[Stephen Morriss]

How far away from the blank sign area are you creating your artwork?

I’ve seen this on files where the artwork is a long way from the sign blank (Zero point) of the page, basically the mathematical error gets larger the further away you get, once the artwork is moved back to the zero point or sign blank area the export works again. I have a sign maker who sends me artwork to print and a few files were terrible, I thought he’d vectorised an image, but it turned out he’d created the artwork from scratch and it was perfect in the original file, he sent me the original signlabs file and I knew what the problem was straight away, moved the artwork back to the sign blank area and it exported perfectly.
If this doesn’t sort the problem then I’ve got no other ideas.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I made that decision years ago, it just didn’t make sense to me with the material costs etc, I can sign write a tractor unit in less than a day with far less material costs and effort than any partial wrap I’ve done.
I had one customer that had the bottom of the cab colour changed, about half way up the door, while I did that my wife would sign write the rest of the cab and then the half I’d wrapped and she’d be waiting for me to finish the other side.
The design has now changed and while it’s still complicated to apply it’s a lot faster and I charge more.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Could be Phill, I always had trouble with one colour on the Eco Solmax inks and I currently always have trouble with Cyan on the Truvis inks, the other 3 colours have no problem including magenta on the same head as cyan.

[Stephen Morriss]

The later SP had a shared pump so the lines from the two capping stations joined in a Y, if one pipe was blocked then the capping station on that line didn’t get cleared and couldn’t clean the head properly.

I used to fill the capping heads with cleaner during a manual clean as the fluid would help clear the pipes, I was using Eco solmax inks.

As a last resort a syringe on the pipe and a GENTLE vacuum would help clear the head.

[Stephen Morriss]

I’m lucky (also unlucky) that my workshop is just across the yard from my house so for me I’d just carry on (and did last April without realising I had covid!)

The only problem for you is if you’re traveling and need to fill up your transport with fuel, you could get a family member to fill it up but then that raises a whole new set of problems.

Ultimately we’ve got to now live with this so it’ll not be long before it’s all swept under the carpet and carry on as normal.

[Stephen Morriss]

Late reply but..

I had a similar issue so I got in contact with Roland UK, they talked me through a few things to try and eventually they fitted a new printhead. I’ve no idea what the problem was but since the printer was printing perfectly before the change they covered the change.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I can’t be arsed with all that, I send the customer a low res jpg of the design, they make suggestions as to how they want the design altered, I’ve already given them an estimate based on the basic designs so I give them a quote based on their final design and away we go.

Some don’t come back but most do and what’s more they keep coming back year after year. You do get a 6th sense for when you’re being had though so we don’t put too much effort (if any) into them ones.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Initial communication via tel or email, once they have had a design (small jpg only) they can come over to tweak the design (I don’t allow this currently though)

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Manufacturing is meant to stay open, you manufacture signs.

[Stephen Morriss]

I’d have used cut vinyl, or at the most printed the logo on clear with a close cut path and cut for the rest.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I can’t help much with Troop, but Roland used to recommend using RGB and like Chris I found both my old SP’s preferred RGB artwork, CMYK never quite looked right.
On the Uniform 30" I used Colorrip and then the RIP that Colorrip was based on (can’t remember the name, Wasatch?)
When I got my SP540 I converted it back to Roland Ecosol Max inks and used Versaworks so I again never used Troop, again I always used RGB artwork.

Are there settings for Prepress US etc, have you selected the right colour profile?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’d get the auto tool changer if it’s not a stupid price, messing around changing tools by hand gets old fast and on some carving type jobs you may need to change the tool 4 or 5 times for various bits.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Quick update. Roland have been very good helping to sort this out, not quite there yet but they have been on the phone for a long time talking me through things to do and I’ve now got it mostly sorted. I just need to leave it overnight now as the engineer thinks it’s better not to do too much cleaning and messing.
I can’t believe how tough these new inks are though, scratching with my finger nail after 10 minutes of drying and I just destroy the vinyl without removing any ink.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

If the supplier/manufacturer is local and gives good support then that’s worth a lot, but get a current owners opinion too.

