[John Dorling]

Hi All

I gave up with this last night, turned everything off and went home early. Came in this morning, turned the printer on first as Jamie suggested and voila! Everything seems to working fine at the moment.

Thanks for your suggestions.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Rob
Yes that’s always my first step when anything electrical is involved!

Thanks anyway

John

[John Dorling]

Same here it was only the laminate on the printed vinyl that failed. The APA pigmented cut vinyl we used for lettering has stayed on very well.

John

[John Dorling]

+1 on getting it printed. I’ve done a few designs for printed curtains in the last couple of years and they look great. Also I’ve had the APA laminate fail and I won’t use it any more. We have used WJ Leech for printed curtains with good results.

John

[John Dorling]

UPDATE: It seems our problem was caused by a faulty print head cleaning kit. Despite the kit only being at about 40% I took it out to check it and the roller mechanism that advances the cloth reel had jammed, and ink had built up on the surface so much it was touching the print heads. Replaced it and we’ve only just replaced head 1 which was on 3980ml.

John

[John Dorling]

Not exactly. The only way I could find to do it was to put a cut path on the original artwork and then press print, but cancel it straight away. This generates the cut file but you have to load manually, not from the barcode.

John

[John Dorling]

Transparencies conflict with spot colours (i.e the CutContour) and make the cut path invisible to some RIPS, including VW. Try opening the file in illustrator, copy the cut contour onto a new layer and lock they layer, then select the area with the fade in, including anything that crosses or touches it, and clicking Object, Flatten Transparency. This should convert the transparency to a raster image so that it doesn’t conflict with the CutContour.

John

[John Dorling]

Turns out these small grey clips are only available as part of the ink tube system at £700 😮
Luckily Perfect Colours have helped me out with a couple off a second hand machine. Not sure what I’ll do when they snap though.

[John Dorling]

Thanks Brian

I found the problem in the end. I took the left hand cover off and the bottom left grey retaining clip that holds the cartridge seats in for the bottom row of carts fell out as it had snapped in half. I’ve botched it up for now to get printing and will order new ones asap.

John

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[John Dorling]

Nice one thanks Chris

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Chris

Sorry been rushing around the last couple of days, haven’t had a chance to look til now. Imprint looks good, thanks very much.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Liam

I could but it needs to be big enough for a 14m long image and there’s only so much up sizing you can do with photoshop. Also in reality trying to make a 7.5 tonner look like an artic trailer is easier said than done, and definitely beyond my photoshop capabilities!

That is however exactly the right type of image, but I can’t find one big enough!

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Get a pickup and a box trailer. That way you will have a family vehicle with enough space for small jobs, then for larger jobs you just take the trailer which will have more space than most vans.

Bear in mind if you buy a Sprinter/Vivaro/Transit type van it will be limited to 60mph on dual carriageways and 50 on single carriageways if it is plated at 2000kg or more (which they all are). Pickups are not subject to this restriction unless towing a trailer.

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Cheryl much appreciated.

John

[John Dorling]

I need this one too – looked at the brand guidelines on the NICEIC website but it’s only there as a jpeg. Cheryl did you have any luck with this?

Thanks
John

[John Dorling]

http://www.spandex.com/UK/sign_systems/ … 62b8fldUm8

[John Dorling]

I think Spandex do one, and Ultima.

[John Dorling]

Hi Tim

I did think of that as we have done a couple of flex face jobs, but nothing as high as this. The problem is that I can only get the material printed in one piece on a UV printer and that causes problems as on fabric apparently the ink cracks easily and it has to be transported and fitted extremely carefully. I have offered it to the customer as an option though so we’ll see…

John

[John Dorling]

Stephen as I understand it the OMAS causes the printer to make on-the-fly changes to the substrate advance, meaning it can vary throughout a job. This is fine when 100% accuracy is not important but for long jobs or where overlaps need to join up perfectly it causes problems. I have had 1500mm jobs be out by 15mm 😮

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Jason

There is a function in Onyx to alternate the tiles I think. What does that do exactly? Print it the other way up?

