[Russell Huffer]

Nothing to do with wrapping but I think proves apoint about laminate pulling the base material, we normally supply around 30 banner stands a week. About 2 months ago we replaced are laminater as it was very tired, towards the end the only way to get it to laminate without airbubbles was to wind the tension right up to maximum, this ment the laminate went on smooth however the next day the graphic had a horrid curl, I belive caused manily by laminate contracting when cooling as it had been applied at 40 C stretched.
The curling problem was no more when we got the new laminater as we use the minimum tension on it.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Hi when i switch mine on the head moves to the right and only 3 lights are on.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Took Peter’s advice on this one and ordered from tooled up, should arrive at office today.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I had very simalar problem on a new computor about 6 months back, software kept causing it to crash, turned out to be faulty memory.
Might be worth running a memory test on it.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have 1.5M HP5500 and have tried non standared inks twice, first time the inks lacked colour and took ages to dry, second time inks looked OK and dried no problem, however cyan head dried up and blocked completly and yellow cartridge leaked spaying ink all over machine and writing off head as this run dry.

In my experience ink half price maintance doubled I saved £40.00 on a cartridge and spent £90.00 on a new head, this was the direct cost however I also had hours of downtime.

My advice stick with HP.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

MOD-EDIT SEE BOARD RULES

I had forgotten about this and only found it when I moved units last week, I did 4 prints on HP Designjet 5500 60" I have both UV and Dye inks so printed 2 Dye and 2 UV copies of a logo then laminated 1 of the UV and 1 of the dye.

They where printed on photosatin paper not vinyl however you can really see here what a difference the laminate makes (the UV unlaminated had fallen over so did not get full force of the sun). Results are clear no laminate no sign remaining especially the darker colours, with laminate signs still readable however faded in the case of the dye ink.

The laminate i think was supposed to give 80% UV filteration, so sometimes it is not just the physical protection of laminate.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I run Vista 64 bit at home, one program that will not install is Adobe Indesign, however Illistrator works fine.

It is not the make / model of cutter that will be your problem it is the software you use to drive it and to be fair to vista it has run all software i have needed except Indesign will not load and Cad Pro is unstable. I have had my copy of Flexi running on this vista 64 bit but have not cut as this pc is at home so i just use it for design, then cut when back in the office.

As Flexi works there is a good chance the other mainstream ones will.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

My understanding is my printer is CMYK so best to stick to CMYK as much as possible as it is impossible to print RGB on my printer, it needs to be converted by RIP or other software to CMYK first, possably changing colours.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Do not know much about the technicalities involved, however what I have found is on the few occasions I have been sent artwork in RGB format, I have a choice to convert using Illistrator or RIP however both these options change the colours noticeably, sending an RGB direct to the printer produces much better results with colours very close to original.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

In Flexi, when I go to cut I can click Poll Size and it gets the width of the vinyl currently loaded in the cutter, as measured by the cuttter when material was loaded.

This is only availible I belive on Mutoh when using serial but not parralel, lead, pinout important as this is bi directional data.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Same position here i got two months notice to quit 1 month ago. Had mad panik then long hard look around the area. Have just signed up for 56 square M office/workshop with 35 square M storage all this for just £650.00 month.

So message is just keep looking there are deals to be had out there.

Russell.

P.S. Someone mentioned farms I also have 185 square M barn that I rent at £3 square ft +VAT.

[Russell Huffer]

Not long had to do a new cable for my Mutoh, from memory 5 -5, 7-7, 2 -3 and 3 -2.

Are the only connections needed the problem i had was that the cable i bought was stright wired on pins 2 and 3 and needs to be crossover.

Regards

Russell

[Russell Huffer]

See post above.
I rest my case……

[Russell Huffer]

In the earlier posts on this thread you can see what in my opinion is the great downfall of uksignboards and the reason for me that it is of little real use.

You can ask a valid question can someone help me ? but all they can answer is yes i can or no i can not, they are unable to put up any type of contact details, so you now know the person who can help you however you have to guess how, so really just a waste of time.

I wanted to buy a stand for my Mutoh cutter the other day and needed to contact Allan Flynn of Flynn signs, what i wanted was his mobile number as he was moving premises however using forum rules i can ask if anybody knows the number and all who do can answer yes BUT nobody can post it up, also i can post and ask Allan who uses the boards does he have a stand and he can say yes but can not go any further as not allowed to post contact details.

Every one suggest use PM but this is either disabled or does not work, so another waste of time.

I also notice in this type of thread the mods edit quickly but never get involved with any solutions.