Most routers can cut Aluminium, it’s how well they do it that matters. I cut some parts with mine from 6mm 6000 series Ali using a 3mm single flute carbide bit and lots of passes, they came out usable but my CNC mill would have cut them in one pass and left a near polished edge, but while it’s much bigger than the router it’s cutting area is tiny in comparison to the router.

One use I’ve put my router to that I never thought of when I made is was cutting 1mm foamed PVC using a plotter blade in a special holder, I’ve made loads of paint masks for people using this, quite slow but they came out great. Vectric V Carve has an add on that you setup to create the files.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

That’s a good find, thanks.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

If it’s well made and assembled then it should be Ok, but I’d be wanting to see it in operation for that price.
Can they put you in touch with someone who already has one?

You also need some extra info.
Spindle speed range and tool sizes (collet type)?
Axis feed rates?
How is the gantry moved, belt or leadscrew? The Y axis looks to be a leadscrew.
What backlash is present if leadscrews?
What material are the leadscrews and nuts?

There’s nothing wrong with leadscrews as long as they don’t have a lot of backlash and also have a method of adjustment, good quality ballscrews are good as they have very little backlash and are usually hardened.

The spindle speed and feed rates have a huge impact on how fast you can cut and the type of tooling you can use, if the feed rate is too slow then you have to use single flute cutters because you need a minimum cut per tooth or you just wear the tool from rubbing. So if the tool is spinning at 7000 rpm and the max usable feedrate is 500mm/min that’s 500/7000 = 0.071mm cut per revolution for a single flute cutter, half that for a 2 flute etc.
Look on a few tooling sites and look for recommended chip load for various materials you think you’ll be cutting.

I know my home built router struggles to run fast enough for the rpm of the spindle so I can end up burning cutters and causing excessive wear.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

quote Iain Pearson:

Car parts and ink are totally different . Car parts can be mass produced and stockpiled, sit on the shelf indefinitely, ink had a shelf life and from what I know of HP I doubt they would have deliberately infringed any regulation if there is one

Yes I know, but they have effectively made a machine, designed and produced by them, scrap well within it’s usable life time, I’m sure they will have looked into the legal side but I bet if enough noise is made they’ll have to step up and make the inks available again one way or another.

I do find it very unusual though, I had a HP 3000cp (I think) and I could still buy the heads and inks for a long time after it had been superseded by the 5500

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Is it even legal for them to stop supplying inks for a machine that soon after stopping production?

I know cars have to be supplied with spares for 10 years or so after the model ceases production but I would have thought there was something similar for machinery, unless there is a safety concern.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

This may be a setting in Versaworks, download and use version 6 as it seems better than Dual, or a setting in the printer panel. You may be better contacting Roland DG directly as they are usually very helpful.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

The later Signlabs should run your older cutter but finding a PC with a parallel port will be a challenge, I think you can get parallel port card though.
Any new RIP should run your printer via Ethernet but they are expensive.

No idea on the Gerber Edge as I’ve never run one.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve also done the same using a matt polymeric vinyl.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

No one interested in this? Would be worth having for spares and I’m starting to trip over it! :rollseyes:

Offers?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

The transport procedure is in the manual, it also says about emptying the inks but I’d not bother doing that, just fit the head clamp, I think it’s stored under the printer behind the ink bottle, load the printer carefully and take the smoothest route home, unload and get the power on ASAP, do a clean and nozzle check again (don’t forget to remove the clamp)

Keep a full set of inks on standby and also get the cleaning cartridge as it doesn’t give you much warning when it’s about to run out. (fits in at the head end of the printer)

