Dirt Hero

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Posts posted by Dirt Hero

  1. Posted

    16 hours ago, Jburns said:

    Man ,If you have the space and coin  that S80600 is a niiice printer. Huge color gamut with Lc, Lm, Orange and red inks. Fine detail with 4.2 picoliter drops.  With the new piezo heads and setup maintenance looks easier that prev. generations.  it comes with Onyx RIP. but like any solvent, they like to run. 

    If you are doing MX graphics , and money is no object  - skip the Combo Epson is offering and buy a summa T series. It will perf and kiss cut better and easier  than the FC8600. I have owned the FC7000 and FC8600 and was never happy with Contour Cutting accuracy TBH. The Summas have a wider - softer I think strip for perf cutting, and little to no complaints about OPOS system. Or better yet, Flatbed FC graphtec for 18 mil plus. 

    Hope you have the work lined up - thats alot of money. 

     

     

     

    We have been running Epsons from the 9000 series since they came out with the 9900 and the color gamut is always impressive. Some of the art we reproduce is very vibrant, so we wanted to retain that gamut as much as possible in the decal realm. In addition, we want to see the possibility of running canvas off the S80 without the need for coating, which is a time-consuming part of our current process. 

    The flatbeds are certainly more than we want to spend, but an initial look into the Summas make it a contender. 

  2. Posted

    3 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    I still do the cut vinyl but on the print side it has changed so much - you can get printing done for 1/3 of what we got almost 7 years ago - too many printers out there and within that group there are about 3 main types of providers - 
    first those that actually maintain their printers to top level performance and replace heads when nozzles start to misfire or block 
    second those large scale operations that order pallets of media and ink and keep the machines running day and night
    Third - those that think it is a cool idea and buy the printer with onhand money (popular at tax refund time) - these do not take into consideration the maint, and run them until they need to buy replacement parts and bail . . . their product is always sold as "good enough"

    now there are some others in between but I was always in the first category and budgeted $1500 per year for maint parts and figured a new head in the mix every year or two  - with longer trips now we will leave for 3 weeks at a time and you can plan on solvent heads deflecting or some clogging even with auto cleanings when it is not in constant production.   with the lower prices people pay now and the level I prefer to keep my equipment at it was a no brainer to leave the printing part of the business - 

    Too many people get into the print end because it is "easier" or sexy to have printed decals - and too many don't look at which way is actually better to produce the product once they have one  - the past 2 years my cut vinyl had actually taken back over 60 percent of what I do because it was the better choice for the product.

    I see a lot of people make the huge investment for the printers based on an emotional drive - and don't really look at the long term economics - I have also see so many that buy a printer or open a storefront and work way too many hours just to break even with where they are sitting at home - if you are working 30 hours a week to pay for rent and equipment upkeep and depreciation how much are you really making in the end.

    last 2 years we did 2 different transatlantic cruises  - now I have no worries about the printer while gone, maint and without the extra expenses I can gross less and net more income . . . .
     

    Excellent observations here. I'm glad you are getting to travel with peace of mind. The decision to invest in a solvent print & cut setup is more difficult than I had anticipated. Initially it seemed like a no brainer, for it would allow us offer our custom designs with nice margins. But in some case scenarios, the margins are not all that larger than if we were to outsource the production. Our production environment for producing fine art on stretched canvas is laborious, but the quality is tops. It of course took time to perfect the process and we suffered plenty of headaches throughout. Hence, that is why I am on here inquiring about equipment and workflow for decals. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. 

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    I work from home so an all in one for the print cut portion was a plus - my cut vinyl operation is entirely in the basement but the print portion was always in the main part so I could better control temp and humidity  -  is weird now the printer is gone and not watching the conditions in the house as much as I had to for the 7+ years of having the printers

    I had my business in the home for many years as well, living in Phoenix, the printers never took kindly to the summer heat so I know where you are coming from. If you mind me asking, you say you left the print end of the biz for travel and changes in economics, would you elaborate on the economics a bit more? I know on the canvas side things have diminished greatly as there has been nothing new innovation-wise in awhile. Many artists/photogs have moved on to producing their work on metal substrates. Do you still work in the design end of things?

  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    I can't comment on the graphtec fc series for contour cutting as I have only had one older fc - 6-7 years ago when I was getting into the solvent print market the ce5000 graphtec was hit a lot of miss on reading marks compared to the rolands - so in the past 7 years I owned 3 roland print and cut all in one printers and loved them - even the roland stand alone plotters always found registration marks incredibly easy.   now I have left the print side of the business (more travels and changes in economics of print work) I still have a graphtec and even when I had the roland solvents I kept a graphtec for my cut vinyl work.   

