Take-up reel

bovegas · Jun 13, 2009

I just have finished building take up reel and it works great. I tought this might be good idea to share with you guys because it was very inexpensive. Whole thing cost me $100 and works great. I have used 2 pieces of aluminum 6x12 inches 1/8" thick, 6' PVC tube, 2 cores from tape dispenser, 2 bolts, photoswitch with reflector, enclosure box from radio shack, 1 car relay, 1 small motor w/gearbox from small vacum cleaner, 1 switch with 6 prones and 1 switch with 3 prones. When media gets close to floor photoswitch activate motor and motor rolls media up for couple inches. I have some pictures you can see. This is the same system like on Roland TU-500 take up reel. I just used PVC tube instead of paper core. I can change direction of motor with switch. On TU-500 they put one extra switch for manual but I think thats a waiste since you can use your leg to cut the beam and you will have better control that way if you wanna roll finished media of the pvc tube. Let me know if you think I can add something.

omgsideburns · Jun 13, 2009

wow that's pretty neat.

DRamm76 · Jun 13, 2009

Very cool. You should consider looking into partnering up with a company to market it for you. VERY innovative

Gene@mpls · Jun 13, 2009

Nice- I have a BBQ rotisserie motor and similar photo switch waiting for me
to find a little spare time. How do you remove the wound up vinyl? Gene

sfr table hockey · Jun 13, 2009

Great stuff Bo.

bovegas · Jun 13, 2009

removing wound up vinyl

Gene@mpls said: ↑

Nice- I have a BBQ rotisserie motor and similar photo switch waiting for me
to find a little spare time. How do you remove the wound up vinyl? Gene
Click to expand...

As you can see on picture of control box there are forward and reverse position of the switch. I just place switch in reverse position and place my foot in front of the reflector. Motor will go in reverse direction as long as my foot is in front of the reflector( reflector is like a miror. You can see it on atached picture. It is across from the photoswitch.) Roland has extra switch for manual turning in reverse direction, but I think my idea is better since you can control motor better with your foot and you have both hands free to wound vinyl on paper core. Also I dont have to drill wholes in printer frame to mount switch and reflector( i did it because my printer is old). Do you guys think this could sell if I offer it to Fellers for example. I would ask about $500.

bob · Jun 13, 2009

DRamm76 said: ↑

Very cool. You should consider looking into partnering up with a company to market it for you. VERY innovative
Click to expand...

A pragmatic solution but innovative? Hardly, that's exactly the way the take up tackle on my old Mutoh Falcon Outdoor worked. A mechanism that I liked far better than the take up gear from hell on the Valuejet.

bovegas · Jun 13, 2009

Inovative?

This idea is from Roland TU-500. Its just much cheaper and I think pvc tube on aluminum frame is much more rigid than solution they were using. They conected paper core with some flange directly on motor gearbox so its easy to brake. They are asking $1995 and material cost is about $100. Again this could be mounted on printer withaut drilling any holes same like Roland sugested for their take up reel.

1leonchen · Jun 13, 2009

genius

Gene@mpls · Jun 14, 2009

I did see the reverse button- I like to wind onto a core and be able to
remove it, stand on end and fan out/unroll it under a fan to get some
air circulation overnight before lam/cut. That is the direction I am going,
I have a hand winder that works that way now. The left end will lift off
so that the core can be slid off- I just need to add the motor and photo
switch. Gene

bovegas · Jun 14, 2009

I don't understand why you wanna take core completelly of the frame. You can put fan next to it and roll on empty paper core. Otherwise you have to make another frame to place those rolls you took of the take up reel.

cgsigns_jamie · Jun 14, 2009

I like to keep my prints on the core. I can remove the core from the printer, let it dry, then put it right onto the laminator without having to re-roll the print.

Gene@mpls · Jun 15, 2009

cgsigns_jamie said: ↑

I like to keep my prints on the core. I can remove the core from the printer, let it dry, then put it right onto the laminator without having to re-roll the print.
Click to expand...

Ditto- I have an 11' table feeding my laminator with a roll holder on the other
end. I try to dry everything overnight like the pict before lamming.

Edit: Whoops- forgot to rotate the pict.

bovegas · Jun 15, 2009

drying

If you like to dry prints I would make one frame with wheels and a same setup and put fan under it. I make my own profiles and run low temperature on heaters, but still prints are dry by the time it hits take up reel. Also on the left side of the aluminum plate would be easy to make that plate removable so if somebody wanna take the roll out, it could just slide out of the tape dispenser core.

Gene@mpls · Jun 30, 2009

photoswitch with reflector, enclosure box from radio shack, 1 car relay
Click to expand...

Hi Bovegas- is your motor 115v? I am trying to figure out how to turn my
115v motor on and off with the infrared security alarm. I have a 115v remote
switch to do the actual switching- just need to trigger it. Can you expand
upon your control system. Thanks Gene

joezeppii · Sep 8, 2009

That's cool!!!!
Wanna make me one?

ERIKADESIGNS · Nov 17, 2009

This is so amazing

Out of curiosity, how much would you charge a client to build one of these for a VP540? I would rather support people in the business

thanks,
Erika

theautospecialist · Sep 20, 2011

Did you ever end up selling any of these

great idea, did you ever end up selling any of these, we have a Roland 54" printer/cutter and we are looking for something right now , thanks

Joe

BannersPlusMfg · Jan 8, 2013

Take Up Reel

Can you send me pictures of this take up device you have built?

wmshuman · Jan 9, 2013

:iamwithstupid

MikeD · Jan 9, 2013

we've made similar take-ups for some of our printers and 1 of our laminators. The photo switches are great for the printers, but for the laminator, we put a torque limiter near the motor for a couple different reasons.
For printing, I like the idea of having the take-up a little lower and supplement the whole set-up with an IR drier and a fan.
The most helpful part of either device would have to be the addition of flanges to help rewind the media concentrically.
It's always a great feeling to figure these things out...you save money, and even more important you know exactly whats involved with the piece of equipment since you designed and built it.
Yours looks great!

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