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

For 6K it’s a no brainer if you’ve got the work for it.
Make sure it’s got a good nozzle check and go through the manual clean process to check for ink buildup on the heads.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Only you can truly answer that question but the SG540 is a fast capable printer and should cover you’re needs.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I used to keep a few different vinyls in stock for this sort of thing but now I just have my everyday Polymeric and a high tack in stock.
Everything but stickers for plastics goes on the Polymeric, short term doesn’t get laminated, small stickers for tools etc and plastics go on the high tack with lamination apart from the very small ones.
The only problem with the poly is it is thinner and floppier to handle when not laminated so for short term stickers it’s harder to handle.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

So far it’s been easy to look after and the print results are still great, happy with it and still on Roland inks.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Mmm, apparently I’m not authorised to read or send private messages!
I’ll send you me email address via your website contact page.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Ok Phill, PM me the address you want it sending to and I’ll sort it, probably after Christmas.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Merry Christmas, I’m finishing on Friday but like Martyn it’s been a quiet December.
However my accountant has just told me that between extending the office and buying a new printer I don’t have any tax to pay this year!

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I use a steam cleaner and wall paper stripper all the time for vinyl removal, safe, clean and no residue (apart from when some glue is left behind)

I’ve found that when using heat it’s the panel that needs the heat as this makes the glue release easier and steamers get a lot of heat onto the job without overheating the vinyl.

Interesting to hear about the vinyl off though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Yes the SP540V has ethernet, the SP300 is USB.

Versaworks also works fine on Windows 8, I didn’t try it on Windows 10 though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

You need the UV inks from CSL, they can advise to the best method of changing the inks but the general process is to flush the current inks and then load the UV inks, add the ink profile to Versaworks and do some test prints. You can also get an engineer out to do custom profiles.
If you’re not familiar with the UV Lightbar then it’s worth having a search and reading up about it.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Edward Mathias, I’ve also got Cutpro instead as it’s a lot cheaper and has all you need for vinyl cutting.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Yes, looks like they were wound up May 2018

No idea about the sign system.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve just done a DAF cab for a regular customer, if it’d been a new customer I’d have said no but this customer isn’t expecting perfection, and he wasn’t going to get it on a 10 year old truck, but he wanted a colour change.
3 days with fitting a few smaller jobs in the middle. Trims, handles, mirrors etc all came off and that was a simple job, I’d imagine the front of a van would be far more complicated and to do that and the rest of the sign writing on a grand is impossible.
As said, doing the back would be a far better option or as Phil said stick to cut vinyl.

I’m being asked to wrap 3 Transit minibuses, trouble is it’s my wifes bus business so I’ll have a problem saying no and asking the full price :rollseyes:

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Bill’s experience reflects my own with an SG540, very easy to look after and the inks last ages, I’m not a heavy user (it prints every week and more often every day) but I bought mine in August last year and I’ve only just changed the Black and Cyan cartridges, the yellow and magenta were changed a few months ago.
It is way faster than my old SP540, a print that would take all day on the SP can be done in less than an hour on the SG, I’ve now got into the habit of queuing prints and just printing for a few hours in the afternoon.
Inks are more durable than the Max inks and if it’s going on a vehicle then the prints are laminated anyway, and as Bill said solid colours can be mistaken for coloured vinyl.
Maintenance is just basically making sure the heads and capping stations don’t have a build up of ink, the rest it does itself.
Once it’s a few years old and things start to wear or go wrong I might change my opinion but for now it’s a great printer

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

We’ve got a TrueVis SG540 and had an SP540 before that.
I’ve no experience with doing full vehicle wraps with the prints but the printer uses less ink than our old SP and it’s a lot faster, had it for nearly a year and it’s be very easy to get along with so far.
Overall it’s a better printer and the inks don’t smell any more than the Max inks and no one that comes into the office makes any comments about smell.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Get this quite often, especially the low res jpg in the pdf file :rollseyes:
Another customers artwork comes as pdf’s that for some reason seem to loose bit’s so each time I just end up asking a for a jpg but apparently they can’t do that and send me another pdf with a jpg in it :shocked:

Hugh, I try to stay away from boy racers, I’ve got one local to me that has had 3 sun strips on his "race" car and he’s crashed all 3 of them, he rang up last week for another as he’d just crashed his car in exactly the same place as he crashed last year on ice, apparently it was the lack of ABS wot did it! :shocked:
I managed to refrain from commenting.

