Stitch Up
18-01-2012, 05:28 PM
Many of you will know that I have a Gerber Edge FX Printer - fantastic for printing labels and smaller graphics for signage etc.
This video will give you some idea of what it can do - sorry for the poor quality.
http://youtu.be/o9oc5vvPdbo
In order to use the FX you also need a Gerber cutter. The GS15Plus was built to match the Edge printers back in 1995 and it's a real heavyweight for a 15" plotter!! New, it cost nearly £9,000 and is probably one of the best cutters ever made as it has a tangential mode. This means the blade turns before it cuts in any particular direction. Most plotter use a drag mode and the knife turns as it drags in the various directions.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/datasafe/Printing and Dye Sub/Gerber GS15Plus Plotter/GerberDS15Plus.jpg
Back last year, my plotter started playing up! I switched it off and stopped offering label printing. Last week, I received a repeat order for 5000 labels. I forgot the plotter had a problem, but was soon reminded when I switched it back on yesterday - beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep - and I could do nothing with it.
There's only one company in the UK who can fix these things and that's Spandex BUT, the cost of the repair was going to be about £2000!!!! So, I spoke to Harry of Edward Mathias (if anyone wants plotter blades, he's your man), I know how knowledgeable he is! He gave me some ideas and so back on the bench, locate the circuit board, clean the optical sensors which were filthy, plug back in and guess what ...... it didn't work!!! So, one last bash, pulled it apart once more and this time I removed the board holding the optical sensors, examined under magnifying glass and there was clear dry joint :) Out came the soldering iron and the rest is history. I now have a fully functioning Gerber GS15Plus plotter.
I'm back in the label market once more :)
This video will give you some idea of what it can do - sorry for the poor quality.
http://youtu.be/o9oc5vvPdbo
In order to use the FX you also need a Gerber cutter. The GS15Plus was built to match the Edge printers back in 1995 and it's a real heavyweight for a 15" plotter!! New, it cost nearly £9,000 and is probably one of the best cutters ever made as it has a tangential mode. This means the blade turns before it cuts in any particular direction. Most plotter use a drag mode and the knife turns as it drags in the various directions.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/datasafe/Printing and Dye Sub/Gerber GS15Plus Plotter/GerberDS15Plus.jpg
Back last year, my plotter started playing up! I switched it off and stopped offering label printing. Last week, I received a repeat order for 5000 labels. I forgot the plotter had a problem, but was soon reminded when I switched it back on yesterday - beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep - and I could do nothing with it.
There's only one company in the UK who can fix these things and that's Spandex BUT, the cost of the repair was going to be about £2000!!!! So, I spoke to Harry of Edward Mathias (if anyone wants plotter blades, he's your man), I know how knowledgeable he is! He gave me some ideas and so back on the bench, locate the circuit board, clean the optical sensors which were filthy, plug back in and guess what ...... it didn't work!!! So, one last bash, pulled it apart once more and this time I removed the board holding the optical sensors, examined under magnifying glass and there was clear dry joint :) Out came the soldering iron and the rest is history. I now have a fully functioning Gerber GS15Plus plotter.
I'm back in the label market once more :)