julian keller

I wish I was in that boat! I have been kicking myself for not staying in the Army and I would have been retired 2 years ago. Alas it was not in the cards. Do you enjoy doing this? What was the main reason you started it and has the fire died? Think long term. Will this supplement your retirement income with her retiring also or would it make a difference? Right now for me, I have to try and get my hands in as many different pots as possible as I cannot even think about retiring now for another 25+ years!

Now it is time to see what happens in the wash.

Fpr white decals the smoke would look good. They also make a midnight black too, at least they used to.

Router or a dremel with a template made of wood that you can use as a guide. I use a router table that I use for my photo frames I make to round just about everything. I use a bit that has a guide bearing on it so i get the same cut every time.

I didn't get the chance until now to say hello. I jumped into the biz and use the brains that were on the forum along with a TON of research to start up my vinyl shop. I work a full time job and on my 3 off days work on the vinyl stuff. Right now, in the last few days, I have had 3 orders and more on the way. One order was for a car club and I hope to get the contract for them(400+ members) as they are always running out of decals for members. Anywho, I am glad I found this site as it has a ton of info that I have been reading till my eyes feel like sandpaper.

I like doing things with what I have on hand that might be a cheaper viable option. I am currently soldering together a Laser alignment setup and should be done in a few days after I finish all my other stuff(IT NEVER ENDS!). So on to this quest. I have some, what feels like high density pink foam that I think is anti-static, that I would like to use for a few DIY pillows. I have seen people using the green high density foam and checked it out. Well this pink foam is more dense that than but not too much more and i was thinking it might work better. Has anyone used this before?

I used Lexan (plexiglass) from Home depot. Works well and if you drill holes in the top 2 corners it can be easily hung too. With lexan you can change up the background if you were to hang it and have something different each time.

A local lady here just got nailed by Disney. She was one that went to JoAnns, got a Cricut, and started making all kinds of stuff including T-shirts. It kinda irked me cause I was doing everything legal, including talking with Disney, Marvel, and a few others( some were out of my price blood, 200k to start plus a few other stipulations!!!!) but she was making all kinds. then I hear that she was busted and they are suing her for $70,000 for one decal plus she might be having a record now(not 100% how true that second part is) for a Groot decal she was selling on Facebook. When they came they found all the others stuff online that she was selling and they are all coming after her now and might be (pretty sure they will) upping that lawsuit amount. Sad to hear but then again it will help cause the news has spread. Some are still doing it but I am sure they are going to be contacted too. I did get a deal for licensing one logo/character but it has taken weeks of back and forth plus paperwork out the yang. Would i do it again, NO. Too much of a headache for me and I would just refrain for doing any of the others.

Interesting, I use Siser easyweed stretch and regular. I have not had that issue yet with either. My florescent, that is the regular, is applied at 305 for 15 seconds, med pressure. Mine does look different from the one you posted as mine has a clear backing.

Yea I looked at that before but that would be only for a large order. A lot of the running groups seem to like the feel of the HTV but giving them more colors to have in a design I think will increase my offerings and $$ when they see I can do more complex work. I hate layering with a passion...lol The only issue I see is I would have a rough time with dark garments with screen printing soft hand dark garments. Right now that is not too much of an issue as most are light blue, hot pink, kinda mid blue. mid purple, and lime green. Almost all the shirts so far have been a 65poly/35cotton to 100 poly, very little cotton unless it is lightweight ringspun because well, Florida heat and summer coming...lol Screen printing would give it a rough feel and I think it would be harder to sell it off on athletic wear.

So I have the T28, as I am going to call it, and I have been finding out that even with a CCB it does not cut well for small letters. I am talking about maybe 1/8" or less. Some will cut fine but other letters will peel up or not cut well like the blade is shot. I have been cutting HTV and 651 and not too much 651. I cut glitter maybe 3x. This is on 651 as HTV I cut larger anyway. I have dialed back the speed from 37 to 22 and the force is 150-142 Am I asking too much for a vinyl cutter to cut that small that is stepper driven? 1/4" does just fine

That is what I was figuring. even at 1/4 it is a pain to weed and I have to use both hands to weed with tools in both. I guess if I ever get something like this again then printing is the only way to go if I do it at all.

