[Mark Candlin]

We use metamark matt md5 with no laminate.
We then apply some gentle heat using an heat gun and a felt squeege.

I think the problem is the laminate.

Hope this helps

Mark

[Mark Candlin]

Gavin, maybe interested in laminator but only got a budget of £1400, let me know mark@surreysigns.co.uk

[Mark Candlin]

I’d go for the Roland ive been using em 20 years without any problems
Make sure you do some test prints and find out what parts have been replaced in the roland, heads etc

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks Neil, but i cant seem to post you a PM…could you let me know your phone number and i will call you if thats ok
mark@surreysigns.co.uk

Thanks again

[Mark Candlin]

Having looked at buying a new press….up to £1,000!! I decided to buy second hand and spent £360 on a solid British made model.

Will let you know how i get on

Cheers

[Mark Candlin]

Paul,
My advice is to get the laminator serviced and get the engineer to run some prints for you.Save you money in the long run.

[Mark Candlin]

Paul, when you say the print buckles do you mean the laminate buckles on the rollers? I cant see how the print would crease on its own. Lamination is a bit of a dark art at times. Make sure your leading edge is square on the prints. Also make sure the laminate is not to tight on the reel and that youve set up the pressure on the rollers to -2(or similar, not 0) and put a leader board thru it slowly.If you see any "waves" on the laminate lift the rollers and re-square the leader board and try again.
I feed about 2 or 3 meters thru before i put a print anywhere near it.

[Mark Candlin]

Rod,
Are you using a take-up roller on your machine? If so this can have an effect on panel sizes if you leave the machine on a long print run, say over night etc. The take up roller stretches the vinyl over the run and the panels end up out of synch.

[Mark Candlin]

Its quite easy to make your own filter with outlook express. When you get a spam e-mail highlight the message and go to MESSAGE on the tool bar then CREATE RULE FROM MESSAGE. In this dialog box you can decide what to do if you get e mails containing words in the subject line OR in the body of the message text. So any message that contains "Viagra" in the title or message can be deleted. This will put the message straight into your delete box. You can also set it up to delete all messages in your delete box when you shut down.

Its quite satisfying when you look at your delete box and see 10 crapy messages go staight in the bin. Its a bit like fishing. The spammers try all sorts of ways getting around this by mis splelling words (sic) such as
Russsian or Hotttt etc etc. But as soon as 1 gets thru the net ,set up another rule and catch em next time they try it, just like fishing.

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks for advice. I like the dowling idea….why didnt I think of that?

[Mark Candlin]

A good camera is the Canon eos 20d, they have just brought out a updated camera the 30d so watch out for bargins for the eos 20d as retailers get rid of stock. Its a digital slr so it need a bit more work in getting exposure right etc but its a great camera.

[Mark Candlin]

I Changed ink sets a couple of weeks ago, the new inks are very good.

Had a lot of work on and ran out of yellow…I put the old half full yellow eco-sol cart back in to finish the job and replaced it when i got a new cart the next day.
Seems to be ok, i couldnt even see the difference on the print either.
By the way I recommend Spire Digital solutions for buying ink etc.
They will also come and do the upgrade for free if you so wish, If you need their number let me me know

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks both of you!!

[Mark Candlin]

Ive said on these forums that i think the alignment on the VC is poor.

Things that seem to help Ive found are the following.
When setting upto print make sure you have a nice right angle trim on the leading edge of your vinyl. Line this up with the cutting strip or the first joint on the front of the machine. Dont set the grip rollers to near the materials edges, give your self a bit of room either side if you can.
Once set up pump out 300mm or so out the machine and set as your base point.
Print and laminate making sure that you dont cut off your nice straight leading edge.
Reload the lamonated print again lining up the leading edge with the front edge of the machine.
Set the base point to the middle of the registration point and go for it.
Should work. I sometimes check that the the media is loaded “square” by pumping out the print untill the registration points come out of the machine and drop beneath the front panel. I then nudge it down untill one of the reg marks “goes around the corner” the other reg mark on the other side of the machine should be exactlly the same. This way you no the print is in square.

