[Russell Huffer]

I understand the problems faced with multiple objects, I also used to have a problem with different file types however now Wasactch have updated the RIP to include what they call a tracer, this job is so easy, just drop the file in the RIP and click trace this adds the line and you can change where the line is ie inside or outside and by how much.
A real good reason to use wasatch as this alone saves hours.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

To be honest nowadays we would expect to see the 175Mb file sent via you send it or another similar file sending program, most people have a reasonably fast connection and it is as quick to send it like this rather than mess about with sizes.

Kind regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Yes these have to be genuine Mimaki carts however as the machine has loads of warranty left I see it as if you have to use the genuine you may as well have all the benefits, also not seen any 3rd party replacements for ss21 mimaki inks as yet, i guess they will appear as the jv33 nears its second anniversary and the older ones come out of warranty

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Bit off topic but going back to the first post of 1500 hours for a scan motor, I sold my Roland last week and have just ad a look at the reports that we printed out on it and notice my scan motor is on 4600 hrs even better when you consider mine was the 74 inch wide model so the motor has to move the head much further than a 300.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I know the question is about Versacam cartridges but I have recently changed from Roland to Mimaki and Hybrid who supply the Mimakis in the UK have a recycling system in place where by when you get enough they give you free full cartridges back.

Maybe if enough people questioned Roland they might start a simalar scheeme.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Rob,

I started with Troop version 6.3 for my Grenadier, Then at 6.4 I bought the full version and run my Epson 9600 and HP 5500 from the RIP it also run a Graphtec cutter as my Grenadier was the 74" so no built in cut.

Due to some recent changes in the company all my printers are gone and i acquired a Mimaki JV33 and matching CGFX cutter, none of the Rasterlink software would run on my pc’s as they are all 64 bit so i setup my Wasatch 6.5 and it is great, sometimes hard to get profiles as not a common pairing but drives both printer and cutter really well and cuts spot on to the prints.
The problem we had was wasting a lot of time creating cut paths so last week we upgraded to 6.6, have to say best move we have made in a long time, what used to take a long time ie acurate uniform cut paths now takes 10 seconds.

As a rip it is also popular with profilers so i guess it must be one of the better one to write profiles for.
Wasatch are also very helpful, i had a problem on 6.4 with my Graphtec not liking the type 2 marks that wasatch put down, after discussion with Wasatch they added the option of type one marks on the next upgrade.

I recommend it very highly as a good all round rip but the problem is i have not used any other rip so have no means to compare.

Also if you upgrade it regular it is not an expensive rip to maintain, i paid just £150.00 to get 6.6

Kind regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I run 64 bit and had no problems until i changed printer from a Grenadier to a Mimaki, Rasterlink that is supplied with Mimaki will not run under 64 bit, other than that i have found no problems with 64 bit and it does appear to run slightly faster.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I print everthing i do at 720 dpi this will be slow on a grenadier but gives a much better finish, i prefer it to look good rather than print quick. I also find if i print to quick it does not dry quick enough for the take up roller.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Jamie,

I had my profiles done by a guy called Robert Boddington

http://www.pdis-graphics.co.uk

Very good guy been doing profiles for a long time and has all the right kit to back up his experience.

Kind regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Jack,

I was running Activasol Premium inks on my Grenadier these are made by Nazdar I belive and are not the same as the original Activasol and do need different profiles, because of this I had a profiler come in and profile the most common matreials i use MD5, MD3, Banner and litestop all from Metamark.

You are wecome to a copy of these profiles if you run Activasol premium, if you are running original Activasol you should be able to get the profiles from B&P. Failing that try Wasatch website that even has profiles for my Mimaki JV33 on it and Wasatch/Mimaki is not a common partnership.

Chris,

I do have black head first it is on the left as you stand in front of the machine, will try to download colourrip later.

Kind regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Rob,

Nothing at all wrong with Wasatch, I have found it a great RIP. However things have changed big time for me here resulting in a merge/buyout meaning that the final company is called ASAP All Signs All Print and we have two offices.

I have moved to new office in Welwyn Garden City but my Grenadier remains at our Letchworth Garden City office, as I do most of the printing I took the newest printer so I now have a Mimaki JV33 and matching CG FX cutter, these are fantastic bits of kit but the software supplied RasterLink III would not run on my PC as they do not like 64 bit Vista only choice I had to get work out the door was to use my Wasatch as this was a full version.

Wasatch is running the Mimaki setup so well, it does the cutter as well so print and cut is spot on that it seems a shame to change it but we need a way to run the Roland / Grenadier and can not use Versaworks as non V model.

