[M Brown]

Hi Chris.

I can’t remember spilling any ink but I did lean over the machine while the front was off, but the machine was switched off. I’ve not been brave enough yet to take the printer apart to check the fuses with a multi meter.

[M Brown]

the pumps are working fine, all three pumps are pulling ink through. I’vegot a ohm meter on order to check the fuse to bank B which is black and yellow. I’m hoping it’s the fuse on the board and I’ll just change it.

It’s just odd that two heads in the same bank has stopped working. I had to order in some prints yesterday that I’ve not done for 15 years.

Does anyone know of a good trade supplier for prints if I can’t get my machine printing again.

Mark

[M Brown]

Brilliant. Sorry for late reply as I never got a notification.

Thanks for the info

Mark

[M Brown]

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply. What is the slider board, where is that situated?

Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Jason,

I’ve used Hexis but seams to stick rather quickly even just hanging against the car body. Is the Avery version easier to use. What sort or price does that cost per metre and where is best to get it.

Mark

[M Brown]

Thanks my good man

[M Brown]

Hi Dan,

Yea I apply dry, and the prints lay flat while on the release liner. I’m use hex press that’s bubble free. Do you think it is that.

[M Brown]

Thanks Dan, I’ll loosen of the roller a bit, Thanks

[M Brown]

Hi Aaron,

Yes it was a lot cheaper

[M Brown]

Hi all, I used the 3M matt black in the end, yea it was a lot cheaper than Hexis

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Attachments:

[M Brown]

Hi lads,

I just wrapped my first car, a BMW 5 Series in matt black. it was siliver Used 3M, now the customer wants me to wrap a CLS Merc

Had a learning curve on that job.

Mark

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Attachments:

[M Brown]

Hi Anthony,

yea i’ll wait for hexis. its in next week for the wider roll

[M Brown]

Thanks Jon.

Is that bubble free the 3m 85?

[M Brown]

Thanks Steve

[M Brown]

Hi all,

So what your saying is all sign companies like myself and other quality companies like your good selfs, will make some kind of marks in paintwork of vans when you have no option when applying graphics to customers vans.

[M Brown]

Cuz I’m nicer, better and more helpful lol

[M Brown]

Hi Jill,

I would but he has some signs already made by someone else, he wants the same again. Customers hey. lol

[M Brown]

Hi, the signs are used for cycle race events, and don’t stay out in the sun for long periods of time.

[M Brown]

Thanks John,

I’ll have to learn, as I’ve never had to do this before. What ink is the best, or shall I say cheapest lol

From Mark

[M Brown]

will spray painted last. can you get screen printers ink, and roll it on with sponge roller or some kind of roller?

Vinyl will be too expensive, he’ll be wanting the cheapest job going. I thought of that all ready. but thanks all the same :o)

[M Brown]

trade-letters.com are good quick and well priced. Use them all the time. Just had another job supplied by them through the door last week. Turn around good

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Lorraine,

I run a dehumidifier constantly next to my printer and media, I have to empty it every day, even in the summer. You’ll be amazed how much moisture is in the air that will be soaked up by your media. Since I’ve been using my dehumidifier I don’t get any trouble with printing onto paper that would normally buckle up while print. Argos do a good cheap dehumidifier, that’s where I got mine and had been on since I got it. Try that first as its cheaper to run than an electric fan heater all the time.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Warren

Yes that’s what I want to know. Someone on the boards will know.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Warren,

I was thinking that. I think I’ll get a quote from my old digi print supplier.

All though thinking about it, having the proper stuff in stock will be good for next time.

Just wanted other views on the difference between the two types of vinyl.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi All.

Just an update, still haven’t had payment from this customer, had no contact from him even after I sent him a letter asking for payment. This sign has now been up on the wall for 3 months and still being used.

Think its time to go to court, but I’ve never had to do this before as I’ve never had a customer not pay before.

