SC-500/CJ-500 Solvent Print Quality Experience, Notes, Suggestions & Questions...

[lodcomm]

I also give a big thanks to SFRTableHockey - He has spent countless hours of his time answering my questions, helping me get my SC-500 up and running - thanks in no small part to his (and many others here as well) - I have mine running & printing well enough to have done a few $$ jobs with it! (not big ones mind you, but it was nice generating *some* income from it my 500 )


I am currently using Nazdar 2000 Inks with an ICC that Was kindly provided from SFR as well. I have found the biggest issue with print quality (graininess, pooling, bleeding, etc..) was the heater temps - more precisely in my case was the even distribution of the heat along the platens *AND* at the vacuum strip directly under the printhead. I bought my sc500 already converted and whoever did the conversion didn't really lay the heat strips out that well.. They were installed to basically provide heat to the center area of the printer and it took a good long time of warming up to get the displayed heat temp to actually be at the right hand side (right side facing the printer, where I was doing my test printing and print quality adjustments!) - I would be messing around with ink levels and tweaking the various settings in the color corrections setting of my flexi and would finally get it printing well, only to come back a few days later using the exact same settings and find it printing "crappily" again.. What was really happening is that as time elapsed while I was patiently poking and prodding the color & ink settings, and sending test print image after image was that the right hand area of the platens were actually finally heating up to the temperature I had my PID's set to & what they were displaying. What I had attributed to my "Fine Tuning" of the ICC/Print settings was in reality the area of the platens (**and Ultimately the surface of Orajet Decal Vinyl I was printing on**) arriving at the proper temperature for the ink to actually work properly (that is where the solvent in the ink actually "Melts & Merges" into the surface of the decal material you are printing to) - Once I realized that my main problem was temperature at the printing area, I found that I could get nearly perfect print results with almost any settings in my color corrections & ICC profiles - The old printer even performed quite acceptably with the "No color correction" box checked (note that it was far from optimal output *BUT* Lightyears ahead of my best "Tweaked settings" at the wrong temps) What I finally arrived at for my day to day minimal fuss printing jobs is the following:


1) Fire up the heaters and wait (patiently), to be sure that the area of the printer (platens, etc) I will be printing over are actually at the displayed temps - this takes at least 20 - 25 mins minimum with my existing heater setup if I am printing at the right hand side. I use a cheap small infra-red thermometer (http://www.ebay.com/itm/111266911628) aimed at the surface area where I am printing to make sure my temps are correct. In my setup my Temp Controller (PID) Maxes out at 108°F, so that is what I use. (the nazdar ICC profile says it should be 110 - 115 degrees)


2) Make sure I have completed step #1 - Then load in the vinyl and give it a few minutes to warm up before I start printing to it.


3) For my color correction - I am using the Nazdar ICC profile provided by SFRTableHockey, and get best results with my the black ink limit set down to about 45% (for some reason my 500 clearly over does the black ink and I found I need to diminish it to at least 45% to stop bleeding/pooling)


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I am planning on redoing the heat strip setup on mine shortly, and will most likely add a heat strip or cable directly to the heavy aluminum vacuum strip - it is my humble opinion that the preheat platen & Temp directly under the printhead is the most critical for the ink to react properly with the vinyl.


SFR - Can I once again pick your brain:


- Do you have a source or URL for the heat cables you used in your setup, I am going to swap out my rinky-dink Temp controller with an actual PID and think I will add a third heating strip, right along the heavy aluminum vacuum plate.


- What ink brand did you finally end up using in your setup & What profile & Temps?




Thanks again for all your help!

-t

 

[sfr table hockey]

Yes heat can make all the difference and when you think all should be fine and you find out that the heat was not even and took a long time to come to temp then that is a tough trouble shoot.

I made my heat strips out of in floor heat cable. So just look up in floor heat cable and see some of the lengths you can get. I think I did 3 runs on both front and back so I might have used about 30 feet. I wired it to a dimmer switch to control the amount of heat and use a cooking probe inside to show the temp. It may not be the exact temp shown but once I record what works, it is always the same. For me 110F to 118F works for most all things.

There are others who came up with a better cable that heats hotter yet but you would have to search to find those threads.

Quick question for that profile you are using. Are you using the TRC linerarization profile with it. That would reduce the ink limits with the profile I sent and would and should give the best print.

I am now using Rolands Ecosol Max inks. You still need to profile but at least I have those.

And sorry that I still have never gone to the post office to see what those 3 new carts would cost to mail.

 

[lodcomm]

Yes heat can make all the difference and when you think all should be fine and you find out that the heat was not even and took a long time to come to temp then that is a tough trouble shoot.

I made my heat strips out of in floor heat cable. So just look up in floor heat cable and see some of the lengths you can get. I think I did 3 runs on both front and back so I might have used about 30 feet. I wired it to a dimmer switch to control the amount of heat and use a cooking probe inside to show the temp. It may not be the exact temp shown but once I record what works, it is always the same. For me 110F to 118F works for most all things.

There are others who came up with a better cable that heats hotter yet but you would have to search to find those threads.

Quick question for that profile you are using. Are you using the TRC linerarization profile with it. That would reduce the ink limits with the profile I sent and would and should give the best print.

I am now using Rolands Ecosol Max inks. You still need to profile but at least I have those.

And sorry that I still have never gone to the post office to see what those 3 new carts would cost to mail.

I am not using the linearization profile! - I must have misplaced it - Could you send me another copy?

I also have a full set of actual roland Ecosol Max cartridges I will try once my nazdar ink is used up - can you point me in the right direction for the profiles you have had the best luck with.

-thanks again

-t