It may be worth trying a test print. Print a job with reg marks, but dont unload the media. Then try setting up the blade with the reg marks and see if cuts ok. That way it shoukd be perfectly aligned and there should be no problems with alignment.
If it doent work then call in the engineers again.

[Mark Candlin]

Pauls right just locate your favorites folder and copy it into your new
browsers favorites folder

[Mark Candlin]

Allways try and send files rgb to the rip.The rip does a much better job of converting the image to cmyk.

[Mark Candlin]

I had the same problem last week, no one has any.
Try this link http://www.gicleecentre.co.uk/prod_LUMINA.html

It works… best put on with a decorators pad.

[Mark Candlin]

Fixed…..Thanks all!!

[Mark Candlin]

Ding Dang Dong…..success, I thought id try everyones suggestions.

I didnt liquid laminate, I turned off the heater but kept the dryer on.
I set the head speed to 500 (seems so slow!!)
And it printed no probs….unattended!!

I think the problem was with the liquid laminate. I think it stoped the material sliding across the back platten evenly, It became more “gripy”
when it came up to the grip wheels.

Another lesson learnt.

Thanks all for your imput….only 5 more to go……

[Mark Candlin]

Brian, try opening the eps in illustrator or coreldraw first, if it looks ok export it out again as an eps or ai and then import it into signlab.
I often found this helped.

[Mark Candlin]

Put me down for a £10..good luck…i envy you. .Seeing the whole of the UK in September……nice!

[Mark Candlin]

Here is how I do it, there may be afaster way but i havent found one yet!

As an example say you take the letter “G” 12″ high in corel. Add say a 1″ black outline and a graduated fill in the body of the letter. Break the letter apart making sure to make the outline an object.

Select the part of the letter with the fill and export as an eps. Open the file in photoshop and apply the noise filter. Add a small amount, about 1.5% seems to work ok, you cant actually see any difference unless you zoom right in to the image. Use the uniform distribution method when asked. Save the image as a jpeg or tiff making sure that the size ratio
remains constant, i would make the dpi setting no lower than say 120 dpi.

Import the saved image back into corel. Select the black outline from earlier and then add your cut line to the outside of the outline. Position
the outline over your imported fill. When happy export the lot to your rip
as an eps and then print and cut away….

You will find that the banding has gone.
Try it with one letter with the PS treatment and one without and you will see the difference.

You can also do the above within corel, turning the fill into a bitmap and then using the media filters but i found the corel interface for this task anoying.

Hope this explains it ok

[Mark Candlin]

This has been discussed before, and it a was a problem that i encountered
which almost made me go grey trying to work it out.

You can mess around with the fountain fill amounts within the eps options,
but ive always found the print will still band, even using a large fountain fill
amount.

The only way ive got good results is to add a tiny amount of noise in PS.
(i mean tiny…about .2%)
import it back into corell or whatever else your using as a jpeg, add your cut line and print etc. exporting it as an eps.

Funnily enough I had to do a job today using exactly the this method and they printed and looked fine, no banding at all

Hope this helps.

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks Adrian, perfect…..youre a star!! 😀 😀 😀

[Mark Candlin]

Try Redeye display on 01306 877471 talk to Gary, they are in Surrey.
They also do good trade prices for the print as well.

[Mark Candlin]

I must get at least 1 call every day from these people, i used to be polite and wait untill they had drawn breath the first time before telling them i was not interested, but then they come back at you in typical sales talk and you end up trying to un-engage. Now i hang up straight away, much kinder to all involved they can get on with hassling someone else and i can get on with working.

[Mark Candlin]

Send it to vectorwise, it’ll save you time and money

[Mark Candlin]

i recently went through the same deliberations when my renault espace went bang when coming off the A3….

