[Richard Daniel]

You can buy acrobat as a stand alone.

I’ve started to use it’s pre flights day in day out. – it’s got some fantastic features, such as convert all colours to cmyk, flatten transparencies, extract pages. – probably stuff you can get in various other software but it’s great to have it in one place.

You can build custom pre flight profiles using your favourite tools so you can carry out the basics in one click.

The flatten transparency tool is great, it prevents any of the issues we used to get with gradients when printing, not only that, it makes the files tiny in comparison and they rip in minutes compared to versions that haven’t had a pre flight.

[Richard Daniel]

Looks decent, any idea of costs?

[Richard Daniel]

Steff.

From the site: Mutoh Valuejet – Mutoh Blizzard – Mimaki Jv3 – Mimaki JV33 – Mimaki JV5

http://www.colorificink.com/lightbar/

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for the info on this.

Has anyone got this set up on a jV33? – My main concern is the lamp is a lot lower down the unit (nearer the take up unit. – Thats a long way down with wet ink)

[Richard Daniel]

Rob,

Thanks for taking the time to put this up. – We’re planning on going to the sign show next week and taking a look.

Did you have to do anything with the rip software? – New rip/ change of profiles etc?

[Richard Daniel]

Steve.

Thanks for getting back to me, I was looking to use the hooks in the link as opposed to the adhesive buttons. – I’ll give the cable systems a go.

[Richard Daniel]

Ian.

Many thanks, I was thinking along the lines of something like this maybe..

http://www.ukpos.com/double-hook-suspension-wire/

[Richard Daniel]

I like the clients who come in and have no idea what they want..

You spend ten minutes coming up with a solution fore them to then say ‘oh that’s expensive’! – ten minutes ago, you didn’t even know what the fuck you wanted, so how the hell do you know how much it should cost??

[Richard Daniel]

We don’t laminate ours, we have been running the mactac on our uv so it has been more durable. – we haven’t had any issues with it stretching. We usually pull back around 2′ from the top and work down. It may be an idea to work from the centre out.

We usually go for a 10mm join. – which you can’t see at all, so I haven’t had any complaints yet.

Also, It may be an idea to loosen up the slack on your take up unit when running the print, it’s worked for us in the past.

[Richard Daniel]

Sorry for the bump, over the past couple of years we’ve tried loads.

From digimura’s paste option, to straight forward vinyl.

The digimura paste option wasn’t good for us. – you cannot splice the wall covering as the paste ‘contaminates’ the print. – I.e smudges and can remove the solvent print.

We used phototex and paper graphics version of the same product. – we used these products for a fair while, a couple of things to note. – leave the print for a couple of days it’s really tacky within the first 24 hours and you’ll probably end up wearing it. – I did find the prints a little dull too on our solvent, we never tried it on our UV. – the biggest problem for us was that it can’t be overlapped as you can see the overlap clearly. – it’s when you splice it there’s a risk you can catch a small strand and almost Frey it, this is a nightmare for darker images as it turns white.

After this we went for a more PVC product for a more vibrant finish that was specifically for wallcoverings. – it was a decent product from William smith, again you couldn’t overlap the joins as they went darker so we opted to butt it together, we also ran these on our uv printer and the finish was great. – we contacted william smith a couple of months back and they told us it had been discontinued. (I think it was aslan, I’ll find out on Monday)

Finally, we purchased a mactac grey backed Matt vinyl. – it works a charm, we’ve been overlapping joins, and as it’s PVC based the colours nice and vibrant. – the grey back helps hide up any unsightly walls and the sticks great.

One other thing I would suggest, avoid telling the client it’s removable. – it’s not. – if the walls been taped and jointed plasterboard or not keyed properly, this will pull the paint straight off. – another advantage of grey backed it we can just go straight over the top should it need updating a later date

Hope this is of some use

[Richard Daniel]

Guys

Thanks for the info, the HDU stuff looks like what I’m after, we have a company not to far that can cope with the cnc side of things.

Any idea how I would brand it?

[Richard Daniel]

Rob.