LOL! Yea I made that mistake once being in a hurry changing from 751 to HTV.

There are things called "Snap Caps" that are made for dry fire practice without breaking the bank. They are not much and you can find them just about anywhere.

I had thought about it but i reload all my own ammo so I am at the range 2 to 3 times a week. Might be nice to have for the bad weather days but, eh, not too many of those but I use them for my reloading times.

So I just started my business. Granted it is on the side and I have already done 3 smaller orders, one was for a person that owns a mid size business and this was for his Half marathon this weekend, he asked about me doing logos for his company if he provides the shirts. Sounds great to me. Now for the struggling part. I have been reading up on pricing, getting all my ducks in a row and paying the Government for all the licensing. I don't have a sign shop near me and the closest is 20+ miles away in bad traffic. No sooner as I start this up all these ads start popping up from people using Cricuts and silhouettes to do decals and shirts. There were none for the past 3 weeks, I checked to see what I would have as competition. Michaels and Joanns had a sale and sure enough they started coming up. They are going WAY cheap. Cheaper than I can from my calculations with all the fees, materials, and equipment that I bought to make a *profit* to start getting a ROI. Has anyone came up on this type of flood from Stay At home Mom's and Dad's that want to start doing everything I am doing? Granted they cannot do the larger stuff like I can but just starting out it looks like it will cut into my customer base. I am trying to market myself as a reliable business and stand out over them but with what they are charging it is tough. Kinda like the Made In USA vs China cheap. They are doing 5x5 decals for $1-$2 on cheaper vinyl. I can't bring myself to use that stuff and sacrifice quality but people want cheap and most don't care if it lasts 6 months or less. Quitting my job is not an option to do this full time as I am up for a promotion and will be a decent increase to my yearly income.

Ok so i don't feel too bad then. I charged $20 for it plus $5 for the sign for a total of $25.

So I made a sign for someone and as part of this "Figuring it all out" I wanted to get some input on how much you would have charged for this? I think I underpriced the crap out of this so it is a lesson learned on the use of Excel and pricing...LOL Item: 24x20 plastic sign 651 vinyl time: about 10-15 minutes

I did a test on my first few shirts a few days ago. I was throwing them into any laundry that the wife was doing. I had them in with jeans, socks, , and just about anything. After 20 something washes they still looked just fine. I have a few that I sold that people are wearing running almost every other day for the past week and wash them every time in the florida heat and they have not complained about them at all when i did a follow up with them after the half marathon they did.

In the image below when I send this to cut I check the box to separate by color. However, it is giving me a phantom color that I do not have in my graphic. I do not know where this is coming from as I do not see it on my design space. How can i get rid of this or can I just not cut this part when it asks and continue with the other colors?

Might want to look at polyester or there is an industrial vinyl. I remember seeing something about it has 0 shrink and up to 300 or 350. Not sure if you have to get a large roll of it or not as I believe it was for industrial use only. Would it be an option of putting it on the inside that way the heat would not matter?

I used a few of their products, Glitter flake, Reflective, Foil, Cad-cut premium. They are sending me a few samples to try some others. I use Siser also and UScutter has a turbo poli-flex that is, I think, applied at 265 degrees that would be nice for nylon and other performance wear that I want to try. I was able to layer with the glitter flake and foil but the adhesive you have to use for the foil is a bit hard if you don't peel it right when the press comes up. I liked it but still undecided about it. Here in FLA I am getting a lot of requests for poly-cotton blends or 100% poly. The lower the temps the better I feel so the UScutter turbo is on it's way to me to test out.

Well the 2 shirts I made for some people that went to a Disney run looks like it paid off! I am getting more orders as they posted photos and gave credit to me. I have 6 more people wanting upwards of 10 shirts at least. Not much but a start at least.

AH Great! I just looked them up. Going to put in a small order for 25.

Interesting, so do you also do the plastic signs? I assume you just cut, put transfer paper on and roll up to ship in a tube. I just did a few 20x24 for a farm in South Carolina that a friend referred to me plus I have a 10x20 wall decal that is cutting right now that i have to layer and ship to the same people. I don't have people come to the house but go to them as I am either going to work or going out at least once a day anyway to pick up one thing or another and just drop it off to them.