why when you use 54" does the printer say 52.5"

[gabagoo]

I have never been able to figure this out.
If you put 24" material in it reads both edges and says 22.5"
54" is 52.5"

I am asking as I bought a roll of perf at 39" and now it says 37.8" and my graphic is 37.25" should I instruct the printer to start 0" from the edge?

why does it do this and is there a way to use more material width than it sees?

 

[ChiknNutz]

Cuz it can only print and/or cut in-between the pinch rollers. You can fudge a little to eek out a tad more on either side, but you will never be able to use the full width of the mat'l.

 

[MikePro]

but you will never be able to use the full width of the mat'l.

FALSE!

as long as you can load your material perfectly square, and don't mind a little ink on your printer (cleaning solution rubs it right off), I've printed the full 54" of material before.
I just tell my RIP that I'm using 60" material, and when I load my roll I add scraps of vinyl to either side of my sheet so that the printer recognizes it as a larger width.

The printer thinks its still printing with a margin, but its really starting right on the edge of the sheet. Just make sure you add the scraps to BOTH sides of the sheet, since the mimaki subtracts margins from both L/R ends of the material.

 

[gabagoo]

Cuz it can only print and/or cut in-between the pinch rollers. You can fudge a little to eek out a tad more on either side, but you will never be able to use the full width of the mat'l.

I have a Mimaki and pinch rollers go end to end...

 

[smdgrfx]

I've printed edge to edge many times. I just put some paper with tape on the edges and let the printer read it so I have the full width. It takes a few times to get it right, but it will stay that way until you pick up the pinch roller and reset it. Any little bit of ink that may get on the platten cleans right up pretty easily. I've run complete rolls end to end, nonstop with success using this method.

 

[sfr table hockey]

On the old Rolands CJ500 mine has 3 rollers. The printer reads only the outside 2 rollers for the media width and yes will leave a min 1/2" on both sides and more if you don't get the rollers right on the edge.

But.... what I can do is use the middle roller for the very left edge of the media and then move the outside left roller, the one that reads the edge to where the printer thinks the media is, over to the next spot to the left. This makes the printer think there is media all the way over to that left roller and will read a bigger media width than there actually is. Kind of looks like this:

O O--------------------O These (O) are the movable clamps


What you get is a normal gap of 1/2 to 3/4 at the start (right side) but you could print right to the far left clamp or roller. So only the right side would need to have a wasted area. If your printer does not read the location of the clamps then you may not be able to do this.

Just seen the above post and if the rollers don't move then do like they say above.

 

[gabagoo]

This is a Mimaki question in the Mimaki section of the forum so why does anyone assume I have a Roland?

 

[HulkSmash]

This is a Mimaki question in the Mimaki section of the forum so why does anyone assume I have a Roland?

....he said what he does on his machine.

 

[sfr table hockey]

This is a Mimaki question in the Mimaki section of the forum so why does anyone assume I have a Roland?

That was just in case your printer had movable rollers. After you stated your rollers went all across I realized that my info would not help.

Sorry

Also their tip is what I do on my other Roland printer and it works there as well so some times one can help another even though their printers are not the same.

Anyway no hurt feeling here

 

[TheSnowman]

Sometimes mine is really dumb, and it only reads my 54" as 48" or so, and then when I've printed 1/4 of the print, I don't realize it till then that it didn't register right, and it's biffed up. Step one, toss in trash can.

 

[gabagoo]

I guess I understand that it takes an inch or 2 off the real reading to make sure that it can print in the given area. I would just like to have more control over it in certain cases

 

[SightLine]

Nothing to do with the rollers on your Mimaki. The sensor on the head carriage detects the material width when you load a roll. It looks for the material over the black strip. You can do 2 things to make it register wider - after you lower the level but before you hit the arrow to let it detect the width stick a small bit of material on the edge of the material over the black strip. The more you let it stick beyond the roll the wider it will detect.

The other option is in the machines setup and might be in the service menus - I've never tried changing it this way but there is a margin adjustment in the machine itself.

 

[signswi]

FALSE!

as long as you can load your material perfectly square, and don't mind a little ink on your printer (cleaning solution rubs it right off), I've printed the full 54" of material before.
I just tell my RIP that I'm using 60" material, and when I load my roll I add scraps of vinyl to either side of my sheet so that the printer recognizes it as a larger width.

The printer thinks its still printing with a margin, but its really starting right on the edge of the sheet. Just make sure you add the scraps to BOTH sides of the sheet, since the mimaki subtracts margins from both L/R ends of the material.

I do the exact same thing all the time on our JV3.

 

[HulkSmash]

the issue with edge to edge printing - laminate can't drift... not even 1/10 of an inch......which is moderately hard to contain.

 

[LenR]

On the Mimaki you set the margins on the front panel.
Mine is set for @ 1/4".
Is yours set at the lowest setting?

 

[gabagoo]

On the Mimaki you set the margins on the front panel.
Mine is set for @ 1/4".
Is yours set at the lowest setting?

I checked my margins and they set for 0

 

[Kyle Blue]

If you have ProductionHouse you can go to the preflight of the file, in the Preview and Size tab there is a Maximum Print Area. Click on the little rectangle with the v in it. There you should see the Set Print Area and in the Print Area Reduction you can change how much it will go in from the edge of the vinyl.

 

[Rooster]

I checked my margins and they set for 0

You can set them into negative numbers. Mine are -.38" or - 3/8ths of an inch on both sides. This leaves me with about 1/8" to 1/4" margin on the media.

 

[gabagoo]

You can set them into negative numbers. Mine are -.38" or - 3/8ths of an inch on both sides. This leaves me with about 1/8" to 1/4" margin on the media.

ahhhh now we getting somewhere
thanks