[Mark Shipley]

As a group should I think we should make a donation to the relief fund.

I will start it off with £500

Who’s next?

Rob, can we send the cheques to you?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Dewi,

Is that possible 😉 😉 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

634 – Rob, hope you got a lottery ticket on, ‘cos I think tonight’s your lucky night! 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hello John,

Many thanks for the reply.

I have got some 200gsm coated poster paper from Doro. It takes ink really well especially on ‘variable’ producing vibrant, saturated colours but it does take a while to dry – approx 4 hours.

I print uni with a 35oC print and 45oC dry using the Metamark MD5-100 profile – it works really well.

It’s great for posters, but I would like a paper slightly heavier, say around the 300gsm mark, but I guess you can’t have evrything at once 😉

All the best for the New Year.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Dewi,

I voted for ya 😉

Mark

P.S. I’m just a nutter 😮

[Mark Shipley]

Top one for me Rob, but still unable to pm

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Carrie that is sooooo sweet!

Thanks for the pic.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Mmmmmm

Just starting to re-heat the Chinese Banquet – it smells great.

And to top it off we’ve just had a nice covering of snow, it feels like Christmas now – beer in hand, work has come to a stop.

(drink1)

All the best.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

No Mort, not a breezer??

Still working here, but I sure am looking forward to a nice bottle of bubbly and everything after it, think we’ll call it a day at 7pm 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Go on Rob – do it, you know it makes sense.

Build a HUGE snowman – don’t forget to post a picture 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

No Turkey here.

Our wonderful local Chinese Takeaway delivered our Christmas Dinner lastnight with instructions on how to re-heat it the day after.

So it’s a full Chinese banquet for us and no doubt the same again tomorrow – yipeee.

A massive thanks to all at ‘China Star’ on Preston Road, Leyland – you are the best 😀

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Lee,

Merry Christmas to you all down there 😀

Snow – yay!!! Just been out with the dogs and we got hailed on – see separate post for the snowman (well hailman)

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=62664#62664

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

We’ve got a slight covering of hail but not enough to make even a mini snow man, maybe a couple of balls though 😮

Merry Christmas to all.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

If I were to ask for anything, it would be a mince pie and for everyone to have a great Christmas 😀

Mark

P.S. Rob – I love the snowflake design on the headers and footers, very festive.

[Mark Shipley]

In the voice of Lilly Savage;

“It’s those bluddy weekends that do the damage!”

Nice work Terry, is the long stripe day-glo or perhaps refelctive? I can imagine that this vehicle could provide the 5th emergency service – a kind of fire engine, but this one for re-kindling flames…… 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Same from me – BIG THANKS ROB !!

UKSB is a much better place to hang out than the street corner plus it’s a lot warmer and a great deal friendlier – it’s a credit to ya :2thumbs:

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Have a good one Shane – all the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

.. Dewi – snap, working right through here as well, just has to be done.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi John,

Welcome to the groups, there are a few versawassit owners on here, so please ask any questions and I’m sure we’ll do our best to answer them.

Doro sell a coated 200gsm poster paper that takes a lot of ink! I’ve had three rolls so far and I’m over the moon with it.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Carrie – I got 436 then he self destructed – ooops

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

We know you like cookies and muffins 😮 :lol1: 😮 :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Ezzie,

Welcome to the group!

If you’re new to vinyl, what industry/job have you come from?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

It’s true what they say – getting a sun tan is bad for your health :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome to the group – make yourself at home.

I’m a one-man band up in Leyland, working from home producing both cut and printed graphics. If you’re ever passing J28 on the M6 give me a shout and come and have a look at the setup.

Those little voices you sometimes hear in your head are the echos from the others on the group – “I’ve told you before I’ve got an avatar” 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Thanks Carrie, you’re a star :thumbup2:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Carrie,

May I be cheeky and ask for copy too please? 😉

Many thanks in advance.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

La la la la laaaa,

But have you ‘clicked’ on the reindeer??? Hmm??? 😉 😉 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hello Lee,

I think Rob is in 8:05pm mode aka 20:05 :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Tim,

First just run a calibration print to see if the vinyl will actually take the ink with a 35 & 35 degree print/dry heat. If all ok after an hour calibrate the media.

A good place to start would be the generic profile from Roland;

GG_GSPVC Glossy Gold_Silver Vinyl

720 dpi
Uni-directional
Variable Dry
1
16
500
0.0

print the ‘media’ file from the ‘psfolder’ on Drive C:

You may need to reduce the ink limit to about 180 or even less if the vinyl will only take a small amount of ink. Have a play and let us know how you get on.

By virtue of the fact you are printing onto reflective you do not want to have more ink than is necessary otherwise you end up reducing the amount of light bounced back off the vinyl.