Hence the reqest if someone has a copy of troop but now use Versaworks for example.

Many thanks

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Kev,

Wish you had emailed before tuesday as i threw 12 refillable carts in the skip and you could have had those, with regards to price there is a couple of hundred quids worth of ink there, I would prefer you arrange postage costs, lets just say after that i am very open to offers.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Oh well i guess the drains in Letchworth are in for a treat, can see the headline now "multi coloured rats invade"

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

My Roland SJ 740 does not have this problem as it is a print only machine so has more rollers than a print and cut. I have heard say before that print and cut machines struggle with banner and some people will unwind the roll as it prints. Mine will happly pull through a 1.9 560gsm banner even the ones from my supplier that are reverse wound.

Having said all that if the fault is consistant it could be cured or at least minimised by linear calibration forget printing the roland "T" i always print a 250m/m box and measure.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Now 145 views but still no takers, looks like i will have to dump 4.5 litres of perfectly good ink, which just seems like such a waste.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Have you checked the linear calbration as i find on my sj740 this is the most likely thing to cause banding.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I seem to recall Alan Flynn was selling one a while back.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Phil,

I have done these before using double sidded blockout material, i had to supply the ones i did with a bar fixed in the top and the bottom as the wires where vertical so no means of tension.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I had a guy from HSE just turn up, introduce himself and ask if he could have a look around, he was very nice but you knew that if you said no to any of his requests he could inforce them.

I think they are all fighting for there jobs and so are suddenly out and about justifiing there existance to those who pay them.

As a result of my visit I had to install an access ramp, put extraction on my printer and change inks.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Have you had the printer profiled with the new inks, can not sort out the fading but colour is very unlikely to be correct if you use 3rd party inks with Roland profiles.

I use Activasol Premium and have had the printer profiled with all the medias I use (B&P also have used my printer to create new profiles via a third party) and my colours are spot on. The other part of a profile is setting ink limits etc, I ran my printer with Ativasol ink profiles and Activasol Premium ink in the printer and the ink was horrid it scratched easy and colours where no right Purple not Blue etc.
Had it profiled and different machine ink does not scratch and prints perfectly.
I have a banner out front of my unit that looks the same as the day it went out, only acouple of months but best fade info i have.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I know i risk being shot down in flames for bad mouthing Graphtec machines on this forum but this is my opinion.

I have owned Roland PNC 5000 great cutter expensive printer but very limited cut width about 385 m/m I recall. Next was a Summa D610 best cutter i ever owned really performed faultlessly but was replaced with Graphtec CE3000 120 MKII as needed the alignment and also the extra width.

This machine has never gone badly wrong but has had lots of silly faults, Graphtec have always been helpful and sorted it out stright away but this leaves me sometimes feeling that they are knowledgable as they have seen the problems many time before. I could not say it is bad machine but looking around my workshop it is the machine that has caused me the most grief and my spec for the next cutter i buy is anything except chinese or Graphtec.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have one of these and it is a great piece of kit, it replaced a GMP laminater and is so much better.

I was told for ease of use get the biggest rolers you can the sh 1580 rollers are about 135m/m dia and 85 kg so it tensions up laminate quickly much easier than smaller rolers.

Only advice if you do runs over 2m a time buy the take up roller from vivid about £150.00 but long runs just a one man job then.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

On most newer cars the radio is coded to the engine management unit so you do not need to put in a code, I do not understand the bit about Vauxhall not starting if battery disconnected, I guess that is what you get for buying a Vauxhall.

My last Lexus had the light come on and the local garage said either take out the ecu fuse or disconnect battery for half hour, then the system is reset and if the light was being oversensative as they can be it stays off but if there is a problem a reset will not cure it so the light comes back on.

I did this half a dozen time on my Lexus as the light kept coming back on and the fault code was take to main dealer, this is very EXPENSIVE with Lexus main dealer so in the end i part exd for another Lexus that touch wood the light stays off on this one. lovely cars but main dealers know how to charge.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Just disconnect the battery for 30 mins, this will reset system, if light comes back on then it is a genuine fault and needs investigation.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Can not belive that nobody wants these, i was under the impression that a lot of people where using Activasol.

48 views and not one offer to date.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Million dollar question Phil, no it is not worth doing if you do it just to get a service, as you can see by this thread 1 printer changed no problem and another changed and then changed back so odds are 50:50

I had to change inks because I had H&S on my case, i looked at the bio inks but decided upon Activasol Premium because i had been told that the bio inks still have a strong smell, harmless but strong, i do not know this to be the case for sure but was told the AP is low odour and a lot safer than Activasol.