I think the airbrushing may be the way forward, I would of lost the gradient in the red and just go for the countries. – no you mention it, probably could do away with both.

I also had reservations about mounting a print on it as you would be able to see the edge of the vinyl too.

[Richard Daniel]

Rob, thanks for getting back, using a CNC would be ideal but its getting the gradients on there that I can see being an issue.

[Richard Daniel]

Sorry for the bump, we buy our contra vision from metamark too, I’ve found the other suppliers products have larger holes in, which can make an impact on the overall finish if the text is quite small but again, it’s the cost.

We were buying their optically clear at about £400 for 25 metres, I’ve just found another supplier with a better product (fits easier, less prone to surface scratches) for the same rate but a 50m log. – Just wished I found them before ordering 250m just before Christmas 🙄

That said, their md3 and 5 digital products are great, we’ve gone to other suppliers in the past and always ended up back with them.

I just wish they reeled out their buy a log of md5 and get one half price deal out a bit more often.

[Richard Daniel]

Glen, thanks for getting back to me, what’s the name of the function I’ll check it out

[Richard Daniel]

It looks to me like it’s either printed etch or translucent with and led strip.

From memory, the text is about 8mm thick Perspex mounted to the outside of the glass – if so, better to cut the logo in reverse in black vinyl to apply on the inside to hide up the adhesive on the back of the letters.

A shop in our local high street (in kent) is being fitted out and looks a hell of a lot like a foxtons fit out. – I’ll take a look when the signage goes in.

[Richard Daniel]

We had the same issue a couple of months back, what we installed went almost white and looked terrible, on the fitting instructions it said apply wet and remove water quickly, by the time we got to the bottom of the 3m drops, the adhesive could be rubbed off.

We had to replace it with a new product unfortunately.

[Richard Daniel]

Was the Anapurna that bad? – Wow, I thought they were decent machines.

In December we bough Mimakis UJV hybrid off eBay. – It was a bit of a gamble as I couldnt find many reviews on here or many other places to be honest. – but we have a jv33 and never had issues with it (or too many issues the jv3 before).

Its been up and running 3 months and cant really complain.

We purchased it with the hard inks which are supposed to be specifically for direct to substrate but have been using it to print on to optically clear, pull ups and wall covering. (we’ve used 3 different brands of wall-covering with it)

We’ve had no issues with the ink chipping on soft or hard substrates, we’ve cut it with knifes, on table saws and even on a CNC and no chipping.

Ours didn’t come with the tables. – We were advised that the tables were pretty poor so had a company build us some bespoke ones that are really sturdy, (think large conveyer systems) each table is 2m long so can handle decent lengths. – last week we ran a sheet of 3m long foamex through it with no issues.

One downside to this is the ink expiry dates are pretty lousy, 4-5 months. – Its at a different unit at the moment so isn’t getting used as much as I would like but its earned its money back in bringing optically clear in house.

UV’s great for the pull ups too, I dont get a sweat on when rolling them inside the units for the first time.

I’m aware its an entry level machine, but for me thats beauty, If I decide months down the line that I need something printing direct to substrate and quicker, I can go for a specific flat bed and still have this one churning out scratch resistant wall coverings and pull ups.

[Richard Daniel]

Chris.

Thanks for getting back, The supplier sent me the spec sheet, the adhesive is ‘pure polyacrylic , semi permanent, transparent’

I noticed on the spec sheet it states the film can be applied wet or dry. – This stood out..

The product can be installed via dry or wet application techniques, if
using a wet application method care should be taken to ensure that all water is eliminated immediately.

These windows are nearly 3m tall and the marks are mainly around the bottom of the film. I’m not sure the fitters could get nearer the bottom any quicker.

Whats also interesting is where the milkiness is, you can rub the adhesive off by rubbing it with your thumb.

[Richard Daniel]

We’re also in the same boat, in need of some fro a crash repair.

Spoken with Hexis today, they do 2 different shades of the colour, one for Europe, one for UK. – We’ve requested a sample of each to match.

