[Steff Davison]

quote DavidRogers:

Or just do as every other person seems to do….get image from Google and print it…play the odds that you are small fry and the company names / images you use won’t care!

Dave

I wouldn’t take this advice. Working legitimately and ethically will pay much higher dividends in the long run IMO.

Is the relatively small amount of profit worth potentially losing any equipment you or your business owns?

[Steff Davison]

Dont waste any more of your time with this lead, its dead. Send him an invoice for your work, I presume you have sufficient proof he placed an order.

If he doesnt pay take him to small claims court for your money. Claim the full value of the job.

Good luck.

[Steff Davison]

I dont know if this may help but….

I have flexi 12 Ive used flexi as a tool for cutting vinyl since I started, so I thought I knew it quite well, Ive recently added a Summa to a print and cut workflow. I couldn’t get my Summa to read the registration marks either. It was a different button on the menu, instead of cut/plot its something like contour cut, it tells the plotter that there is a relationship between the vector cut path and the registration marks (so it knows to look for them). do you have a similar button in signlab perhaps?

Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Martin Oxenham:

We have been dealing with the car mod fraternity for years and years and I don’t think there is a market for that sort of thing. People think its going to cost around £50 and take Ten minutes so they won’t pay the hundreds of pounds its worth.
Most are just time wasters when they see something like that. Explain the cost first and they will run a mile before you waste any time.

As above, its something I stopped bothering with a couple of years ago, and a decision I have never regretted.

Have you looked at paint protection and headlight tinting films? Pre cut kits?

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Maybe tell them you are too busy and unfortunately have had to let a couple of customers go, "we cant give you the level of service you deserve etc etc.

Steff

or you could consider the above advice, both should work !!

[Steff Davison]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Steff Davison:

I only print on one media type, so I lose 2 meters approx per roll. If I was swapping media over then I presume I would lose more, maybe 4 foot at the start of each job ( remember I print and cut so the media has to go back through the machine to cut). If I stuck a piece of waste on the front of the roll then I would lose less, but then I have the problem of the waste piece possibly jamming in the lightbar curing unit. If it was print only then I don’t think you would lose much material because its only moving one way (out).

Thanks for the reply Steff.

Having read this I can only assume you are not attaching your bit of waste media to the roll properly or it would not jam, as you say. Even if that was an issue, watching over it for a minute till it passes the exit an inch is all that is surely all that is required.

Also, 4 foot of media each time? surely If this was correct the media you have fed through would be hitting the floor, rather than just past the lightbar.

Please read back to the first post i made in this thread. you will see the sole purpose of us keeping our old print & cut machine was for on board contour cutting graphics.

Hi Robert, thanks for the comprehensive reply. I could attach media to the front but I dont want to risk a media jam. I lose about 4 foot when I start the roll, its not a complaint, I just put it down to the cost of operating the machine.

Its not a case of watching the first inch pass through either. It may print a meter of a job, then rewind to cut, then it does what it does and winds in a bit more I think. On a couple of occasions I have trimmed off what I thought were completed jobs only to find the machine rewinds past the point I have trimmed off and I get maybe 4-5 ft of unfinished media laying on the floor at the back of the machine.

My machine is working for over 10 hours most days. I’d rather lose a meter or 2 of media than have to lose jobs, and more importantly time trying to save a couple of foot of media.

As you say every machine has a cost, my machine costs me about 2 meters a roll in waste. For those with more time to spare they could possibly save a little media by attaching a waste piece and watching it for (in my case) 30 minutes to make sure its got through the curing section unscathed for the first couple of jobs or three.

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Jonathan Dray:

quote Steff Davison:

When you said earlier you waste around 2M per roll of material, did you mean 2M every time you load / unload the roll?

