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Choosing the best equipment set up?

5

503WRAPS

New Member
Hey Everyone,

A quick background about myself...I have a screen printing shop with automatic presses, etc. We have a cheap 54" US Vinyl Cutter that we've been using for textile vinyl and do some vinyl decals. So some experience but nothing with printed vinyl. Looking to buy a solvent printer & cutter so we can add the following to our shop:


  • die cut full color stickers (perf cut all the way through the backing)
  • full color banners
  • full color decals
  • full color vehicle wraps
  • full color textile heat pressed vinyl for short runs
  • short run posters
I'm thinking about a 54" Roland SP540i + Graphtec FC8000 + a Laminator. The reason for the graphtec FC8000 is to perf cut through the backing of the diecut stickers. Would this be a good set up for the things I want to do? Is 54" wide enough for car wraps? I've measured normal sized sedans and the hoods are about 56" or wider...but the rep I've been speaking to from Roland says 54" is wide enough.

If possible I'd like to get a stand alone solvent printer + the FC8000 for cutting + a Laminator if it's more cost effective. Any suggestions?
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
If you really want to do cars, minimum width should be 64"... also, a 54" printer when it comes to banners, is really kind of a waste when you want to print a 4' banner. That's all a 54" printer is... 4' + 6 whole inches. Whippee! At least with a 64" printer you can offer a 5' banner, an no material waste. And stay away from 6 color printers... also a marketing gimmick waste too. 4 Color printers print faster and over-all ink cost is cheaper.

Does that plotter have an optical sensor for finding registration marks on your prints, after you laminate them? If so, then that's good too!

As far an inexpensive printer, I like the Mutoh 1614 series. I have both Roland and a Mutoh... Mutoh prints nicer. The 1618 has dual heads and prints really fast!

But when it comes time to get another machine... I'll be looking for anything that prints with Sepiax Inks!
 
5

503WRAPS

New Member
Thanks,

So if you have a 64" printer for banners, and someone wants a 36" banner, wouldn't that be wasting banner material too? I really want to get into wraps later so I don't want to buy something too small and have to upgrade soon after. Both the Roland and graphtec fc8000 have the registration optical.

I think Roland has a 64" which comes with 4 colors + white & metallic or you can use the 2 extra colors as light c and light m...I'm going to check out he Mutoh printer you mentioned.
 
5

503WRAPS

New Member
jesse said:
Why would that be wasting material? You can run 38" rolls (for a 36" banner) through a 64" machine...
Click to expand...

Because bikerscout said that printing a 4' banner on a 54" printer would be wasting material. I thought there were smaller rolls of media to reduce waste. Perhaps I'm missing something...
 
G

gnemmas

New Member
I refuse to buy 54" banner material to make 4' banner. Not only wasting material, it also add an extra step to trim it down to 48" or 50" then hem. There are some selected vendors offer 48" scrim banner material such as Nusign in SoCal.
 
S

signswi

New Member
You need 50" for a 48" banner (1" to tape under for the hem) and there's always a print margin of usually 1-1.5", 54" is perfectly perfect. Weirdo.
 
G

gnemmas

New Member
6' banner finished to 70", 4' banner finished to 46", 3' banner finished to 34" since 1986. Besides, it is a BANNER! Couple of inches won't matter.

You might have a printer issue if you have margin problem, For a 20' banner, if it travel 1", not a big deal. It is a BANNER for God's sake.

When I have to use 54" material, I will give them 52" finished.

You might also have a bigger personal problem if you need to call names!!
 
S

signswi

New Member
Who said anything about a margin problem. :help

You really give customers banners larger than they ordered? If I was the designer/purchaser I'd bounce that so fast. We're getting off track. :popcorn:
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
50" banner material is just harder to locate, and most suppliers don't have a slitter in-house. Mine does, and I can order really long logs at a cheaper per sq. ft. price and have them slit multiple sizes.

I look at the price per sq.ft. of the material... if you are buying 54" material to make 48" banners, then you are throwing money away. In both cases... giving them a 52" banner or trimming off the excess. (Duh) And that adds up if you are printing as many banners a year as we do. And if your machine can't track 20' at a time then it's time to buy new traction wheels. Simple.

Don't buy into niche printer systems that print white or metallic. Seriously... have you seen the cost on one of the metallic silver cartridges? Not to mention the waste of having to flush your lines before and after. Uggh... no thanks. White ink is best from UV Flatbeds at this time. Otherwise you have to always be agitating the cartridge unless you are printing white everyday. And again, at the price per cartridge on those, many of your clients will opt not to have white anyway.

The only way multiple inks make sense is if they are colors outside the normal CMYK color gamut. Like a dedicated Orange, Green, Blue etc... but those color targets are rarely needed for 99% of wide format work. Are you a specialized ad agency with national accounts like Home Depot, who won't work with vendors that can't match their trade marked orange? And are you charging a minimum of $12 per sq. ft. on everything you do, because you have über tight tolerances with color matching, a $7500 spectrometer and a crap ton of extra materials and ink on hand to just waste to hit that target?
 
ionsigns

ionsigns

New Member
Lets say it is a 45.3" banner - finished size to fit a set space in a church.

54" material is not wasted because the customer PAID FOR the 54" width because they determined the finish size...not me.

The billing price fits the job. That is not waste.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Why are you people talking about waste ??

Anyone with half a brain, knows you price the stuff out you're going to use by the square foot. For chits and giggles, let's say it's $1.00 a sq ft.

So the banner is 48" x 72" one sided with grommets and hemmed border. So that comes to $24.00 total, but not really.

That $1.00 a sq is for finished media.

On that same roll you just lost 6" x 6' or 3 sq ft.

Unfinished product gets charged out at like 1/2 your normal cost..... 50¢

So your new total is $25.50.




You throw this away, but you've been paid for having it... just in case. If's it's a large piece, you can either roll it up for some future use and charge all over again for it.... or keep your shop clutter free and settle for the 1/2 price and toss it.


The way you people think... you go into a pizza shop and order two slices of pizza. The guy makes and bakes a full pie, cuts your two pieces out and then throws the rest in the round filing can.

Can't any of you relate to anything else in the world except your own immediate problems with blinders on ?? :popcorn:​
 
5

503WRAPS

New Member
Sorry, don't know if these are replies to me. But originally I never thought of extra banner material as waste. I was just responding to Biker Scout since he mentioned that there would be banner waste and thought perhaps there was something I didn't think about?

So it'd be cool to push that argument aside for now at least....
 
H

hydo1

New Member
Gino said:
Why are you people talking about waste ??

Anyone with half a brain, knows you price the stuff out you're going to use by the square foot. For chits and giggles, let's say it's $1.00 a sq ft.

So the banner is 48" x 72" one sided with grommets and hemmed border. So that comes to $24.00 total, but not really.

That $1.00 a sq is for finished media.

On that same roll you just lost 6" x 6' or 3 sq ft.

Unfinished product gets charged out at like 1/2 your normal cost..... 50¢

So your new total is $25.50.




You throw this away, but you've been paid for having it... just in case. If's it's a large piece, you can either roll it up for some future use and charge all over again for it.... or keep your shop clutter free and settle for the 1/2 price and toss it.


The way you people think... you go into a pizza shop and order two slices of pizza. The guy makes and bakes a full pie, cuts your two pieces out and then throws the rest in the round filing can.

Can't any of you relate to anything else in the world except your own immediate problems with blinders on ?? :popcorn:​
Click to expand...

This is a great post, thank you. I hope everybody was paying attention.
 
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