Ive pantone matched the red with a view to print, anyone know if theres a specific colour vinyl?

[Richard Daniel]

Think i’ve managed to cure it..

Originally I sent it on immediate print. – I think the heads been coming back to rip more data and the over-tensioned take up unit has been constantly pulling it down whilst ripping.

Have just run it again on rip and print and reduced the tension. – No issues at all.
had the thing 3 years and still hitting (expensive) learning curves..

🙄

[Richard Daniel]

I usually set up a complete block of colour where the text should be to avoid any issues.

Its around images I struggle.- Once I received some artwork that had a fuzzy bleed around it meaning if the plotter ran off a little it still picked up the correct colours from the Jpeg. – never been able to crack it tho…

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Richard Daniel]

Cheers guys. – Last time we had the engineer out he fitted static strips on the front and back of the machine.

[Richard Daniel]

Do you print on by directional and fast print? – Could try switching both of them off and a quick 5 minute nozzle wash

[Richard Daniel]

quote Andrew Fleming:

Can anybody help on this one, I am getting a cyan overspray/shadow on my black prints no matter what res I print at, any suggestions on how to fix.

I emailed Hybrid 2 weeks ago about this and go read receipts from them but so far nobody has bothered coming back to me, looks like it might be time to shift to laytex HP or Roland where I know I can get an engineer, I did hear about Hybrid Ireland but cant find their details.

A long shot. – have you made sure that head thickness is set to thin? we had some issues with overspray. – It turned out the lever was set half way between thick and thin.

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for getting back to me mate, I’ll have a look and get that tension off the take up.

[Richard Daniel]

Jamie.

Your right! – Just had a quick scout round google and found a few different pieces of kit that can crack the Password.

As an alternative to this, you can do a selected screen shot of the proof using (on a mac) Shift>cmd>4 – Drag it over the proof and it will save a low(ish) res Png to the desktop. You can then open in preview and save as a Jpeg or PDF. you certainly wouldnt be able to edit it or blow it up larger then screen size to print… similar to attached..

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Richard Daniel]

You can still open previews PDF’s in Illustrator, it does cause some data loss but can still open.

To reduce the size of the PDF’s when saving in Ai click the compression tool in the Save as PDF pop up and reduce the Dpi of any Jpegs in the file. 0- Thats should bring it down.

Another good trick, in the top right corner of the PDF tab (again, in the PDF pop up), change compatibility to only the latest couple of versions. – This will drastically reduce the size, most people with PDF viewers keep them up to date as it reminds you every-time you launch it to update. – Sometimes its storing the info needed to view correctly in older versions of reader that can make the file large.

As a separate note for the digital printers. – If you have issues with printing gradients. – Save the file as an older PDF and you shouldn’t get any issues with the gradients from illustrator and issues that come with in-design files that have cropped images in.

If you have one of the CS master collections, you should have Acrobats PDF pro, in this option you can also save as a ‘reduced size PDF’ – This really does bring the file size down. – There’s also some excellent tools in there for making multi page PDf’s

To my knowledge there is no way of opening a password protected PDF without the password.

We have had clients contacting us before asking for the password, when asked why they needed them, they told us so they can make some changes themselves. – We all know thats not possible & their trying it so depending on the size of the job we charge anything from £50 – £200 to release a version without the password. (never tell them the password) if you use the same P/W for all PDF’s. you will come unstuck if they pass it on to a competitor. – Believe me… 👿

For large files we send using wetransfer.com. – Its a great free site and is so easy to use. For a couple of pounds a month you can buy up your own page with your own background… (peach.wetransfer.com)

[Richard Daniel]

Jon.

Its been a few years since I looked into it, so it makes sense that its probably improved.

In terms of design, do you create work using Illustrator on mac, create outlines then open in Flexi?

I’d like to look into it as I think the PC version of Flexi is a big improvement on the Macs. One of my concerns is the font management. – Can Parallels see the fonts open on the mac, or do you need to install the fonts again on Windows?

[Richard Daniel]

David.