How about a review of the forum rules so people can really help each other with full and comprehensive information.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I will have that off you cutter and software.

Do not know how to PM or even if I can, my email address is

russell@simtrax.ie

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Do not know about recording to DVD but see you want to watch upstairs. We have Sky + downstairs and coax lead running from output 2 on sky box to upstairs tv, if you buy a magic eye from maplins or cpc you can control the sky box from uptairs and watch the program no need to record or mess about. This is one of the best features of sky.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

How much you looking for ?

[Russell Huffer]

These guy are just round the corner from me and I have found them to be very helpfull and well priced.

http://www.assigns.co.uk

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Had the same problem myself a few weeks back. I was approached by a company called Papergraphics who upon finding out I used Kentmere suggested I try there alternative, they told me it uses the same base as Kentmere but was cheaper.
I ordered a roll to try, unfortunately I had terrible problems with static both during printing, built up on print heads and spots on the paper and when cutting after printing, all the prints stuck together.
When I spoke to Papergraphics they suggested a device from RS would solve this issue, I guess this is the type of thing Adrian mentioned above.
My solution go back to Kentmere you get what you pay for, to be fair Kentmere give me discount and do not charge delivery on top, when I received invoice from Papergraphics the cost saving was just £10.00 per roll.
I ran 1 roll of Papergraphics through my printer and it took 2 days to get printer cleaned up and useable again, last week I ran 4 rolls of Kentmere with no problems what so ever.
Why use a product that has a problem you need to eliminate when you can use a product that does not have the problem in the first place.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Exhibition work is my main business and I have done lots of PopUps in my time.
I have tried many combinations and finally settled on Kentmere Opaljet 300 as the printed media overlaminated with an 80 micron matt laminate from Allprint (SR3).
I print these on a HP 5500 ps.

Depending on which make of frame you use, most graphics are attached by some form of hook at the top and mag tape down each side, the attachment of the hooks and tape is the secret to the finished graphics looking good on the frame, also the use of a quality mag tape is essential.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

To be honest, a sign is about getting a message across and that sign is quite understandable, maybe even extra people go there to tell them about mistake.
From Irish perspective if the sign says celebrate and tells us where to go to celebrate, that is more than enough info, the bit in the middle is irelevent.

[Russell Huffer]

Tá timpiste carr idir Sagart Éireanach agus Raibí Giudach lá.
Tagann an bheirt acú amach as a gcarranna agus tuisligh siad go taobh an bothair.
“Áí bhé!” arsa an Raibí. A léitheid de raic é sin!”
“An bhfuil tú go maith, a Raibí?”, cuireann an sagart ceist aige,
“Tá ach tá mé ar ballchrith,” freagainn an Raibí.
Togann an sagart flaigín uisce beatha as a chóta agus arsa,
“Seo duit, ól slog de. Deanfaidh sé do neirbhís calm.”
Togann an Raibí an flaigín agus ólann sé go léir é.
“Bhuel, arsa an Raibí, cad béidh muid ag abair leo na gardaí?
“Muise,” arsa an sagart, “Níl a fhíos agam céard a béidh tú ag abair leo.
Ach béidh mé ag abair leo gur ní bá mé duine a bhí ag ól.”

There is a car accident one day involving an Irish priest and a Rabbi.
They both get out of their car and stumble over to the side of the road.
The Rabbi says, “Oy vey! What a wreck!”
The priest asks him, “Are you all right, Rabbi?”
The Rabbi responds, “Yes, but I’m trembling all over.”
The priest takes a flask of whiskey from his coat and says,
“Here, drink some of this. It will calm your nerves.”
The Rabbi takes the flask and drinks it all down.
“Well, says the Rabbi, what are we going to tell the police?”
“Indeed,” says the priest, “I don’t know what your aft’ to be tellin’ them.
But I’ll be tellin’ them I wasn’t the one drinkin’.”

[Russell Huffer]

I do a lot of exhibition work and last year did a stand for an exhibition in Jersey that used rear projection.
The company we used was Reversa Europe http://www.reversaeurope.tv
The guy I dealt with was called Ali Hamidi and his mobile number is 0034 670 612 395 I dealt with the Costa del Sol as this is where my customer is based but I am sure they have UK office.
Product is very good, plastic screen that is brighter than Plasma and they do some big sizes at reasonable cost.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

If it is the spring loaded roll up type then the system will not work as the roll will be to thick to roll back in.
Most of the ones I do are just double sidded, could you not remove and re tape.