I only print on one media type, so I lose 2 meters approx per roll. If I was swapping media over then I presume I would lose more, maybe 4 foot at the start of each job ( remember I print and cut so the media has to go back through the machine to cut). If I stuck a piece of waste on the front of the roll then I would lose less, but then I have the problem of the waste piece possibly jamming in the lightbar curing unit. If it was print only then I dont think you would lose much material because its only moving one way (out).

It also depends on the type of work your machine is doing. I can only tell you what happens when I print and cut a full roll of media. I am in the process of changing to print only with it ( I need more speed) and using a cutter separately to finish the job.

When I have information on how it performs as a print only machine I will let you know how much difference there is in the amount of waste it produces.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Thanks for the reply

The issue is now resolved.

This was a brand new install, for some reason the latest drivers weren’t recognised, the fix was to download earlier drivers then update with the latest drivers.

Thanks to Paul at Art Systems.

[Steff Davison]

At this moment in time I do not wish to express any opinions regarding colourific or my Solvent UV ink set up.

I am,however, in the process of purchasing a UV LED set up to replace what I have now.

Regards

Steff

[Steff Davison]

In reply to Colin Crow
You do not need to send a blank file after every job, you can send as many jobs as you like through and they will all be cured except the final job. The final job needs the blank file to push the last job past the "Light Bar" curing lamp.

As regards waste media, I lose about 2 meters of every roll I put through the machine, attaching waste to the first job just increases the chances of the media getting tangled in the curing section. However I do use my machine for print and cut at the moment.

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

Is this machine still for sale?

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

Dont let your quest for "respectability" make you lose sight of the real objective, to make money.

I only sell online, I turn away bespoke work because Im not set up to handle it, it would cost too much in pre production hours and my machinery has enough work to do. You say that you were selling well and making great money quickly on eBay, then you shut it down…why??

Become the best online seller you can be, take the money, put it away and make your choices further down the line, the more money you can put away the more choices you will have when you are ready to change direction.

Your head and bank balance/cash flow will tell you when it is time to grow.

Best wishes
Steff

[Steff Davison]

I plan to keep investing in more equipment, Ive doubled my turnover every year since I started. Next year I plan to hopefully do the same.

I want to add 5-7% extra to my nett margin, so am in the process of making changes to how I operate the business to try and achieve this.

Best wishes to all for the coming year.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Don’t think I’m being cheeky replying to this thread as I’m only 24.

But I look at it from the point of view of someone starting out in the business.

Can you not groom a successor? If you could find someone to come into the business on the understanding that should things work out as planned then they would be able to "take over" within a specified time frame- say 3-4 years.

You can teach them how to run the business etc, then lend them the money to buy you out ( theres not much point having lots of cash in the bank earning diddly squat) They pay a commercial rent plus a percentage of turnover until they pay back the agreed sum. You can act as a consultant to protect your asset and help with advice on increasing revenue ( maybe come in 2 days a week to look over the books etc ( make sure its not going pear shaped). You still own the assets until final payment etc.

That sound like a fantastic opportunity for someone who wants to get ahead.

Good luck with your retirement, Ive only got another 50 years to go!

[Steff Davison]

I have a VSi, if you are a looking at volume production then go for a separate print cut solution. I am producing about 4.5 meters an hour (with a 2x CMYK set up) of the type of print and cut work I do. Your production will be much slower in a 6/8 ink configuration. But as previously stated it depends on the work you have for it.

Also look at the tolerances given by Roland on the VSi’s cutting accuracy over say 1 meter compared to 2 m, if you are cutting intricate shapes then again I think a separate cutting machine is the better option.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Have you checked to make sure there is nothing interfering with the grit rollers, ie small scrap of vinyl? It may also be a warning of a potential motor problem.

I had a similar problem with one of my Summas, and some mornings I needed to lower the cutting speed until it "warmed up". There was no apparent reason for the x axis error that I could find. I dont think its a problem with your pinch rollers, however there are members here better qualified to answer that than I.

Unfortunately the machine "died" 2 weeks ago but I did get 3 good years (6-9 hours work 7 days per week) out of it even with the intermittent x axis error. (it was probably 8 years old when I acquired it) The point being that I’m not suggesting yours is near death.

