Squareness or not.............................

[Gino]

Since we got our flatbed and can print up to the edge of anything, we're finding lots of substrates that aren't square...... by a long shot.

No matter how square they appear, there always seems to be a discrepancy on squareness.

Cor-X is at the top of the list. A 4' x 8' is never a true 4' x 8'. Oversized substrates..... that I can deal with, but its always like 48-5/8" x 96-3/4", but can vary to the other end by over an 1/8" . Yes, we have seen sheet goods come in at 48.25 at one end and 48.5" at the other end.

Is it my suppliers are do others of you flatbed owners just learn to put up with it and do lots of extra trimming ?? Seems kinda counter-productive.

Any light shed on this would be most appreciative.

Gino
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[weaselboogie]

Agreed! I recently had 2 sheets of coroplast that were skewed by 2"

The 8' fluting sides were parallel, but the 4' ends were leaning like Pisa.

Also, this shirt idea is awesome.

 

[cdiesel]

I know what you mean Gino. Generally we're only finding that coro is out of square. Foamcore has been really good (we use Elmers). We don't print on much wood or aluminum.

 

[signcrafters london]

If they make square coro I've never seen it.

 

[andy]

We don't use much Correx but the stuff we do use is always 2440 x 1220mm dead. Out of size, out of square substrates or sheet materials with undulating thicknesses are usually down to your supplier thinking they can make an extra buck or two by buying straight from China or India... cheapest Correx factory wins the order. This inevitably means that quality and dimension controls are all in the "ish" range "you aren't paying a lot so what do you expect" etc, etc.

Your supplier should be willing and able to trim the sheets for you before delivery.... if you want a perfect 8x4 this is not unreasonable... I can buy a sheet of Correx with +/- 2mm tolerance,,,, you should be able to do the same.

 

[Gino]

Yup, coro is never square. I wish that stuff didn't exist actually! We don't have a flatbed, nor do I fully understand how they know where to print etc... but what would happen if you told it to print a bit bigger so it covers more than the largest dimension of the sheet?
Sort of like a bleed? Not sure if you can do that...

That's a solution when you're creating your own artwork, but we do a lot for other sign shops and people here on s101. When their files come in, we can't expect them to prepare for our suppliers faults.

The other thing is.... when you have double-sided signs, it impacts on that also. You have to offset one side and then compensate for it going the other way for the opposite side.

We just finished a job where the artwork was 30" x 30". The image was a different one from the side to side. There were the seven days of the week in line and it was opposite reading from the other side. It was practically impossible to figure all the problem areas to align themselves in the end, but out of some 400 prints, we only lost three.... and two of those were because my new guy cut the first two wrong by accident......

We had a job a few months ago where we did a few thousand pieces at 12" x 16" for a good yield. There was no bleed, so we were safe.


The material comes in slightly over-sized, but that doesn't always help if its outa rack.

Guess I'm just ranting because we have quite a bit coming up in the next few weeks and while measuring, sheets are all different and outa square.... even some of the PVC's.

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[cdiesel]

Our PVC and styrene has been good. We buy from Laird mostly.

 

[Techman]

trim the sheet to exact size and get it over with.
That extra sometimes come in real handy.
Yes, it takes 43 seconds longer to do the job.

 

[cptcorn]

It's 'ok' Gino, we're hear to listen... you vent all you need!

 

[johnnysigns]

I have the worst results w/ styrene being cut all jerky. It's a real pain in the nuts when we're guillotining down multiples sheets at once.

 

[Locals Find!]

I have ordered printed coro that is produced on a Flat bed from my supplier. Who runs an operation similar to yours.

Their policy is that its up to me to do the final trim that its not always going to be dead on. Especially on two sided.I have to sign a terms and conditions accepting that before they will process the order each and every time. Possible this might work for you and your clients?

Hope this helps a little.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Spoke to my Midwest sign rep Friday- he said that they switched brands
and now have square sheet... for this reason.

 

[Gino]

Spoke to my Midwest sign rep Friday- he said that they switched brands
and now have square sheet... for this reason.

I just received the same information last week from two of my suppliers. Evidently, you can still get the random cut Cor-X ...... or specify the perfect cut and square type, for very little extra cost.