[John Dorling]

I would agree with Paul. I’d get a quote for a trade printer to do print them direct to board. They will deliver them to you made up so all you have to do is a few emails and some designs, put your markup on and it leaves you free to do other work. You’ll probably make more on it that way with the amount of labour you’ll free up. Also don’t be afraid so stick to your guns with prices. Some people will try and nail you down for the last penny. If he won’t pay a price that allows you to make some profit then tell him to jog on. You never know who will walk through the door next.

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks for the replies. Just out of interest Simon what sort of paint do you use for doing the marquees?

Kind regards

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Paul. Nice job by the way. I’m trying to avoid bleed if possible! Have read a few posts on here about going over the stencil with the background paint colour first to ‘seal’ it which makes sense. I’ve been doing a bit of research and the Oracal stencil film is described as being ‘especially good’ for uneven surfaces. Sounds great, but RH will only sell me a full 50m roll!

John

[John Dorling]

I got a box with compartments in and filled it with tek screws, various self tappers, rawl plugs, plasterboard/hollow wall fixings, rivets, white torx screws etc etc. I’ve never seen a trade pack with all the screws in it that I use. With all those packs you will run out of some very quickly, but be stuck with some for ever!

John

[John Dorling]

You Sir, are a gentleman.

Thanks

John[/u]

[John Dorling]

Vinyl is the cheapest part of the job. The cost difference to you between good and bad vinyl on print and cut job is probably only about £20 so don’t skimp, use good vinyl and charge enough to cover it. Much better lose a job on price than win it and it lifts after 3 months and you have to do it again!

We use 3M 50 series which is a decent film for flat panels, and avery or Oracal cast films over recesses. Decent 610mm calendered should cost between £1.80 and £2.50 a metre and something like Oracal 751 cast I think is about £3.30/m.

John

[John Dorling]

We laminate most of our stuff, so we used to take the blade out and put the media clamps on to print, take the media off to gas off/laminate, then put the blade back in and clamps off to cut. This eliminated the problem. Unfortunately this seems to be a design fault with the versacamm and I don’t know of a total ‘fix’ for it. The one thing I was told by Harry at Edward Mathias is that the slide on the blade lifting solenoid can get dirty and it stops the blade from fully lifting up. He also recommended that we set up a cut file with lots of 8’s on it and then run it without the blade in. This ‘excercises’ the lift solenoid and the repeated lifting action with no load or weight of the blade allows the machine to clear the slide a little. We did it a few times but can’t say I noticed a massive improvement.

If doing print and cut you could start the print with the blade out, then pause the job towards the end and remove the clamps and put the blade back in, then just keep and eye on it for the last few print passes.

John

[John Dorling]

We used to always have this problem with our VersaCamm. Just don’t use the media clamps when cutting. They are only really needed when printing as the head passes the edges of the media 4 times on every pass, With a cutting job, no matter how big, the head only passes the media twice.

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Martin, much appreciated.

John

[John Dorling]

Another question would be how much of the paintwork do you have to cover for the DVLA to need to be notified? For example if I wrap the back doors and sides of a van up to the side doors as we sometimes do, does that count?

Seems like there will be a large grey area there. I think we will have to use our judgement and advise the customer on certain jobs with high or full coverage that they may need to advise the DVLA. If we do that in writing on our signed proof then we should be covered.

[John Dorling]

I have a stack of 5 on my desk which I must return. The problem is I think that the problem isn’t the heads but the position. Head 2 rarely fails and that’s also C/LC. Have you noticed they always go when in slot 1, or have you had them go in slot 2 as well?

John

[John Dorling]

Also interested as my warranty is about to run out.

[John Dorling]

Thanks for the replies. Pretty much what I was suspecting really but Rob how well do you think studs will work on a timber fascia? I always use that method for brick or stone but not used on timber before. What sort of glue would you recommend?

John

[John Dorling]

Aha! I knew I had it! Thanks again Jamie.

John

[John Dorling]

This is how the printed panels were cut to fit the recess 😮

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[John Dorling]

Basically it’s illegal and it looks sh!t. No wonder it sells!

[John Dorling]

I found that taking off the media clamps when cutting, and taking the blade out when printing helps prolong blade life a lot. What happens is the tip of the blade catches on the metal media clamp and instantly ruins the blade. No matter how good and sharp the blade, it will be useless after hitting the media clamps just once.

