Mimaki hell!!!!

[eellis]

Yes. New. Yes. Inexperienced. Yes I know waaay too much now. After having bought a used Mimaki(for too much,) having to download a bazillion things to find Mimaki shall never upgrade the Raster Link bought with the dinosaur, replacing 3 heads, and learning the entire anatomy of her, my partner and I have finally printed!!! Holy canoli.. While peeing on ourselves in joy that we were able to get our cheesy sign printed off in pretty blue, black, yellow, and orange, the God-forsaken machine decided to chomp down with the new heads onto the vinyl. Gaaaaaargh!
With luck, we were able to slap the start button off and abort the job in the que. With luck, we have not killed the heads. We are now stumped though. I was up late trying my darnedest to get it to come through without bunching up on the tray side. We start out perfectly lined up.. Any help will uh help. Thank you for all or any of your advise. Also, I was looking all over the forums for a solution, and was only able to see how vinyl was affected from the heat. The heat was only as warm as maybe a ray of sunshine.. Nothing super warm at all.
Maybe I am just not lining it up right.. The metal holder thingys don't seem to stay in place very well either..

 

[MikeD]

that sounds strange to me.
Is your head height locked in position? are the media core inserts tightened in place? are the media plates bent? Feed roll telescoped? Loaded PERFECTLY straight?
What media are you running and at what temps (pre, print & post?)
Are you using a take-up device?

Welcome to my nightmare! At least it's rewarding when you figure stuff out, and soon you will!

 

[nashvillesigns]

makes you wonder if the vaccuum table still works....

 

[MikeD]

@ SignPost,
That's an excellent point!!!
@eellis,
When you load media, place your hand under the printer (you will see exhaust vents under the platen,) and if you can hear the fan, you should feel them blowing out from under the printer. If you hear the fan but the exhaust is weak, remove the plate carefully (there are wires connected in the middle and far side, so gently lift up and then tilt back.) you will see the vacuum fans. If it's an old printer that was run in a poor environment, there is a good chance that the fan blades will be blocked by dust and over spray. Use a paperclip to get it out. Also, under the post heat shroud there are plastic vent paths running from the fans to the exhaust ports under the platen. Make sure they are still in place. I recently had a vent that was not exhausting, and found that the plastic duct had fallen out of place.

Good luck!!

 

[eellis]

easy there!!

Yup. I had noooo idea.. Glad to read some experience being typed about here. More youtubing tonight it sounds like... Great advise folks!! I will look into each and every aspect of this mentioned here. And ya know, those fans DO sound loud to me... Will be working hard to moonlight without crying tonight. Thanks' ya'll. I appreciate this. Oh, while I have ya'll's attention, found a nifty font called cast iron(kind of circusy like-cool) off of I think it was the font squirrel. Anyway, had one heck of a time trying to get my vectored font filled in with the flexi program. Any suggestions/experience with that one?

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Those suggestions are good ones, but is the vinyl moving as the printer runs? Because it almost seems from your description like your saying it's not- which would make me guess that the pinch rollers aren't working (a slipped belt or burned up motor or something, maybe).
If the material is moving, it could also be something as simple as the material "catching" on the lip of the platen as it exits the printing area and bunching up. I've seen that happen on other printers, but not on the Mutoh I'm running currently.
If you can get the machine to cooperate, pull the material out past where it starts to "fall" down towards the take up reel so it's past where the platen transitions to the post-heat area and print a test. If that does the trick, easy fix.

 

[eellis]

Bring on the options!!

Thanks. I will try that way too.

 

[Vinylman]

Lousey discription

This is a lead in I wrote weeks ago to someone else who was experiencing difficullties with their printer.

"Let me start by saying THANK YOU for doing such a thorough description WITH GREAT PICTURES to begin your request for assistance. This post would make a great mandatory read for ALL BEGINNERS regardless of the subject.
EELLIS: the statement above does NOT include you!

One of my pet peeves is poorly written questions with gaping holes in the description and wonky photos."

Those of us who have traveled the rough road to first time use of a commercial digital printer can certainly empathize with your current situation. HOWEVER! asking questions without giving readers COMPLETE and DETAILED information as to what kind of equipment you have and what rip program you are using, and what typr of graphic you are reproducing, and what inks you are using, and what media you are printing to, AND...



ARE YOU GETTING MY DRIFT YET?

This board has some of the greatest sources of information ever assembled in one place since Al and Tipper Gore invented the Internet.

BUT WE ARE NOT PSYCHIC.


Pony up some details and your problems can be responded to without constant questions regarding "what the h3ll does that mean?"

 

[Samurai_Screwdriver]

Another thought is that the roll-holders may be out of square with the rest of the printer (especially if the unit was shipped to you). To check, load up a roll of material and then pull through a bit more than you need, then grab the roll and wind it back a half turn or so while keeping a little pressure in the pinch rollers (this helps square the material up and I recommend doing this every time you load it). Now take a sharpie and mark where the edges of the vinyl sit on the platen and then just use the down arrow key to advance a good 10 feet or so of material through the printer while watching whether it tracks straight - If it moves away from one of the lines you marked then this may indicate that the roll holder is a little tweaked.

 

[MikeD]

definitely check everything for squareness, being parallel, tight, etc. so the only issue is the person putting the concentrically wound material in straight.

In regard to the pinch wheels, make sure they all look clean and round. If the bail is left down, the will get out of round and mess up media feed. Sometimes, based on the media / adhesive / liner combo that was run in the past, the wheels can deteriorate as well. Easy to replace.

Hope you get to printing soon!
Miked

 

[gabagoo]

This is a lead in I wrote weeks ago to someone else who was experiencing difficullties with their printer.

"Let me start by saying THANK YOU for doing such a thorough description WITH GREAT PICTURES to begin your request for assistance. This post would make a great mandatory read for ALL BEGINNERS regardless of the subject.
EELLIS: the statement above does NOT include you!

One of my pet peeves is poorly written questions with gaping holes in the description and wonky photos."

Those of us who have traveled the rough road to first time use of a commercial digital printer can certainly empathize with your current situation. HOWEVER! asking questions without giving readers COMPLETE and DETAILED information as to what kind of equipment you have and what rip program you are using, and what typr of graphic you are reproducing, and what inks you are using, and what media you are printing to, AND...



ARE YOU GETTING MY DRIFT YET?

This board has some of the greatest sources of information ever assembled in one place since Al and Tipper Gore invented the Internet.

BUT WE ARE NOT PSYCHIC.


Pony up some details and your problems can be responded to without constant questions regarding "what the h3ll does that mean?"

I agree with Vinylman, we need to know what machine we are talking about here. I can't help you as I have only experience on my own Mimaki.
Tell us the model and then I can possibly come up with some solutions.

 

[SightLine]

She mentioned that they replaced 3 heads..... I'd wager a JV3-xxx or JV3-xxxSP. Hopefully at least an SP. The 3 head JV3 is really getting old, even a 4 head JV3 is getting up there in age.

 

[TCBinaflash]

The problem with hell is...It's full of Mimaki's.

 

[gabagoo]

If it is a mimaki jv3 I wonder if your heads may be in the thin position?