I’m out all day today, but will be around tomorrow if you need any help.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Bowber,

Welcome to the sign board, as you can see topics never go astray and everybody has a fantastic knowledge of geography – ahem 😮

I’m just down t’road from you in Lancashire so if you’re ever passing call in for a brew (bring t’hob nobs tho’ :lol1: )

All the best,
Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Yup all back to normal :dance2: :wave3: :dance2: :wave3: :dance2:

Good job Rob !!!

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Tim,

I have had success printing onto Hexis engineering reflective with a VersaCAMM and then laminating and cutting (I tend to use one blade for everything and replace them as and when required).

I do produce quite a lot of full colour reflectives but I tend to print onto clear, laminate and then overlay onto reflective and then cut.

The reason I prefer to print onto clear is very simple – if something goes wrong it only costs a few quid, printing directly onto reflective on the other hand – makes for expensive mistakes/errors/print drop out etc. Ouch !!!

If you want any further info on the settings/profiles I’ve used just let me know.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

So helium has got another use besides doing Mickey Mouse impressions :lol1:

I would love to have a go at that – it looks fantastic. Just imagine how peaceful it would be without the deafening noise of a hot air balloon burner being fired every 30 seconds.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hey Dewi,

Cracking job mate – I love it! Really great to see ‘fun’ graphics 😀

I’m sure we all get sick and tired of the same old ‘bold and bright’, ‘must get the message across’, ‘nothing fancy – just my phone number’ brigade – good work, credit to ya :lol1:

Never mind a bud where’s the whisky *drink* ??

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

ooooh screen angles …… 😮

Hi Justin – welcome to the group, ask lots of questions and get loads of replies, that’s what it’s all about.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Happy Birthday :lol1:

Have a great day and I’ll have a pint for you tonight.

I can send you a TVR keyring if that will help ease the blues!

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Mark,

As Dewi said –

quote :

Great to see another Lancashire signmaker on the boards

Welcome to the group – look forward to seeing some of your work!

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Martin,

Welcome to the group – keep those questions coming becuase there’s a lot of people on here with a great deal of knowledge who are more than willing to help.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Rachel,

Welcome aboard, don’t worry too much about the CIA and DEA – have you seen what they made me do with my avatar?? :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Bring it on – I NEED this stuff :lol1:

Dewi, never mind New Year – how about all year round :thumbup2:

I won’t sleep tonight now 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Jill,

The electric isn’t that bad, from Dec 1st to the 6th Jan the lights will consume approx £18’s worth.

Must hook up the dynamo to the exercise bike – yeah as if :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Dewi,

Sorry to say were are on not one, but two flight paths – Blackpool and Warton :lol1:

We have toned things down a little this year. For Christmas last year we imported some inflatables from the USA – Santa in a sleigh being pulled by two reindeer and a polar bear wearing a purple jumper, but some of the little snot rags round here decided to use them as bouncy castles so we took them down.

You can see last year’s picture here on the BBC website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/magazine_festive_cheer_or_illumination_nightmare0/html/2.stm

So this year there is no low level stuff which is a shame, but I guess not every little darling is an angel.

Please don’t start me off with snow machines – I’d love one, if anybody has one I could borrow for a day or two please let me know 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Dewi, grab some images and come and have a play with a versa thingy, just up’t’ road tha’ kno’s.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Here ya go – Merry Christmas

There’s just one more wreath to go up, and that’s on the front door!

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Oh, yes indeed :dance1:

[Mark Shipley]

Ho, ho, ho – and stuff…

I’ll post a picture of the house later on this afternoon (once the lights have been swithced on) – hopefully that will bring about a bit of Christmas cheer 😀

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

So, let me get this right – if you take drugs, your brain will be the same size as your butt hole and if you go to prison you get a good education?

:lol1: 😕 :lol1:

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Rob,

1, Izzy Whizzy, let’s get busy – was started by Harry Corbett (Sooty) and then his son Matthew Corbett took over in 1976

2, **Piff-Paff-Poof** was the Great Soprendo aka Geoffrey Durham (Victoria Wood’s Husband) (spin)

3, THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME, THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME – Dorothy – Wizard of Oz

“Bye bye everyone! Bye! Bye!”

[Mark Shipley]

Ohhh, there you go you see – the little princess with her nicely polished nails and a borrowed piece of plastic …

… and the poor guy left holding his own 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Becky,

The only place to buy ecosol inks for the Versacamm is from Roland at £60 for a 220ml cartridge, plus vat and a high shipping charge. They have you over a barrel (not even one full of ink at that)

As Rodney says they are forcing people to ask questions about 3rd party suppliers.

In defense of the Versacamm, it’s the only printer I’ve had that doesn’t use black ink. It still has the original black cartridge installed that it came with, while the C,M & Y are coming upto to their 4th set.

At the end of the day the inks and print heads for the Versacamm are made by Epson – I wonder if we should go knocking on their door?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hello beepee,

Welcome to the boards.