The change has sorted things out for me with regards to H&S but then so would the bio inks, I would have kept using Activasol had it not been for the dangers of breathing to much of it but again i do not know if Bio may have made a better choice all i can say is that deflection has all but disapeared since using the AP ink.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I got it even cheaper than that, my Lexus has a plastic dash that a previous owner had drilled to fit a phone kit, i printed carbon effect onto MD5 and used this to cover the holes, still looks good as good as real thing.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

It would be nice to get some input from any one else who has gone down the Activasol Premium route as this thread shows one person who had nothing but trouble and reverted back and myself who had no hassle and love the colour range of the new inks and found my printer performed better on them.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Goerge,

Really sorry to hear you are having problems, i had no dampers or manifolds changed and have the oppersite to you my printer is running much cleaner hardly any defelction.

Are you sure the problem is the inks have you had the printer profiled as this made alot of deifference to mine.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Must go and check mine as i have 12 carts that could be emptied if that happens.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Rob,

Before doing the switch i negotiated a price with B&P and got them to put that in writing as i was very concious of buying an ink which B&P had a monopoly on, I did tell you the cost in a pm so you know i am paying what i was paying for colorific, however since then you have offered me a better price on Colorific so i am not using a cheaper ink. My fear with B&P is not them putting up cost it is them going bust again as they have not matured like they belive they have.

Also plan B was RSPD said they could probably get something direct from NAzdar and failing that plan C was back to Colorific.

Bottom line for me is i have a safer ink that is much the same cost and i also get savings on ammount of ink used ie MD5 total ink limit down to 210 from 325 and extended head life. Also get H&S off my case and because the profiles where done on my printer they are exactly correct.

I hope i have made the right change for the right reasons however as with everything in life only time will tel.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

George,

I had my profiles done by a guy called Robert Boddington

http://www.pdis-graphics.co.uk

Very good guy been doing profiles for a long time and has all the right kit to back up his experiance.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Frank,

Yes i was changing to Colorific i was running a mix of Activasol & Colorific however while i was in the process of changing over and trying to establish where they the same inks i had a visit from Health & Safety who read all the data sheets i had spread over the workbench and suggested that i move the printer to its own room, I could not really afford to do this so looked for a more frendly ink Activasol Premium is a mild solvent more like Roland ink and whilst you still should vent the area well Health & Safety will accept the printer in the same room as me, as it is right over the other side and i have fited extraction on it.

The inks themselves are very good i used to find Activasol fussy and unable to print on some media however Premium has printed well on to all medias even the ones i still had that Activasol would pool on.

You must have it profiled B&P will tell you it does not need to be but i had a week of running mine before the profile man came in and the colours where to vibrant i would compere it to plasma screen and lcd screen put them side by side and most people will like the lcd picture as it is more vibrant colours however the plasma is closer to real life colours.

The other problem was drying it was slow this turned out to be over inking and the new profiles the ink limits are down from 325 to 210. now it has been profiled the colours are spot on and the ink drys similar to activasol.

Overall i think this is a better ink than Activasol like B&P said to me Activasol is old technology and Premium a more evolved product, it is also a lot friendlier on the printer nearly all my deflection has gone over the last couple of weeks.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Thanks Rob I was aware thate Shauna of RSPD was talking to Nazdar and she also offered to help me out with some profiles if B&P failed, however at that time the ink was not availible from RSPD good news if it now is as i have an account with RSPD and try to buy most of my materials from them as Shauna was one of the best people from B&P and supplies most of the original B&P materials.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I think Chris is right, I had the same problem with linear calibration on my Grenadier / Wasatch setup kept making changes in the RIP only to eventually discover that the RIP settings are ignored and the only way to change this is on the printer it’s self.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

As per the first post we have now been running Activasol Premium for a couple of weeks, first impressions are very good, colours are more vibrant than before but needed reprofiling to get everything running right.

Basically the inks seem to perform much the same as Activasol but they are easier on the printer, my black head was deflecting quite a bit but over the last 2 weeks this has all but gone.

I also had a problem with Health & Safety inspector while running Activasol however as the Premium is a milder solvent they are happier to let me run it in the same room.

I would say overall the change is worth doing, I have also found that the inks are not as fussy as Activasol ie i had a lot of samples that Activasol would not print on it would tend to pool, however all of the samples i have retried with Premium have printed OK.

Better health and better prints are the plus points however the downside is that B&P are the only supplier of these inks and altough they claim to have reinvented themselves the service still remains very low standared with many phone calls required for anything.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I think it is great that a UKSB member has written a book about sign making and fully belive that UKSB should help him promote the book, it is not like this is his main stream business.