What other tricks is there to make him think twice about not paying.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Anthony,

I don’t want to upset you too much, but I had the very same problem with my Grenadier machine. I had faint magenta lines, it was the start of the magenta head to fail.
It would print the image I wanted just fine, but crop marks and when doing a head print test you will find it does the same.

You will find the magenta head will die on you very shortly. You’ll need to get it replaced.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Adrian,

I’d check with Roland first before you buy Colorific Bio ink. I know for the guys using Elite or Activasol inks can put them straight in with out any worries.

Also, I’ve had my bulk carts since I’ve had my machine, and still no problems with seals. Its been nearly 2 years now that I’ve had them. But that just me, maybe someone else has a different story.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi,

I’ve gone to bio inks too. Haven’t had chance to use them yet as I’m waiting for the Elite to run out.

I think solvent ink will be stopped one day as its bad for the environment, even eco solvent.

Mark.

PS: Let me know how you get on with them.

[M Brown]

Thanks Gary,

Just order them.

[M Brown]

that’s great George,

Thanks very much. It will help a lot

from Mark

[M Brown]

Hi,

I have the same problem, I have calibrated my machine till my fingers have started to bleed. What version of Wasatch are you using as I my mind it is Wasatch that is the problem, as I have used Flexisign a few times with my machine and the print and cut was always smack online.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi All,

I stand on a box at the front of my machine to load material. Its makes it a hell of a lot easier. Holding both sides of the media so don’t get finger prints and oils from the finger tips on the media. Hold it taught and slide through, then pull the rest from the front, easy.No more more harder than feeding a 610 roll of vinyl.

Mark

[M Brown]

Hi All,

Thank you for your quick and helpful replies.

I’ll try it straight away.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Allan,

I’m from Bristol. Lived there till I was 31. Live in St.Ives Cambridgeshire now. Hows all the sign companies in Bristol doing, and there are lots of them.

Where abouts in Bristol are you based. I from St.George.

Form Mark

[M Brown]

yes very different, its a Roland soljet painted blue lol

[M Brown]

John,

Bulk carts are clear. there are no chips in my carts. You said its so the machine knows what colour is in what cart. I think that’s wrong, as when I put my carts in the machine in the first place the carts were picked at random and slotted into the machine. It did not matter what carts I put in and where.

I could swap carts around now, if i was stupid enough to do that and the printer wouldn’t know what colour was in what cart and would happily print away with the wrong colour in it. My printer is now showing empty carts on all 12 carts.

I’ve never had to replace a chip (as I don’t have one) with every litre of ink I’ve put it, and I’ve put loads in it.

Form Mark

[M Brown]

Hi all,

I have a Grenadier with bulk/refillable carts. My machine never beeps at me, it always shows that my carts are empty on the menu screen. I don’t have chips in the carts, don’t think any bulk/refillable cart would or have any use for a chip in a cart.

Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your reply, had the fuse replaced by Tech8 engineer and at the same time had a head replacement as well. Yes, it was an expensive day that day I’ll tell you. LOL

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hello Gavin,

I have a 54" print n cut Uniform Grenadier solvent machine, its a converted Roland Soljet. It uses 6 colour ink set, so can produce good colour prints.

I print all sorts of graphics with it, from canvas prints to vehicle graphics and wraps.

Don’t bother with a water based machine if you want to make signs, go with a solvent ink machine.

One word of warning, I wouldn’t buy a machine off flee bay. It probably doesn’t even work, or it faulty in some way.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Gavin,

I think you will find it very hard to find replacements for that machine. Its such an old and out of date machine. Heads failed all the time with me. I’d put a new one in costing £80 just for it to blow after just printing 200mm of print.

http://www.colourgen.com/consumables/in … ucat=Kodak GX Inks&page=1

The link above will take you to where I used to get my ink from. I don’t even know if this company supports the old encads no more. Don’t be shocked when you see the price for each cartridge kit of £135 per head and 500mils of ink.

I’m really trying my best to steer you away from wasting your time on this machine. Save your money and get a decent one. You’ll have no end of trouble with the encad.

From Mark

[M Brown]

So sorry to hear this news.