I looked at buying a second hand van or large car. I have to use my works vehicle as a car as well to transport my kids around on school runs etc. So a van wasnt practical, I looked at getting another espace…you can get 8x 4 sheets inside at a push. The trouble with cars is that they are not clasified as commercial so you do not get good tax breaks.

I went for a mitsabushi warrior pick up.Its a double cab so i can still do the school run and still get big sheets in the back.Best of all its classified as commercial so I get the full amount written off each month.

Leasing is a good way to buy/rent a vehicle, ask any accountant.
I pay £240 per month for my brand new truck….
I dont have to worry about Mot’s or anything going wrong with it for the next 3 years, its all covered.

I think the idea of ownership is something i care less about now, I dont want the hassle of buying second hand and then selling the thing eventually. I know see it as a £60 a week business expense with out all the hassles of vehicle ownership. Plus like i said that £240 comes off my books every month.

I know a very good vehicle broker if you need one. Tell him the vehicle you are after and he will find the best deal for you. He saved me £2000 off the asking price just by using him as a broker.

[Mark Candlin]

I asked Roland UK about the new inks last week, they were pretty tight lipped, but did suggest that something would be anounced as to regard new inks for the versacamm in the near future. Iam looking forward to seeing how much more durable the inks are.

[Mark Candlin]

thanks….you’re a star, spent 2 hours this morning trying to track it down!

Thanks again

[Mark Candlin]

Roffs

Ive got a warrior and I used the l200 double cab profile, its the same chasis etc with small changes.

Hope this helps

[Mark Candlin]

When i ever get cold calls at home, I always say “Oh.. I let my son do all this sort of thing for me, Ill just get him”, I then hand them over to my 12 year old son who keeps them entertained for awhile before they hang up.

[Mark Candlin]

Just read my message back…ha ha ha….rofl…

quote :

Print one side and put a small pin (oh i swore !) in the top left

No!! not that sort of prick !!

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks all for the input.

Rob, I phoned up Lows of Dundee, and had a look at their web site.

Found this product which suits

http://www.lowsofdundee.co.uk/public/Product_Detail.aspx?productID=70&CategoryID=18

Its printable both sides and has a block out in the middle…..perfect.

Just ordered a roll, not a bad price either for 25 m at 1370mm wide.

Now all Ive got to worry about is printing them so that they match up both sides!!
Ive had an idea for that as well. Print one side and put a small pin prick in the top left corner of the print. Turn it over and set the base point for the other print on the pin prick and print……I think that would work, may have to print with a bit of bleed tho

Thanks again all, Ill let you no the results

[Mark Candlin]

I used to own an arab horse. Arabs are a “hot blood” breed, they are fantastic at endurance and also have very good bone structure, they are North African in descent.

A lot of horses in the UK are “warm bloods” , ie part arab part native breed.

They also tend to be expensive!!

[Mark Candlin]

Rod,
try this link http://www.absolutvision.com/gallery/?uncache=88

http://www.absolutvision.com/

Its worth joining, the images are excellent and they use the jpeg 2000
format which blows up nicely.

I joined , its only £50 a year and you can download and use what you want.

[Mark Candlin]

Ive had my VC for over a year now with no problems at all….touch wood,
the only thing Iam dissapointed with is banner printing, the ink just comes off to easy.

[Mark Candlin]

REALLY good looking van, nice work especially as you had such a short turn around.

[Mark Candlin]

without using the hot gunk the pros use on the road you can try the following method which i have tried with success.

You can try using road marking spray cans thru a stencil, I had the stencills cut in 3mm foamex and sprayed thru a couple of times. Any middles of letters etc can be double sided taped to the asphalt while you spray.

Its a good idea to wire brush the surface of the tarmac first where the graphics are gonna go to get rid off the lichen etc and to get rid of any loose material.

Wont last as long as the proper stuff but the cars dont tend to drive over the graphic if its in the middle of the bay when they park.

