Epson 4800 and roll printing?

[mimosatexas]

So I love my epson 4800 since getting it up and running, and I have no complaints, but I was curious about one thing.  I am setting the paper size for most of my jobs based on the width of the art and printing sideways, so the final film is 17" tall and should be whatever width I tell the printer.  Consistently it seems like the printer (or accurip?) is adding about 1/2" to each side of my dimensions.  So if I tell it I want the paper size to be 10" wide, the film ends up 11" wide.  The art is still the correct size and centered on the film, but the margins on left and right are larger than I tell it in the print options.  Any idea why?  It isn't a big deal really, but it would end up adding up to a few extra films from each roll and every bit counts...Thanks!

[mimosatexas]

Thought of another quick roll related question.  When it cuts the roll, there is some almost like flaking along the edge that is cut.  I am using waterproof films and it looks like it is the film coating kind of flaking at the cut vs the plastic.  Do I need a new cutting blade, or is some amount of this normal?  Again, it isn't really a problem, just a curiosity.

[blue moon]

try nesting the films, it will save you a lot. Yes, new cutter blade will fix the other problem.

make sure you load the roll correctly onto the holder, the tension only works one way.

pierre

[mimosatexas]

roll is correct.  What do you mean by nesting the films?  I'll look into the new blade.  Thanks!

[cbjamel]

nesting ie.. gang films together to print then cut at end.  Dont print one then cut takes way to long if doing 10 films for instance.
Shane

[mimosatexas]

Oh, fantastic idea!  Should have thought about that from the beginning...

[mk162]

i wouldn't rotate them if they are multi color, sometimes they won't line up if one was rotated and the others aren't

[blue moon]

i wouldn't rotate them if they are multi color, sometimes they won't line up if one was rotated and the others aren't

some RIPs will allow you to print a long line and then measure it so you can enter the compensation factor. This way you can mix the films and they will still register fine. FM offers that in advanced features. I heard that new AR has it too.

pierre

[mimosatexas]

AR has it and I have it calibrated for that.  I do not mix and match though on the same job as I use a registration mark template that is either 17" wide (all sideways) or 19" wide (holdover from the 1400 that I have been moving away from).  I havent had any issues at all with films not lining up so far, even on very tight registration across large images.  This was purely related to the extra blank film on the sides when printing sideways.

[ebscreen]

I believe the bare minimum margins are set in the firmware of the printer somewhere.
IE hold down the three buttons, press this blah blah blah.

[mimosatexas]

I'll look into that.  It will print right up to the edge of the 17 inch width of the roll, but is adding a solid 1/2" at the "top" and "bottom" (sides when landscape).

[jsheridan]

It's an option deep in the maintenance menu if I remember correctly. The best I could ever get it was about 1/8 of an inch.

The option is out there on google somewhere

[mimosatexas]

New issue popped up today...

I had to unplug the printer to move it while rearranging some stuff in my shop, plug it back in and everything is working except one thing: 17" wide files which are based on the same template I've been using for weeks will no longer print sideways.  Tried changing orientations everywhere I can think of, but no go.  Any idea where I would force this?  Not interested in wasting 7ish inches of film every print...

Thanks!