[Russell Huffer]

Easyest way to do this if you have a laminator is apply double sidded adhesive to faomboard, then apply graphic while laminating.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I agree with your thinking on Illistrator, I do all my layout and designs in Illistrator then simply open the Illistrator file with Felxisign to seperate colours and send to cutter.
I never use Flexi to lay out or design just cut it reads Illistrator files perfectly, if the software that came with it reads Illistrator files in my opinion you have all that you need.
Save money it sounds like you have all that you could want.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Thanks for your help, all artwork printed and ready for delivery tommorrow.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I use http://www.designjet.co.uk/ have always found them good prices and very quick delivery for my 5500 assume they sell them for 3500.

Good luck

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Kevin,

We have an FTP site that you could try sending file to if this helps. We run a network of both MAC and PC machines with Quark and Adobe software on both platforms.
If this helps the address of the FTP site is ftp://80.176.99.250

User uksb
password uksb

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

My Roland refused point blank to work via serial, after a couple of days trying everthing I could think of changing pin outs joining pins, I gave up and connected four parrallel leads together to reach it as lead length needed to be 15 metres, worked first time and still works perfectly today, even though max lead length should be half of what it is.
My advice is if your Roland plotter wont play ball with a serial connection, forget it and use the parrellel.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Jem,

Thanks for help, I have found that now saved as PC Illistrator, I am just saving as an .ai file and all seems to work, but I will start saving as legacy to hopefully minemise any problems I would otherwise have.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

After many hours finally a resolve. The problem is that unlike Illistrator and Quark which will happyley work cross platform so long as fonts converted to curves. Flexisign just cannot understand Mac files and all my master artwork was original Mac, strange open it in Illistrator on PC and save as eps Fleisign can not read, do same but save on PC as .ai file first and Flexisign can read. I guess Flexisign should be called NotVery Flexisign.
It seems the file was being saved as Macintosh 8-bit color not Tiff 8-bit color.

Thanks for peoples help

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Realy getting nowhere fast today. What files can Flexisign read???
I use Illistrator and save as EPS SVG (all options tried) and Fleisisgn can not open the file.
I open the .eps that I have of the logo in Quark save as eps and Flexisign can read, problem with this method is Quark cannot edit placed eps files they just show up as a grey box and Flexisign displays the graphic but as one item that I can not seem to edit.
Me and Flexisign are not going to get along.
If someone would be so kind can they please tell me what file type Flexisign is able to read and how when created in Illistrator, or failing that can someone suggest a workable package that I can use with Roland PC600

Many thanks

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

We have both Mac and PC with Adobe Illistrator on both, if you get stuck and files not to big to send I may be able to help.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

All my business and personnel accounts are held at Bank of Ireland, brilliant bank, sense of humour.
I use internet banking and often misstype my password and need to get it reset, painless process done instantly.
Bank is friendly and helpful at all times.
Downside, there has to be one, they are quite expensive.
I have only ever had a couple of small problems and they have been resolved instantly in a true professional manor.
All my payments in and out are cleared quickly, even the payments in from Spain where my biggest customer is.

[Russell Huffer]

You do only need cold but if you find a laminator that does both, so much the better. I have a Hot / Cold with variable temp control, I have only ever used it cold execpt for one job in two years, altough I always put a small amount of heat into rollers 25 – 40 C just to soften film.
I would say more important is to go for the widest you can afford as you may only have a 700 m/m job now but you do not know what is round the corner.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Darren,

What ink type can you use on the stoplight from Hexis, I have HP 5500PS which uses Dye or UV ink, most stoplights only take Dye inks, in the Kentmere range you chose the “P” range and this is UV compatable, I am looking to print on a stoplight with UV inks, hence the question.
Also do you have Hexis contact details.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I use Kentmere on the quality PopUp and Banner stands we supply but we have to be price competative and on the lower end banner stands we use a light stop material from Allprint, this says it will not curl but compered to Kentmere it does.
99% of my printing is heavy ink coverage, so can not compere that but when doing banners on 125 Micron but difference I have seen is the tension I use on laminator, I always use the smallest ammount I can and this appears to mnimise curl.
There are a lot of designs of banner stands out there now and some like the X stand tension the graphic such that it does not curl, the price paid on these stand however is they tend to be deeper so stand further away from a wall etc.
I always notice things like this and if you looked at most of the banner stands at say Sign UK you would see some curl.

