Flatbed Printer Advice

[DougWestwood]

Vaccuum table with warped wood

Hi There,

I have had MUCH experience in printing warped MDO on flat bed tables, mostly the OCE Arizona GT250.

You need to weight down the corners with something. I used waste ink jugs. Turn on the table vacuum.
Then put the weights on corners of the MDO/plywood. Hopefully, this brings the board pretty close to the table.
If not, use heavier weights. Once the board is mostly flat, tape the edges to form a seal to the table.
You will need to get the tape vertically along the side of the material, as well as flat onto the table.
This hopefully will form your seal and hold the wood flat. No headstrikes!

You can hear the vacuum change if it happens to let go in the middle of a print.
Just hit the big red button and start again.
If a piece is MORE warped than this, you should return it for a replacement.

Good Luck!
- Doug
Vancouver

 

[winterk80]

Thank you all so much for your help!

You points about technology changing significantly and an old one being maintaince heavy were well received.

I looked at cet, vanguard, oce Canon, mutoh, multiple other Chinese, EFI, HP, and every other at the International Sign show and placed my order for a new Mimaki jfx200 today!

Thanks again!

 

[Gino]

Nice choice. What ink configuration did you choose ??

 

[winterk80]

Nice choice. What ink configuration did you choose ??

I haven't decided at least one ink will be white though what do you recommend?

 

[Gino]

That's entirely up to you as to what your needs are. If you list the various things you wanna produce, it might be easier to recommend something. 6 color is a good idea, accirding to the kinda prices you intend, while varnish is a good idea to finish off small pieces like you had mentioned. White, only if you're gonna be using it often, like every other day, at least. No white ink works well regardless of what the salespeople tell you, unless you continuously use it. They have built-in agitators, but none of them work, to the best of my knowledge.

 

[artbot]

had a flatbed 16 heads. it had both white ink and varnish. the varnish of all things clogged worse than any ink. the techs said that it cured the most easily due to the lack of pigment so any latent light would kick it a bit, gumming up the head. maybe the mimaki is different in this case. unless you are wishing to spot print varnish for effects, spray it with a clear and move on.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

I don't have any experience running varnish, but I've also heard it's best to avoid it. Apparently it slows the printing process way down also.

CMYKlclm with two white channels has worked really well for us.

 

[GP_Oz]

There is an alternative to plyboard. Its a pine veneer that looks exactly like it. Its a couple of bucks more per sheet (in Aus) but it is a hell of a lot flatter and consistent in thickness and handles the uv heat well.
Board warp from the supplier can still an issue from time to time and we get around that by screwing the sheets to a 20mm sheet of MDF to weigh it down - that works for that type of job as its usually 1000 x 800ish panels nested up then cnc'd after. And I can vouch for the fb550 print heads not minding a bit of head striking on wood...just now over the sharp end of a tech screw - they hate that, pretty tough head really

A dedicated flatbed was a good choice I reckon - a hybrid would drive you nuts doing that kind of work.


https://www.google.com.au/search?cl...ved=0ahUKEwj81MSM_uDMAhVW2WMKHYMiBmcQvwUIGSgA

 

[Andy D]

had a flatbed 16 heads. it had both white ink and varnish. the varnish of all things clogged worse than any ink. the techs said that it cured the most easily due to the lack of pigment so any latent light would kick it a bit, gumming up the head. maybe the mimaki is different in this case. unless you are wishing to spot print varnish for effects, spray it with a clear and move on.

I wonder why the printer manufacturer would even have varnish as an option,
wouldn't a liquid laminate be a better option all the way around?

 

[Gino]

I wonder why the printer manufacturer would even have varnish as an option,
wouldn't a liquid laminate be a better option all the way around?

There are times, when you might only want to varnish a certain element of an entire print..... or the piece has an irregular cut. The machine will be 100% precise where to lay it down. It's been my feelings, that it isn't just a clearcoat, but more as an effect. If you wanna clear for protection only, then like the others say, you would just spray or roll it on. Those things really need a giant agitator to not give problems or be using it most of the time. Now where's Addie when ya need him ??

 

[winterk80]

Good idea! Curious if you are screwing it down the areas where the screw heads are wouldn't get painted as the printer would print on the screw head instead of the board. How do you touch that up or avoid that?

There is an alternative to plyboard. Its a pine veneer that looks exactly like it. Its a couple of bucks more per sheet (in Aus) but it is a hell of a lot flatter and consistent in thickness and handles the uv heat well.
Board warp from the supplier can still an issue from time to time and we get around that by screwing the sheets to a 20mm sheet of MDF to weigh it down - that works for that type of job as its usually 1000 x 800ish panels nested up then cnc'd after. And I can vouch for the fb550 print heads not minding a bit of head striking on wood...just now over the sharp end of a tech screw - they hate that, pretty tough head really

A dedicated flatbed was a good choice I reckon - a hybrid would drive you nuts doing that kind of work.


https://www.google.com.au/search?cl...ved=0ahUKEwj81MSM_uDMAhVW2WMKHYMiBmcQvwUIGSgA

 

[winterk80]

So is the consensus that varnish in heads clogs heads much more than regular inks?

There are times, when you might only want to varnish a certain element of an entire print..... or the piece has an irregular cut. The machine will be 100% precise where to lay it down. It's been my feelings, that it isn't just a clearcoat, but more as an effect. If you wanna clear for protection only, then like the others say, you would just spray or roll it on. Those things really need a giant agitator to not give problems or be using it most of the time. Now where's Addie when ya need him ??

 

[bjt140]

I was told not to even attempt varnish on Epson dx5 heads because it will clog it and need to be replaced frequently.

Not it sure about the other heads though.