    If you can visit friends or acquaintances with the units to learn about them first -trade shows and showrooms are nice but there is an inherent bias to those there showing you the products 

      

     

    I would agree that there is bias in some of these settings, so I appreciate hearing from those using it in their actual workflow. I have only used Epson printers during the past decade in a fine art capacity, so going with the S80 for solvent work seemed the natural choice, but I will certainly give the Rolands a look as well.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    23 hours ago, MZ SKEETER said:

    Using any art work of theirs, without permission is called Copyright Infringement.  Fox and most any other big name have lawyers looking everywhere for their logos being sold.  They pay lawyers just for that, to protect their name.  You probably could not afford 1 day in court,  . There is so much theft of copyrighted logos, that now the Home Land Security is involved. It is considered Counterfeiting.  FOX takes  protecting their products very seriously and welcome any report of their logo being used with out a license.  It's not a matter of whether you will be caught, it's a matter of when. 

    fox.JPG

    This refers far more to their manufactured parts than it does to decals, where counterfeit parts could get a rider injured or killed. And please do not presume to anything about what I can or cannot afford.

    23 hours ago, MZ SKEETER said:

    It's your business and your life.  We can only tell our opinion, or experiences on the subject. What you do with that is up to you.  I am done here.   There is no work  around for theft.   Theft is theft. 

    Yes a forum should be about sharing experiences and opinions, respectfully. Drop the drama and the hostility. 

    22 hours ago, MZ SKEETER said:

    If you wanted to do it legitimately,  you could have just gone to FOX and asked or read their info. It is their logo after all.    

    I have reached out to Fox and waiting to hear back. I also reached out to several other smaller brands, two of which requested to see mockup samples. So maybe you don't know everything? 

  6. Posted

    This is help

    1 hour ago, Wildgoose said:

    They are one of the very best available. Graphtec has earned it's reputation through years and years of happy customers. Bullet proof design and as long a life as any cutter on the market. 

    You have to define "Best" choice though. If you are printing and contour cutting printed work I have always heard the Graphtec's struggle a bit with their optical eye finding the printed registration marks. I think the Roland's do better in that regard, however the Roland cutters are not known to be as tough and sturdy as the Graphtec. Summa makes a couple comparable cutters the SummaCut sits somewhere in between the CE and FC versions of the Graphtec. They are only rated to 400g cutting force but have phenomenal tracking and great optical eye. Its what I own although I do not print so I don't utilize the optical eye. The Summa T series is a true tangential machine that has the higher downforce like the FC but costs a few thousand more.

    Gerber makes some really nice machines as well but are obscene priced IMO. There are other high end brands out there too. 

    This is helpful. The Graphtec comes bundled with the Epson S80 and it will be our first cutter. When I say the best, I'm looking for a cutter that can handle intricate cuts on a regular basis. Many of our designs will go beyond basic geometric shapes so I want a dependable machine where the workflow will be quick and consistent. If there are some issues with the optical eye on the Graphtec, that is something I will need to research. I will also look into the Summa T for comparison. 

  11. Posted

    That is why I am here and I am grateful for the feedback. I have zero interest in stealing. It was a logical question from a new user. I did NOT say I planned to recreate the artwork, I merely posed a hypothetical "what if" question. There are quite a few places out there offering branded decals and I am trying to get an understanding on the matter. As my original post says, we will offer them "legitimately". 

  12. Posted

    I appreciate the input. To be clear, we are not interested in creating our own designs using Fox branding and trying to get approval. We simply wanted to work with their existing templates if possible. I figured it was a license play. Is there a work-around? What are the consequences of recreating the artwork and selling? Because I do see a few decal companies, small operations that likely can't afford license fees,  offering a pretty robust line of Fox decals for other products in their lineup, such as mountain bike parts. However, it seems most of those companies are located overseas. 

  13. Posted

    Hi. I 'm new to the forums and the decal business. As we are in the stages of drawing a business plan, I am looking to find out how a decal company can acquire branded logo templates. We are looking to work within the motocross space with our own designs, but also offering branded decals legitimately. For example, Fox is a big player in this space with a number of branded decals that come on their parts. Often, riders will want to change the decal coloring to match the bike color or helmet color in lieu of the standard Fox decals. What is the best way to get these templates from such companies like Fox? Is the a license or royalty play?