Jump in and make yourself at home.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Have a great Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to you both :yeeha:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

4 correx sheets and approx 10m of vinyl ~ £200 – not enough IMHO

Cost of materials alone is about a hundred quid after you’ve taken application tape etc into account.

I’d have thought around £300 – £75 each would be more like it.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

I give all my customers a fridge magnet, printed vinyl stuck onto uncoated magentic sheeting and cut down – they cost pence to make and bring in repeat business time and time again.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Alright, here goes (and don’t say I didn’t warn you)

Reg Holdsworth (actor Ken Morley) lives just down the road from me.

There, you see, I know something about Corporation Street 🙄

In a past job/life, I used to have ‘dealings’ with him on almost a weekly basis. Before anyone asks it had nothing to do with double glazing!!!

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Not me – just finished doing 500 3D domes

Besides – what’s Corrie?

I thought a corrie was where a glacier started 😮 also known as a tarn 😉

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Marcella,

Is this any good?

Mark

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Attachments:

champ1.ai

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Marcella,

Do you want to cut or print the champagne bottle?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Peter,

I have tried laminating holographic with only limited success. The results were very poor if using anything other than very thin high gloss laminate. The best results I achieved were by using a 30 micron vehicle wrap cast laminate.

My first stupid attempt was with a satin laminate on ‘bright overall’ – it’s amazing how quickly you can turn expensive nice looking holographic vinyl into bog standard metallic silver :doh:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Steve, all I can see is two little red crosses.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

I’ve just been over the West Pennine Moors to Haslingden and tops are covered in snow – should have taken a camera 😕

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Fredrik,

Many thanks for the pictures – today’s image is fantastic. Is that the view from your place?

The entire UK comes to a complete standstill with just a light dusting of snow – the trains don’t work, the airports close and the roads become giant carparks (nothing new there I guess).

Where I live, people think ice on the roads means drive faster and red lining the engine to get the wheels spinning faster is the only way to move a car stuck in snow – it’s great fun watching them in a morning.

Oh and the kettle of water over the windscreen brigade make me laugh 😀 I keep waiting for that nice cracking sound 🙄

Anyways must get on.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

There be sleet here :lol1:

Snowman building competition tomorrow :dance4:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Nik,

I’ve been telling the dogs all day it’s going to snow – they love the stuff (almost as much as I do).

I wonder if we ask Rob nicely enough we can have a ‘snow balling’ emoticon? :thumbup2:

Mark

Hey – who threw that ??

[Mark Shipley]

We have the wet stuff here in Lancashire – but the temperature is dropping :shake:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

So does that constitute back seat driving or just going about things back to front? 😕

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

I got a Pepperami ‘Hot Stick’ a couple of days ago – but I did request a free one :lol1:

http://www.pepperami.co.uk/home.aspx

Mark

Go on, you know it makes sense 👿

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Beej,

Superb job, would look forward to seeing a step by step demo.

Not as though I could ever create anything like that, my level of painting skill comes in the from of 5litre tins from B&Q :lol1: but I would be fascinated to see the process involved in airbrushing.

Regards,
Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Excellent Rich,

Not a dry eye here in Lancashire

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve had a play with Arial Black, set it to 100 point and put a 1mm scalable outline around the text. It does beef it up a bit.

I’ll try cutting some of the text to see how it looks.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Rob,

Many thanks, not going to worry about it just at the mo’

Bottle of reward juice open – it’ll go off if I don’t finish it tonight :lol1: **cheers**

Enjoy the weekend

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

just to tag on

Most suppliers can provide the above vinyls, I get mine from Hexis.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

No real answer – sorry 🙁

But, glow in the dark and day-glow vinyl does glow very nicely under UV – if thats of any help.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Dave,

Just a bit off topic – you mentioned you’d moved down t’road, are you next door or next door but one to Said?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Dewi,

As you’re also based in Lancashire you should be ready for anything 😀

Like the White Rose Invasion Force (ooops I’m already here 😉 )

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Nice one Rob, that will keep the spell checkers quiet for a while.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Ian,

Did they send you a blank cheque ? :lol1: ? :lol1:

How did you manage to send out a blank board?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

I’m using SignPal Master 7.0v3

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Becky,

The set up here is such that if a PC goes down we can mirror the dead PC’s hard drive from the external backup drives onto the spare PC and have it up and running and back to where we were within a couple of hours.

Our biggest concern though is power fluctuations and interuptions. Everything has an uninteruptable power supply and beyond that we have a couple of petrol generators at the ready.

Nothing worse than getting to within 2mm of the end of a 3m banner and 😕 the lights go out.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

The start point can be changed very easily, I use the ‘point tool’, select the cutting line and click the ‘change start point button’

Then move the start point to any location on the cutting line and accept the changes.