I never met John, but he came over as a good man, and was always there to help other people with problems.

I will miss him on the boards.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Gavin,

Don’t even go there mate. Worst machines in the world. I had a Novajet 850 pro, wish I never wasted my time with it. Turn it on, no ink will be there, always had to prime the ink lines and even then ink will drop out. Heads don’t last 5 minutes also.

Don’t waste your time on an Encad, save your money and get a Mimaki, Roland or something with a bit of a pedigree.

Glad the day I saw the back of it when the poor bloke bought it off me from flee bay lol

You’ll have nothing but trouble with it. Prints wont last either and its no good for sign making, vehicles or anything really.

From Mark

PS: Hope you don’t waste your time or money on it

[M Brown]

Hi Billy,

Metamark do a good static cling. I’ve used meters and meters of the stuff. Prints great but needs to be hot to get a good print.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your input. My local builders merchant stock 100mm poly, so I got it from there in the end, only just down the road.

Thanks again

from
Mark

[M Brown]

Thank you Robert,

Are you still working as well are you lol

[M Brown]

Thank you for all your advise. I’ve now sent him a price. Think it will be just a courier job lol

From Mark

[M Brown]

Thanks Peter,

I’ll ask them for the artwork and which logos to use. They are an awkward customer though and will probably say "I don’t know, your the sign man" lol

[M Brown]

Tim,

I forgot to say thanks for the links and I am looking into them.

Mark

[M Brown]

Yea, well. Vista Print. Not much of a fan of them myself. I want business cards not business paper. Not the sort of impression I would like to give my printing abilities.

Just only yesterday I have seen their quality up close. Two printed banner that a customer wasn’t pleased with. Five spelling mistakes just on one banner. So he called me in to take a look. Just awful, vary dark designs not eye catching at all. The most important part of it, the telephone number was printed in a dark gray block, then wait for it, black skinny letters. Maybe they dint want anyone to now there number.

Not being nasty, but our trade is being flooded by the so called Cow Boy how don’t care about the customer and what they want. Don’t you all agree.

[M Brown]

Hi Steve,

Having my machine serviced today. The engineer had a look at my over spray problem and says that my machine is suffering from static. He told me to put an anti static mat under my machine and it should go away. He said my heads are fine. Thank god for that

[M Brown]

my other thread has been removed. wot do i pay my money for lol

[M Brown]

that’s strange, its not even letting me look at now either.

[M Brown]

Hi Steve,,

Sometimes you have to hold the the CTRL key when clicking on links. Try that and a new tab should open up.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Steve, take a look at the link below. Did yours do this.

You can see what I’m on about and that the rest of the print is fine.

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 427#362427

from Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Steve,

I would say it was a head going, if it did it on all types of media. It did it on the vinyl but when I swapped it over for poster paper to test with the same file, it printed perfectly. All my heads are printing fine when doing a print head test, just got one or two nozzles not firing on a few heads. I don’t get it. Its very strange.

I’ll try on some banner next to see if it does that on there.

Thanks for your view though.

[M Brown]

Hi Harry,

It was from here that I got mine from, it was on offer when I got mine back in November 2009. There well built and easy to use. Cant live without it now.

http://www.dancover.co.uk/

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Adam,

We use a 4m x 3m pop-up pit-stop tent its just tall enough to get a van underneath. When we get high roof van to we strap some Aeriel polls on to it to make it higher. We even put it up on sunny days also, to keep the sun off and make it easier on the eyes. One man can put it up and down in seconds. It also came with walls for those windy days. Don’t get a cheap one as one bit of wind will blow it down the street and maybe kill someone in the process. We had a £19.99 Argos thing, didn’t last 5 minutes.

Ours cost £255.00 delivered, best thing I bought.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Thanks Chris.

I’ll get it sorted now.

[M Brown]

Adrian,

Grafityp sell them. A set of 5 for £20.00 I always get mine from there.. Don’t go to BP they quoted me £105 for 5 when I first had my Grenadier. What a joke.

They do the holder to if you need that.