We had the same problem, are you saving from Adobe? – If so, you can password protect the file in the PDF settings, it means it can be viewed but not edited, you can even set it so it cant be printed. – Works a treat.

[Richard Daniel]

We upgraded one of our machines to the latest Flexi as Lion isnt compatible with the older flex (for Power Pc’s) & Apple have abondond Rosetta which used to run PPC on Intel. The difference between the 2 is marginal and imo not worth £600.00 they want to upgrade each copy.

I run Windows on a mac a few years ago using Boot camp, after 2 months it got a virus and wouldn’t boot the windows partition any longer. – I have seen there are Apps around so you can run XP/Windows 7 as an app. but have heard their painfully slugish.

[Richard Daniel]

We’re on our third roll of this, it is expensive but the results are excellent.

The forest image is in our office and the other images are recently completed projects.

I wouldn’t recommend it being reposition-able, it will quite easily pull the paint off.

We had some issues with one of the rolls which Landor quickly replaced. – To be honest, I’d spend all day every day printing & fitting this product if I could.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Richard Daniel]

Earl.

many thanks, the fact that doesn’t need laminating could be useful as the 3m works out quite expensive.

Again, its the last life, I’m looking for something that will go for around 12 months.

Thanks again for the link

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for coming back to me guys.

I have really shot myself in the foot with this, the idea was to just print it, sub the finishing of the banner, sub the fitting and take something off it, now i’m running the banner twice, paying twice for the install and twice for the picker.

The cables are set across the street with the top one being taught, the cable for teh bottom of the banner is loose (about 5′ deep in teh middle as opposed to teh 4′ at the ends.

As I understand this takes the tension from the wind?

I also found this online for the details on Shackles and wind pockets.

http://www.aristaflag.com/diagrams/streetbanners.html

[Richard Daniel]

Peter.

Thanks for the response, this is the whole reason I subbed out the preparation of the banner and of the installation, the banner is only up for a week so the tensioning isn’t an issue over a period of time, the fitters were using some pretty heavy duty cable ties, (through eyelets every foot) but like you say, if there is an element of risk involved I will use the shackles./

I will have to run the banner again so will take into account the wind pockets ane fitting method.

The problem with teh mesh is that by the time the banner is stuck together, the white backing from the other back of the other side will just leak through.

[Richard Daniel]

Matt, yes the banner itself is for the Council.

[Richard Daniel]

quote Ian Johnston:

I have a few videos and pictures of the ones we use,( cant put them up here on this tread) they are costly though, but do a very effective job. beware of planning though as they are a bit in your face , and planners don’t like them much.

pm sent.

will post video on anther thread.
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 217#309217

Ian

Ian, would you be able to pm me the details too please?

Simon

[Richard Daniel]

I will double check with the client, he mentioned last they wasn’t switched on, ill get confirmation from him.

I took delivery of the first fridge yesterday, typically its a double door one to start with 🙄

The guy who delivered the fridge collected the original ones, he also said they looked fine, but the company who did them was asking Smeg if they can remove the panels in future because of difficulties with the corners.

The client has always had dealings with 3m and they are allowed to carry the 3m logo on other projects they do (the fridge is a new idea they are pushing)

I think I’m going to go for the 3m for starters just for piece of mind, I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Richard Daniel]

I spoke with the client who assures me they were immaculate upon delivery, which is what baffles me the most, if someone on the shop floor had noticed they were peeling back, I can understand them lifting one up, but surely they wouldnt of done it on both?

So after seeing the images, still go for a cheaper film? or just go for it and have piece of mind?

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for coming back to me. Gill as soon as the first fridge arrives I will be in-touch.

The fridges have a few rounded edges, the reason I want to go for this is that another company used a different material from what they were advised.

I have attached a couple of images of what happened to the fridges on the shop floor of Selfridges. – I’ve never seen a wrap shrink back so far before

The client has been lucky enough to get another shot and I really wouldn’t wish to be the company that puts the nail in the coffin for him.

These are the fridges.

http://www.appliancist.com/smeg-fridge- … 28uror.jpg

---

Attachments:

[Richard Daniel]

Jamie.

