Suggestions Cutting Stripes Straight

[Centro Graphics]

Hi All

We have around 100ft of 2 color stripes to produce. Any suggestions welcome on keeping everything perfect straight on the plotter. Also getting the colors lined up as per image shown. Stripes are cut vinyl and not printed. We will be cutting at approx 9ft legths and joing together with slight overlap.

Appreciate any tips on this

Thanks

 

[petepaz]

do you have a vendor that can slit the rolls down?
this way you'll have a roll of 3" and a roll of 1" then just cut 9' lengths. if not you have to rig up a 9' straight edge. check carpet store try to get a 10' or 12' metal edging

 

[Sign_Boy]

How about ProStripe? They make a 1" not sure about the 3" Also what petepaz said.

 

[Centro Graphics]

Thanks for the tips fellas.

I had thought about getting the vinyl slit but more handling and work putting everything together, potential problems.

Also thought of the straight edge method, though bit long winded. Sorry I ssaid 100ft, its 1000ft

Also thought about gerber with punched vinyl, though dont have one.

Got a couple of decent plotters, may have to run slow.

 

[Bigdawg]

I wouldn't hesitate to cut that on our Graphtec, but the real PITA is going to be exact spacing between the colors when installing. Good luck!

 

[bannertime]

We set up registration marks on all four corners. Typically use a diamond.

Then send the file how every many times you need to on both rolls.

Weed everything and don't forget to leave the marks. Tape one color completely. Cut the marks out of it. (Why I prefer diamonds, I cut three sides and fold it over for registration on the other color.)

Then apply it to the other color like you would anything else. Obviously using the marks to register alignment and then tape or weights to hold it in place during application.

This gives you a masked two-color cut vinyl graphic that is probably visibly perfect. All you need to do is trim.

I do this quite often for two color fleet graphics. I typically only do like 5 feet at a time, but it's possibly to do it longer lengths.

 

[petepaz]

print/lam/cut and done

 

[D2S]

What is it going on? Why not use knifless tape put it down lay vinyl down ripe up?

 

[Gregory GME/W2T]

Hi All

We have around 100ft of 2 color stripes to produce. Any suggestions welcome on keeping everything perfect straight on the plotter. Also getting the colors lined up as per image shown. Stripes are cut vinyl and not printed. We will be cutting at approx 9ft legths and joing together with slight overlap.

Appreciate any tips on this

Thanks

Centro,

Just signed up as a merchant vendor so let's hope this goes thru to you. We do custom stripping as well as wholesale to trade digital printing. We would be happy to send you a price for the stripping please just send the email and file to graphics@gregory1.com

If you have question please let me know.

Thanks,

David

 

[ikarasu]

We do lots.of vehicle striping. You'll waste a little bit of material this way... But it's the easiest and saves us time.

We cut in whatever length we want... Say 7ft. Then we add the space prespaced, and about a quarter inch of the next strip into the cut. Do the same setup for the other stripe colors.

Then we set it up, align it with the quarter inch strip... Premade it together on our roll to roll, and then when you apply.. you apply however many strips at once, all prespaced, and your only measurements needed are one on each side of the strip to make sure it's at the right height.

Sorry for bad formatting... Wifi sucks on airplanes, and only my phone's working.

 

[rjssigns]

Check into places that make boot and hull stripes for yachts. Quick Quote Form for Multi-Color All-On-1 Rolls of Striping
We've only been installing so don't know exactly where the marina gets them made. Boot stripes 4 plus inches wide with multiple colors, chrome, various gaps you name it, all taped and on a liner.

 

[equippaint]

Id set up a laser/transit and apply slit rolls continuous the whole run. Very little setup time. An overlap every 10' for 100' will look like garbage. Plus getting it to be a flat line in small sections will be a pain.

 

[Sign Works]

You can order roll striping from Universal Products or Sharpline Converting. Universal uses Avery vinyls and Sharpline uses both Avery and 3M vinyls. I believe Gregory produces custom roll striping as well. You can also use a Ronan Slitter and produce any desired size from 6", 4", and 2" roll striping.