From Mark

[M Brown]

When it comes to pressure on the rollers I just turn them down till the rollers touch and then give half a turn more for the pressure, works just right.

From Mark

[M Brown]

The tension is on the supply roll, not the take up roll. That’s what the thumb screws are for.

from Mark

[M Brown]

The media comes off the bottom of the supply roll, and then it goes over the the roller and double backs on its self. The liner is taken off the rolled around the top take up roller. The drive belt should be in a figure eight shape so the take up roll rotates in the correct direction.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Andrew,

I have one of these but called a Guardsman from B+P. Mine works fine. It sounds like you don’t have enough tension on the supply roller that holds your media. I have that same problem till I ready my manual in the troubleshooting page. Tighten the thumbs screws a little and now I can laminate for meters and meters.

Hope this helps a little

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Terry,

Doesn’t your Signlab work your plotter? I’d cut from Signlab rather than wasting my time exporting and clogging up my hard drive with files that doesn’t need to be there.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Simon,

Jobs done now. I did them all by hand except for the LG circle logo and the Dupont logo. I always try Brands of the world. It was my first port of call.
I’d like to thank you for you input anyway and looking at my post any.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Iain,

I use Signlab to cut on my Grenadier daily. But I do have SignLab 8. I had 7.1 before when I had my old PC60 running from it. But when I got my Grenadier I couldn’t find that I could set up a network printer/cutter. So I upgraded to 8 and works fine.

[M Brown]

Thanks for looking John.

[M Brown]

yes, i have asked him. But had no reply yet. He’ll just say, it was in Word.

[M Brown]

Hi John,

It would of if that was the only letter. There’s other lines of text in the same way.

[M Brown]

its awful looking isn’t it. I’m going to see if the logo can be re-designed to something a bit more modern. Don’t people understand that things need to be easy to see and read.

[M Brown]

Hi Jill,

That was the first font I looked at, but it wasn’t to be 🙁

Its another customer thinking he’s a designer. Maybe I should give him a better logo

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Jill.

The font is called Hollandse Mediaeval Bold. But there’s been a slant put on it by some other sign company.

[M Brown]

hi all,

dont worry, i found it now lol

thanx though if u looked

[M Brown]

Hi Chris and Peter,

I asked if someone already had graphic. I never asked for help digitizing the image. It’s a standard H/S pictogram that someone might of let me have a copy off. I’ve helped you out before Peter with something that you needed help on a while back now. I was busy doing my own things then but took time out to help you out. Think you needed a font so I scrolled through my many thousands of fonts to see if had it for you and I did.

I wont be asking for help with images again. Think I maybe in a bit of a mood today as I have big pains in my chest, back and neck, and have been suffering from it for a long time now.

👿

[M Brown]

less haste, less waste. The outline isn’t even lol

[M Brown]

Hi Chris,

I know how to re-draw thing like this and a lot more detailed stuff too. I’ve been doing this sort of stuff for over 23 years. Just haven’t got the time these days. I did the artwork myself in the end as I had to get the artwork to the customer to get signed off for a quick turn around. 2mins in Corel.

Thanks for the reply though.

[M Brown]

Hi Warren

How much memory has your laptop got. I would say the PC isn’t feeding the printer a steady data stream, is your hard drive busy while its printing. Is your printer connected by usb or Ethernet. Mine can slow down when downing things as mine is connected through a hub by Ethernet and the Internet can take some of the bandwidth sometimes.

[M Brown]

your going to print and lam the same day. your not are you.

Cant you get the serial number to work. I’d get in touch with Adobe to sort it out

[M Brown]

Hi Warren,

What app are you loading the file into?

In Acrobat you can export the file as a PS file. Then if your importing it in CorelDraw then when it asks to import as curves of fonts, select curves. This should then make all the fonts into curves.

If this is what you want to do…

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi John,

I don’t think its my head about to go, as my grenadier prints perfectly. it only sprays these light magenta lines when printing crop marks, but when printing the image that I want then its faultless. I haven’t even got any banding.

