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Print, Laminate, Cut Tips & Tricks

S

SignSourceofMobile

New Member
Anyone have any tips and tricks for printing/laminating/cutting?
I've got the printing and laminating down but I can never seem to get the printer to recognize the registration marks in order to cut. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, whether it's positioning of the media, using the wrong marks, or what.

Any input is helpful!
 
Bigcat_hunter

Bigcat_hunter

New Member
Take a sqeegee and rub the registration marks after laminating then you shouldnt have any trouble getting the cutter to read them.
 
Behrmon

Behrmon

Pr. Bear-Mon
Do you load the media into the same spot for cutting as you did for printing? Do you "Base Point" when printing and when cutting? Silly ?but are you loading the media in with the eyespot front and to the control panel?
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
Everybody pretty much summed up what I would have suggested.

So, is the carriage just moving right past the marks or is it at least trying to find them?

Are you moving your drive wheels and running other prints before coming back to cut stuff you printed and laminated earlier?

Is the lighting in your print area really bright? If so, you might be getting some glare right over your alignment marks. You also can scuff your marks just slightly to take the gloss off them and see if that helps.

When you do just a print cut without laminating, do you put your alignment marks on that also? If so, does the sensor go find those before cutting? That might be a good test to try.

Even though you don't really need the marks if you're not removing the media to laminate it, we put them on just to see if the printer does any minute corrections in our alignment after printing but before cutting.
 
Sign Works

Sign Works

New Member
I've read that a common error is to hit "Get Media Width" when reloading laminated media for cutting, this somehow throws things off. In Versaworks the only setting changes to be made after reloading laminated media for cutting is to select "Cut Only" under "Cut Controls" tab. The print-lam-cut workflow is laid out in detail in the Versaworks User Manual, it's pretty straight forward and has always worked flawlessly on my Versacamm.

I feel that the never use "Center On Media" when using crop marks is a Myth, I personally use it almost every time without ever experiencing any negative effects.

One oversight is to not leave sufficent length of media before and after crop marks as noted in the User Manual.
 
P

player

New Member
What is the recommended sufficient length?

Does this relate to a single sheet or between multiple prints on the same sheet?
 
S

SignSourceofMobile

New Member
Wow, thanks for all of the input everyone! Once our tech comes out to install the new head I'll start going down the list using this info to help me figure this out.
I've gone through the manual's procedure but before I wasted anymore time on it I wanted to consult you all - I think the machine was having issues finding the registration marks after reloading - which is how I also found out about leaving sufficient media length. I'll update this post after success, or, exhaustion of all the tips I've gotten. Thanks again!
 
Sign Works

Sign Works

New Member
player said:
What is the recommended sufficient length?

Does this relate to a single sheet or between multiple prints on the same sheet?
Click to expand...

For my paticular printer (SP-300V) it is 3 3/16" before crop marks and 3 9/16" after crop marks. I believe this is simply to keep media sensors covered while machine is reading crop marks.
 
X

x2chris7x

New Member
We apply small pieces of matte lam of the reg marks... Helps the plotter pick-up the marks a lil easier as opposed to gloss vinyl/lam
 
N

NateF

New Member
+1 on a couple things that have been mentioned already:

Don't set the job to "center on media". Just let it sit off-center on the side closest to the head.

When you re-load the media after laminating, don't click the "get media width" button. Just let versaworks run with the same width setting that was used when printing.

Use your fingernails to feel the alignment when setting up the sheet - put the front two cropmarks right on the cutter strip (or the sheet cut slot) to guarantee that your print is loaded straight.

Once we started doing those two things, it (almost) always works perfectly for us.
 
Sign Works

Sign Works

New Member
Fingernail smingernail, why not simply perform a "Sheet Cut" prior to printing thus providing a straight leading edge for alignment when reloading media? Easy Smeasy :thumb:.
 
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