What speed are you cutting at?

Steff

[Steff Davison]

I agree with the advice already given on buying quality used "Brand Name" machinery.

Its a diverse business, and the same machinery can produce different kinds of work, find your "niche" first, research and make sure there are decent margins before you start to invest in equipment. In my opinion its vital you do your homework, having the equipment is no guarantee of success.

I started 3 years ago, even in that relatively short period of time the market has changed in my particular "niche" and its getting tougher.

As for how much you will need, well that depends on how much it costs you to live. I would say £2,000 minimum and always make sure you have enough money to buy materials, without media to put through your machine its an expensive paperweight.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do ( as long as you’re not competing with me 😀 )

Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Stephen Morriss:

Hi Steff

Are you printing onto vinyl?
Would it be an option to send some artwork to one of us to print onto vinyl?
The colours might not come out right but at least you’d have a reference to work from.

Steve

Thanks for your reply Stephen, I only want to print onto vinyl at the moment. It would be an option to have another member to kindly reproduce a print with their Lightbar set up, its not an option I have considered.

In my opinion it is Colorific’s responsibility to rectify the print problem. Using another member’s lightbar set up would only confirm what I already know, my machine and ink setup isn’t producing consistently scratch resistant prints.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Robert Lambie:

Stef, I am sorry to hear your problem but I can honestly tell you that you must have a rogue machine or simply an underperforming UV bulb perhaps. My prints are bullet proof and I have had various reps from different suppliers ask me about the machine when they are in my workplace and I simply show them a test. See for themselves And after it they are completely with me on its performance. All I can suggest is bear with colorific on it, I am sure you will be more than happy once resolved.
Stef, Out of curiosity, you haven’t mentioned the brands/types of media you are currently using?

Robert, I do hope you are right and it is something as simple as a "rogue" bulb. The reviews given on this thread and also the fact that the technology and company are Roland partners has been a major influence in my decision to purchase the Lightbar. I wanted a technology that meant I didnt need to laminate for interior work, that was extremely robust to scratching. Your most recent comments even reaffirms how robust this ink technology is. Unfortunately the print being produced on my machine isn’t.

Its been 5 weeks since the machine was installed, we didn’t sign the installation satisfaction form at the end of the installation because the machine’s print durability was not performing to our expectations. An engineer from Lightbar who visited 10 days after the install confirmed that the print produced was not scratch resistant enough. I have a copy of his report.

I recently received an email (after my previous post) which stated amongst other things " Training and expectation is key, which is required here" I find that comment slightly insulting, it suggests that the print is fine and its my expectations which may be at fault. This statement may also offer an insight into why, from my perspective nothing has changed. If its my unrealistic expectations at fault then there must be nothing to fix. All the evidence suggests otherwise.

I have looked at both the HP360 and Mimaki SUV, after watching the demonstration I was invited to scratch the media so I could see how durable it was, the results were impressive, there was no visible damage to prints being scratched. Colorific recently told me that a scratch test wasn’t a real world test. Multiple replies on this thread mention how robust the print is to scratch testing, not once has colorific refuted these claims.

As regards " bear with colorific" that is what I have done, I have recently stated in communication with them that I still believe they will rectify the problem. I hope my assumption is correct.

As regards the media I am using, I wont name the brand because I don’t want to imply that their media is responsible for my problems. However I am using a media recommended by Colorific for the Lightbar machine, I cant do any more than let the manufacturer choose the media for their technology.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Kevin Flowers:

Quote "I was under the impression that because the company and product were part of the Roland Partner programme my investment in this technology would be a safe one. At this moment in time I am not so sure."

Steff sorry to hear you are still having problems but as i said this as under tones of B&P, technology moving too fast and users businesses end up being the testers of the system. Have you tried speaking to Roland maybe they can help apply a little leverage.