[Mark Candlin]

Anyone????????

[Mark Candlin]

Max,
I set up and had the vc working in a morning, its very straight forward to put together.

I bought my machine direct from Roland, Roland wanted another £450 to have an engineer deliver and fit machine so i did it my self.

If you have paid for installation then dont touch it, if not ask for a discount and do it your self

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks Rodney Ill look out for some polyester twill that is acrylic coated,
Roland UK dont know of any suppliers Ill do a google search.

Thanks again

[Mark Candlin]

This subject must be one of the most popular “gripes” that we talk about on this site.
My aproach is this, and it aint failed me yet.

I dont do artwork at all before Ive had a signature on an agreed price.
Once i get the signature then i start work on designs.
I show customers a folio of work and give them an idea of how much something similar would cost.
ie:simple lines of text with or without logos or perhaps full colour elements as well.

This allows the customer to see that your work looks good and they get a good idea of the costs. THEN you do the artwork only after they sign your estimate. If a customer asks for designs upfront ask for a fee

Any graphic designer wouldnt give artwork away without an agrement so why should you.

[Mark Candlin]

Just like to add to Helly comments that Vectorwise offers a fantastic service, allways quick and pin sharp. I HATE vectorising, all those fidley
bezier curves…….ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Mark Candlin]

Good luck to all 3 of you Iam sure you will do a good job…..does that mean i cant say b******s ,a***e, or s**t anymore??

[Mark Candlin]

I like the idea, you could really go to town on a fridge. How about taking
a picture of the inside of a really horrible fridge with mouldy food inside maybe with pigs head on a plate and then print it out full size and stick on the front! Or how about a fridge full of champagne?

I had an idea which i may get round to of printing bathroom floor tiles with wacky photos. Broken glass was one idea or pebbles with sea lapping up against the bath.

I might go and cover my fridge now. :lol1:

[Mark Candlin]

Cheryl,

Thank you very much, let me know if I can return the favour.

Case closed.

[Mark Candlin]

thats the one!!

need it in a vector format tho……thanks anyway.

[Mark Candlin]

Do a search on the boards, this subject has been covered in depth before.

[Mark Candlin]

Ive spent more time trying to work around this problem than anything else.
I found regardless of how many fountain steps i applied to a graduated tint in corel I STILL got steps showing on output.
The only way around the problem I found was by opening up the fill area(exported from corel)in photoshop as an eps and adding .3% noise to the fill.
Export the file back out and import into corel. Then work on any other elements and export as a eps.
Once printed the steps are gone. The noise diffused the steps.

Iam sure there is another solution, if u find one let me know!!

[Mark Candlin]

Reverse print onto clear, mount onto cling and back up with white vinyl,
then cut, only works with simple shapes tho.

[Mark Candlin]

I do a lot of these for building companies, my advice is not to use metal signs with channels etc.

Local councils tend to turn a blind eye to these sorts of signs as they are not permanent, however they do go out sometimes and remove all of these sort of signs. Local residents have also been known to remove them.

We make them out of yellow foamex with applied graphics or yellow correx with a design very like the “official” AA ones. You may find the yellow colour a bit acidic so face them off with a warmer yellow vinyl.

Cheap to produce so when they get ripped down your client isnt to upset.

[Mark Candlin]

had a few probs but seems ok now

[Mark Candlin]

Sorry I couldnt answer your post Ive been away.

I cant help you with the ink question but I know that Roland have introduced a T shirt print and cut vinyl which is supposed to be quite good.
Might be worth checking out rolands web site for more info. You can use the eco-sol inks on the t shirt vinyl so no need to change inks.

Iam looking ay this product in the new year so I’ll get back to you if its any good.

[Mark Candlin]

I do John….

[Mark Candlin]

John do a search on this board for info on the rip, I seem to remember lots of threads on this one. Its a good rip and yes you can tweak it to your hearts content.

