but i’ve got to say that the day and a half that i was there i was rushed off my feet,

thank you to you all that took the trouble to stop at the Europoint stand and helping make it a worth while avent.

the above is from the stands point of view, 🙂

also my little boy of 4 loved his giant spiderman print that i was kindly given :(scrounged) that was printed on a new Arizona

[Graham.Scanlan]

vinyl master pro also comes with font detective

[Graham.Scanlan]

you can buy 5 mtrs from the supplier 🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

just a quick one,

since there seems to be a lot of interest in this post,

whats the largest print area you have acheived with your

roland or edge,

and still been able to keep the customer happy?

[Graham.Scanlan]

good luck 😛

[Graham.Scanlan]

Outline,

I see you visited GTR signs,

but he was having a problem with his
LPT printer port on his pc

spandex tech guy visited and fixed the problem the same afternoon when you missed him,

he’s up and running again if you want to have a chat to him,

[Graham.Scanlan]

i’m the good looking one with the knockout smile 😉

[Graham.Scanlan]

outline give me a call

on my mobile number it in your email 🙂

cheers

graham

[Graham.Scanlan]

yes via spandex, 🙂

what i mean about omega is version 2 may well be the last update for omega, if what i hear is true.

[Graham.Scanlan]

a little bird told me that soon we will be seeing
the gerber edge sold with the new signlab software 🙂

so i wonder what will happen to omega then???

watch this space

[Graham.Scanlan]

GTR SIGNS

BOOTLE

LIVERPOOL

CONTACT TERRY RAWLINGS

CALL 192 FOR NUMBER OR READ MY SENT E MAIL

[Graham.Scanlan]

yes i checked and this machine is still for sale 🙂

but be quick

[Graham.Scanlan]

Hi Carrie

Talk to your plastic supplier and get some prices on polypropolyne or polyprop for short this is thinner 3mm and because the material is of a denser composition it is more suitable for screwing striaght to walls in the same manner as descriped in previous posts ask your stockists for some samples.

(please check this but i can see 2 problems with polyprop)

1, not really made to last outdoors (u.v, and will warp)

2, polyprop has a low density surface and vinyl wont really want to key to it,

[Graham.Scanlan]

i’ve seen forex top up in a frame that has lasted 5 years plus
and still looks good,(white)

no guarantee’s though

remember all foam pvc expands and contracts so when fitting without a frame remember to make the holes big enough for some movement

white forex classic comes with a 5 year guarantee but not top

[Graham.Scanlan]

ok we now have a

gerber edge 1 for 3200 gbp (together with a large foil collection)
omaga software 400 gbp

not sure on a new plotter from spandex but i’m guessing at around
3k

if this is the case

6600 gbp for an edge setup

cheapest i’ve seen is 12k from spandex

[Graham.Scanlan]

this may help 🙂

http://pub131.ezboard.com/bthetintingboards

i found this interesting reading,

rob i believe this is useful please dont edit

[Graham.Scanlan]

the people i visit here in the north west that have the edge,

and i have a good few accounts with this machine

no one ever express’s any regrets regrets 🙂

good little machines, however i would be tempted with the full supported package,

ie the plotter , printer and software,

shop around for the ribbons though the prices vary,

[Graham.Scanlan]

just a thought,

how many of you guys would make a sign for a customer that gives you an order over the phone and will pay you when you deliver?

a few rotton apples spoil it for the honest sign makers,

the check bouncers, we’ve all encountered them

[Graham.Scanlan]

i got to be there, im on a the Europoint stand,

so i guess ill see some of you guys paasing by 🙂

stop for a chat please, hard work these exhibitions

[Graham.Scanlan]

as of monday 851 cast film launches in the uk,

[Graham.Scanlan]

I guess all the manufacturers of thermal ribbons, claim they have the best products,

not all of the above make ribbons for the gerber edge, it seems spandex are losing the monopoly on ribbons and they are bound to say they have the best ribbons, just like all the rest,

just think about the following, the thickness of the clear carrier, is it the same as the gerber cartridge?

the print should last 3 years, but there are so many variables involded in this, you will find it hard to pin a supplier down for a guarantee,

is the cartride refillable? save pennies next time and buy a re fill

just test whats out there and keep an open mind, some are as good as gerber and some are not, test and see

as for the signlab software and printing 3 colours, i visited a beta tester and he was made up that he saves 1 colour,
im not sure it works on all prints tho

[Graham.Scanlan]

2 grades

.85 for vehicles (more pull)
.50 display grade for fridge magnets, business cards and the like

you can also buy paper that is magnetic to go thru your inkjet printer…

remember to tell your customer to store their magnetic signs correctly when not in use,

ie in the boot of the car without protection, because all the dirt and metal bits get attracted to the back of the magnetic sheet,

and when your customer puts the signs on and a off a few times it will scatch the paintwork and in the end cause rust spots,

also dont apply magnets to a freshly painted vehicle that has not been oven baked,

erm what else………………

oh yeh,

make sure with your customer that their vehicle is metal 🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

we send out rolls to be slit to a local converter who converts stuff

he uses a bacon slicer, or a slit – re reel machine

cost u about 14 gbp tho

but he quick

🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

i thought you was going to tell me that he had an outstanding invoice from 120 days ago 🙂

but this time i guess i was wrong

can you do me a set of magnetics for my robin reliant

reading : trotters inc

[Graham.Scanlan]

just remember that when the spandex foils are gone

give europoint a try on their foils

it think its a fair trade 🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

glad i could help,
how old was the machine?
and are spandex helping you out?