Kev

Thank you for your reply Kevin, I have not thought about speaking to Roland at the moment, I am trying to work with Colorific to rectify the problems I am experiencing. I still believe that they should be given reasonable opportunity to resolve my problems. I suppose everyone’s interpretation of reasonable differs.

However I will say that my need to produce more profitable work from my machine doesn’t give me the luxury of too much time, Colorific are aware of this, and I hope that they will provide a suitable solution sooner than later. My machine needs to be producing more product, at the moment its not and the reason is the lack of scratch resistance on certain designs.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Its been nearly 3 weeks since my last post regarding issues with my Lightbar install. I have purposefully delayed any further comments on this topic in order to give Colorific ample time to rectify print durability issues I am experiencing with my Lightbar

In the past 3 weeks, from my perspective, nothing has changed at all. I still have a brand new VSi 540 that cannot produce a consistent range of images which are durable enough for me to send out to my customers. I have 3 product ranges which I am confident enough to send out without lamination at the moment.

I produce all my current products on one particular media using the same Lightbar engineer customised profile. I can design 1 range of product and the print is fairly robust as regards a scratch test. I can then put another design through, exact same media profile etc and the print scratches easily. I have new products I want to start selling, I cant because the print isnt durable enough.

Mr Nick Wintle was kind enough to visit my workshop personally, after seeing the problems first hand he assured me that he would take charge of the ink durability issue on my machine.

Although Mr Wintle has replied promptly to my questions other members of his team haven’t. I asked for someone to email me a profile on Wednesday of this week, despite reminding them a couple of times and being assured the profile would be sent I do not have the requested profile. I was told I would be contacted with an update end of business Thursday, I am still waiting.

I have asked Colorific where the problem lies with my ink durability problem. I have not yet had an answer. I dont know if the ink " doesnt like the media" as other posters have observed. Is it a bad batch of ink? is the lamp faulty?

I was under the impression that because the company and product were part of the Roland Partner programme my investment in this technology would be a safe one. At this moment in time I am not so sure.

5 weeks since install…… not good.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Have you thought about using Flexi Designer?

I design in Photoshop export to Flexi ( I can use a plug-in in Flexi to edit in Photoshop on my Flexi desktop but haven’t got that far yet).

It is available on a cloud subscription £14 odd a month, clever time saving stuff.

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

Open up Versaworks from edit menu, queue A properties, file format then adjust EPS margin to 2.00mm. I had the same problem on my install.

More information is available on the Roland forum under Versaworks.

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

I have had my VS 540 Lightbar machine since 13th July so far the experience has not been good. Purchased from Clourific.

Installed by an "engineer" who it turns out is part of the sales team. Was unable to profile any media except downloading profiles from Roland partner website. Told me that I couldnt use the machine for unattended print and cut with the take up system !!

The print produced is not robust, so far the results from the HP 360 which I looked at prior to purchasing the Lightbar, are more durable to a scratch test. Reported my concerns to Colourific who, with the intervention of Justin, said they would send up an engineer.

Waited 10 days for an engineer to come and provide profiles for my media and the machine. The engineer who came has profiled my media and the print results in terms of colour reproduction are much better. However scratch tests still remove ink. The engineer suggested that the lamp may not be functioning to its full capacity ( it should have been run for 100 hours prior to install) so may be the reason why ink is removed with a scratch test. The engineer produced some media he had profiled on another lightbar, this print was not removable with a scratch test so I am not suggesting that my problems are an inherent problem with all lightbar conversions/systems. I also noticed that areas where more ink has been put down are more resistant to scratching than areas with lighter ink coverage.

To date (13 days) I cannot produce product which is robust enough to sell for interior use without lamination, I purchased this machine because I did not want to laminate.

I will update with more information, for those who may be interested.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

Have you thought about Summa?
I have 2 machines both working 8 hours a day 7 days a week, not had any bother at all with them. Bought both as used machines (1st one 3 years ago, second 12 months ago), when they eventually pack in I wont hesitate to buy Summa cutters. I was looking at purchasing a 3rd machine but am going for a print and cut set up so put that idea on hold.

