A Digital Printing Network

Working with Registration Marks

Is there a Versacamm tutorial that discusses printing with registration marks and then cutting later?

I need to print on vinyl, laminate it, and then cut...but I have no clue how to do this!

Thank you!

Diane

Tags: marks, registration

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Permalink Reply by Diane Hook on March 9, 2010 at 8:25am

Thanks, Kevin. I don't have a 60 degree blade, but my designs have rounded corners, so I may give my current blade a try set near 100.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Ledenican on April 9, 2010 at 4:44am

We also use a 60 degree blade with good results. About $20-$25. On another note, make sure not to laminate too soon after printing, especially on high saturation, dark color prints.. Outgassing is critical and should not be taken lightly. We let our prints cure for 1 to 3 days before laminating, then 8 to 12 hours shrink time with less expensive lams before cutting or installing.

nice "talking" to you again

Rick

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Permalink Reply by April Holder on May 20, 2012 at 7:44pm

Ok we just got our laminator so this is probably a dumbe question but here it is. When you leave the work for day what do you do with the file in versaworks? Do you leave it in the program but import other work? Or re-improt the file you were using? It will read the marks from befroe if you delete the file the put it back in?

Thanks

April

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Permalink Reply by irving donaldson on May 20, 2012 at 8:26pm

Do not delete the file - you can work on other things but it will expect to find the items where they last were when you printed the file. If you change the sizes it will not work.

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Permalink Reply by CYW on May 21, 2012 at 1:49am

April, like Irv says DON'T DELETE the file

You can leave files in your queues, I do it all the time.......actually on any given day, neither of my queues are empty.
I keep stuff there for lots of different reasons

If you don't want to stop and laminate your job after you print it, that's fine
You can keep printing as many other jobs as you want in between and go back to that file later
Just be very careful and remember to leave some room after the last set of reg marks or else you'll need to SECURELY tape a tail piece onto your sheet
And NEVER, NEVER revisit that "get media size" button with that specific file until you get it laminated

Because I have that baby laminator, sometimes I need to get a little creative and rotate my print to get it through the laminator. I've even needed to (because of stupid planning on my part) had to cut my laminated piece lengthwise ....which in turn made me need to move my pinch rollers when feeding it back for cutting
No big deal, our machines will still read those reg marks, even if you move the rollers
But, but, but, if you center on media or if you absentmindedly hit that get media size button, you'll most likely be cooked!

Call me tomorrow if you get stuck

Di

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Permalink Reply by Roland R. Irish III on May 21, 2012 at 12:50pm

I tested blade force until I got a clean cut-started at 60 and ended up at 175 for the same Oracal 3165RA and the Oracal (can't remember #) laminate. 'Sometimes' with a new blade I can go to 150 but that's rare.

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Permalink Reply by Candy Mattingly on April 9, 2010 at 3:28pm

CAN YOU CUT THE LAMINATE TO THE DESIRED LENGTH. IF SO YOU COULD LEAVE THE DESIGN ON THE MATERIAL ROLL, LAMINATE. THEN BRING BACK THE WHOLE ROLL TO THE MACHINE TO CUT. THEN THERE WOULD BE LESS WASTE!

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Permalink Reply by CYW on May 21, 2012 at 2:12am

I wouldn't do it Candy
In an effort to save a couple of inches of blank vinyl, you'd need to do an enormous amount of juggling, praying and keeping your fingers crossed........and probably ruin the whole run you're trying to laminate anyway

Even if you could figure out a way to get the piece in there nice and straight while still connected to the BIG, HEAVY roll, cutting the laminate and then reversing the laminated piece to get it back out of the machine.......you'd now be left with sticky laminate flapping in the breeze sticky to everything in sight
You'd waste way more than a few inches of laminate trying to get the machine back to where it would be ready to accept another job
Sometimes it takes a foot or so for a new roll of laminate to get itself set
I

Don't forget, we're only talking about a couple inches of blank vinyl
None of my business but you shouldn't be figuring your profit that close that a couple of inches makes that big of a difference