Epson 40600 waisting the end of each roll?

[scrubz]

Hi Everyone, 14 years running my VP300, now have made the jump to light speed with the 40600, real happy with the combo, just have to try to eliminate the waisted shirt transfer material. Whenever I come the the end of my roll, epson stops with at least 24 inches hanging out the back, and will not let me use it.
Any suggestions on how I could finish the roll to the end, I would welcome.

 

[unclebun]

When you get near the end of the roll, unwind it and remove the material from the core. Carefully line up and tape a 2' long piece of material--we use leftover backing paper or vinyl we're discarding--to the end of your media. Then carefully reroll it and use.

Of course, when you haven't planned on running low, there are things you can do like run and untape the media from the core and hold the core so you fool the printer into thinking there's still something attached, or hit pause print and quickly tape something to the end of the media and roll it onto the core while it's hanging out the back of the printer. Not that I have any experience with that...

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Wow, that's really odd... our 80600 will keep going until there's only around 6" left. The media sensor is right before the pinch rollers so I'm confused as to why it would be stopping 24" from the end.
Does your media stay flat against the rear platen or does it bow outward? I'm guessing this could be causing the issues if the sensor isn't seeing the media prematurely.

 

[GAC05]

Not sure it will work on an Epson, but on the Mutoh I have a piece of Controltac covering the rear media sensor so it will happily keep right on printing even when there is no media.

 

[unclebun]

Wow, that's really odd... our 80600 will keep going until there's only around 6" left. The media sensor is right before the pinch rollers so I'm confused as to why it would be stopping 24" from the end.
Does your media stay flat against the rear platen or does it bow outward? I'm guessing this could be causing the issues if the sensor isn't seeing the media prematurely.

It's not the sensor that stops it. It's the feed roller not having tension on it when it checks for tension.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Okay, I think the point of difference here might be that I'm referring to printing an ongoing job that gets close to the end of the roll, rather than trying to load up a roll with little material remaining on it. Yes, we experience the same issue in that situation as well. Only way around it would be as mentioned above to add some trailing material so the printer thinks there is more on the roll and will complete the media initialisation process.

 

[scrubz]

Thanks for the input all. I was afraid of that, having to tape each roll end and that is what I did once and it worked, but if i don't get it in time, epson red lights and freezes. Is there a way to tell epson I am using really long sheets?

 

[JulieS]

I also stop the take-up roller on the front (push back the bar and turn off the switch) when I detach the end of the vinyl from the roll in the back (we have an 80600), so it's not feeling any tension from either front or back. And cover up the sensor ;-)

 

[scrubz]

Thanks Julie, I don't use the take up and is off, no difference....arg. Hello Epson, some customers have to pay $20/meter for print stock(only 20" wide I might add)....costly and wasteful. Looks like I will get good at taping the roll end.

 

[a77]

I also stop the take-up roller on the front (push back the bar and turn off the switch) when I detach the end of the vinyl from the roll in the back (we have an 80600), so it's not feeling any tension from either front or back. And cover up the sensor ;-)

I have to try this!

 

[Joseph44708]

Not sure it will work on an Epson, but on the Mutoh I have a piece of Controltac covering the rear media sensor so it will happily keep right on printing even when there is no media.

I do the same thing on my Seiko W64 right down to two inches of the end of the roll so that my Graftec cutter will cut the entire roll.