Imagine this from the other side, if the book had been written and published but no body on UKSB had been told, when eventually it came out most people would have felt annoyed to have been ignored and not given a chance to buy something that could help them move there business forward.

Only real rule broken as far as I can see is Rob has yet to catch up with Phils user id.

I for one wish Phil many sales of his book both through UKSB and other channels and thank him for taking the time to write it.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I run 64 bit Vista and it is stable, much better than 32 bit. All good printers and cutters should have 64 bit drivers availible, only problem i have had is when someone came in to do profiling and the profile machine did not have 64 bit driver.
I use Wasatch, Adobe premium, cutting master 2 on my pc and they are all 64 bit.

64 bit makes a PC as stable as a MAC but unlike the MAC there is tons of software you can chose run on it….

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Do not think you will find exactly what you want but both Plex and Ultima used to do a good selection of carry bags that you could purchase seperaratly. Some of the exhibition panel and pole systems that i had from Plex came in a bag very close size to an a frame.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I had similar problem going from Nokia to a Windows phone, nokia would sync with Outlook but it saved the number with a heading "Number" when i synced with Windows phone i had the contact name but no number. The problem was Outlook does not have a heading "Number" it has work number, home number, mobile number etc etc.
The only way around it i could find was to sync nokia with Outlook then cut and paste my 400+ contact numbers into one of the above headers, this did not take that long as you can do it on the PC, then when i synced with windows phone it showed all the numbers.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Dealing with the public on a daily basis does put you at risk and you will meet some funny people.
Just last week i had a company that have ordered 4 signs off of me, cancel the order after i erected the first two, the reason was he thought that bits of vinyl stuck on looked terrible ! explained that i could print them but had chosen cut vinyl as it has better life span exposed to sunshine etc, he told me he had seen a nice sign on a local competitors website and was going to them. I looked at there website and the description of the sign was cut vinyl, i let him go as i do there printing anyway, so even if they offered him a printed sign i would still get some work from it.
They must have told him the same as me as he has just sent me a email asking if i would like to produce the last two signs in cut vinyl.

Still i guess cancel ling the order and running away is better than hitting me, i have never been hit in connection with my signage work, however another part of my company does debt collection and i get a few people every week who think about hitting me, luckily most of them just think about it but there is always a tension.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I am a big fan of Light Mangenta and Light Cyan, I have been told they produce better skin tones, silver and gold, do not know how true that is but i do know that i normally use approx 1.5 bottles of light to 1 bottle of normal, so there is more demand for the lighter versions in the type of printing that i do.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Owen,

I use cutting master 2 with type 1 marks on my graphtec and do not have alignment issues.

Are you changing cutter to gpl from hpgl with a step of 0.1
cm2 will by default only cut what is selected but i sometimes select the whole lot then you can cut by colour using second tab in.

Also do not understand what your ref to acm means

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Kevin,

Trying to get some feedback on Lyson inks, are you still using them what is the good, bad and ugly of these inks.

Many thanks

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Andre,

Are you still with the Lyson inks, if yes how are you finding them compared to Activasol, good and bad points if poss.

Many thanks

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Owen,

Just a thought we use wasatch as our RIP for print and cut, this is done on separate machines as wider Rolands are print only, so I print on a Roland and cut on a Graphtec. To do this i had to get the cutting module for wasatch. Is there such a module for Shiraz cause this would suit all your requiements.

regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Yes i have to adjust my linear calibration manually as the rip setting makes no difference, i use -0.25 on paper upto +0.85 on vinyl etc

It seems the best thing is to try and keep the vinyl as it was supplied ie rolled up.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Owen,

Is the problem the inaccuracy of the cut or locating the marks, if it is locating the marks then what i do is i place a bit of paper over the reg mark then laminate and after laminating you can remove the sticker as i find the cutter is more accurate if not reading through the laminate, also using wasatch do not select option to center on media as this is known to center the print but not the cut. do not know if other rips have similar problems.

The biggest problem that i have found with inaccuracy of cut is related to the way i handle the media after printing, i have a big bench in front of my printer and used to feed the media out onto the bench and leave it there normally still in the printer overnight to dry, now what i do with vinyl i intend to cut is use the take up roller, this stops the vinyl cockling etc and deforming, i also have a take up roller on my laminater and if laminating i use the take up roller, in both cases leave for 24 hours on the roller. using a take up i have never seen a problem with cut alignment but leaving it flat or hanging it seems to introduce problems.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Phil

On the Jarret fencing one did you use a cast or polymeric on the digital print, just interested.