Merry Christmas
Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve had a Summa and now have a Roland, both are very good but I think the Summa has the edge in user friendliness even though it’s 16 years old. The Roland works better in my workflow though as I also have a Roland printer so Versaworks can cut direct to the Roland cutter with no messing around.
As others have said, get the widest you can afford and fit in your office, 1300mm is a good size, while most work will fit in the normal 610 vinyl rolls it’s very handy to be able to get 1220 rolls for some jobs, then if you get a printer you can also cut prints.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve always had this problem too, the closest I got was when my SP540 was changed to UVL inks and the printer was profiled.
I’ve now got the problem of matching a grey from the old SP on UVL inks using a new SG540 on Truevis inks and I’m getting greys with a green tint.
It’s driving me mad as I’ve got to print a replacement logo for a bonnet repair and I’ve also got a new van to sign this week with a 3m print down each side, all with green fades and grey fades so I’ve got no chance of doing a multi pass print.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I take a fan heater to window jobs, set the heater so the air flows across the window and leave it going while you get everything else sorted and it makes a huge difference.
Obviously no good for a huge window but most of my jobs involve small shops so it’s ideal.

Going to look into them Gecko patches though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I ended up un installing and deleting the versaworks Dual folder and then re installing it, I’ve not tried the updates yet as I didn’t want the problem but I might try just the program update and see how it goes.

Steve

P.S. No that just caused the corrupt file error again!
I’ve now logged a case with Roland so we’ll see what happens now.

[Stephen Morriss]

No, I start it each day. I’ve also restarted Versaworks a few times and restarted the computer, I think I’ll just have to bite the bullet and reinstall it 👿

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

My Canon laser prints onto the clear sheets no problem and I’ve found the black is a lot denser than some recent new plates I’ve looked at.
I reverse print onto the clear and stick onto the glue/reflective base plate with a roller.
However I don’t do many and normally just get the local Autoparts to make them up and deliver them to me with my details on.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Well I bit the bullet and bought an SG540, happy so far, very fast compared with my old SP540V, I keep setting jobs up and sending them to print, turn away and they’re done!
Print quality is good too with the lowest quality easily good enough for most jobs.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Hi

I’ve had one for about 2 weeks now, using both an old roll of Oracal and Metamark print medias, I’ve also used a few different banners materials, one from Metamark and the other from Dorotape and both seem to have been fine so far.
I also have some Hexis wrapping vinyl that the UVL inks didn’t like so I’ll be trying that soon.

Not a huge list but everything I’ve put in it so far has printed but there is the occasional blemish on the old roll of Oracal but it’s about 3 years old and has sat around and may have got damp at some point.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve found it best to just use the weight of the roller with a tiny amount of pinch, like just a fraction of a turn past the screw starting to push the roller down, gets the best results.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’m using a 1400 for large print lamination and as long as I take care setting it up and keep the runs short it works fine, longer runs cause problems though and if I over tighten the pinch on the rollers it starts to have problems sooner.
Long prints of 3-4m I’ll do half and half, this seems to work ok. I’m not sure I’d go longer than 4m though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Don’t forget that you can also offer other print options for local businesses if you get a printer, just printing one off or small runs of posters can go a long way towards covering your running costs.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Good to hear Mark. How long do you leave heavy print areas to outgas and are you finding the prints durable if not laminated?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Bit late but you needed to specify that you will not fit to the insulated wall or if you do you take no responsibility for any subsequent damage or leaks, even then you’d be better doing some research on specific wall fixings.

