Hey all! We don't usually do banners, and have never done one of this size before. We have a SwissQprint Impala 4 with roll-to-roll capability. The roll of material we have is 72" wide, and the thing we need to print is 24" wide. My argument was that we should just get material that's 24" wide and print with bleed, but they're insisting that I need to sit here for an hour or two after printing it and use our 48" straight edge to cut 33' of banner on the floor. Anybody able to shed some light on how y'all do this in the industry? Because there's no way that people actually do it like this. Thanks in advance!
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How to trim down a 33-foot-long banner?
- Thread starter Nibroc99
- Start date
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- banner cutting cutting advice
weyandsign
New Member
It's not going to take 1-2 hours. Even using your 4' straight edge and doing it on the floor it might take you 10 minutes.
Let me clarify... They want ten of these banners, and an additional five of a smaller size (20' long). There's no way cutting on a wooden warehouse floor is going to yield a clean cut, let alone be worth our time to do so. Are you suggesting that cutting banners down on the floor is what's standard across the industry? That seems wildly inefficient and won't be good for my knees or my back lol... Not to mention that the cuts aren't going to be clean due to the floor and lack of a cutting mat.
weyandsign
New Member
I wasn't really suggesting anything, besides how long I think it would take you with the info you gave. If it's too much to deal with using what's available to you, why not just sub them out to a wholesale printer?
victor bogdanov
Active Member
flatbed cutter would be the way to go for this. Trim banners on flatbed all the time
If I did not have a flatbed and had to trim a 33ft banner I would do it with scissors (on a big table, on the floor would be harder). I can glide the scissors pretty straight and would take a few minutes per banner. Hemming will hide any imperfections in scissor cutting
If I did not have a flatbed and had to trim a 33ft banner I would do it with scissors (on a big table, on the floor would be harder). I can glide the scissors pretty straight and would take a few minutes per banner. Hemming will hide any imperfections in scissor cutting
victor bogdanov
Active Member
Most that do big banners will have pretty huge tables
White Haus
Not a Newbie
You're not going to find 24" banner media. 36-39" is pretty much the smallest standard width.
Print as many up as you can fit on the stock that you have, roll them out on a work bench, and trim them down with a straightedge and knife.
Assuming you have work benches.... why would these prints need to be trimmed on the floor?
Will the banners need finished edges, or have you not gotten that far in the planning?
Print as many up as you can fit on the stock that you have, roll them out on a work bench, and trim them down with a straightedge and knife.
Assuming you have work benches.... why would these prints need to be trimmed on the floor?
Will the banners need finished edges, or have you not gotten that far in the planning?
.... Flat bed may be the best, but... We have an HP700w and a Graphtec 9000 - I cut 30'+ banners quite often. Since you have multiple 24" banners, print them side by side on 54" with about half an inch between, use segmented area cutting, set the media VERY straight, form-feed it through your graphic, then back it up to the origin (I do not roll it back on the roll, just accordion behind the Graphtec...) - if it did not drift, you should be good. make your perf be almost 1' down to about 0.05" up and the "up" should still cut through 75-90% of the thickness of the banner..... not quite EZPZ, but close!
We unfortunately won't be hemming this, as we don't have the capability of doing so
. They need the banners for this Saturday so we won't have time to sub out the work unfortunately.The banners won't have finished edges - they'll just be straight flat edges with no hemming. I'll be manually adding grommets to all four corners of each one though.
Our work bench is 36" long... It's a baby. So cutting a 33-foot banner 10 times on it would be crazy haha. The floor seems to be the best option we have currently. I'm trying to just figure out how people normally create banners that're this long basically... It seems wild to me that someone would just roll and unroll and cut as they go. This banner is longer than the room I'm printing them in haha.
victor bogdanov
Active Member
All you need to do is buy some banner tape to make hemmed edgesWe unfortunately won't be hemming this, as we don't have the capability of doing so
33 ft banner you will need grommets every 2ft or so, a grommet in each corner of a 33ft banner is not enough to hang that size
Good to know, I'll make sure to do that then. I appreciate it!
2B
Active Member
While you have the media and the printer, your finishing capabilities are missing
when we have banners too long for our finishing table, roll to roll, spool off a section, finish it, then roll it up on the other end of the table
since you have multiple banners, outsource them to a vendor so they arrive completed and ready to install
when we have banners too long for our finishing table, roll to roll, spool off a section, finish it, then roll it up on the other end of the table
since you have multiple banners, outsource them to a vendor so they arrive completed and ready to install
2B
Active Member
It is Tuesday. I can think of 3 vendors with 24-hour production - so they will ship on Wednesday and shipping will arrive on ThursdayWe unfortunately won't be hemming this, as we don't have the capability of doing so
White Haus
Not a Newbie
^Very much this, given everything that's been revealed.
Shops that print banners have big enough work benches and/or finishing equipment do to just that.
What kind of shop are you working in that has a six figure flatbed but no work benches or finishing equipment? What do you do with prints that come off that machine?
(Not trying to be a dick, genuinely curious)
Ray Miller
Owner
It doesn't sound as if you're equipped physically or mentally to furnish this kind of a job. Find someone to farm it out to. Also, a 33' banner should have a hem and lots more grommets.
I'd love to be able to help, but the only thing running through my mind is
‽What‽
I hope you have proper air handling in your facility!
tulsagraphics
New Member
Best would be my Fotoba.
I'd have the entire banner job trimmed down in 10 minutes.VizualVoice
I just learned how to change my title status
this stuff is great if you don't want to actually HEM a banner, but I've only ever used it on smaller ones. YMMV but it may be worth a try. Is available cheaper at vendors other that amazon, but since time is of the essence...
Boudica
I'm here for Educational Purposes
I was thinking the same. I thought of how I would do this, but gave up on my reply because.... I realized I would ask my boss to send this to B2.
And we have the printers to do this, but the finishing part and time frame is why this PM would ask for the outsource.
ETA... If I was to print it, it would be on a 38" roll.
Then trim it and send off to a local partnering company that is set up to finish really long banners with a sewn hem and grommets.
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