Thanks

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

What a game, talk about all happening at the end. We are wining, we are losing, we are wining, then it is down to Stephen Jones the guy who has not missed a kick through the whole game, it may not be very sporting but how many Irish people where praying that he missed, our prayers where answered and Irelend take a well deserved win. What a fantastic day..

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

On mine i swopped the cartridges over as i have two of every colour and the problem moved with the cartidge, this not easy unless you have the greadier with 12 carts.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Mine did this, turned out to be the seal on the cartridge letting in air.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Thankyou – Happy St Patricks day to everybody..

[Russell Huffer]

To be honest a PC is now a consumerble use it then bin it and buy a new one.
I have a quad core, big hard drive and lots of memory that i bought of ebay for £345.00 bought Vista 64 bit for another £100.00 and the machine is sweet does exactly what it is supposed to do.

Times are tight you could buy two off ebay for the cost of one dell.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I came from the exhibition world into the vinyl world and one thing i found very strange about laminating vinyl is the you use the same size laminate.
When I rpoduced exhibtion graphics final sizes 646 – 800m/m wide i used 914 Opaljet and 880m/m laminate, this just used to feed out the back of the laminater onto the bench, when i started doing vinyl i use metermark and they do MD5 760 1370 and 1600 wide, the matching laminate is the same width, the problem this caused me was that when the laminate ran off the edge of the vinyl it would stick to the bench the whole lot would stop moving aqnd wrap round the rollers.
I used to pay extra to get vinyl slit down to 1250 but then at signUK i noticed you can get a take up rolloer for my easymount best £150.00 ever spent. if you laminate on your own load it onto the take up roller and this pulls it through perfectly.

If looking to do MD5 /MD7 at 1370 or 1600 wide my advis etoyou is get a laminater with a powered take up roller.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I use Fastway and Fedex, only use Fedex to deliver where Fastway don’t as they do not cover the whole of the UK only certain postcodes.

Now on the forth driver so I guess the job must be tough or underpaid, generally good service, only problem that I had was once they where unable to deliver so the package just got taken back to the depot, they leave a card and wait for you to call they do not attemp another delivery until they hear from you.

Price wise seem the best out there so they get my vote.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Owen,

Not a clue about Mistral but the advice I was given when I was looking to buy a new laminator was get the biggest diameter rollers you can.

I bought a 1.6 M Easymount hot top roller as the rollers on this are 140m/m diameter.

I had a 1040 GMP laminater before this and the two are worlds apart but the GMP rollers where only 50m/m and any creases in the laminate would ruin the print unless i run at a high tension, with the easymount once running the large rollers smooth the creases out and i reduce the tension in the laminate to almost zero resulting in curl free prints.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Peter,

Yes I know that clicking it allows you to input the size but like yourself i do not know the size, if i print something then go back to cost estimater it has filled in the information, this varies from profile to profile as some profiles may be fixed drop size and others use varible.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Peter,

Yes the cost calculater is not quite as stright forward as Wasatch have you belive.

What i have found is that if you open wasatch and load a file if you then try to use cost calculater it asks for drop size, if you print a file it then inserts the drops size/sizes for you but if you change the profile it will clear the dropsize.

Maybe i missed something but could not see how to cost a print untill printed.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi,

I use Graphtec CE3000 120 MKII and Wasatch RIP I do not enter any dsitance adjust values, i just select type 1 marks print then load into cutter move to first mark and set origen.

When pen returns to new origen are you pressing set origen button ?

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

My Graphtec CE3000 120 MKII started cutting badly last week and was almost impossible to weed, spoke to Graphtec who diagnosed it as the head had lost its position on the up and down scale. They told me to switch it off and turn back on while holding down the up direction key, this resets to factory defaults, done this and it has been like a new cutter since cutting clean and weeding easy.
Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Web site looks great and i have to agree with Owen, your website is a marketing tool and as such it needs to promote your company, nobody going to have a web site saying "we are not very good at something but give us a try" however most of us will paint our company’s as may be a bit more experienced than we are, it is what makes the world go round.

My company website claims we fit vehcile graphics but in reality we only print them and a company 500M down the road fit them.

With regards to cost, we had a 7.5 tonner in the other day and even though we only did the back and not the cab i still printed about 10 meters for this one, if it was the cab being wrapped i would use MD7 but as it was just the sides we used MD5 both using matching overlams. To work out a ball park figure just measure the size and approximate the amount of vinyl required and for fitting allow 2 guys a whole day.