Your right, on our new machine we only use geniune Mimaki inks that have the labels, the ones for our jv3 are a mix between genuine Mimaki & coloursole (the coloursolve carts are recycled Mimaki one anyway so most people will take them.

[Richard Daniel]

Ouch.

Its a killer, if the client decides they do not wish to go ahead I’m stuck with nearly 2ks worth including the lam.

[Richard Daniel]

We switched at the start of this month (raster came with our new jv33)

I think I will always prefer Shiraz as its what I’ve always used until now, however Rasterlink comes with free updates for life and prints every tone, curve, gradient that I throw at it (shiraz simply couldn’t, unless I spent another £1000 to upgrade, still then with no guarantee)

For me its a no brainer, Rasterlink is free and will never go out of date, you cant get a better deal then that I’m afraid, unless someone wants to offer me a fcompleetly free upgrade to Shiraz v7. 🙂

[Richard Daniel]

Do waste not collect?

we had this company mtcartridge.co.uk

They also give a Pound for the JV3 cartridges, the only downside is they want you to get the carts to them, which for us would of cost more then the costs of teh carts

[Richard Daniel]

Andy.

Thanks for your reply.

It appears to be a sensor issue, last night, I took off the left hand side cover & the on the sensor ‘receiver’ the green light was barely flickering.

To put this to the test, I put a small square of reflective on a bit of foamex and offered it up about 2 inches away from the actual sensor, as soon as I did this I noticed the green light constantly stay on.

I have contacted the guys who installed it (spit) he slightly muttered it was the problem they had, I explained again the issue and said it wasn’t the same issue, then went on to try and baffle me with some jargon, only to finish up telling me they only really specialised in dismantling and repairing screen benches.

Funny he didn’t mention that when taking £900.00 for me for the service.

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks very much 😀

[Richard Daniel]

Its a tough call, and in no way by saying the following do I feel like I have it sussed, as I haven’t at all, just with the way things have been last year, I’ve learned some very valuable (& costly) lessons

I completely understand the busy fool scenario having been one for the past few years.

We backed ourselves into a tough position to get out of. We used to take on practically any job, people would come in to the shop and get £80 jobs in a couple of hours, people would be rushing around leaving work late, working through the night stressing out etc etc.

We solely focused on our turnover and suffered because of it.
We were cramming in silly rush jobs for people who had no respect for our time or the quality of our work, whilst delaying & not giving enough attention to the completion of thousands of pounds worth of ‘decent’ work in the process.

We sat down in December and carried out a small audit on the company.

We cut out some basic things, i.e cheaper & faster internet, got rid of a couple of phone lines, the £280 a year water cooler, the fax that always needs to be refilled so we can receive more junk about hi-vis jackets & lease cars.

To give an example of how crazy things were, in 2008 we turned over £27k more then in 2007… and made 11k less then the year before – so to summarise we worked like crazy put loads of figures through and made £38,000 less for our troubles.

Things like the vinyl bill, overtime etc were just phenomenal invoices were coming in every day.

Things got a little better last year and a few decent contracts evened things out, since the audit things are really going well, we turned over 8k less on the same period the year before (09) from Jan to March but this year made 6k more, its amazing that In 6 years of being here I haven’t sat down and carried out an audit and monitored where we were throwing money away.

Now if we dont make at least 45% on a job, we politely turn it away, we pretty much refuse to go into bidding wars with competition, I would rather spend the time getting the house in order the get stressed out for a heavily reduced profit.

Dont get me wrong, I have still spent the whole weekend working, at least now I’m confident the business will get a return for it.

Dont be afraid to sub out work, theres nothing better then getting a tray with say, built up lettering already attached to it and subbing the fitting out, that way you’ve taken £500.00 for a fascia design & given yourself half a day to get some other work out.