 

[decalman]

I'm cutting,100 feet of 3 inch right now for an RV.
It's easy peezy, as long as you got a plotter that tracks great. I use a Summa d75 Excellent track. I like to cut in 10 foot increments, because it's easier to deal with. Installing betwix those colors is a little nerve racking. Ya, it'll be a little off, but who'll care ? We're not tuning a piano here. ( I always tell them that)

 

[jfiscus]

Very simple job to do. A Gerber Edge & Gerber sprocket fed plotter would make short/easy work of this project.
Then you would have the colors already pre-spaced and you'd just have to weed and mask it for a simple easy install.

A roll slitter could make the individual stripes easily enough from rolls of vinyl, but then you'd have to space the stripes out from each other and install each one separately. (no fun!)

 

[Centro Graphics]

Bannertime. I like the old school approach, havent used reg marks for laying vinyl for years. My main concern is the tracking on the plotter.

Pete. We are restricted by client spec 3M colors. Still have the potential tracking issue, plus have extra process with print and lam, Thanks though

D2S. Knifless has its place in what we do, but laying a thousand feet per line is gonna result in miles of knifless tape, with still the issue of keeping an even thinner line perfectly straight. Thanks

David. Thanks, definately be an option, though we are installing next week, will let you know, Thanks and good to know

Ikarasu. Hmm need to get my head around that one....

RJS. great link there, thanks.

Decalman. Who'll care? We will and so will our customer.

Jfiscus. Dont have one, and the vinyl we are using doesnt come in sprocketed. Not worth buying one for this project. Thanks.

Some great ideas there all, thanks.

 

[mmblarg]

So, super not helpful for your current job, but if you do quite a few stripes like this, I'd look into investing in a Gerber plotter. We have the Gerber GSx Plus that runs 15" rolls of vinyl - the plotter and rolls are designs with punched holes along the edges so the roll never tracks or gets off while cutting. We just recently ran a job with 1"x 186" stripes that our 54" Roland and Graphtec couldn't even touch.

 

[bannertime]

We load the plotter by putting the roll on the rollers, using one hand to hold it in position and the other to pull the material tight out the front. If I need better alignment, pull a few feet out and fold it back underneath and line it up to the edge of the roll while keeping everything tight. Similar to how HP says to do it on the printers. That'll give you plenty to work with. I've done whole rolls without realignment this way. Granted, I only do registration marks in 5 foot increments, 10 foot would work. I do 5 foot because that's my comfortable working space without moving.

 

[jfiscus]

Bannertime. I like the old school approach, havent used reg marks for laying vinyl for years. My main concern is the tracking on the plotter.

Pete. We are restricted by client spec 3M colors. Still have the potential tracking issue, plus have extra process with print and lam, Thanks though

D2S. Knifless has its place in what we do, but laying a thousand feet per line is gonna result in miles of knifless tape, with still the issue of keeping an even thinner line perfectly straight. Thanks

David. Thanks, definately be an option, though we are installing next week, will let you know, Thanks and good to know

Ikarasu. Hmm need to get my head around that one....

RJS. great link there, thanks.

Decalman. Who'll care? We will and so will our customer.

Jfiscus. Dont have one, and the vinyl we are using doesnt come in sprocketed. Not worth buying one for this project. Thanks.

Some great ideas there all, thanks.

I'd bet that the vinyl you're using actually does come in a sprocket-fed variety. We are primarily a 3M shop also and run quite a lot in sprocket fed variety, sometimes you have to buy it pre-converted to sprocket-fed as a "Gerber" vinyl, but the 180mc versions are also available in sprocket-fed if you have a good sales rep. If the color isn't available, the Gerber "solution" has a thermal printer that allows you to custom print any 100% solid colors onto the vinyl as if the vinyl was purchased in those colors. If you aren't doing enough of these types of jobs to justify the purchase of your own machines (it sounds like this job might be enough to justify checking out a used combo) then find another local shop to farm this job out to. You'll be glad you did; otherwise this job sounds like it could royally suck.