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I've had my plotter for about 6 months now and i just wanted to share some of my creations.... I bought it basically to do my Husband's work truck.. and I made the decals, he installed, so don't count me down for them not all being 100% straight lol

Anyone that knows me...or knows of me...knows that I am a nerd when it comes to cars and trucks. Especially my own and I spend...and spent...alot of time and money to get it where it is today. I posted this up to a few of my groups on Facebook and the comments are priceless up until someone pointed out today's date When asked what happened I stated that I thought it was a meteorite falling from the sky until it hit my truck and I soon realized it was a "Boeing Bomb"

I didn't insert any numbers to try the thing out but it's a little too much congestion for my taste. I built something similar a long while back and later decided there were way too many variables to keep it simple. I stopped tracking app tape altogether. If you are sticking it in inventory by the yard or feet then you end up spending more time trying to keep track of it that applying it. Now I just bring it in as COGS and let my overall mark-up cover the expense. I don't have to worry about tracking it or charging specifically for it. At this point after several years of experience I use a combination of rule of thumb pricing and perceived value to come up with most of my prices. If it's something a little more complicated such as a self standing property sign with 4x4's and stuff I take the time to price it all out and add the mark-up along with a guess on time to build. I have never lost money on a single item although one year I DID do about 500 hats way too cheap and only made like $4/hr. That sucked but was a lesson well learned.

I was curious and inserted a few numbers from a couple of past projects on it. The first bottom line it gave me was half what I charged the client, and I price very fairly. With the second project figures, the bottom line was 25 to 30% lower than my figures. While briefly searching for the reasons for the discrepancy I realized it didn't allow for a difficulty factor. What took x hours on one project may take 3x on a (somewhat) similar one. Experience and understanding of the time and effort required for a given project cannot be replicated with formulas and a spreadsheet. and if you do know the correct numbers, what do I need the spreadsheet for? I'm already highly skilled with a pencil, paper, and calculator. Don't get me wrong, those tools may have there place... if for me at all it's after the job is completed and checking over how well I was able to anticipate all aspects and bring it in on time. Coming up with the correct estimate or quote for a project basically requires (at least) 3 things. First, having payed attention to how long it take us to complete different tasks. This will likely be different for each individual and fluctuate with the different variables of each project. Second, being able to mentally walk through a project and recording what needs to be done and/or how long it will take to do it. Thirdly, knowing the minimum shop rate to charge for different tasks. Each one of the above will involve some past experience. You've got to hang in there and pay yer dues. There is no software that can (or should) take the place of experience and good judgement. Just my 2 pennies.

Also most calls are first users so instead of starting at the problem you are starting from scratch. Think car mechanic getting a call my car wont run and having to start with did you insert the key into ignation and troubleshooting from there. I do not envy their job as techs.

Well I have been slowly getting back into things and this is my recent design. Comments welcome and so are suggestions. I'm figuring DTG printing, or testing out getting Screen print transfers made.

Yup, got mine to work with cutter setting Copam 2500 and messed with the baud rate and 9600 did the trick for me

Pretty sure the forum rules are against posting copyrighted vectors. (and just flipping the "M" won't do it.)

Mamma and her 3 babies These are my wife's pet.. So i have been designing and going to build them new wheels and houses for my first few prints!

I had one of the auto open clamshell presses that uscutter sells come through my store a while back a I must say it seemed very well built. The only real issue was the temp was off 40 degrees but that is what the calibration adjustment is for. Seems like it was quite a big bigger than 15 x15 but for dye sub work I highly recommend a swing away style to handle thicker objects with more even pressure.

Yeah I was reading up on it but decided I was wanting a bigger format anyway so I just moved on. It's setting in my garage on a shelf. I salvaged all the ink from the tanks and have been using it up in the carts. I don't mind the carts and my WF30 messed up a print every time it thought it was out of ink too so there isn't that big of a downside just a little more attention time.

Never heard of this software, but most software, have you add the fonts to the FONTS folder in your computer, then it shows up in the software.

I've had a number of long wait times with US Cutter, but it's always been worth the wait. Just keep in mind that maybe the wait time is because they're thorough with their troubleshooting and customer service, and they're giving the person before you as much time as they're willing to give you when you're up. I haven't had a bad experience with them yet, and when I've come to them with an issue that I've tried to troubleshoot on my own, they've always taken that into account, and will bump me up to reps with higher expertise as needed without wasting my time. I've also spoken with a few of them in person, when I had to drive 3 hours north to their warehouse in Seattle because my cutter crapped out, and they made sure I was good to go before I rolled out to go back home so I could get my orders out on time. I even got a follow-up call to make sure I was up and running. Yeah, wait times might be long, but hang around and you'll get good advice. Use your time on hold to take the advice you get here on the forums! I've solved a ton of problems by searching old posts; sometimes you just have to get creative with your search criteria. =)

The last thing I needed to do was view this thread. Now I want one. No idea what I would do with it. But I want one.

Haha I noticed that , When you get your 3d printer in , print up more 3d printers!

I agree with skarekrow and I also don't have SCALP, it sounds like welding, (union in some programs.) Maybe you are thinking of group or combine. However for a cutting path joining the nodes would be a weld, creating a new path from a combination of the other paths. If you did not have one path you would have two cutting paths instead of one. Sometimes in CorelDraw I must reverse the direction of the paths for a weld to work. Sometimes, it is frustrating enough that I can't get a good weld. Then I goto Inkscape and use Union as it has different results often that are desirable. Some arcane knowledge of winding rules would probably help.

It's all in how you word it. Technically he's right. Every font is custom made. If it's not custom made then it's nothing more then a copy.