Intheshaw

I do a little bit of work with pallets and usually just rip down the edges to get ride of that seam. What I do is paint the base coat again over the stencil very lightly and then 3 very light top costs. But I think the point of the pallet boards is to get something more rustic and not perfect.

I ended up spraying a water based spar urethane over the decal as it will be outside. I'll have to wait and see how well it lasts.

Does anyone have any experience on putting wood finish over vinyl, specifically a water based poly? I've got a customer who wants a wood sign with the company name on it for outside. Looking to stick vinyl on the wood and coat the entire thing with an outdoor rated polyurethane but I'm not sure if it will stick well. My other option would be to use paint mask and paint the sign and then coat the whole thing. I'm leaning towards the poly 'should' work but I don't know for sure. Painting isn't the end of the world but will just take a bit longer. Thanks!

Can you find one of those side window shades that stick on to the windows for babies and make that fit?

Which version are you using? I need to cut a company logo that's just text but the eps file they gave me still is poor. Figured I'll try the free version but curious to see if the pro version is worth it

Staying in Kaanapali for a few days, spending most of our trip in Oahu. Haven't been outer island in a few years and probably like Maui the best.

Dakota, you ever figure out about the passes? I'll be in Maui in a couple of days, figured it was just the $25 fee like always. Only restrictions I'm seeing in the 1.50 reservation fee for a sunrise.

Hi Everyone, as an FYI the training DVD is on sale for the month of April for $99. Now my question is, I don't have Flexi but have the software included with the CE6000 plus I bought and want to know if there is enough overlap between Pro Studio and Flexi to justify the DVD. From what I keep seeing, Mark is the go-to Flexi trainer and was hoping the rebranded software is close enough. Thanks!

I've been perusing this forum for a few weeks now, just lurking and trying to absorb information. I originally came here in search of the MH cutters and soon got sucked into the vinyl cutting world. I have yet to purchase a cutter and have been suffering from some analysis paralysis. Essentially I have a small woodworking side business and I've gotten a few requests for custom painted signs. I've dabbled in screen printing them but unless it's a standard pattern it's not worth the setup time. My problem is I'm running into a bit of scope creep with the budget. I started off at 300 for the MH but now realize I don't want something I'll have to replace in 2 years because it's frustrates me. I have the ability to expand my budget a lot as I see the value in a vinyl cutter for my woodworking applications as well as graphics and shirts. My question is, do I just jump up to a Roland or graphtec is the 1500 to 2000 range? I've been looking at the ce6000-60 that comes with the free heat press. It seems like most people inevitably end up in that range but is there any reason besides funding not to just start there? I'm a buy one cry once kind of guy and my side business is mainly for my 'play money' and not needed to survive. I want the ability to grow the business into shirts and decals but right now it will mostly be stencils for wood. I've brought up the idea to a few people and already have a soft commitment of around $300-500 in sales so I'm fine shelling out money on more reliable and quality machine. Thoughts?

Finally got around to getting this thing cutting last week, been having to fight the wife over the laptop usage so I just went out and bought a used old tower for cheap and it seems to be working well. I can say I'm truly amazed by the graphtec and was cutting within about 30 minutes of messing with the setting. Still learning but I've cut out a few plain text decals and they turned out great.

Go directly to graphtec, I'm just starting out and went right to it and don't regret it. Bought it because I already had people committed for $300 in sales so it was an easy choice. Had it set up and cutting within an hour. I do this as my side business and would rather spend my time making money than fighting the machine. Since I've gotten it, I've gotten all kinds of requests from friends for stickers and shirts (got it with the heat press).

Playing around with screen printing is what bought me here. Shelled out about $100 on materials and built a couple wood screens. They work really well and I have 2 screens currently set up to be used on a press I built but it's only for bulk runs of stuff and of course everyone that wants to buy some of my stuff wants it customized, which is what lead me to buy a vinyl cutter. I'll probably keep up screen printing a little but I'm guessing my focus is going to go more towards cutting if/when I finally have some time to get my cutter running. The trends I see with people right now is customized everything and anything.

I jumped in with both feet and bought the graphtec, just finished putting the stand together as it's been in boxes in my basement for the last 2 weeks because my day job takes over my life this time of year. Hopefully I'll be cutting some trial runs this weekend.