We have taken another employee on a part time basis (she’s learning web design at college the other 2) She only really takes care of the design aspect of the job, (fluent in CS3 & Quark) she handles all printing (wide format and digital) and acts as cover for my artwork leaving me free to quote…. & sit on the signboards
:lol1:

We always order in bulk now, this leaves us free to take up special offers, like the 2 for 1 on third party inks some suppliers have been offering, vinyls like white, red black yellow etc always are ordered in 50m rolls, our vinyls orders have gone from 3/4x a week to 1 or 2 at a push.

We have taken a stance now, that if the customers work is ‘so important’ they should of arranged it a lot sooner rather then sit on it and let it become my problem.

We overquote all ‘rush jobs’ if the client queries the cost we explain its not the product they are paying for, its the service and to cover all the other work getting put on hold. Obviously we have clients we’re more then happy to go that extra mile for but people from off the street its just not gonna happen

[Richard Daniel]

Sounds pretty good to me mate.

How about Tiling does it have teh same features? We have a lot of problems with joins lining up & being slightly different colours (I am aware this could be both the rip & printer)

What machine are you using?

[Richard Daniel]

Jon.

This is true about the versions, I opened up a thread very similar to this some time ago, in it I mentioned the AIT refused to be drawn in on wether the new version could print gradients, all they repeatedly said was, ‘its compatible with all new Adobe software’.

I do have a contact (ex AIT who repairs mimakis etc, very reasonably priced too) he has offered to install the latest version and if it still doesn’t print correctly, he would remove the latest version and re-install the existing & leave it as it was (if anyone wants the guy’s details, drop me a pm)

John.

Since you switched from Shiraz to Rasterlink, would you say you have missed any features from Shiraz, I only ask as we have the option to get Rasterlink for free if we upgrade our Mimaki, which could save me a decent sum all together.

[Richard Daniel]

We are currently looking to upgrade our Rip.

We currently use 6.4 Shiraz, and have been giving a lot of thought to switching to Wasatch.

We are looking for a new printer, possibly one that prints white, Wasatch has some pretty cool new features for White printing.

To upgrade my Shiraz with the new Adobe plug in for gradients is going to set me back a grand.

A new version of Wasatch about £1500, I’m hoping to re-coup some of the money from Shiraz by selling it on ebay.

I am a big fan of the Mimaki Fine cut plug in for illustrator, If I set the register marks in illustrator before printing I cant see it making ay difference what Rip I use as the marks are on there already.

I dont really want to change from Shiraz as I have been using it for 4 years, I just think its a bit of a con having to pay another £250.00 for the Adobe plug in so I can print gradients and fades, when imo I should be able to from the off.

I appreciate what Dave is saying re setting up the gradients correctly, however most of our artwork comes directly to us & I dont want to waste time with outlined fonts etc.

[Richard Daniel]

Ian.

many thanks for the info, The only issue is that these dura trans will be 2.8m x 0.8m.

I wonder if its possible to by the snap frame in lengths?

[Richard Daniel]

Is it possible to get a snap frame design to be used on a lightbox?

[Richard Daniel]

Peter.

A company named bluewater trading, are selling them across the Uk

[Richard Daniel]

Could always give Ne plastics a try over in Sidcup, They cover all of London and essex.

Have all of their own drivers and boards very rarely end up damaged, the only issue we had was when no-one was here and he unloaded 3m x 2m foamex on his own.

Bad times :lol1:

[Richard Daniel]

My colleague sent the uk supplier an email and got this in return.

"Thank you for your email.

In answer to your questions, we DO NOT supply any parts for the taper and we DO NOT offer any warranty on the machine, this is reflected in the purchase price.

Do let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards"

Just to clear that up for anyone thinking of buying one, nearly £2000 is such a steal…. You shouldn’t expect a warranty.

[Richard Daniel]

Maybe its time the guys over there began to get in touch with people and try to help them resolve their issues, Its pretty poor I have to say.

The stand its self was about £300.00 iirc, Thats a lot of outlay for something that doesnt fit together in the first place, We had the same issue with the MDF warping, I noticed on their web site they are garuanteed for 5 years? Does this include the stands? It must include the Rollers Martin?

