Printing and Contour cutting on R Tape Smooth Silver

[thewvsignguy]

Not sure if this question is in the correct forum but....

RIP is Flexi 10.5, MUTOH 1204, Q54 cutter

Does anyone have any tips for printing and contour cutting the R Tape Outdoor Smooth Silver stuff? I can print on it fine but trying to get the Q54 to see and correctly read the crop marks is a PITA!

Tried printing on White crop marks and placing them on the chrome ones, but the contour is to far off.

Tried to manually set the marks when the cutter will not read them, still the contour is off.

Tried it with the lights off, still don't work.

I'm trying to avoid subbing these out, it's a small run of 100 and I have the chrome in stock.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[eahicks]

4 Point marks and manual bomb sight alignment.

 

[thewvsignguy]

Thanks, How do I obtain a bomb site? will the pen work for now? I generally use the 4 small 1/2" crop marks

 

[eahicks]

Never done 4 point marks before? That's all I use. the Q54 auto scan is horrible.
Select the 4 point marks when you send your file with the contour cut to the RIP. After printing, and laminating if applicable, load the print on the cutter. Then just send the cut file. It will prompt you to select the alignment method...select Digitize Alignment (Bomb Sight). Then follow instructions to move the laser on the 4 points.

 

[niksagkram]

Had a similar issue with our Roland. I just laid a strip of white vinyl at the leading edge of the silver vinyl, and the front crop marks printed on that. Once it found the front ones it didn't have a problem finding the back ones.

Good luck.

Mark

 

[Vinyldog]

you might also try cutting a square of white vinyl with a hole the size of the crop-mark and apply over. I have to cut my own crop-marks from black vinyl now because my printer can no longer print a black circle with a sharp enough edge for the eye to lock on to.
.5in.dia. works fine for me and it's not real hard to just drop it over the printed one.

 

[thewvsignguy]

Thanks for the suggestions, going to give em a try before committing to this job.

 

[thewvsignguy]

Never done 4 point marks before? That's all I use. the Q54 auto scan is horrible.
Select the 4 point marks when you send your file with the contour cut to the RIP. After printing, and laminating if applicable, load the print on the cutter. Then just send the cut file. It will prompt you to select the alignment method...select Digitize Alignment (Bomb Sight). Then follow instructions to move the laser on the 4 points.

So when I inquired to SW about what might work their response was good luck...

The eye on the cutter will not scan the "reflective" media and there was not much you can do. He did suggest covering up the crop makes with masking tape and redraw the lines like cgvginc said and that did work with masking tape not app tape.

I inquired about the bomb site adjustment and he said because I run the cutter via usb it will not work, only with the serial connection will work with the manual 4 point mark method????? I see where to set it in flexi and have not tried eahicks suggestion, just wanted to get some input. I don't believe the reflective media thing, I print on reflective media all the time with out any issues...

eahicks where did you get the laser?

When we first got out 1204 and Q54 with flexi 10 I was told to only use the 1/2" crop marks, been doing it that way for 4 years now. The SW tech support said to always do the 1", the 1/2" will never work....

 

[eahicks]

eahicks where did you get the laser?

It is built in the machine, in the cutting head. You'll never see it until you use the bomb sight alignment.