Or look into Robs suggestion.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I have to agree, I’ve never bothered with membership and I don’t have any specific sign qualifications, it is just a manufacturing process covered by other qualifications, for instance I have engineering qualifications from my time as an engineer, I’ve now been a sign maker for over 16 years so longer than I was an engineer, the practical applications of an engineering background have been far more relevant for manufacturing and fitting signs than any other qualification I can think of and like you said a small employer can soon weed out people with a few simple trials, and let’s face it, it only takes a little bit of training followed by assisting a competent fitter to fit vinyl to signs and vehicles. After that you have more specialist training such as vehicle wrapping etc.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’d like to hear from anyone who has one of these printers too, thinking of getting one to replace my old SP540V.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

There are a few companies that do small cnc routers, Routout CNC is one that comes to mind quickly and I’m sure I’ll think of a few others tonight in bed

worldofcnc is another.

I’ve used Routout many years ago for parts and I’ve seen one of their earlier routers and it was nicely made.

If you go down this route then the machine controller will be PC based and likely Mach3 or a variation, UCCNC is a nice simple control program as well, I use both and UCCNC is far nicer to use. Make sure it is using an ethernet or usb controller, not a printer port. the printer port is ok but for business use the USB or ethernet controller is much smoother, they are both still controlled by the PC based program but the timing is taken care of by the separate control card.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Looks good Phill.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Very good point Simon, we work with a designer who is great at brochures and general design etc but if she comes up with a banner design she always puts too much on it, loads of colours etc. This is for a 3m banner at the side of a 60mph road on a corner, the banners need to simple and clear but she does a complicated (nice) design every time and the actual important info ends up being lost.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Right, We’ve been having problems with the ABS blocking the nozzle, I think we’ll go back to PLA and get some better ABS.
Like you I got ours for my son who was doing engineering, I thought it’d be good for him to get his ideas into a real object but he’s not actually used it as much as I was hoping, still it’s made a few useful items but nothing for signs yet.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

It’s not the time doing the layout but more the idea, I can copy stuff all day but ask me for an original design and I’m stuffed However some of the designs around now are getting to the point of being bland and are taking the idea of clean and simple to new levels, how long is it before some big company registers a simple coloured box or circle as a company logo? Or has it already been done?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Wow you’ve been busy Phill, the most I’ve done with ours is make parts for my machines and bikes.

Have you had many problems with the nozzle blocking?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Interesting, I’ve had a few problems recently and this is almost certainly the reason.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Nice work.

[Stephen Morriss]

Yes we do the same, we end up doing a van and including a logo etc and before you know it you’ve got £250 for a van all in and your handing the client the artwork to send to printers etc, if they asked a design company to do that they’d have been charged £250 for the logo design on it’s own.
I had a local client go to a designer for a logo and the designer wanted to charge £700+ :shocked: it was nice but wow, he did the design in a short afternoon. Fortunately it was for an accountants and he was happy enough swapping the design for part of the accountancy bill the designer had.

[Stephen Morriss]

That’s what I normally do Denise, if it’d been any other time than lunch time I’d have just said, not interested, don’t ring again, and put the phone down.
It’s re taught me an important lesson, say nothing.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

My printer was profiled a few years ago and it has made a difference, the onscreen colours are usually close to the printed colour, not exact but close, however there are a few that just can’t be reached so if you turn screen proofing on you’ll get a better idea of how they’ll print.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I think if you play music through headphones they can’t do anything so just tell them nothing.
If you do get an invoice make sure to reply in writing.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Might do that then.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I think you have to make your default colour space CMYK for it to stick, if your default is RGB then all your colour pallets should default to RGB as well. My wife keeps getting caught out by this and making files in CMYK when we want RGB.