Once you know how much vinyl and what type you are using and how long it should take to fit just quote using your sell price per square meter and hourly rate, should not be to far amiss.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

A printer is one of the biggest investments for most sign companys and as such when i bought my printer i spent over a month reserching and phoneing various suppliers, going to shows etc etc.
This payed off for me originally i was going to buy a 54" print and cut but after a conversation with one supplier who pointed out i alreday had a 120 wide graphtec cutter, i bought a 74" print only machine.

However i am sure you will not make same mistake again but do not see an easy way out of your situation, as he states you have had it to long to return and the problem with going down the path of misold is that from what i can see you bought it on the strength of a phone conversation and he will deny any knowledge of you saying that you where going to use it for outdoor work only.

My best advice to you is to take all the paperwork etc that you have down to CAB as they are very good and may be able to point you in the right direction.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Paul,

I had a GMP laminater and at the end the only way to use it was with max tension on the laminate and then it could only manage a couple of meters before creasing. I was doing mainly exhibition graphics at the time and ended up using 300 micron paper instaed of 125 to minimise the problem.
I was told the main pronlem with the gmp hot and cold lams is that they have crowning rollers ie rollers that are slightly bigger in the middle so when the ends are pulled together the prerasure should be even, it does not work.

I bought a new laminater with the biggest rollers i could find 145m/m and it was best investment made.

What we also do is save the old backing paper to use to get a print started this sits as a roll under neath the feed table and must be used wax side down so it slides.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Most RIPS can tile rather than panel and overlap rather than bleed, these are similar but not the same, hence your problems, your method is also a bit hit and miss with regards to placing text and the like over the joins causing visual problems.

As said create one big graphic then use indesign to Page it and add bleed, i can not upload files here but if you pm me i will send you a blank indesign file that i use for a plex supremacy 3×3 then just print each page to the rip, i used to supply these to a company that had one panel as a flight board with a gloss laminate so that you could write on it with a white board marker, the company regually used non removeable pen and so i had to reprint just that one panel, no problem with indesign.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Rod,

As per my earlier post you can not accurately panel a popup in the RIP or using illustrator, it has nothing to do with printing them all at once or one panel a day for 5 days. RIPs do not allow bleed and illustrator is primarily a single page layout.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

What software are you using to create the panels, i have done a lot of these and the best way i have found of doing them is to create i big graphic say 3275 x 2140 in illistrator.

Then using indesign create a 5 page facing page spread with the correct page size something like 653×2140 then place the large graphic into indesign.

You can now print direct to your rip and i normally use 3/mm of bleed.

To my knowledge you cannot create panels seperatly as they will not be accurate enough.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi George,

I looked at using Versaworks but was told because i have a SJ740 not an SJ740EX i would need a dongle to use versaworks cost £1000.00

However I use Wasatch, originally from B&P i had the "Roland" version that cost about £500.00 this was with the machine but still must be cheaper than £1500.00 which is the cost of the full version.

As yours was a Uniform machine it could well be worth talking to B&P and seeing what sort of price they could do for Troop/Wasatch may even be an upgrade fee as you have Colorrip.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

With regards to RIps i think that you maybe need to look at not what is the best RIP because it has to most features but what is the best RIP for your circumstances, remember icc profiles are only written by most suppliers for the most common combinations Shiraz/Mimaki Roland/Versawork Uniform/Troop as we all know profiles can be thin on the ground most of the times but no real hope of finding any if you decide to use Shiraz to drive you Grenaider with Activasol inks, so you will always end up compremising or getting a profiler in.

Steve the cost estimater in 6.5 is a bit of a novalty but very interesting, the other day i printed a 3×1.8M banner that was just black and red text, i ran it though the cost estimater and was surpriesed to learn that black ink usage was third and alot more magenta than black had been used in that print, provides an accurate way to track ink cost for price analysis.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Each to there own opinion as i said i can not do a comparison as i have not used other rips but certainly the impression i got from the engineer that profiled my machine last month is that Wasatch is up there with the like of onyx and Shiraz.

Peter not a coincidence that troop and wasatch are both 6.5 they are the same product. my first copy 6.3 had a troop splash screen at the start etc but help file where all wasatch but from 6.4 onwards all troop branding has disappeared and i download from the wasatch website, i think troop is a term still used by b&p but they have given up pretending they have there own rip as everyone knows it is wasatch.