John

[John Dorling]

Ring Harry at Edward Mathias. They sell smart knives which I (and many others on here) have found to be the best. He will also explain why the Versacamm is so bad with blades.

John

[John Dorling]

I do what Kev does. There is no way to pause a latex printer as the heat would cause big problems with the vinyl if it is not kept moving.

John

[John Dorling]

Signforce Norwich do them.

[John Dorling]

I have to admit I missed the s’s on tomorrows’s. In future ignore my advice!

John

[John Dorling]

Overkill is the key to this one! Make it out of solid aluminium and but some very hefty fixings. Price accordingly and don’t be shy about it. If you do it cheap and it blows down it could do some serious damage or hurt someone.

John

[John Dorling]

Personally I would say that what you’ve written there is correct. The problem is that lots of people dont know grammer an that. I have had this issue before and I just did a search for ‘correct usage of commas’ or something like that and I found lots of long and boring documents on the subject.

Have fun!

John

[John Dorling]

Brilliant! Thanks David 🙂

[John Dorling]

Thanks anyway Jill 🙂

It’s just a little personal job for a good customer. Why are they always the hardest?!

John

[John Dorling]

You could try turning the OMAS sensor off. It’s not a problem I’ve personally had but I’ve heard it can cause strange problems on certain media, and it’s an easy thing to try.

It will need to be turned off in the RIP. In Onyx you right click the job in the print queue, Edit/Printer Settings/Advanced Options and uncheck the box that says ‘Automatic Tracking (OMAS)’.

John

[John Dorling]

Any ideas anyone. Thought it was going to be easy but can’t find it anywhere!

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

No worries Jamie, thanks for your efforts. I have looked everywhere too. It’s an easy enough trace but there is some other text they want. I should be able to mess around with another font to make something that will match though.

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Anyone? 😥

[John Dorling]

I had that problem too with VersaWorks. It’s to do with transparencies and spot colours. I found that by locking the cut path layer, then flattening all transparencies, it would solve the problem.

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks David. Unfortunately I’d already done the artwork, but managed to just cut it twice which worked out OK in the end. There doesn’t seem to be an option in the Summa Cutter Control to set the number of cut passes. In future though I will do as you have suggested.

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Great stuff:)

[John Dorling]

Get your print from somewhere else!

[John Dorling]

quote davidMATTHEWS:

Lol yes thanx for all the advice. It is very much appreciated. I’v always bought sheets from Aamari and yes if its only gonna cost £15.00 more a sheet i would rather buy in yellow sheets. it would probably work out the same if not just save £2 or £3.00. Where would be the best place to buy yellow sheets?? Amari is a bit dear so I was wondering if I can find elsewhere.

It will probably be a bit more than an extra £15 for the 3 x 1.5 sheets but bear in mind it would also be much more expensive to flood coat these.

John

[John Dorling]

And by the way, if the sign is 5′ (1524mm) high you will struggle to get vinyl wide enough to cover it in one piece anyway, so you would have to have either a join, or use wrapping vinyl which will give you no bleed to wrap round the back, and cost you £20 per metre. Also you will need to use 3m x 1.5m boards so should only need 7.

[John Dorling]

A favourite quote of mine, can’t remember where I saw it last but it’s been used a lot:

‘I’d rather have to explain the price of quality, than apologise for anything less’.

Or if you prefer.

‘The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten’.

If you’ve already priced the job and there’s not enough margin to buy yellow board then chances are your price was too low, if you haven’t priced it yet then charge extra to allow for the cost of the yellow boards. Either way you will save yourself a headache and you can be happy in the knowledge that in five year’s time you can drive past that sign and it will still look good.

Just my opinion, you know your market so in the end it’s up to you, but I would be interested to know how you get on.

John

[John Dorling]

Surely even if it cost an extra £15 per sheet to buy yellow ACM, there must be enough margin in a 20 metre sign to allow for that, especially considering the time and cost to flood coat each board, and then the potential comebacks for the vinyl lifting/shrinking?