By the way Roland recommend using RGB to create print files as their printer inks can go beyond the CMYK colour space so by using CMYK your limiting your colours.
I’d suspect the same applies to other process printers now as well.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Yup, I’ve already told them that, and I haven’t, but mine is a home office anyway so by their own terms I don’t need a licence.
Leaves a bad taste and my main objection is the heavy handed approach they take, also like you I’m registered with the TPS so they shouldn’t have rung in the first place.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Their website says that if your work in a home office then your exempt but only if it’s just you and other family who live there that can hear the music.
I was caught out by this unfortunately, I was feeling kind of mellow so I didn’t tell them to go away as I normally would and stupidly answered some questions (thinking it was a survey) and then was told I’d be getting invoiced ❓ 👿 I quickly woke up then!
Anyway after some investigation I found home offices are ok so I’ve written a letter showing the relevant info etc, but I bet I hear back from them still demanding money.
The worst bit is that no customer would be able to hear music as I don’t get customers in the office, we don’t sell items from stock and the only customers who come are dropping off signs or vehicles.
There is also a small business rate which they keep hidden (and only admit to if you tell them you know about it) so if you have 4 or less employees it’s a joint payment for PRS and PPL of around £47 each so less than the £156 PPL demand at first, and I do mean DEMAND!
When they phoned they only used the acronym PPL not the full business name, and I was only told about the conversation being recorded near the end so I’m not sure it would stand up in court if I was to take it that far but I’d rather pay a solicitor hundreds than them forty odd pounds.
So we’ll see how it goes.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Fair point Neil. Glasplas are a company I’ve used in the past and I seem to remember they have a long warranty.

Re edging, I tend to make it up. So for a ply sign I would get planed all over wood and glue and screw it onto the edge, insert the dibond sign board (after fitting to the posts) and then add a beading strip inside to finish it off.
This gives you a traditional-ish sign with a sign face that will last a long time.
Fit to some nice wood posts concreted into the ground and you have a sign that fits into most traditional backgrounds.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

No idea of other locations but the last time I bought marine ply is was about £47+ vat, birch ply is slightly more but you don’t get many defects in it and it’s great for CNC V cut signs.
It’s a few months since I last bought some so I suspect the price has jump since brexit :rollseyes:

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’m not sure really, it all depends on the use.
Aluminium angle, wood trim, lots of different styles of edging available and the 19mm edge gives you a good thickness to screw into. Also like Rob said angle screw as the bottom edge does hold water far more than you’d think.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

That’s quite a high bed temp for PLA but as I said we’ve not done much. We’ve had the bed temp at 100 for ABS and the head at 245.
I’ll clean this nozzle and try some new ABS or maybe the PLA.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Happy New Year.

We were very busy in 2016, hence never having time to log on here. I’m hoping for less work and more profit in 2017 😆

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Late to the party but..

Having used various ply boards over the years I’ll only use marine or birch ply now, the cost of the materials is nothing compared to the time spent making and then replacing it. I had one set of signs made from water proof ply that all had to be replaced a few months later.
Also on a sign board 8’x4′ I’d be using 19mm, I tend to go overboard sometimes but if it’s only on 2 posts you’ll get a lot of wind load. Make sure the posts are good ones as well, I’ve seen them snap from knotts.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Interesting use Phill.

How are you finding your printer?
I bought one to get my son making things but the nozzle keeps having trouble with ABS blocking it. Might just be the ABS is variable quality, we’ve not tried PLA much.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I quite often have problems with the Magenta/yellow head.
It’s the capping station blocking as if one of the inks is drying slightly. It’s made worse because I have the newer pump fitted with only one pipe and a Y piece to suck the ink from both capping stations. The black/cyan head is always clean but the M/Y head fills the capping station and starts to bleed ink across so I need to clean the heads before printing.
It doesn’t always happen but it’s more often than not.

If I had the old pump fitted I don’t think it would happen as there was 2 separate pumps built into it.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Wallpaper stipper (steamer) works great on large areas and doesn’t overheat the vinyl or panel.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Like Dave said, compressed air will stir up the fine dust and cause as many problems unless you have an extraction system near by.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I use an oil space heater for the shed in winter and my office is small and heated with all the vinyls and printer etc in.
On very cold or wet days I only bring out the vinyl I’m fitting at the time and keep the rest in the office otherwise the paper absorbs moisture or wrinkles in the cold, or even both sometimes!