[Mark Candlin]

The Camm 1 was the first machine i got and NEVER went wrong, stick with what you have is my advice.

Couldnt you just beef up the security in your shed instead of going up and down the stairs?

Happy Christmas

[Mark Candlin]

Ive been using estimate for about 4 years now with no problems.
call me on 01306 740191 if u want to discuss.

[Mark Candlin]

thanks chris

[Mark Candlin]

yup (hot)

[Mark Candlin]

I usually get my local blacksmith to make up my hanging brackets for me if they need to fit a awkward facia etc., the last one cost me about £70 i think

[Mark Candlin]

It should be simple but I have a lot of agro trying to get the VC to recognize the alignment marks.Seems a bit hit and miss in my expereince.

Any hints or tips on this process would be handy.

Here’s a few ive discovered.

When planning a job try not to use the full width of the material as this means you havent got much room for error when/if you have to re-align
the vinyl.

When reloading the laminated print I align the crop marks with the front bed of the printer, put the clamps down and feed the vinyl back into position, that way the vinyl will be Square for the head to find the alignment marks.( in theory)

As I said it sometimes takes me 5 times to get the printer to find the marks.

One thing I’ve wondered about is whether you have to put the clamp wheels in the same place when cutting as when the original print was done

[Mark Candlin]

Jill, Rob thanks for the replies, Iam after a more photographic look. I think I may well ask the client ( a car body repair garage ) to make me up a real hole in a real bit of bodywork and photograph it, use a bit of photshop magic on it and print it. Should then look as if there is a real hole in the side of the vehicle.

Thanks

[Mark Candlin]

Another trick is to try and avoid using the full width of the material when you know you are going to have to reload to cut a lot of stickers after laminating.

I find sometimes if the full width of the vinyl has been used when printing
you havent got much room for lateral movment when the VC is trying to find the crop marks. If you dont align the re-loaded sheet up “dead square” you havent got much room to twist the sheet around a little.

(does that make sense?)

I agree with Rodney forget signlab for the cutting and use the RIP you got with the machine, its far better and its not that hard to use…RTFM!!….lol

[Mark Candlin]

Hi Tim,

Ive looked into this a bit myself and the answer is No.

You have to adjust the pressure yourself, both on the machine and within the software.

A way to do it is have one profile cutting at say 150 and call it “Laminate Cut” and another at 100 and call it “Standard Cut”. But this will vary somewhat depending in how blunt your blade is etc.

What I havent got around to looking at is which knife setting overrides the other. ie: if you set knife pressure to 150 within the software but not on the machine (which say is set at 90) will the machine cut at 90 or 150?

Ive got a feeling the machine setting overides the software setting.
If anybody knows please let me know!!

[Mark Candlin]

Rob,

I agree with Rodney when he says that lamination is more difficult than the printing side of things. It can be a right PIG. Be prepared to waste a lot of print at the start, its not as easy as it looks. The amount of times we have fed a 3 meter print in only for it to mess up half a metere in, in the bin it goes and another re-print.

If you can afford it go for a heated top and bottom rollers as it means you can do encapsulation if needed. Again it depends if you want to break into the exhibition or POS side of things.

The vinyl wrap system I use from Graphtyp is better on application if the bottom roller is very hot when laminated. It changes the glue structure so that the vinyl is easier to handle, you can re-position the graphic if needed.

It also does not leave any glue behind when you remove the vinyl at a latter date.

[Mark Candlin]

Rob,
Sounds looks you got most of the bases covered there Rob.
A couple of things you might want to consider, depending on your budget and expected type of work.
(If you expect to get into producing exhibition prints and systems, pop-ups etc )

The first is a good cutter for trimming the prints. I reccomend both a mechanical and a hand cutter. The mechanical ones are great for trimming prints, especialy if you are gonna produce a lot of print. If a customer asks for say 100 posters, thats 400 cuts you gotta do.
A bench cutter is also worthwhile, its a long strip of ali with a knife attached and come in different lenghs, go for the biggest one if you can.Another tip is to get a cutting bench which is VERY level and flat with no slight bumps or dips as this will throw your straight edges out. A sheet of mdf thrown onto legs aint good enough.Its worth investing in a ready made cutting bench which is guaranteed flat.