Its a strange one. I’ll just have to live with it and make boarders bigger so the lines don’t go on the image that I’m printing.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Martin,

What solution do you use to clean the encoder strip and what kind of cloth is best?

Mark

[M Brown]

Hi John,

Its only just started to do it, and it only does it went printing crop marks. Prints fine when printing prints without crop marks. It did it once before but it went away on its own.

[M Brown]

Hi All,

Yes the weather seams to be getting worse for the sign maker. I’ve been looking at pop-up tents, like the ones they use at race meets. Sling it in the back of a van or car and put up over the van or car that’s having the graphics. Van will need the pop-up to be little higher so the legs have to be extended. I was going to print banners to shield me from winds as well. Still need to get round to buying one though.

Mark

[M Brown]

wasatch 6.3. activasol inks, grenadier

[M Brown]

vector. i dont have any problems with bitmap images

[M Brown]

Hi Clive,

So, have you taken it into illy first then writer, if u have illy, y dont u alter it in that, its so much faster any way.

it took about 20mins on my pc, depends on how fast your pc is, mine is 3.2ghz speed with 8mgs of memory

[M Brown]

Hi Clive,

I loaded it firstly into Adobe Illustrator CS4, then converted that into a PDF, then loaded it into Adobe Acrobat PDF writer and exported it as a postscript file, not an EPS. I then imported that into CorelDraw X4. It took a while but it was a perfect and exact import of the original EPS file you uploaded. And thats how I did it.

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi David,

A bit rough. what dpi did you set yours at?

[M Brown]

150dpi at 2000mm long

its very smooth

from Mark

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Attachments:

Bud.rar

[M Brown]

Clive, whats your email address, cant even upload a 2mb jpg on here at the moment

From Mark

[M Brown]

Hi Clive,

I have converted it to X4 but the file is big. Corel Draw seams to struggle with this logo. Illustrator can handle it with ease.

I can’t get the X4 file to upload as its 40mb in size. If you let me have your postal address I will burn it onto a CD and post it to you. If you look at the PDF attached you will see the quality of it and thats it is a vector and not a bitmap. If you want I can convert it into a very hi-res jpg and post it on here. All you’ll have to do is make a mask to go over it or a cut line.

From Mark

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Attachments:

Bud.pdf

[M Brown]

Hi David,

You say this file is a bitmap in an eps file. Its not a bitmap, it is a very good and clean vector eps. In Illustrator its crisp even at 2000% scale. I’ll covert it later

[M Brown]

Hi guys,

Thanks to all your replies. I’ve taken the side off the machine this morning, and oh my god, what a mess inside, washers everywhere. The washers are used to press the roller down with pressure. No wounder the bloody thing doesn’t work. Can’t wait til Monday morning when I phone the company that sold it to me. I’m going to tear them a new arse hole.

I will also make them pay for the jobs the machine screwed up and had to re-print them and laminated and mounted by hand. It’ll be cheaper for them to bloody give me the machine for free in the end lol

[M Brown]

Sorry for late reply, thank you .

[M Brown]

Hi Hugh,

Many thanks but another member on here is going to sort them out for me. But I will keep your details for next time.

Many thanks Mark

[M Brown]

Thanks Robert, I’ll have a look at the link. I’ve always got spare manifolds and dampers in stock, but not fuses

[M Brown]

Hi Chris,

I’ve got some new fuses to put in buy havent got round to it yet. I need to work out how to take the top off the machine without doing more damage. My soljet is a converted machine and has a big black box on top that powers the heaters. I can’t see how its attached grrr..

Mark

[M Brown]

If that was the case, do you think at least some nozzels would fire on the 2 heads. Inklines have ink in both the yellow and black lines

[M Brown]

I’m watch YouTube vids to take the handles off. Do you have to remove the panel inside of the sliding door to take that one off.

[M Brown]

Thank you Tim for letting me know the Impact drawings aren’t good enough. I did have my doubts.

With knifeless tape it’s just the getting it started that’s annoying. Plus it’s not cheap is it lol.

Mark