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Hi

I use a Roland Camm-1 pro 30" cutter with a roland printer and versaworks.
The cutter is very good generally and the alignment between the printer and cutter is very good and most of the time is better than the printers own alignment.
But there is one niggle with the Roland cutter, it doesn’t pre feed vinyl, so when you are cutting normal vinyl using a cut program other than Rolands own you need to hand feed the vinyl first or you get an axis error as the cutter tries to roll off the vinyl at cut speed.
I’ve asked Roland about it but never heard back from them regarding this.

As I said the cutter is very good so other than this problem I’ve found mine to be reliable and easy to use.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I stopped doing silly hours a few years ago and just settled into a steady routine so I do a normal working week with some weekends to do the jobs that can’t be done during the week such as trucks.

I think your quality of life suffers if you do too much and you forget how to relax or how to do anything other than work.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I think Master grave do it in Gold and Silver, I’m sure I’ve had the gold a long time ago but don’t have any left to check.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Too much tension of the return spring?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Buy a steam cleaner, it make taking old vinyl off easy and you usually bring most of the glue off with the vinyl, also you need to warming the panel behind the vinyl for the best results.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

quote Steff Davison:

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

Yes but you’d have more information, it doesn’t even have to be the whole print just the part your having problems with.
Anyway the offer is there if you want me to do a quick print, mines only cmyk though so it’ll not give you a true indication.

Steve

[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

[Stephen Morriss]

I found the problem with polyprop was your blade started to follow previous cuts after a while, you then turn it over to double the life but it’s still not that good.
Even though you g through a lot of blades I still like the glass top I cut onto. Not sure if it’s an option on a roller table though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Don’t forget to leave the plastic on one side, that way if you get the job to re-sign the shop you can just turn the foamex board over and reuse it!

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I’ve had the same problem with these and I’m buying from a reputable sign supply company. Basically I’ve got old Avery squeegees that are still in better nick than the new ones.
And no I’ve not found a good replacement yet.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

One of my worst was for around £25 and after I contacted him about it not being payed after a few months the company owner said "I don’t care how much it costs, I just needed it doing" ??? Yes and it was done now pay the £25 please!
Second time I contacted him he was in Japan apparently.
Third time I must have hit it right because I got a cheque in the post the next day – 9 months after invoicing him and all for £25!?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Maybe but if they have done a few conversions on that printer then the profile should be close, they don’t alter much from machine to machine or Roland (and other manufacturers) wouldn’t be able to provide generic profiles either.
I got the impression that the ink doesn’t change much from material to material once the machine is profiled, the ink tended to either work or not.
I have a paper that just about worked with Ecosolmax inks but the UV ink loves it, but my printable reflective just doesn’t work with the UV inks at all. I also have another cheap temp vinyl that doesn’t take the ink very well but it was very cheap.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

The red looks like a spot of dust on the vinyl, the ink sort of pools around it leaving a thinner layer next to the bit of dust.
No idea about the blue.
Mine prints are far more durable than the EcosolMax inks but if you were running the solvent inks before then I’ve no idea how they compare. Is the print going past the light too fast?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

It came with my X7 upgrade so I presume it’ll be on the disk for X7 as well.
It should tell you on the Corel site though.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

I remember that one now, this getting older lark does things to you 😉
I set mine to 1mm for this reason.

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

quote Denise Goodfellow:

Yes fine, the only errors have been human…..

Ha, aren’t they always 😉

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Did you ever sort this Dan?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Good to know, I’ve been using a very good laminator that would have been 5k new but it’s a bit narrow at only 1040mm max width, fine for 760 prints but no good for 1370mm prints and I’m getting fet up of having to mess around cutting bits of the roll to laminate within the width of the current laminator.

So the rollers manage to nip properly over the full width then?

Steve

[Stephen Morriss]

Sorry to hyjack this thread

I presume it’s one of the simple ones with red rollers and blue casing found on a popular auction site?
How do you find it?
I can’t see how the laminate roll is meant to be held, there seems to be a holder for a roll of print but it doesn’t have anything to stop sideways movement.

Steve