[Graham.Scanlan]

they are about 6 pounds each
we got a full box of em in manchester

if i was your rep , i would be handing them out

foc

🙂

by its grim up north

[Graham.Scanlan]

we got them rob,

in europoint manchester

nice red ones 🙂

about 3 " roller i think with the nice red handle

work better than squeegees on flat bed applications

excellent on banners

[Graham.Scanlan]

i think in today’s market through modern technoligy calandered polymeric films are made to a much higher standard.

the old 80micron 5/7 year films are behind us, although there are still some suppliers hanging on, but only selling on price not quality.

in the uk you can expect to pay a calandered 7 year polymeric price and get a film that is 60 micron thick and is as stable as some budget cast films, with the colour range toboot

and in some cases as stable as some high quality cast films,

however having said that there are some applications that require a good quality 50 micron soft 10 year cast.

then of course you need to pay the price.

i guess its the grade for the job your doing….if its

4 year monomeric , 7 year polymeric or 10 year cast
🙄

[Graham.Scanlan]

the difference between the printing grade of window stick and the signmaking grades are to my knowledge as follows

sign grade

is available in more than 20 opaque and translucent original colours and Film thickness: 150 micron
Backsheet: 180 grs/sqm

screen grade

is available in white and clear, Standard thickness: 100 µm – 300 µm (Special: up to 1 mm)

and the surface is treated so it can be offset,flexo or screen printed.

I also think that the backing sheets are different between the two products

[Graham.Scanlan]

oopps maybe a bit late for this post, but i only just seen it 😛

and since its my posting day today i would like to share the following

very effective product named

Flexi-prep is a glue-remover and de-greaser ,

take 1 bottle into the shower instead of 2 😛

Europoint sell this and i think for around 33 pound for 5 ltrs

very good results on Banners, Forex, Vehicles, Glass etc

hard to tell you about this product with sounding like an advert 🙁

sorry robert if it sounds that way, bit sometimes i get over excited

[Graham.Scanlan]

did you know that….

standard window stick (screenprinting grade) is available from lots of stockist (Europoint included)

on the roll both 1000mm wide and 1220mm wide (clear only)

or in sheet form

1000 x 700
1220 x 914
100 x 1550
610 x 914

all mm 🙂

sign making grade is another story

[Graham.Scanlan]

Robert,

You are correct it what you say about the vinyl suppliers

they put the 3 components of the vinyl together,
the face film, and adhesive and the backing paper

they specify the requirements to the manufacturers of the products, the make up of the film

in europe there are only a handfull of pvc face film suppliers
and dozens of vinyl manufacturers

as for the colour ranges, I think its good business to be different and try and have unique ranges

Just one point about the 3m vinyl, can someone confirm to me that it is a true PVC face film, and not a polyethelene / polypropylene type of film

[Graham.Scanlan]

is this what you are looking for,

http://www.molco.com/epenstfa.htm

however i dont know of anyone stocking it in the uk,

Molco are our supplier of static film, if you speak to your local Europoint branch, they may order you a full roll with one of their shipping orders

[Graham.Scanlan]

cd printing,
i visited a screenprint account of mine and he was, to my surprise printing cd’s

tel: 0151 647 4190—-> paul

Printability

he did a very good job

[Graham.Scanlan]

Also for pantone colour match vinyl

Ritrama Uk

http://www.ritrama.co.uk

they sell ready made pantone colours
not all the colours but the most popular
🙂

[Graham.Scanlan]

Mike,
im pleased you were impressed with the service you recieved, can i point out that if you or any other members have any issues that may need taking up, i read the board everyday, and working for Europoint in Manchester on outside sales i will be more than happy to take them issues straight to the people that can sort it for you.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: moonbrat on 2002-02-13 19:23 ]</font>

[Graham.Scanlan]

well it seems this post has spanned itself over 2 pages already and my guess it will span over a few more before this post is ended. In the blue corner we have the PC and in the red corner we have the Mac….
may I start by saying I love my PC I built and yes I polish it every day (the pc that is)
I think the clash of one v the other is more down to operating systems
what with window with xp and apple with os 10.1, i think they both run very much closer than ever before. people say macs are more stable, this maybe so but i seen macs crash and i seen pc’s crash,
i see adobe programs run on both machines
however when you say pc, do you meen the machine itself or windows,2000,NT,linux
because If im correct the backbone of the internet is based on pc’s

[Graham.Scanlan]

foam pvc sheets, can vary in density
hence the easy cutting,
lower density sheets tend to cost less than denser sheets because there is more air and less foam, as your air expands in summer watch that baby move 🙁
foam pvc is a good media for signs but not the best, only one foam pvc on the market carries a 5 year warranty and thats forex classic (only white) but this still expands

[Graham.Scanlan]

its hard enough for me to peel vinyl from the backing sheet woth my fingers,and do you think a machine would put the full stop back in place after they are stripped with the waste vinly 🙂
good idea,but would be very difficult to work out a method…
also i think with the development of digital printers both thermal in the way of the gerber edge, od thermal in the way of encad machines etc, i guess some jobs that cause a lot of trouble, i.e menu boards could be digital printed on a backlite film