Hope that helps.

Sticky Mark

[Mark Candlin]

I think after a while using vinyl you know the tolerances of the material, how far you can stretch it, what amount of shrinkage the vinyl can take etc etc, how to deal with “glue on glue” situations when a gust of wind blows just at the wrong time (we’ve all been there Iam sure). The easiest way to try wrapping is to use some plain wrap or cast vinyl on a wing of your own car or van see how you get on and remove it afterwards. You’ll soon know if you have an aptitude for it.

Also don’t under estimate how much vinyl even a small car takes, about 10m sq for a smart car alone and mistakes can be costly both in time and re-prints.

Sticky Mark

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks for your comments.

We actually did 2 cars with each side being different to another.
One car had photographs and a patterned background so the whole sides had to be printed, including the purple colour. When I came to do the second car which was almost all purple I decieded to use a matching vinyl,
the nearest i could find was the avery supper cast, although I would have gone for another brand if it matched. Gotta say though that the Avery suppercast is a really good vinyl, very forgiving even without application tape and also very robust considering how thin it is.

The artwork was supplied to me by a designer in corell draw all mocked up over a smart car outline i supplied. Took me about 10 hours….yes 10 hours to “unpick” the artwork and get it ready for output. The “screen” effect edging to the purple had to be cut after the prints were laminated which was fun…..also the bitmaps were behaving strangly when output with the text as an eps. When pricing for wraps dont underestimate artwork prep it can take ages.

I think with 2 men you should be able to fit one car in about 12 hours.Some people would say thats to long others to short but there is a lot of fiddling about with wraps especially on a smart car. SignDevil is right for a small car they do use a lot of vinyl.

As far as charging is concerened it was between £700 – £1000 per vehicle.

[Mark Candlin]

I use estimate an American sign estimating product but works anywhere.
http://www.signwarehouse.com/software/o … timate.htm

[Mark Candlin]

I can do the print and install if you want, the problem is the artwork. Ive no idea where you would start (the wife??)

It would be quite a job finding the right image at a good resolution.(scanning page 3 ‘aint gonna work)
Creating the artwork is gonna cost more than the print and install if it had to be done from scatch. Saying that, once done Iam sure a lot of other mini drivers would like a nice pair on their bonnet!!

[Mark Candlin]

When you do the test print from the machine it should show on the little “bars” on the print if the heads are misaligned. Another expanation is a head strike on the vinyl if it got caught up in the rolers.It does explain this in the manual I think. It sounds like a blocked head to me though. Roland should replace it for you ASAP, frankly the engineers expanation is wrong,one of the selling points of the machine is its intelligent cleaning and self maintenance. If it is still not working DEMAND that it be fixed regardless of how much printing you have done.

Good luck

[Mark Candlin]

I have “drawings supplied upon approval” at the bottom of all my quotes, any artwork I do for quotes I dont show the customer. A portfollio of your past work should be enough to show customers that you can handle design work. Steve is right in his approach, put in black and white and then you have some grounds for a complaint if needed

[Mark Candlin]

Ive been running oracle 751 through the VC with no probs, it prints onto just about any vinyl although I havent tried any reflective yet

[Mark Candlin]

Mort,

That looks really good, the “cow pattern” works very well with the images,
Is the customer happy?

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks for your input everyone, id better go and explore some of those sub,sub, sub sub menus in corel.

Looks like I’d better start saving for SignLab 6!!
Thanks again.

mark

[Mark Candlin]

Sorry I missed the end of this thread, in regards to printing onto clear the results are very good. Darker colours look best as you would imagine.

[Mark Candlin]

Thats really funny Rob, cheered me up no end. I do wear a hat like that sometimes!!