[Russell Huffer]

Most of my work is digital printing and I have to confess I avoid Coral as much as I can, mostly because I have no real understanding of it as I never have to use it for anything other than printing, it is anoying from my perspective that I have to pay a full licence but never venture further than the printing functions.
It of course depends so much on what you are printing, at the moment I am laying out a 3 X 3 Popup display system for Trump, this is a curved wall with 3 forward facing graphics and 2 ends, each graphic panel is 2225 X 673 m/m giving a total graphic size of 2225 X 3365 m/m, this can be done in coral (I think) or Illistrator but really for lining up joins etc this is best done in Quark or Indesign, Indesign ofcourse reads Illistrator or PDF files easely, which are better to work with than say EPS.
But horses for courses as they say, Coral good, Quark good but now adays Adobe in front, Illistrator for single pages, Photoshop for graphics and Indesign for mutiple pages.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have a GMP laminator, when I first got it I changed to front lower roller after it got cut with knife. I undid the internal factory set tensioners that you are not meant to do, the machine was impossible, sometimes it would not laminate without creasing other days 2 meters then crease.
I had the engineer out from GMP who made it better, but I think he felt guilty as he was putting alot of film through to set it correctly. In the end I took it back to the same guy Graham I think at GMP in Banbury, picked it up after a week and now is great I just throw the media at the machine and it just laminates always flat and never creases.
I would speak to GMP as these machines are good and not to hard to master if set up correctly.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Have to agree with above comment, we have a 1524 m/m HP 5500PS and it is a great work horse, you can also use both dye and UV inks on it and it only takes 20 mins to change over and no purgeing or ink wastage what so ever.
It will depand on what you want to print though as the Epson and HP are quite different, I do exhibition work and the Epson would not be much use most of the time and to use for exhibition graphics you would pay a lot more for suitable media.

Regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I assume you mean A4 size. Usual story, best you can afford, I had a Visoneer scanner about £50.00 seemed to work very well but never realy got the colours right.
I now use HP Scanjet 8200 £250.00 I think, HP software better and colours much truer and easier to adjust if not correct, I have used this scanner a lot and am very happy with it.

[Russell Huffer]

I can not see that you would need to have that underneath, I threw out 50 metres of the stuff today, I do lots of exhibition stand graphics and use a couple of rolls of cold vinyl a week, my laminator winds the backing paper you are asking about onto a take up roller, I simply slide off and bin.
On a more serious note the tension when laminating is in the graphic being laminated and adding another layer is asking for run out and creasing, nothing more anoying than messing up laminating as it can write of a good graphic.
I reguarly have cold laminate run off the edge of graphic upto 40 m/m and it does not stick to or leave residue on the rollers.

[Russell Huffer]

Thanks for all your help, I am probably going to try Roberts suggestion of a white band under the logo.
Thanks again to everybody.

Best regards

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I am supprised 94 people have viewed this and yet not one has asked for a translation, I wonder if it is because there are a lot of Scotish on here and there language is very simalar.
Anyway for those interested it simply translates as:

A light heart lives longest, Ireland forever.

and basicly in this instance means we Irish have a good sense of humor and enjoy laughing all jokes even ones aimed at us.

Keep the jokes coming.

All the best

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Maireann croí éadrom i bhfad, Eireann go Brách !!!

[Russell Huffer]

I found it best to always make a quick call to VAT helpline, I supplied some exhibition stand to MS Society a while back, I spoke to them about VAT as they are a charity, they said I did not have to charge VAT, when I spoke to VAT helpline, they said that I do have to charge on exhibition stands.
Best check if unsure, better to pay as you go rather than get caught further down the line.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I have the 3 meter Javelin and find it great, only comment is if I have the blade pulled back it does not always cut clean (Exhibition graphics 125 micron opaljet with 80 micron laminate) and if I extend the blade it wanders as it follows previous cuts in my cutting mat, not an issue if used with Big Bench as always cuts along same path.
When I was at show on wednesday I see they have another version out which is worth a look as it was twice the height, so alot more rigid which would be handy if using 3 meter without bench because they do tend to flex alot as you move them around, think it was called the big one or something like that.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Great does it have any sort of software supplied with it. I currently print exhibition graphics PopUp, Banner stands etc so have no experience of vinyl cutting.
Therefore any help if I was to buy would be great.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Dazbond,

The cost to fit OPUS is £200.00 so just wondered is cutter still availible ?

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

I belive on the Graphtec you can have the OPUS fitted, or you can align to targets using what they call a Bombsight, which is a small lens with cross hair that can be fitted in the head.
I hoped the Roland might be the same.

Russell.

[Russell Huffer]

Is there any way on this machine that you could print some vinyl on another printer then outline cut.

Russell.