Works for me on any awkward curves.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Not sure about summa and corel, but you could try this.

It seems that the standard way of cutting is for the blade to cut the inside paths (holes) of an object clockwise and the outside paths are cut counterclockwise. This can result in a slight snag when the blade does a 180o.

If possible set cut direction to either clockwise or anticlockwise – doing so should make it cut inner and outer paths in the same direction.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

Just a thought but wouldn’t changing the cut start point help? Rather than starting the cut from the 9 o’clock position try starting it from 12 o’clock position where I would have thought there is less room for error.

The only problem is how changing back to GMT might affect this 😮

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

I’ve got a SignPal Jaguar II 101, good machine – incredibly fast when you want it to be 1530mm per second – that’s 5 foot per second!

It cuts letters down to 3mm high, has a tangential emulation mode for ‘straight line’ work, 4 programmable tools so no having to reset everything every time you change vinyl, I can’t fault it.

I cut all-sorts from cast to reflective in the Jaguar and it handles everything I throw at it.

I would certainly recommend them to anyone.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Darryl,

Hexis do a 5 year 50 micron cast chrome, I’ve used it over the bonnet of a Chrysler PT Cruiser with very good results (see picture) – if memory serves it’s CH8001 (sad I know 😮 ).

I think I’ve still got some kicking around if you want a bit to play with – let me know.

Mark

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Attachments:

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Steve,

Nice work !!

I agree the second sign is in keeping with the building.

If I may suggest that you ‘Initial cap’ the – Sales – Repairs – MOT Testing of Diesel and Petrol, I think that would be less aggressive than all caps, plus it would make the MOT more prominent as you have done in the first sign.

Look forward to seeing the finished sign.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

COWABUNGA!!!!

They won’t see the step for looking at the sign :lol1:

Nice job Dewi.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Have a look here

http://www.thetransferpress.co.uk for the Rotech ink for the C84!

According to Epson the C84 and the C64 use the same ink cartridges.

Hope this is of help.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

Yes, you can print onto media upto 1mm thick in the VersaCAMM.

You would have course have to do a ‘print adjust calibration’ and a ‘BI-Dir calibration’

Run a few test prints, you’ll probably find that a ‘variable dry’ setting will give you better results on paper as variable can put too much black ink down which will soak into the paper and give a mottled pattern.

As far as profiles go, I tend to use Metamark MD5-100 for paper.

Hope this is of help.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

You know the old saying

‘A mole a day keeps the dingleberries away’

or at least I think that’s the old saying :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

I’ve just updated my pc’s to Norton Inernet Security 2005 today from the 2004 version. Rather than pay for a new subscription I think it’s always worth getting the new product which comes complete with a year’s subscription.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Mark

BTW never had any serious problems with Norton

[Mark Shipley]

Hi PhilB,

That is really great – so realistic (not as though I’ve ever seen a werewolf victim – but even so) – thanks for the pic.

Anybody else got any Halloween pictures?

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Dave,

Give me a shout sometime, we might be able to help each other out once in a while.

Just got rid of a 24″ cutter – sorry, but if you need anything cutting upto 40″ wide let me know, also got a VersaCAMM for full colour print and cut.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Steve,

We have Blackpool Airport, BAE Warton and BAE Salmesbury not so far away, I keep expecting a Eurofighter Typhoon to appear on the drive :plane:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

last one – enjoy

Mark

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Attachments:

[Mark Shipley]

and some more picture …

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Attachments:

[Mark Shipley]

Hello Roy,

Come on in, the water’s lovely :thumbup2:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

You don’t get any of these charges with the abbey – in fact they even pay you interest !!

Not sure on a business credit card, I know they do a personal one.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Gary,

Welcome aboard – everybody is really friendly and will help you out as best they can.

Look forward to seeing some of your work.

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

The Abbey allows you to draw upto £500 cash each day via the ATM, but they do supply you with a Visa Debit card, so unless you really need cash the card should do the trick.

There is one thing I don’t like about the Abbey National – the vile colours used in their ‘new look’ :vomit:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi all,

I’m with Abbey National Business Banking – no bank charges if you stay within certain depsoit limits per month. The way they get around this is there is no counter service what so ever, you mail in cheques or pay in cash/cheques through the ‘ole in’wall.

You can do do all the usual stuff check accounts, transfer money online plus telephone banking if you want etc etc. I find it very simple and very effective.

It works for me anyway – just my 2p’s worth (and no charges) :lol1:

Mark

[Mark Shipley]

Hi, it does sound like a water bloom within the adhesive, if possible, leave it a few days and it should clear up.

When using a vinyl with a water based adhesive you must use the smallest amount of water possible to apply it – nothing more than a fine mist. Of course, fitting dry would be the best option – but I’m not starting a thread about that 😕

Hope this is of help.

Mark