Regards Steff

[Steff Davison]

Thanks Simon,

Just having trouble finding a supplier of 240 g PVC banner. I have tried Google but China is too far, does anybody know a UK source?

Steff

[Steff Davison]

What benefit is a drier unit with these machines? Does it make production faster or reduce the chances of spoiling etc. If I am using a take up reel is a drier a more essential piece of equipment?

Another basic question
If I print and cut, is the media cut virtually instantly, or does the media need to cure a little first, hence the drier unit. Does the printer use registration marks, or does it remember where the print was put down on the media.

Which leads me to my next question,
If the media needs to cure prior to cutting is it better to use a separate cutter, if so, how easy is it to integrate the cutting process with the printing process, ie do I need to be loading vector files into other software to cut the printed media?

I am just trying to make more sense of how the production process works.

Thanks for your help.

[Steff Davison]

Thanks for the replies.

David, did you keep your Roland as well as purchasing the colour painter?

Another general question about the Sol Max 2 inks, is the new formulation white much more opaque than the previous sol max ink formulation, as claimed by the manufacturer?, I get different advice from different suppliers. I need good coverage of white for printing onto clear media, I dont want to add more productions process to obtain the desired result.

Regards
Steff

[Steff Davison]

I was using ultrachome k2 now use inktec not had any problems with it. And it has good reviews on the t’internet too.

Steff

[Steff Davison]

quote Robert T Walker:

You could try http://www.palmerpublicity.co.uk ask for Noël, always give me a great price

Thank you Robert.

[Steff Davison]

quote Martin Cole:

quote josh morris:

and hes asking me to go lower

Tell him to f..k off and move on….. find more profitable work it is out there.
If you end up doing it something normally goes wrong and it will come back and bite you in the ars.e.

I know your new and want the business but don’t be a busyfool, and if anyone mentions I saw it on Ebay, tell them to F..k Off and then shoot them.

I hope this helps

😉 😀

LOL 😀

[Steff Davison]

quote Richard Daniel:

Steff.

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

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

Thank you Richard.

[Steff Davison]

quote 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)

I was told that this retro fit was only possible on a couple of Roland machines, I would be interested to hear which other machines are suitable for conversion.

Thanks

[Steff Davison]

quote Dan King:

Hi

I see where you’re coming from and yes a quick sale and then move on to the next product. But then again surely this is normal in the business world..
After all isn’t that what most people carry out anyway?! It was good while it lasted etc, skim as much profit off a niche market then onto the next

I haven’t committed yet, just feeling my way to see what my plan should be 🙂

Thanks will check google.

Yes to a degree, but to be a niche there needs to be more buyers than sellers which keeps the price points buoyant. This isnt the case with the selling channels your’e looking at. And because of the nature of online selling prices for good selling decent margin products can be eroded overnight.

There are now more sellers than buyers all clambering for a slice, so you don’t need a degree in economics to work out that prices are dropping and will continue to drop. Why would you want to risk your money in a marketplace like that?? The volumes are getting harder and harder to achieve, and the lower levels of sales will not sustain the smaller margins, expenses are going up, margins are coming down.

As I said previously, good luck.

[Steff Davison]

quote Dan King:

Hi Steff

I can see your point, the market does have many hundreds of sellers, but i believe have found a niche market to exploit..so its worth a gamble or i could buddy up with a person that has a cutter to produce these items, but that is risky as my idea could be imitated.

For me i dont see this being anything more than a side job, alongside my 9-5 job so i would probably be looking at no more than £100 a week revenue. With bespoke work here and there when i advertise, so perhaps more than that amount actually.

I have seen these, D60/Graphtec GCC Expert and the Roland GX24.

Thank you, all valuable comments to me.