[Mark Candlin]

Yes, I’ll third that.
Well done Robert

[Mark Candlin]

Sunil,

Welcome to the site, I love India, Ive visited 3 times over the years and each time was a totaly different experience
I cant help on your machine either Iam afraid
I recon Rodney Gold is your man for questions on your machine.

[Mark Candlin]

I agree with Rodney, Corell draw 11 is very good for handling cut paths and images for the VC. You dont really need anything else except photoshop perhaps if you want to mess with images before printing.

[Mark Candlin]

Neil ,
Nice work, I use the same technique if Iam using vinyl Iam not sure about.
You hardly notice it in panels this shallow anyway.
I wish there was a cutting knife on the market that you could set the cutting depth, so damaging paintwork wouldnt be an issue.

Ive seen this van driving around South London Iam certain and thought at the time how effective it looked.

[Mark Candlin]

Rob,

As with most things its a matter of compromise. When dealing with large graphic images file sizes can become very large and unworkable. Try it yourself in photoshop and see what a difference dpi makes.

A one metre square print at 150 dpi will generate a file 858 meg.
the same size at 100 dpi is 380 meg.

Dont forget you’ve got to work these files in photoshop, generating text adding effects, layers etc. Large file sizes will take an age to work on and save especialy if using a lot of layers even on a top spec computer.

Also be aware that ripped files for output are a lot larger than the source image, a 1gig image can become 3 times that size when ready for print.

There is no point going over 100 dpi for large images it simply isnt worth the agro for the small gain in apperance.
People dont get on their hands and knees and look from 3″ when they see a wrapped vehicle and think “mmmm image looks a little soft from here” They see it from 10ft away and think “WOW look at that!! ”

It also depends on what sort of image you intend to use. A photograph for example means you can drop the dpi right down to between 50-75 dpi and still look ok. If you are using a lot of text go for 100 dpi or consider adding the text in normal flat colour vinyl ontop of your wrap vinyl.

As for vinyl choice I would go with the reccomended choice your printers gave you. I use grafiwrap and laminate with good results, a lot of people use it, Avery do a good cast wrap as well.

Hope this helps.

[Mark Candlin]

Try cleaning the wheels with meths or similar, the wheels should be mat in apperance not shiny.

[Mark Candlin]

Printed my first job onto clear vinyl today using the verssa Camm, results look very good indeed.

[Mark Candlin]

Fantastic airbrush illustration, the text is a bit “unsexy” tho.
Must be very satisfying doung airbrush work.

[Mark Candlin]

Richie,
A lot has been said on this board on the VC do a search under Verssa Cam and you should get a lot of info that its not worth repeating here

[Mark Candlin]

Nice work Steve

[Mark Candlin]

That looks great, very eye catching, thanks for sharing

[Mark Candlin]

You have to use the same laminate specs as your vinyl.
There is no point using a cast vinyl with a normal laminate on-top and visa -versa.

I do a lot of wraps and mostly use grey glue cast vinyl with a gloss cast laminate on top.

Graphtyp sell them both as a combination. I think they call it graphytWrap
or something. Cast Laminate is pricy tho. Ive had no problems with this combination, you can really stretch and shrink it.

Iam gonna try using oracal 851 or even 751with the cast laminate on top, should be a cheaper that way.

Dont scrimp on materials though…..you dont want to take the graphics off
6 months down the road when the vinyl fails.

[Mark Candlin]

You can usually break down the job into bits to make it easier for yourself.
Depending on the vehicle look for natuaral breaks like doors and panel creases etc and design accordingly. That way you only have to do a small part at a time.
When designing the art work give about 2″ – 3 ” overlap on each panel to allow for mistakes and alignment.

Use the best materials, you dont want to re-do a wrap 6 months down the line…..all that vinyl to take off!! yuch.

