QUESTION? Wide Format Printers what ........

[vinylink0331]

Hey Guys, This question is for anyone who does in-house printing? When u think back to the first time you operated your wide-format printer, What stands out as the issue that gave you the most trouble & headaches? Im in the process of getting our's up and running & Im interested in knowing how things went for you guys during those first few months of learning your new equipment.

 

[cdiesel]

Color. Profiles are a PITA 'til you get them figured out.
Banding. It's usually a function of the profile, but once you figure out how to adjust your feed calibration you'll be okay.
Lamination. You'll ruin more than a few prints as you get the hang of it.

Those are the biggies we struggled with, but once you get the hang of everything, it goes like clockwork.

 

[Ken]

Echoing Chris's reply I would also add good tracking on long prints.12 - 16 ft plus. If it's tight to the edges, try running the material all the way thru before starting the print.
Ken

 

[eforer]

I would say the two above posts cover it pretty well. The best thing you can do is find a good resource for your printer for information. Forums/users groups etc. They will save you a lot of headaches.

 

[Big House Signs]

Lamination. You'll ruin more than a few prints as you get the hang of it..

you got that right....we screwed up so many prints and for the longest time I was so intimidated by the laminator...but finally got the hang of it, thank god!! And now I want to laminate everything!!

Paula

 

[petepaz]

all of the above
and printing on new rolls of vinyl and the first 12" or so have your finger prints or you can see where the tape was that kept the roll from unrolling

 

[Baz]

For me it was figuring out what caused and how to control banding issues ... Learning about photo resolutions and how the final output looked compared to the picture on the screen. After a few months when you start having drops of ink on your prints or missing colors you start learning about maintenance ...

I've been doing liquid laminating since the start (6 years ago) and applying film laminate by hand. That wasnt a big learning curve. But i received my nice new Royal Sovereign 54" laminator yesterday and i expect to screw up a couple of jobs next week (hopefully not ... seems straight forward and user friendly) but we'll see ....

Good luck with your new equipment
BTW ... what did you get?

 

[jgolo]

all of the above
and printing on new rolls of vinyl and the first 12" or so have your finger prints or you can see where the tape was that kept the roll from unrolling

The "tape" mark still gets me when I rush things.

 

[KR3signguy]

... color correcting large batches of files before we used color management. Yuk.

...using different pdf settings per native file format.

...color management, all worth while but first there was difficulty wrapping my head around it at first.

...troubleshooting garbage files, which have taken years to perfect & is an ongoing battle.

... figuring out you have a garbage roll after you've tried hours of troubleshooting & second guessing yourself.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

Profiles Profiles Profiles

That covers about everything???

oh ya! I forgot.......Profiles

PS Patience helps too in the begining:Big Laugh

Besta luck

 

[iSign]

I used 13 oz banner material, but only wanted to tape-hem the 2 ends.
Grommmets pulled out easily in the wind & I had to eat a few banners.

Switched to 15 oz only, and added a small extra square of 15oz cloth behind banner, at each grommet. that resolved that.

 

[cdiesel]

The garbage roll thing is a pain..
About six weeks ago, we were under a tight deadline and broke open a new roll of 3951. I couldn't get that thing to print without banding to save my life. Worst banding I'd ever seen! After messing with it for about three hours, I switched to a roll of 180C (the rest of the job was previously done in 3951), and it printed perfectly. Our service company was busy and couldn't make it out that day. This was on a Friday. On Monday I was able to print on the 3951 using our normal settings without any problems at all. Service tech told me afterwards that the problem was probably "environmental" due to the fact we had some rain on that Friday. That was fun!

 

[gnemmas]

Garbage ink cartridge.

The other day we were printing job with burgundy color. Bunch of white pin holes in the prints. First suspect is the vinyl. Swap to a new roll, same thing. Test print swatch of CYMK. Turn out it was the Magenta only. Swap a new magenta cartridge, problem solved.

Another episode of Sign Shop CSI.

 

[eforer]

... color correcting large batches of files before

... figuring out you have a garbage roll after you've tried hours of troubleshooting & second guessing yourself.

Last week, bad roll of 3651 and a bad roll of sihl banner material (they are often bad and only purchased out of desperation). Nothing is more frustrating when you don't have an extra roll in stock and you're in a rush.