[Richard Daniel]

A few years ago, I bought a macbook pro because I used them for work, I always had it running on Windows until I got a virus on it, I wiped all the pc aspect off and really got into the mac, realizing its great for everything and not just the design field. They are so easy, after a couple of months you’ll find your way around so easy, Even the preview software can be really helpful in our field, Converting files is easy.

The mac mini’s are superb, We replaced all of our G4’s with them and they can take anything you throw at them, I know Apple have refreshed them and they are a little more expensive, However, You can build them to a spec on apples web site.

On a side note, They are great for home entertainment, All I have is a mac mini under my tv with the wireless keyboard and mouse, Its fantastic, Once you get the apple remote and start using front row you wont look back.

In the time I’ve worked in the office with macs (6 years) all I have ever had to do was beef up the hard drive on a 10 year old mac, How many Dells can see through 10 years and only need that?

Their customer support is brilliant, Any quiries, just unplug it, Take it to an apple store and they will take a look without any charge.

[Richard Daniel]

You certainly didnt miss out on the stand, Its sways side to side, none of the holes line up, even from new.

Have you had any joy from the Uk supplier? I’ve never had any emails replied to, To be honest I thought they had gone out of business until I took a look at their updated site.

[Richard Daniel]

Anyone still using theirs?

We’ve had ours since 07, When we first got flood coated 15 8’x4′ sheets of Dibond, which was a dream, However, We cant use it for wide format any more, Its constantly gets bubbles through the middle, Laminating Not even worth mentioning.

I have just noticed on the site they have new base stands now, Ours is terrible, Half the screws always fall out, Its rickety, We even replaced the top with a work top to make it steadier but its still not ideal.

We can only really do small prints etc now, Wouldn’t want to risk loosing anything wide format, We was sent a small roller that supports the middle. However, this constantly pops out of place.

It sits pretty dormant. to be honest I wish I just spent teh extra on a decent laminator with mounting capabilities.

Whats everyone else’s like? anyone having similar issues?

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for the reply, I put the print heat up to 45, Still with no joy. 🙁

Will mix it up a bit more with the profiles.

[Richard Daniel]

Its meant to be a dark gray, Colouring isn’t a problem its the blotches that I cant stop from appearing.

[Richard Daniel]

Martin.

Many Thanks for this, I have often used this technique, On this instance it failed to read the font, However going over that, I never clicked the link file to import, This has worked a treat, (using the second option placing the image and outlining it)

Many thanks 😀

[Richard Daniel]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply, Sorry to be a pain, How do I access the pure blend in Shiraz?

Thanks in advance

[Richard Daniel]

Hey guys thanks for the response,

At least I’m not the only one having issues, Its just a pain having to keep calling up people asking for outlined artwork.

I’ve been on the phone to AIT, Asking about upgrading to 6.6, I asked if it would cover me for Indesign files and gradients.

They said they have kept up with Adobe as much as possible and I would need 6.6 and a plug in for CS4, I asked again if it would print gradients, only for the response, its up to date.

The outlay for 6.6 and the plug in is about £750, Its a fair whack for no real guarantee that it will print the perfect gradient.

[Richard Daniel]

The lighter image is the PDf, The black lines show the difficulties handling the gradient.

The second & third is the Jpeg, You can see the difference in colour

[Richard Daniel]

Karl.

Thanks for the reply, I have Photoshop, I just tried a tiff Hi res and still had colour and quality issues.

Teh problem I have with opening the file up in PS or illustrator is I dont have the fonts, Sometimes I can get away with placing the images in illustrator and flattening transparancy, Including outlining fonts, In some cases it just wont have it and asks for the fonts

[Richard Daniel]

We’re using 6.40 on a pc

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for the response Jon.

Who is the plug in from AIT?

What do you do to get around it at the mo?