Its easier with 2 ,but I do wraps on my own all the time.
A good trick when working alone is to support the top of the vinyl with a yard stick. It will keep it flat and taunt so you can concentrate on using you squeege.

Never do wraps wet.
Make sure you clean all those nooks and cranies, any grease and the vinyl will fail.
Get a feel for how much heat to give the vinyl before you start.

Try wraping something challenging before you start, like a football !!

Make sure you clean under the wheel arches to.
Most vinyl failures occur by the whhelarches. I usually rub some clear mastic on the vinyl edge under the wheel arches.

Read Robs excelent demo of wrapping the back of a Toyota pick-up with yellow vinyl, all the info you need is right there.

Good luck and enjoy it.

[Mark Candlin]

Ive got a windows 95 driver for it if you want. That should get you started
I could e-mail it to you if you wish.

Regards

Mark
Surrey Signs

[Mark Candlin]

NOW SOLD

[Mark Candlin]

Thanks Alan.

[Mark Candlin]

Rodney,
Thank you once again for your very informative post.
Where do you find the time?
With my one finger typing that last post would have taken me hours!!

By the way how long does it take to apply all that gold make-up in the morning??

[Mark Candlin]

Rodney,

quote :

You want be sorry you bought the machine , Im discovering new applications and media to print on every day –

Should that be “You DONT want to be sorry” !!

I hadnt thought about putting 1mm foamex through the machine, Iam not sure that the Versa Camm can take material that thick.

Steve thanks for the info regarding warranties.

[Mark Candlin]

I phoned up both Signmaster and Roland this morning to clarify the situation.

Roland UK are selling the machine at £8999
Signmaster at £7999

Signmaster import the machines from German Roland and do not start shipping to UK customers until Jan.

Roland are shipping to UK customers in about 10 days time.

There is also a question of warrenty issues.
As a “grey import” the uk warrenty from Signmaster may be invalid although Signmaster told me this morning that full 1 year on -site parts and labour are included in the price. Roland UK on the other hand say that this isnt the case……???

Iam not to worried about this I’d rather have the peace of mind of buying from Roland UK. I also need the machine now not in 3 months, plus the fact that a computer is included in the price I paid means Iam down £400.
I can live with that for peace of mind.

As for the whole ink-jet verses thermal debate Iam confident that ink jet is the way forward.
Dont forget that Roland have a lot of experience with inkjet. Our sister company uses large format printers and one of them is a Roland. Different specs I know but Its very reliable.
Its more about inks in my mind. Early solvent printers had a lot of teething problems with blocked heads etc due to the inks.
I think these problems have been overcome now and the machines are a lot more reliable.

My decision to buy was based on the fact that iam getting asked to produce a lot more full colour graphics. I have had to sub all this out to a 3rd party and all the hassles that entails. Jobs getting messed up, printed on the wrong material, not turning up on time etc etc.

My advice is go and see a demo of it in action.

Ill let you know how it performs when I get it in a few weeks.

[Mark Candlin]

I use impact software, hasnt let me down yet
For the more obscure logos try http://www.logo.nino.ru/

[Mark Candlin]

David
Report back to us as I have had my eye on this machine for some time.
Iam hoping to have a demo myself shortly.
Ive seen some samples of the machine and the quality is superb.
I think this machine is going to shake up the industry a bit. You are going to see a lot more full colour elements on vehicle livery driving around after this machine comes out. Because of its pricing and cheap output costs you can offer your customers full colour for not a lot more money
than you would normally charge.

Looking forward to your thoughts after seeing the machine in action.

Regards
Mark

[Mark Candlin]

I went and saw a “uniform grenidier” printer at BP graphics recently and was told the “jnr” version will be out this Christmas. The machine was effectivley a modified Roland of some sort. Price was quoted as around 10k. Its a eco-solvent print and cut, same specs as the VersaCAMM I think. I got hold of some samples and I got to say the quality is excellent.
Ink cost is about £3.50 per square metre.

Gotta say Iam tempted to get one when it comes out.