Falcon 2...Anyone made home-made material edge covers????

[onlyjames]

Hey all, has anyone else had difficulties with the falcon 2 and the edges of materials? The Falcon 2 has no material edge guards, so every time I run banner through, the thin threads of banner on the edges get caught in the print heads.....or rub on the face of the print head.....and cause ink dripping/clogged nozzles. Also, when I print on regular vinyl at the low setting, I almost always get head strikes on the edges if the material is not 110% flat.

Of course, all new printers have edge guards to prevent all of these issues.....so has anyone made a fix for their falcon 2......or is there an aftermarket part than can be purchased?

Thanks!!


Randy A.....thoughts??

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

I have a falcon printer too and have the same problem. I didn't know that newer printers come with an edge guard. Not sure what one looks like?? I bought the printer used and was thinking that it was just because is was a used machine. Has really been ticking me off lately. Will just suddenly get streaks on the outer edges of the prints, ruining them and making me start my print over. Really thinking about buying a new machine because of this.

 

[onlyjames]

YES....I cant tell you how many tape measures have smashed against my wall because of ruined prints lol. Mutoh cheaped out on the edge guards...The equivalent mimaki's have them.

Its just a small metal guard that slides over both edges of the media and protects against head strikes & banner strands. Such a cheap/easy thing to add....that would make my printer 100 times better.

Im also thinking about getting a new printer. And my anger with Mutoh over this cheap out is making me look at other printers. I love Mutoh...but this is crazy. Unless, perhaps, they have some kind of explanation/fix????

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

yup...when prints go bad the wife and kids know to leave the room cause daddy is going to be swearing....

I have a really sweet deal from Mutoh on a new printer right now, but am seriously thinking about buy a Roland cause of this. I have a Roland cutter and absolutely love it! I will pay more $ to get a great machine!

 

[onlyjames]

haha, SO RIGHT. Haven't laughed so hard in a month......just happy to not be alone haha.

Yes, it is so aggravating that Im actually thinking about another brand. Between the two of us, that could be $40,000 in lost sales for Mutoh....not to mention the countless others who have had the same frustration which led to them changing brands.

Hopefully Randy A has heard of this issue before, and has some type of possible fix....

Ive thought about making something home made....but it would need to be metal, and Im worried about a serious head strike if it came loose somehow.

 

[Robert M]

Heat gun

Try hitting the ends of the banner rolls with your heat gun before running the material. Those little hairs will melt away if you do it right.

 

[onlyjames]

I tried that once....but I guess I did it differently than you....because when I did it, they melted together and when the roll would unwind the pieces that were melted together would split and pull more out.

Im doing a bunch of banner printing right now and I'll give it another shot....maybe with just a little less heat.

Beyond that quick fix....Im still hoping for a permanent fix so I dont have to always have the print head set on Medium (which causes a different set of problems).

Anyone.....?

 

[Sign Eagle]

Rather than a heat gun, use a propane torch with a few quick passes, the torch will burn the fibers off rather than melt them together. It's the same process used in the mills making cloth to remove the fuzz when textiles are woven, the cloth passes across an open flame at about 10 mph and fuzz is gone. About 6 months ago we started using Ultraflex, Jetflex and haven't seen the loose threads.

 

[onlyjames]

In the past it was a torch that I used....not a heat gun, and had bad results, so Im going to give the heat gun a shot.

Thats odd Eagle.....I have a roll of ultraflex that just came in, and it has threads on the edges. Not quite as bad as a cheap brand, but enough to cause problems without a guard.

Robert....Im going to give the heat gun a shot, hopefully with good results.

 

[bayshorecreations]

My Roland came with 2 of these nifty little gadgets that I would think might work for the problem you are having. All they are is a piece of metal with a magnet attached to them. Maybe you could make something like this.

 

[randya]

Hey all, has anyone else had difficulties with the falcon 2 and the edges of materials? The Falcon 2 has no material edge guards, so every time I run banner through, the thin threads of banner on the edges get caught in the print heads.....or rub on the face of the print head.....and cause ink dripping/clogged nozzles. Also, when I print on regular vinyl at the low setting, I almost always get head strikes on the edges if the material is not 110% flat.

Of course, all new printers have edge guards to prevent all of these issues.....so has anyone made a fix for their falcon 2......or is there an aftermarket part than can be purchased?

Thanks!!


Randy A.....thoughts??

Edge guards can help, but sometime, IMO, they are overrated.
Really depends on material.
For moderate issues they can work, but for more serious issues they can be problematic.
Burning the threads on banner, was always pretty standard for us.
And still occansionally needed, even with guards.
Sometimes the thread can catch on the guard.

I dont think these ever came with guards, but bayshorecreations is on the money. I think these maget types came out about the Toucan LT timeframe for Mutoh. You should be able to make your own pretty easily, but you still will want to be careful with them.