SP-300i Print/Cut Misalignment

[siklidkid]

Working in illustrator, I exported a design with a cut contour as an .eps. Ripped it with VW, then printed and cut it with the sp-300. The color was way off but the cut contour was perfect.

Solved the color issue but now the cut is WAY off...

Did a test print/cut directly for the sp-300 and it was perfect...

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Ragnabrok]

almost sounds like an encoder strip issue, the cut is likely where it should be, but the print moved over. try cleaning the encoder strip closer to the right side of the machine.

 

[cdiesel]

Seriously doubt it's an encoder strip issue. Encoder strip errors will usually result in stair stepping in the print, and errors coming up in the printer itself.

Is <center on media> selected? This is a common cause of this problem. I assume that you verified that the cutpath is in the correct position in the print file? When you say that it is "way off", is it shifted entirely in one direction, or does it start off okay and then get worse?

 

[chopper]

I agree with cdiesel it is going to be a setting in your software, had the same issue but with a different rip... so I cannot help much with what setting it may be....check your settings you will find the problem..
//chopper

 

[CentralSigns]

My advice would be to go through the manaul and do all the cutting adjustments. Should this not work then make sure you have the right profiles for the material you are using. I have to cut vinyl material like it's reflective in the profiles because it is very thick and slowly skews off.

 

[siklidkid]

..fail

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Try setting the printer back to Default settings... MENU>DEFAULT SETTINGS>ENTER

Then retry

 

[siklidkid]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Tried some trouble shooting this morning. The cut is now off on a file exported out of SL8. I'm kind of at a loss.

Sorry, I should have prefaced that the artwork is over sized, therefore I'm working with tiling. The artwork is a star, so we are printing the tip and then the rest of the star...

So like I said, I tried the print/cut alignment test directly from the sp-300. It was dead on... I scaled down the star to 3" x 3" and it cut it perfect...

I have a feeling it's a tiling setting.

cdiesel wrote:

Is <center on media> selected? This is a common cause of this problem. I assume that you verified that the cutpath is in the correct position in the print file? When you say that it is "way off", is it shifted entirely in one direction, or does it start off okay and then get worse?

Where is the <center on media> in Versa Works?

The cut path is dead nuts on both in Illy and SL8 with a .125" bleed...

It's way off in one direction (.25"). I played with some tiling settings and got it closer (.125") off now...


Side note: zoomed out in VW, it looks off in the same manner as it mis cuts.
Zoomed in super close the cut path is dead on.

 

[ova]

Sounds like the same problem I had a couple of weeks ago. Mine's an sp300v and I use Flexi with Versa. Here's some of my trys to fix it:

1. Changed the encoder strip.
2. Changed both pinch rollers. One was worn so I changed them both.
3. Did the Factory Defalut reset in the menu on the machine as mentioned above. Menu, Factory Default, Enter.
4. Calibrated all fuctions that can be calibrated.

Which direction is the cut off? Scan or feed? This will help determine if it's the encoder strip. Is the whole job missing the cut or does it get progressively worse as the media is feeding?

If you do the Factory Default reset, all of the settings you had in the printer will go back to o.oo. (Scan, Feed, cut calibration). You will have to re-adjust these accordingly to get the cut good again.

Just some thoughts
Dave

 

[Ragnabrok]

is it just a print and cut? or are you using crop marks? there is a seperate adjustment for a crop cut

 

[petepaz]

is it just a print and cut? or are you using crop marks? there is a seperate adjustment for a crop cut

yeah double check that i had some issues as well and once i adjusted the crop mark alignment i was good to go (actually our service tech did it)
but apparently that can be caused from head strikes or when the head/cutter hits the material and jams up it knocks everything out of wack

 

[cdiesel]

Ahh.. tiling. I HATE Versaworks for tiling.

I'd setup the tiling myself in your design program. That's going to be your best bet, just create two separate shapes with the overlap that will fit nicely on your media and print as two separate jobs. I'd be willing to be that something funky is going on with VW and how it handles the tiling.

 

[siklidkid]

is it just a print and cut? or are you using crop marks? there is a separate adjustment for a crop cut

Yea, print and cut. In the tiling setting. .25" overlap. It adds it's own crops for overlap. Seems I can't control that.

What sucks is that we nailed the first time around, except the color was off...
no worries right? then it just all went into the dumper

under cut controls (not at the shop now) I think I had "cut image area" ON, so we had a nice horizontal weed line for the overlap. I think I turned that OFF and it was a lot better but still not perfect like that first run...

 

[Ragnabrok]

ergh, these ones are always tough to isolate. I'm still thinking far right side of the encoder strip, as odd as it sounds. It can be losing it's place en route to the print area, but not IN the print area, so the print itself exhibits no stair stepping. but since the print shifted prior to printing, the cut is where it should be, but the print is not.

Easy step to try anyway, quick clean of the encoder strip

 

[siklidkid]

Ahh.. tiling. I HATE Versaworks for tiling.

I'd setup the tiling myself in your design program. That's going to be your best bet, just create two separate shapes with the overlap that will fit nicely on your media and print as two separate jobs. I'd be willing to be that something funky is going on with VW and how it handles the tiling.

Well that's what I had to do...sigh...

I think I figured out what I did on that initial first run and the failures there after.

The first one had two tiles, running in columns. The bulk of the star in the left column and the tip of the star in the right column. When I ran it,it print/cut fine, HOWEVER, I realized how much material waste the right column had. A star tip and a lot of negative space(material).

To save material, I took the the star tip column and divided it into three tiles, isolating the star tip. Apparently, VW does not like this.

It seems the only options I have now, is to waste material OR manually tile designs in Illy.

I am going to restore to default settings, if that doesn't work then I'll try cleaning the decoder strip...

Anyway, I would still like to resolve this issue... sucks that we can't tile "efficently" in VW... Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[chopper]

why don't you just use the rip in signlab?
I use to use VW to rip from but I find it much easier to do it all from one program
I had the same issue with the sl8 but what it ended up being was the remove excess white space was unchecked in the vpm and that seemed to distort the cut profile, rechecked the box and right back to on the money.. it isnt the decoder strip if your cuts are on the money when you are not tiling, it is going to be a software issue, when I tile I do it manually, I fid it much easier to do and I like to control where it tiles so I can hide the overlap the best I can that way...
//chopper

 

[siklidkid]

why don't you just use the rip in signlab?
I use to use VW to rip from but I find it much easier to do it all from one program

Chopper, I agree completely. Our situation is kind of unique. My pop has owned the shop since 64, super old school. He runs the show by himself and is proficient in signlab. Myself on the other hand work exclusively in CS. I work part time for him, a lot of it offsite. I upload most of my projects to him to rip and print. So it works well for us having third party RIP. I have to be careful/selective on what/how much to teach him.

After your comment though, I'm definitely going to check that option out.