John

[John Dorling]

It is quite possibly the worst I have seen but obviously someone likes it :/
It’s one of those jobs I’m doing for a good customer who’s doing a job for a good customer’s Wife’s Christmas present or something. Why do I get involved with this sh!te?!! 👿

Anyway, thanks for looking guys, hopefully it can never be found and I can do them a new logo!

John

[John Dorling]

Don’t know what you mean Jamie it’s a brilliant font. I really want to find out what it is I can start using it for people’s logos…

[John Dorling]

quote Robert Jones:

the large pretzels are insulation board- formular 250. 2 pieces of 2 inch. I sliced the 4 inch model into 2 inch pieces.
glued together with 3m 78, works perfect. just spray each piece, wait 2 minutes, put together and wait 10 minutes. then I sanded them with 80 grit into the final shape and then sanded quickly with 220, then primed with coastal wb 360, then painted.
the smaller pretzel was brought into aspire as an stl, both sides, cut from 2 inch hdu and glued with mas epoxy. primed with coastal 88.

gold paint is modern masters. big pretzels were glued to the hdu board with abracadabra snooth. hdu is backed with mdo.

I have no idea what you’re talking about but it looks awesome!

John

[John Dorling]

I think you might need an extra pair of hands. Shouldn’t be a bad job to do each pane in one drop with two people. I don’t know of a clear air release vinyl, but if you do decide to do it wet make sure the media has solvent acrylic adhesive! (You probably knew that but I’ve made that mistake before 😳 )

John

[John Dorling]

How much of a gap is there between the panes? If it were me I would print one drop per pane of glass and trim to the edges.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi George

Thanks I will give that a go. i also wondered if the material might just be stretching with the heat, but the expansion is not uniform. For example a 2360mm x 954mm print was 954mm wide all the way down, but on one size might would be 2360, and on the other side 2372!

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks for the replies. The prints are skewed in the feed direction not the scan direction. Could this still be an encoder strip issue? Apart from the skewing the prints are perfect!

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Kevin. I got some Arlon DPF215 in the end, seems to print well. It’s fine for the pop up but not wide enough for the other job I have to do. I’ll have to use the APS stuff for that.

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Peter. Gave them a call and they do have the stuff but it’s pretty pricey. Anyone used anything else? I can get Arlon from Wm Smith but I need something a metre wide minimum as this is for a shell scheme and not a pop-up.

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

I use knifeless and keep the 6mm and 3mm. I find with a little practice it’s really good stuff. Make sure you stick it down well, and as Gill says give the vinyl you are cutting a little heat and make sure it too is well adhered or you will get that jagged edge. We use it a lot now and it allows us to do things we would not have done before with a knife. Makes flooding van panels a breeze too. When the knifeless starts at the edge of a panel I make a small cut to start it off.

Like Alex says, look at Cookie’s video on YouTube and all will be revealed!

John

[John Dorling]

Do you have any transparencies used in the document? Try saving as PDF 1.5.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Stuart

Thank you for the reply. It WAS NOT a William Smith rep who came round! I could not believe that it wouldn’t need post-heating hence the post on here for some feedback.

I did try a small A4 sample and it seems really nice to work with and the laminate is nice and glossy. Seems to have the conformability of IJ380 and the speed of IJ180 which is ideal for us. A bit more money than the 380 but the potential time savings, eco credentials and longevity seem like they would be worth it.

Hopefully I will have a job come up soon that I can use some on!

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Pic would help!

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[John Dorling]

Avant Garde Bold

[John Dorling]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replies. They are to go on PVC marquees, not fabric, so they are like banner material basically, but thicker and softer.

They have to be decals because the bits they go on are curved and 28m wide x 0.5m high, so a banner would not be practical. I do supply them banners for other types of branding though.

John

[John Dorling]

quote David Hammond:

Our website is running wordpress, install the security plug in and seo one, cant remember their names lol.

Wordfence and Yoast SEO 🙂

[John Dorling]

One word of advice – look for a host that is geared up for wordpress – I use TSOHOST and you can literally install wordpress in a few clicks. Makes all the difference.