I still unsure if i could get away with a Stika or Robo Craft

This is true, they will but then true friends will also show when times are tough. Never heard of that software but i may well look it up.

Thanks again and have a good day

You may find a niche, but if it sells it wont be a niche for long!! sellers are scouring ebay for products that sell in any volume. And as soon as they find it, they copy and undercut. eg. A high volume seller ( 2,000+ sales per week mainly selling craft goods, beads card etc, happy to net 50p using his economies of scale will sell at prices you cant ship for. Its no longer a friendly place to try and do business.

But it already sounds like you have committed to the idea, so I wish you good luck.

[Steff Davison]

Hi Dan,
I understand this market, If you are looking at selling online then my opinion is save yourself some money and don’t bother. The online market places are saturated with sellers, many Chinese have joined the UK market and are selling at extremely low prices. Prices are still dropping!!! I know of one seller in the UK market who started 4 years ago and they were doing good numbers, they are now turning over less than £200 a week with over 2,000 listings ( all automotive ) on one major selling platform.

If you still want to enter the market, then a 610 wide machine such as Graphtec, Roland, Summa expect to pay £600 -£800 ish.

Then give yourself enough capital to keep your enterprise afloat for the 6 months it will take you before any selling platform trusts your business enough to give it the exposure to sell in any meaningful volume.

If your’e looking to sell to friends or enjoy making vinyl stickers buy a 2nd user craft robo.

And as a footnote, friends will always tell you business is good and they are making money. Buy Terapeak for a month and look at the categories you are interested in selling in. Figures never lie.

[Steff Davison]

quote Martin:

Steff, I can understand you being a bit disappointed not to have had any replies to your question but I doubt it was because people felt you didn’t deserve an answer, it may just have been that no one with knowledge of that machine was about when you posted & your post ended up dropping down the list.
You said in your introduction that you had been running your own business for a couple of years so your not completely new to the industry, my own personal opinion is that the forum is still a friendly place where the vast majority of questions get an answer or two.
Where was your question posted? I don’t really do any printing but will try to answer your question if I can. Wouldn’t want anyone to be put off because they didn’t get an answer to a question.

Thank you Martin, for your kind offer of help. It wasn’t my intention to suggest that the forum isn’t friendly, if my post came across that way, then I apologize

The "tone" of my post was more in response to Mike Grant’s earlier comments. I should have used the quote box in my first post.

[Steff Davison]

As a new member, I would like to offer my perspective of how I find the boards here. Before I joined I came here to read as much as I could on topics which were of interest to my particular business. I could have remained in the "shadows" and carried on but decided to register, introduce myself and ask a question about a particular machine. I didnt receive one reply to my question, fair enough, it was a general question, I didnt want any "trade secrets" just some feedback before I spent, what is to me as a new business, a major outlay.

As a result I havent bothered asking anymore questions. I can trawl through other sites and find bits and pieces of information. I suppose like anything it just takes time to become accepted enough to "deserve" some sound advice.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the internet there aren’t as many "trade secrets" anymore.

[Steff Davison]

I went specifically to see this set up. I looked at the Mimaki 400suv machine previously, which is £18k ish (4 colour) the machine set up by colourific was a grenadier 6 colour machine at a fraction of the price of the Mimaki. As I dont want to use finance to purchase equipment the price of the Mimaki was too much money for me at the moment. The colourific however is very affordable in comparison (2nd user)
The samples looked impressive. As I produce interior work its gone on my " next piece of equipment " list.

[Steff Davison]

quote Duncan Wilkie:

Welcome Steff. What was your area of study at university? What drew you to making signs?

I was studying performing arts. A friend of the family, who was a commercial artist/graphics designer for 40+ years, said if he had one regret from his many years in design, it was that he had never produced the designs he worked on for the graphics/ printing industry ( he told a few stories to illustrate the point, but there’s not enough room here 🙂 ) . My father asked me if I would like to try designing and producing something, and bought me the used Summa cutter. It just progressed from there.

Steff