Basic Gerber Question

[NiNe2NiNe INC.]

I've got a customer thats requesting about 2000 3.5" logos. i can only fit 4 up on the sheet of vinyl. my question is, what's the longest run of vinyl do you guys typically do? Im fairly new at this so excuse my ignorance. Thanks

 

[J Hill Designs]

gerber edge? My cutter doesnt have sprocket drive, so my runs get outta whack after 6 feet or so, but with sprocket fed I still probably wouldn't go more than 5 yards...

 

[Billct2]

I usually like to do 8 or 10 feet, especially if it's a lot of colors, only so if it screws up I haven't lost a lot.
You really are only limited by your fears...

 

[hydo1]

I usually don't like to do runs longer than 5 yds either, just because if you are doing multi color and something goes wrong you are out of luck.

 

[NiNe2NiNe INC.]

Alright, Ive done about 10 feet before. I have a sprocket drive cutter and gerber edge fx printer so it runs pretty smooth at that length.

 

[Red Ball]

We keep our runs under 14'. The length of our weeding table!

 

[Fred Weiss]

My personal preference using an Envision 375 plotter is to limit the length of each print run to no more than 72 inches. So I would set my run for 20 repeats giving a yield of 80 per run and a length somewhere around my limit. Then just run it 25 times.

The further for home you get the greater the chance of color to color or print to cut tolerance problems.

 

[ScooterX]

I would think that for a run that large it might be more profitable to order the decals from a decal printing company (I've used Stousse Inc).

 

[smdgrfx]

I've run about 80 feet continuous before with no problems. 4 color process large print. I have made some horrible mistakes in the past and ruined 20-30 feet because of some other mistake, even recently because my head was putting to much pressure down. And it sucks when you lose material like that...nevermind the three times in a row it happened to me before I threw in the towel and called tech support.

 

[signpro]

i've never gone 80 ft, but i've done 20'+ regularily. it's a sprocket drive. and i've never had any real issues with running the 20' lenghts before. however, if it is many color foils, maybe limit it to 10', "just incase", then you only lose 10' at a time!

one thing i will mention, is make sure all the little teeth on the roller (both edge & envision) are clean before you start long runs. take an exacto knife and pick off all the sticky residue left behind from previous runs. i get buildup on mine every few months, and keeping that clean is the best way to ensure it stays on track.

 

[Marlene]

I usually break a job into 10' lengths in case something gets messed up. with an order of 2000, have you checked into having them screen printed?

 

[gabagoo]

if its one colour I dont mind going 15 feet, but multi colour as stated above is to dangerous if something goes wrong. I would keep it under 8 feet.

 

[smdgrfx]

I regularly do 20' without any problems. My machine is over 10 years old and the one thing that I do for maintenance is keep those sprockets clean from adhesive build up. I do break large runs up also. If it's 2000 decals, I might even bust it into 500 pieces at a time just so I can get to cutting while I'm printing the rest.