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Fabric won't stay flat

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VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
I bought some printable polyester fabric from BigFishDM to run through my Z3100. It prints nice, has a great feel to it, and generally seems like it'll work well..... until I try to print anything longer than about 4 feet. It'll start to bunch up and get wrinkled where it's feeding into the machine, and then it starts to wrinkle in the printing area, eventually getting so bad that it bumps the heads at which point I stopped it, of course.

It doesn't have any sort of liner, just the fabric and it's pretty flimsy. I've done my best to get it into the printer as flat and un-wrinkled as possible.


Any suggestions for getting this stuff to stay flat???
I've got an 8' banner to make. :banghead:
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
Dang, the pinch rollers are real tight on that unit. I can send you the heavy fabric that will eliminate that issue at no charge if you want.
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
Just remembered it doesnt come in 42" sorry about that. Im checking to see what you can do to fix the issue
 
V

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
Thanks Josh, let me know if you come up with a solution. I got the 36", not the 42.

I was almost able to get it to work earlier this evening. The banner has a large graphic on the left and some text to the right with a good bit of space between (white background). I printed the graphic then stopped, reset the media and printed the text. Got nearly all the way through before it did it again of course.:doh:

I don't think there's any way to adjust the pinch rollers to the best of my knowledge, though I'll do some digging to see. You think that's what is causing it?
 
J Hill Designs

J Hill Designs

New Member
yup also not sure what printer/material this is, but if my media starts bunching up, in my experience its either too high of pre-platen temp, or media skew while loading...
 
V

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
Pat White said:
Not familiar with that printer or fabric, but like Josh suggested try increasing the vacuum and maybe adjust the heat if you can.

That's what I do with difficult materials!
Click to expand...

Good thoughts, but it's an aqueous pigment printer, no heater or vacuum. Someday I'll be able to get a "real" printer.....:thumb:

jhilldesigns said:
yup also not sure what printer/material this is, but if my media starts bunching up, in my experience its either too high of pre-platen temp, or media skew while loading...
Click to expand...
see above. It's entirely possible it was skewed, but the fabric is so thin that it's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure I got it in straight, and the printer is pretty picky about that - it'll tell you in no uncertain terms that it's not happy about how you loaded it, so I dunno.

Jet Fast Printing said:
:thumb: That's Customer Service!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. Wanna guess who just made me a customer for life?:rock-n-roll:

BigfishDM said:
I can send you 36" then on the heavy fabric. I will send it out today no problem, no charge.
Click to expand...
:thankyou::thankyou::thankyou::thankyou::thankyou:
Man, you are an absolute breath of fresh air to me. I'm relatively new to this game, having been mostly a screen printer in the past. The company I was buying my media from, while helpful for the most part when I had questions, screwed up 3 out of 5 orders in some way.
They had decent products and prices, but when you ask for something to be shipped to make a certain deadline (knowing full well that it'll cost more $ and happy to pay the difference), and then when the deadline comes it still hadn't even shipped.....:noway:
When you have to ask - several times - on every order to get an invoice and a tracking number....:frustrated::frustrated::frustrated:

BigFish on the other hand - you have been nothing but helpful, knowledgeable, and a downright pleasure to work with! :U Rock:
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
No need to thank me, I strive on customer service and support and will bend over backwards for my customers! The roll is shipping out today and I will shoot you a tracking number shortly. Again I apologize the light fabric is giving you some issues.

Josh
 
Brandon708

Brandon708

New Member
Big fish,

That HP L25500 is giving me problems. Can you send out a new one? hahaha

j/k

Good to know that you have such good customer service. I wish everyone was the exact same way!!! ;)
 
V

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
BigfishDM said:
No need to thank me, I strive on customer service and support and will bend over backwards for my customers! The roll is shipping out today and I will shoot you a tracking number shortly. Again I apologize the light fabric is giving you some issues.

Josh
Click to expand...

Nice! Did you get my PM?


Brandon708 said:
Big fish,

That HP L25500 is giving me problems. Can you send out a new one? hahaha

j/k

Good to know that you have such good customer service. I wish everyone was the exact same way!!! ;)
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, um..... mine too since we're on the subject. I think it's having the same problem as his..... :iamwithstupid
 
S

Skye

New Member
We ran in to the same type of problem with our Roland printer. The solution that worked but is a pain, do not let the machine unroll the material when printing. What I did is unroll a few feet at a time.

Skye
 
V

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
Skye said:
We ran in to the same type of problem with our Roland printer. The solution that worked but is a pain, do not let the machine unroll the material when printing. What I did is unroll a few feet at a time.

Skye
Click to expand...

Tried that. Had a nice long loop with no tension other than gravity, a little trick that works well with long runs on my cutter. Good thought though!
 
V

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
I just want to post a public thank you to BigFishDM. The new product he sent me worked a good bit better and I was able to get the banner finished. It did start to bunch up a bit, around 7' of the 8' banner, but it stayed down enough that it didn't cause a problem.
 
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