Rob how many files do you have per profile, i ask because when i started to use metamark at the end of last year the only profile they had for md7 was version 4 i tried to use this but it would not work, i spoke to metamark who confirmed that version 5 and 6 profiles where wasatch and version 4 where flexi, main difference that i could see was wasatch has about 6 files per profile but flexi only had 1.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Ihave offsite backup, we use windows live sync and the replocates files accross all computors in a share including my mac.

My documents on my workstation at work are copied to the server and mac and also my pc at home and laptop when on, this is all done automatically. this gives you a copy of the file in multiple locations the only downside that i can see is if you corrupt the file on any machine it will be the latest copy and get replicated out to all others, only saving grace on that is the pc that corruted the file will have a copy in its waste bin.

This is a free program for mac or pc only problem is mac do not like zip files for some reason.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Rob,

Only a limited knowledge but here is all i know about Troop/Wasatch my first version was 6.3 Roland edition from B&P i got given a free 6.4 upgrade a few months later. I then payed about £400.00 to upgrade to a released version all makes of printer and so was also entitiled to free 6.5 upgrade a couple of weeks ago.

6.5 seems to have more control over colour etc while profiling, i have found it very easy to use and B&P supply a good range of profiles, these profiles are more suited to vinyls like Metamark etc that can take a lot of ink, i have had to have someone in to profile the likes of LG that can not take as much ink and pool easy.

I also have the cutting add on as my printer is print only and it is really easy to use to cut.

One of the guys i had in to do some profiles is a Roland engineer and also used to work at B&P whilst he is not a printer he does work with these things day in day out so i aksed him about rips and how good is wasatch he basically said you need to get the rip that is most popular for your printer ie sharaz on a Mimaki as this gives you the best chance of finding profiles, he also said that wasatch was his prefered rip.

I find it a good rip to use and easy to understand and make adjustments but have never even seen another rip working so can not do a direct compare.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Been through this one i even got a profile from B&P who supplied the cling and this did not print that good, bit of heat and ;imiting the total ink gave washed out colours but better than ink running.

Not a good product and oone i try to avoid using.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have sent this off to the customer to get there opinion.

Thanks for all help and input.

Regards

Russell.

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Attachments:

[Russell Huffer]

I like Rob’s idea as well only problem is I have just been to look at the car and the bump strip across the middle of the door is soft rubber, so would not be happy laying vinyl over it.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have used miles of Opaljet for exhibition work printed on my HP Designjet and it is the best product in my opinion but as stated you will need the Opaljet P to print with solvent and i have never tried this only the B&P stuff which gave a good finish and i have used it next to Opaljet on the same stand and it does print flatter.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have used 300micron litestop from B&P printed on my Grenadier and laminated with 80micron for PopUps these have come out really nice, the B&P material is good quality and reasonably priced.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I’ll take a pint as well…

Just done a leaflet drop around my local industrial estate last weekend and already had a couple of calls as a result, so this weekend i am going round the town, this may in some peoples minds make my company look cheap but it is working and in my opinion what gets me new work is good.

Any way to go back to an earlier part of the thread we must be a cheap company because we can not afford signlab or flexi so all our cutting is done using cutting master.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Been doing this between jobs today, have done both companys on the back with no strapline and given a door each on the side.

Not sure i like it but need to have a rethink and come back to it now.

Thanks for help.

Regards

Russell.

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Attachments:

1417.pdf

1417.ai

[Russell Huffer]

I bought mine from Atwells, I did this after reading a post by a guy from another sign company who said he had gone round SignUK and tested them all and Atwells was the one he liked best.

I can not compare the machine as this is the only one i have used but it does what it is supposed to do and does feel like a good quality piece of kit also the eyelets seem a reasonable price when i need to buy more.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Somedays it seems every step you take holds another treat, have just opened the 2006 Mondeo outline and there is a rubber bump strip running across the middle of the doors!

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

The only problem is the straplines,

Connecting local businesses to the heart of the community.

and

The definitive guide of what to do and where to go for you and your children.

These are just so long, one thought i had is to wrap them around the logos but what ever i do they are not going to be easy reading at 70 mph.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

New version of Wasatch (Troop) 6.5 has built in calculater, you input how much you pay for ink and media and it works out how much a print will use.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have a 9600 and it is a great bit of kit, much better quality print than my solvent printer, I used to do canvas on the solvent but now only do them on the epson as colours are so much richer.

I use mine to support a local photo studio, if you need photographic quality then in my opinion the epson is the way to go.

Do not know what the smaller ones are worth but 9800 around £2500 mark maybe less if you look around.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Unfortunatly Phil he turned up with supporting paperwork and id card, so no way i want to argue with someone who has the power to close you down, just take his comments on board and do the jobs he wants done as i am sure if he put his mind to it he could find more problems.