John

[John Dorling]

WordPress is good and can be great if you are reasonably computer savvy. There are lots of premium templates that can make a website really good. There are lots of plugins as you say. I use Wordfence for security, Yoast SEO for Search Engine Optimisation, a backup one that backs up the site to Dropbox periodically, plus a few others. I’m in the process of making myself a new site at the minute so I’ll let you know when it;s up and running.

If you are looking to sell directly from the site have a look at WooCommerce, but make sure you buy a template that is designed for it as that will make things MUCH easier 🙂

John

[John Dorling]

Maybe just set up a sheet on a word processor or spreadsheet with spaces for all the required data, and just print one out for each job. You could also save a copy of each one to a customer’s folder so then you would have a historical record to refer to if needed (for print settings/colours etc).

John

[John Dorling]

One word – Clarity!

It’s a program aimed specifically at the sign industry and it does all the things you mentioned. It is made by a company called Touch Systems. We have been using it for 2 years now and it’s great.

Hope that helps

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Jamie

Me neither, but it odd as the customer has specifically asked for this font and sent me a graphic with the same font on, so it must exist. I just find it odd that I couldn’t find it anywhere, apart from this logo.

I will have a look at bauhaus, either that or ask the customer to supply me with the font.

Thanks for your help – if you can’t find it then I know it can’t be found!

Kind regards

John

[John Dorling]

Hi All

Does anyone have any ideas on this it’s got me stumped – can’t seem to find it anywhere!

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

Hi All

Does anyone have any ideas on this it’s got me stumped – can’t seem to find it anywhere!

Thanks

John

[John Dorling]

These are now SOLD.

[John Dorling]

Great, thanks Jamie

[John Dorling]

Anyone interested in these?

[John Dorling]

Nice work there Cheryl, love the Air Cadets one in particular!

John

[John Dorling]

What happens if it just goes wrong?

[John Dorling]

quote Neil Davey:

Very nice work there John.
What material did you use on the Fiesta?

Hi Neil

Thanks! We used 3M IJ-180 on the Fiesta. It went on really well. We used 3M Di Noc black carbon on the roof and bonnet.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Peter

Not a full wrap but yes it is on optically clear cast so the metallic silver shows though. It gives a really nice effect, but you have to be careful not to touch the back of the vinyl or get dirt under it! The sides are wrapped from the rubbing strip to the gutter, and from behind the door to the rear panel join.

John

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[John Dorling]

Here you go 🙂

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TOBIAS.pdf

[John Dorling]

Bodega Sans Bold Oldstyle to be more precise 🙂

[John Dorling]

Hi James

Looks like it might be Bodega, if not it’s very close.

John

[John Dorling]

Hi Cheryl

Sorry I was thinking of a Master – different van altogether!

Should be fine. I did a partial on the back of a Sprinter with 180 which is basically the same and it worked well.

John

[John Dorling]

You could try Arlon DPF8000 (or any other super high tack vinyl) with a floor laminate over the top.

[John Dorling]

Hi Cheryl

The IJ180 is brilliant stuff. We did a fiesta race car in it on Thursday and it was 28 degrees and it was still easy to fit, however I think the crafters have deep recesses on the sides don’t they? You may have to go for the 380.

John

[John Dorling]

Thanks Chris I thought as much. Anyone with a Zund able to do some bits for me? Not a massive load of stuff to do but it’ll be a nightmare to do by hand.

John

[John Dorling]

I think the RIPC settings are in the default media profiles. I don’t know if they can be altered elsewhere.

Kind regards

John

[John Dorling]

I have used DPF8000 and it sticks like sh!t, but I’ve only ever used it on plastics. Not sure how it would be on concrete. If it were me I would probably want the concrete sealed first so it isn’t so porous and dusty.

John

[John Dorling]

Direct from APA Belvedere 020 8311 4400

John

[John Dorling]

That’s the one! Thanks Jamie, much appreciated.

John

[John Dorling]

If asked I say we cannot guarantee a 100% colour match. Never say you can because you can’t, not with a CMYK machine. If you have gone with Onyx as your RIP then it comes with Pantone swatches which you can print out onto your different media to show exactly how close your machine can get.

John

[John Dorling]

If they have used Rain-X or similar stuff on them then it can cause problems.

John