Export them in What application Karl? We usually print at 400dpi just to cover ourselves really, We brand a lot of trailers and the artwork comes in at usually 25%

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for the response guys,

I just tried a fill ink and nothing, Dave i have a 160s,

I have taken the front off and have the 2 pumps in front of me, where do i find the ‘disconconector’

Many thanks

[Richard Daniel]

quote Neil Whyte:

HI, all
whats the second hand value of a mimaki cg 75 plotter with stand out of warranty . but never used . so im told . your thoughts appreciated

Neil,

We bought one from ebay a few months ago, paid about £700.00, We have a jv3 160, originally we wanted the larger plotter but couldnt justify the money, we wanted to contour cut for large quantity stickers, we bought this and just have a roll of 760 digital to print onto,

A cheaper option and a great little plotter, we also have a jaguar but use the mimaki to cut small/fine text as its much more accurate

I

[Richard Daniel]

Peter

Thanks for the response.

The work is for a huge computer manufacturer, they have handed me a few jobs and just ask for the work to be done rather then the price.

Just that some people supply etch for Digital printing so as some people are now using 2m wide printers i thought this may be a better bet?

cheers

[Richard Daniel]

Thanks for the reply lads,

Tried the power off, it used to cure it sometimes when it would come up Y error,

Have run a few fill up inks, a 20 min nozzle wash, disconnected the firewire both ends, still nothing, what worries me is the technician is equally confused, he says it sounds like a serious mechanical error, and will probably involve a great expense.

Whats really annoying is that i need to print £1000 worth of banners, the client thinks they are being finished now :doh:

[Richard Daniel]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply,

Yeah, only cleaned it with water.

Its not even doing a test draw, it just carries out all the actions as if it was and nothing,

Just got off the phone to an engineer, he has advised me to do a nozzel wash, which has just finished, still nothing. 😥

[Richard Daniel]

Peter

Thanks for getting back to me

The colour itself keeps printing purple.
Im using Shiraz with hexis v350 vinyl.

Usually when i design the artwork i assign the colour match in flexisgn, when i export it, its a pretty good match to the vinyl.

But someone has sent me the artwork this time so i cant take it into flexisign withou the other colours changing.

Thanks again Peter

[Richard Daniel]

Hi

Anyone else know a good supplier of flag material?

Brook have some quality products but only do a 50m roll,
i was only look for say 20?

If anyone can suggest a company that would be great

Many thanks

Richard

[Richard Daniel]

quote Peter Normington:

cheap and good dont usually go together

:lol1: never a truer word spoken peter.

I did look into these to as they still hold 1580 (i think) but everyone really seemed surpised i was asking and said they only ever really come in package deals now days.

Ill look into it but i know there over 3k.

Ill let you know how i get on

Thanks again

[Richard Daniel]

Chris

Very true my friend, but in honesty for something that size id get more piece of mind cutting it by hand after i taped it up, so more labels.

Does anyone knwo if ts possible to get the bombs Peter was talking about for a jaguar? id be happy to only print at 1360 wide if it meant the plotter i have can do the job in hand

Thanks again

[Richard Daniel]

Peter,

I think i know what your talking about, we used to use it on our edge where i used to work, looking throught th etelescope type thingy 😳

I have often thought about trying to get it manual, maybe printing a box and stting my jaguar up to cut the boa and outlines too, i reckon with enough time it may be possible to get a good cut,

now i know that i dont just need a mimaki plotter ill look around at some others with the eye, anyone knwo any cheep suggestions?

Thanks again for all your help

Ritch

[Richard Daniel]

Many thanks for the repsonse guys.

Ill be using it for all sorts really, cutting small labels & also around large digital images i.e 12′ x 4′

[Richard Daniel]

Peter

So basically what your telling me is the guys @ some stalls on the sign show have been telling me porkies 😮 the horror, shoulda known

This is what i asked them time and time again. Everytime they replied it would only work with the mimaki plotter, so this begs the question, who is using what to cut round their mimaki prints?

Many thanks for your response peter

Richard

[Richard Daniel]

Many thanks mate

I will give this a try and let you know how i get on

Thanks again

[Richard Daniel]

Mark

Many Thanks for getting back to me.

Im using Shiraz, ive only had the printer and software a couple of months,
This overrint sounds like it could be worth a shot, any idea of how to do it on shiraz?

Thanks Again