I guess times are quite for even services like this and suddenly people are trying to look busy so as to save there jobs.

On the bright side Activasol / Colorific is a health hazzard so better out than in.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

However it seems my workshop is still not safe enough, had a surprise visit from Health & Safety today stateting that my company is not registered with them and that by law it should be, I explain we have been going 9 years now but was not aware that we either should of been registered with Health & Safety or even know how we would register with health and safety, he has taken my company details and now i am registered.

Lucky me while he was here he had a look round, two problems 1st one is a step that goes across the building but is not easy to see, so is a tripping hazard. 2nd problem is he read teh ink data sheets that where on my bench and even using the Colorific version which is nowhere near as bad as the Uniform one he still says that as it states inhalation hazzard the printer needs to be run vented, idealy run in it’s own room with ventalation.

So i took a trip to Wickes and bought a vent kit 100m/m pipe and inline fan, have drilled hole in the wall and mounted the fan and pipe, tommorow when printer is quite i am going to make a 100m/m hole in the back of it so that i can fit a flange to attach the pipe to this will hopefully lower the fumes in the room.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Brian,

Do not have Perfect Colours number to hand but it is on the toolbar, I think under printer suppliers Epson. The Person I normally deal with is Rob but the person tasked to deal with this ink called Colorific Elite is Joanne Davies and she is very helpful.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Have been in the Yellow Pages for 9 years now and had probably about 9 people as a result, however i have always been in the exhibitions section.

Phone call from them the other day and I am moving to the signage section, i wanted to stick with the free lineage they give as i will be the only one from Letchworth in there he was trying to get me to spend £120.00 on a box but in the end we agreed on going bold for £73.00 and the only reason i did that was because if you have a paid entry they allow you to have the free entry in another section so i have that going in the Digital Print section.

YP will tell you that people only see the big adverts, reallity is i use it myself and look for people who are local to me, so just get basic entry and spend balance on advert somewhere else also.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I agree that £200.00 is not a lot of money to learn a new trade, however there is another way, as a company we offer full wraps if wanted but we sub out all the fitting to a company just 500M away.

They fit vinyl all day long and do not have a printer so i supply the printed media and they fit it much quicker and better than i could.

I am lucky to have them on my doorstep however i know there are mobile fitters out there and doing it this way gets you to a professional level instantly with no outlay, there is also probably another saving in less vinyl destroyed and need reprinting.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Only time I ever had an alignment problem with my Graphtec using Wasatch is when I had selected centre on media, apparently this is a known fault on Wasatch.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I had some static cling white from B&P a while ago and that worked great in my CE3000 MkII 120 cutter.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi Steve,

Yes on my machine it is in front of wipers and just top left of capping station.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

It is free from Graphitec

http://www.graphtecamerica.com/support.html

as it will only work with Graphtec cutters.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Depends on the make of your cutter I have a Graphtec and they supply a program called Cutting Master 2 which works as a plugin for Illistrator and I find very good and easy to use, it is basically a very cut down version of Flexi only thing i have to remeber is to change the cutter to GPL mode instaed of HPGL mode.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Will Versaworks not drive your Graphtec, just wondered as I have Uniform 1.9M Print only so to perform print and cut i use Wasatch to drive printer and cutter.

Best regards
Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Jason,

Sorry do not know of anything like that for Illistrator, however what rip are you running as my rip Wasatch has a "Variable Data Option" that is purchased separately but seems to do exactly what you want.

http://www.wasatch.com/vdp.html

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Are you using the refillable carts from B&P as i had a problem a couple of weeks ago where doing a test print only the left side of light magenta printed. Spoke to B&P who said it was the seal on the cartridge probably as these only last about a year and could be tested by swooping over the two light magenta carts, i did this and instantly only the right side of test print is printing.

Nothing looked wrong and no bubbles or visable air leeks much like yours so it could well be worth trying a new cartridge.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

My Grenadier with Activasol inks last used on 26th December, loaded media hit test print and all nozzles clear and ready to print after approx 11 days idle havng just been left on standby.

Rob,

I am also interested in the question from Kevin a couple above this one about what inks you are now using not that i have any issues with Activasol just i fear a price increase is on the way and would be very interested in the price of your inks per litre.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Agree with Steve, we have been using Uniform UB1 banner material and have always had great results, however last week they changed supplier and new material not very good, infact i sent it back and used another supplier APS 550 banner which was very good.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Not worth the time and trouble chasing cancellation fees, much more productive to charge a deposit at time of booking i would think.

Regards

Russell.