Edge to Edge Printing/Full Wrap Noob!

[Projectwidow]

We have a Roland VP 540 machine that we've had for about 3 years now. Strangely enough we have never done a full wrap on it. We have used it plenty of times for die cut decals, window perf, banners, posters, etc.

I've searched the forum and I believe the VP540 doesn't do edge to edge, flood printing. The max width we can get on our machine is about 52.8" which still leaves about a .5" white strip on both sides. I saw some people do a contour cut to trim the edges off but it seems like a lot of excess work if you have a lot of panels you need to wrap. For example, a 53' trailer.

Can other machines do edge-to-edge printing? Or for the people that do full vehicle/trailer wraps, what do you do with the extra white strips? Lay out the panels and trim the white off? Seems like a lot of work if you are doing a trailer that is about 10' high and 53' wide.

Thanks in advance for such a noob question!

 

[Circleville Signs]

Hehehehe....Welcome to the real world

Not a damn thing you can do about it. Print your panels, laminate them, then trim 'em. That's the process. Oh - and if you haven't wrapped something like that before, do yourself a favor and print your panels at 48".

Trust me.

 

[jfiscus]

X2 on the 48" panels - the extra that you can't print to covers where the laminate will overlap onto. Think if you could print edge-to-edge - how would you laminate over the edges and not get stuck onto the rollers?
You have to print, lam, trim on every wrap. If you're just getting started wrapping, I would suggest 1" overlap on your panels.

 

[Projectwidow]

Hehehehe....Welcome to the real world

Not a damn thing you can do about it.

Haha, sweet!!

What do you all use to trim the edges? I saw that some people use http://www.imageedge.com/ because it can extend to a 10' straight edge.

how would you laminate over the edges and not get stuck onto the rollers?

Well then I guess we need to invent a laminator that will laminate up to 55" LOL

But I do see what you're saying now though!

 

[HulkSmash]

Why would you want to print 54" wide on 54" Media. What if your lam walks off a few inches...? Always give breathing space to laminate.

 

[jfiscus]

Haha, sweet!!

What do you all use to trim the edges? I saw that some people use http://www.imageedge.com/ because it can extend to a 10' straight edge.


Well then I guess we need to invent a laminator that will laminate up to 55" LOL

But I do see what you're saying now though!

We use Big Blue rulers here, like them a lot. http://www.signwarehouse.com/SAFETYEC-p-HT-EC96.html
(your distributor should sell them, not plugging sign warehouse - it's just what came up in Google first)

 

[Circleville Signs]

We use a straight edge and an exacto. It's ain't rocket science. It takes a bit of time, but so does just about antyhing. I guess you could invest in a slitter, and try to slit1.5" off your whole roll once printed. Seems like a huge waste of $$ to me. Trimming out a 4'x8' panel shouldn't take you more than 60-90 seconds.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

So you have the the cowboy hat and boots and think you should just jump on the bull? Sounds like you haven't even seen the process done before but want to attempt it yourself. Just a bass ackwards way to do something. Not trying to sound mean, but there is a certain level of respect given to a trade that takes talent & know how. I know you gotta start somewhere...usually that's watching somebody else do it first before you attempt it. Good Luck.

 

[eforer]

You can buy a fletcher terry gemini cutter at almost any length. We have an 11' model. One of my workers can cut up a full wrap in less than 10 minutes. That said, with a good laminator, you only need to leave an 1/8" or so on either side. We laminate complete rolls in one shot with less than a quarter inch of walking. Not skill, but a good laminator (GBC Orca) properly setup.

 

[bendeane]

X2 on laminating a whole roll without much walking. I don't even have what I would consider a good laminator (a cheap enduralam), it's just set up well and I can do a whole wrap with less than 1/2" walk. Also, I wouldn't necessarily only print 48" on your 54" roll. I'm still pretty new at this, but I print as wide as I can. Like the guy above said, you should be able to lam long lengths with little or no walking, so in my opinion, the extra 3 inches of white space on either side of a 48" print on a 54" roll is too much waste when you are talking about ten to twelve 8 foot long panels (that'd be about 45 square feet of wasted space on a wrap). Sometimes it won't matter though cause no matter which way you slice it, if you try to maximize the printed area on the 54" roll, you'll end up with a narrow panel at the end that will be some weird 14" wide by 8 foot long panel.

My two cents.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Well at least your thinking ahead. You'd be best to spend $1200-1500 on a 10 foot cutter OR you can eat the waste on your plotter (which gets significant with registration marks) OR you can just cut by hand.

Here at CVW we just install the white margins. It's just easier. The further back you go the less you see them.

 

[Wiggum PI]

Well at least your thinking ahead. You'd be best to spend $1200-1500 on a 10 foot cutter OR you can eat the waste on your plotter (which gets significant with registration marks) OR you can just cut by hand.

Here at CVW we just install the white margins. It's just easier. The further back you go the less you see them.

You sir, and your website, are just awesome :ROFLMAO:

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

You sir, and your website, are just awesome :ROFLMAO:

Why thank you Sir for recognizing our CHEAP & SHODDY workmanship!

Just for the record, Chico's facebook gender has been changed to female. Figured it might attract more cheapskates.

 

[Mosh]

I just got a hammer, I now plan on building houses for a living, do I need a saw?

 

[Signfathers]

Best thing to do is wrap your own vehicle..That way you can get some practice in before doing a customers vehicle...and nothing advertises better than having your vehicle wrapped.

 

[Stuckup]

Print within yr media width, then trim it. Your heads are definitely worth more than a few wasted minutes of hand trimming the panels, risking head strikes or damage.

 

[MikePro]

pfft. i can print edge2edge. I just "lie" to my printer and make it believe its printing a 54" image on a 63" sheet... when I'm really just printing on a 54" sheet, with strips of tape placed on my printer to "lie" to the media sensor.

but I don't, usually. as I enjoy having a material buffer for lamination. hand-trimming is just part of the trade, sorry to say. get cool cutters, if that's your thing, but a straight edge & a blade does the trick just fine... heck you only have to cut the exposed edge, to save half the time, and leave the uncut side to be overlapped by the next trimmed side.