BC Canvas end of rolls striping

[chez]

I purchased 3 rolls of BC Chromata Canvas last year. Out of the three, two had bad striping at the end of the roll. One was maybe the last 4 feet, so I did not mind too much. But I just printed out a 6' panoramic which was ruined with this striping and I still have about 6' of canvas left on the roll. That is 12' of bad canvas which to me is totally unacceptable. I sent a ticket to BC and will be awaiting their response.

I know this was discussed a year or so ago...but I am wondering from other people using BC canvas, has their end of the roll quality improved? If you had problems with too much wasted canvas, was it resolved adequately by BC? I'm hoping something in their manufacturing process had changed and they have either resolved this issue or provide 5 extra feet of canvas on the rolls to compensate us for the unusable part we pay for.

[Colorwave]

Yes, it is a bit of false advertising to call the rolls 40' long.  I tend to get about 4' that are unusable for normal prints, which I typically try to make the best of by using for 8" x 10" proofs, sometimes cutting around the marks.  Even chopped this small, you can usually still see a line in them.  I think it is all about how tightly the rolls are wound, and you must have run into a very tight roll.  I'd certainly complain if the 4' turned into 10', which it sounds like yours did.

[bill t.]

Have seen this on all rolls of canvas from all the manufacturers I use.  Would be nice if the could feather the "curb" made by the cut, but for some probably good reason they don't.

I don't suffer too badly from it since I glue my canvases to Gatorfoam which smooths out the bumps perfectly, but I still avoid the absolute worst bumps on the last foot or so since they can lead to head swipes and clogging issues.  They most common solution is to reserve the short ends for testing.

[ternst]

Never had any "bumps" on the ends of my BC canvas that Bill talks about, but I've sometimes had 10'-15' of the dark stripes ever since day one, which make the canvas toast. I don't print 8x10s so simply have to trash the remainder of the roll once the stripes appear. I've probably lost 200'-300' or more of the BC canvas due to this in the past couple of years. It never got any better with the Chromata as far as I could tell.

I will say that their new Lyve canvas must not be wound as tight and the stripes are not nearly as bad. I don't use the old stuff anymore and just don't worry about it, I just can't use the last few feet of the roll, which is a lot better than trashing the last 10'. I think in general the BC canvas is cheaper than most other brands (I always buy at the 10-unit discount rate), this wasted canvas just adds something like 10% to the price. It would probably be a nightmare to up all the bad canvas and send it back and get any sort of satisfaction from BC - they must have the worst customer service in the business - the only time I tried to do this it took them literally several months to ever do anything, and when they did replace my defective canvas they sent the wrong size rolls - they eventually did ship the correct replacement rolls and all was well, but I would not want to go through that customer service hell again...

[chez]

Never had any "bumps" on the ends of my BC canvas that Bill talks about, but I've sometimes had 10'-15' of the dark stripes ever since day one, which make the canvas toast. I don't print 8x10s so simply have to trash the remainder of the roll once the stripes appear. I've probably lost 200'-300' or more of the BC canvas due to this in the past couple of years. It never got any better with the Chromata as far as I could tell.

I will say that their new Lyve canvas must not be wound as tight and the stripes are not nearly as bad. I don't use the old stuff anymore and just don't worry about it, I just can't use the last few feet of the roll, which is a lot better than trashing the last 10'. I think in general the BC canvas is cheaper than most other brands (I always buy at the 10-unit discount rate), this wasted canvas just adds something like 10% to the price. It would probably be a nightmare to up all the bad canvas and send it back and get any sort of satisfaction from BC - they must have the worst customer service in the business - the only time I tried to do this it took them literally several months to ever do anything, and when they did replace my defective canvas they sent the wrong size rolls - they eventually did ship the correct replacement rolls and all was well, but I would not want to go through that customer service hell again...

So do you think they changed their process with the Lyve canvas or maybe they changed their process overall and the newer Chromata is also much better. Haven't tried the Lyve...how does it compare to Chromata?

[Colorwave]

I just opened a new roll of Chromata on Friday that is substantially heavier and stiffer than anything I've seen from them in the past.  I've seen roll to roll variation in texture, but this is beyond the variation I've seen in the past.  Too early to tell if I like it better or not.  We will see what the end of the roll turns out like, but I'd venture to guess that it will be less of an issue with the stiffer material.  Haven't tried stretching it yet, either.  Details to come . . .

[ternst]

The Lyve seems not to be rolled as tight and therefore doesn't have the stripes as much. It is a much softer canvas, and it curls, which is a pain when hanging it to spray - I have to tape the corners down with duck tape before I can spray, something I never had to do with the Chromata. I just printed/sprayed/stretched about ten rolls of it in the past week, 44" and 36" rolls. Only had a few feet of waste per roll (a couple rolls had no stripes at all - YIPPIE! - MUCH better than before. I have not used any Chromata in the past six months so don't know about any new version of it.