Skeeter, does his discs work with the graphtec branded software too? Just got my cutter last night and if it's worth buying the CDs I'll grab them

Yeah, then my compressor definitely won't work as it's just 2.6 cfm at 90 psi. It's great for nail guns but not automotive. I'll have to keep an eye out for a larger compressor.

Thanks guys. I'll take a look. Do you need a large compressor? I've got a 175 psi 6 gal pancake that's perfect for woodworking but probably too small for anything like sandblasting. I may be able to steal my brothers 40 gal since he's in the middle of building a house and I think it's just in storage.

It's a doubled edges sword, show her what can be done and she wont care if I buy the tools to do it BUT then I'll only work on stuff for her. I'm already in the middle of building a built-in mudroom bench that she was sure to remind me last night needs to be finished before I mess with the cutter haha. For sandblasters, what are you guys using? Just one of those cheap harbor freight ones or something else? I wouldn't think you would need anything fancy to blast on glass but maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'll have a reason to buy a sandblaster now. In the meantime my wife had already bought some of the etched glass look spray paint that I'll try out eventually. And uscutter is fast at shipping, went out today and is scheduled for delivery on Saturday. Good to know it's really fast to the Midwest.

Thanks for the input. I probably am starting off with way too much, I was just hoping to save on future shipping costs. My plan is to learn on the vinyl the move on to the paint mask. I got the mask so I could add a custom painted aspect to my side woodworking business but also look to make money off of vinyl and shirts. My end goal would be to use the 24" stuff but I bought some 15" mainly to practice on. I'm sure I'll be hitting up the shop again when I realize what I like and don't like, I was just trying to eliminate any small follow-up orders right away. Now thinking I wish I bought some different brands of transfer tapes but I'll make sure I do that on my next order. Thanks for the input!

I'm hoping since I'm starting with a nice machine that I'll get hooked for life. I've dabbled in screen printing and vector images before but nothing like this.

Thanks for everyones help, just placed the order so now I'm fully committed to the vinyl life haha.

Dakota - Thanks for the tip, didn't know there was a discount and the 3 pack here seemed pretty cheap so I figured that was best. Wildgoose - I'm really only planning on basic t-shirts right now. I may just keep the clamshell and use it for basic t-shirts until I can pay off the goodies I'm buying now. I will definitely look towards a nicer press in the future. And I only put the cutting strips in there because someone mentioned they are good to have on hand along with extra blades. I'll ditch for now until my next order. And I just chose poli-flex because it was on sale but if the Siser is a lot better I'll switch it out. I'm starting to realize that the vinyl is the cheapest part of this whole endeavor and don't want to waste my time on stuff that doesn't work (which is why I'm just shelling out the money for a graphtec to begin with).

So I'm coming back here hopefully one last time before I place my order. I called US Cutter and they will not upgrade any parts that are part of a bundle. So my new question is, should I buy the graphtec with the vinyl bundle and add a swing away press or is the clamshell good enough? From what I've been reading most prefer the swing away and since they are on sale right now I'm almost leaning towards getting the vinyl bundled one and adding the press separately. But if there really isn't that much of a difference, then I'll stick with what I currently have and use the cheap clamshell until it dies or I get enough orders to justify buying a nicer press. It will primarily just be used for shirts for my buddies and I for now until/if any demand for my shirts is there. This is my newest cart, the blades are out of stock and I'll be picking up a clear fiskars ruler and cutting mat locally. The only thing I can think of changing would be to just add a 100 yard roll of 15" transfer tape vs the two 10 yard samples. I just wasn't sure if I should go high or medium tack so I grabbed 10 yards of both.

So is the sign shop starter kit not worth it? Could be one of those things they make a ton of money off of us new folks from. I'm fine dropping the kit and picking up some individual parts and tools. It probably would be better but I figured I would use the included vinyl in the kit to practice on.

I added the starter kit to get some tools as well as some extra vinyl, which is 199 as mentioned above. I added the carrier because I saw a video that said cutting the scraps are easier with a carrier. Maybe that's just die to roller positions on a cheaper cutter? Maybe I'll throw some cheap 12" on there too to play around with.