On the advice of several on the old board (now mostly here). I purchased a Brother MFC-6490CW All-in-one "plotter". It works (mostly) great!! I don't like the way that my Carlson 2010 w/Intellicad plots to it, but I plot to a PDF in iCad and everything is fine... except one thing. If I print to paper, I'm fine, no problems. But if I try to print to vellum or some other storeable media, the things printed in black are kinda rough or "not crisp". It's like the black will find the little tendrils of the media and bleed.
So, if any of you fine folks out there have any suggestions as to what media to purchase, and what (if any) special setting you have on yours, I would be eternally grateful!!
And... I just tried printing to some old mylar I just cut, and everything smeared... any suggestions there??
Thank you all in advance!! I have to head out, so I won't be here live if you have additional questions... But I will try!!
Carl
Maybe the type of ink.
It's the factory Brother inks. Do I need a vellum or mylar ink?
Is that a choice given by Brother? If so then yes. Some inks are designed to dry faster when plotted on mylar and not run when plotted on vellum or a porous media.
or try this http://www.numeridex.com/PlotterHome.htm
Even in the days of hand drafting I kept two sets of pens on hand. One for paper, sepia and vellum, the other usually jewel tip for Mylar, different ink in each. You need a harsher acid content for Mylar and additional dryers which are of great help but still slower to dry than you are used to. Paper needs a fast drying ink so it will not run. Also Mylar is available with different coatings intended to help with the problem of ink on plastic along with a matted side which is a roughing up of the surface which helps with the permanency of the ink holding to the sheet.
jud
Check your print options from the Brother print menu.
On my XP when I choose print the generic windows print menu pops up, I can click on properties and the Brother page will come up. At the top is a box to check for slow drying paper. That may help or at least be worth trying
Since you use vellum, you probably already know that you can use a dry rub to condition the paper to make the ink bond to the paper. Surprisingly enough, I still have my dry rub (Post-It #2701 dry cleaning pad) from college drafting days. I liked it better than the dusting tin that had to be swept off the linen or vellum before inking.
The inkjet ink is not the preferred ink for vellum, and will tend to peel off easily if kept in vinyl storage.
I have printed to paper and copied to vellum with a dry toner copier with better results. The heat generated by the roller helps to bond the ink better.
Also have one. The wireless is great. I have a wireless router and print from everywhere. Also does pretty good photos. Better scanning quality than my older HP. Has yet to misfeed plain paper although heavier paper needs to be "rolled a bit" to go through. No complaints. As far as the vellum, are you using vellum designed for inkjet? I think they make a coated vellum that prevents bleeding. Check DATAPRINT or DRAPHIX.
> Also have one. The wireless is great. I have a wireless router and print from everywhere. Also does pretty good photos. Better scanning quality than my older HP. Has yet to misfeed plain paper although heavier paper needs to be "rolled a bit" to go through. No complaints. As far as the vellum, are you using vellum designed for inkjet? I think they make a coated vellum that prevents bleeding. Check DATAPRINT or DRAPHIX.
I do believe that the vellum is designed for inkjet, but I will look tomorrow. I know that the mylar that I was sending through today looked great!! But it still wasn't dry after about 2 hours.
You can also spray the mylar after you have made the plot with a fixative. I have a can of it called "Workable Fixatif" made by Krylon. If yours is still not dry after several hours I would try this.
