L0te

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About L0te

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  1. Thanks for the response. The USCutter page says 3mil but the Siser product specs linked from that page says it’s 5. It’s definitely thicker than the Oracal and Greenleaf(?) Ive been using. Haven’t had the scratching problem with anything else, even prior to shortening the blade some. I guess I’ll just have to keep trying to experiment with the depth.
  2. Bought a 25 yard roll of this stuff from USCutter, and I can't for the life of me cut it: https://www.uscutter.com/SISER-EasyPSV-Removable-Chalkboard-Vinyl-24x25-50-Yard-Roll Siser's product page recommends 75-80 force for my machine (SC2), but nothing short of 100 will cut deep enough for me to weed the stuff. At the same time, anything over 90 means my blade starts leaving gouges all over the project wherever the carriage moves. I've spent hours adjusting the pressure and the blade position to try and find a setting that cuts deep enough to actually make it through the 5mil vinyl but doesn't ruin the surface of the decal, but I can't make it work. It's been a VERY expensive and fruitless learning experience, and keeping new/meager customers waiting trying to figure this out has me a little stressed. Any ideas?
  3. Differentiating is going to be hard... Everything has been done before, it seems. Good product photos and service to start, and a mixture of original art (I do have vector experience) and popular designs. I'll probably try buying some ads on Etsy. Definitely no trademark stuff. I looked into licensing costs for some IPs, but it seems prohibitively expensive and also they want you in business 3 years first, so originals and commercial-use only. I have seen that pretty much nothing will stick to those new (teflon?) anti-smudge paints. My plan was to put a disclaimer in the sales posts advising that textured walls, new paints, and high-humidity areas etc. wouldn't work with the decals. I would also have a paper flyer sent out with each package with application info and probably put this again. Sounds good re: the weeding kit. I should have most of those supplies lying around sans the dental pic. How fast do you go through blades? I'm a little scared of the tape since it seems so expensive and now I'm afraid of having tons and having it dry out. Maybe a 12" and 24" would be a good start. I was wondering how the heck shirt people did it!! My original plan was small decals and later grabbing a heat press for shirts, but the idea of keeping so much inventory on hand was daunting. I know USCutter has a warehouse in my state, so maybe I'll pick up a smaller starting order and see how long it takes to get here. Afraid of causing customer delays and dissatisfaction/bad reviews but it'll be less painful to pick it up piecemeal. I would like to try the Oracal 651 do outdoor stuff eventually. Will be testing the indoor on my walls, hope it's not THAT bad hah. Re: Illustrator, I'm handy with it, though not an expert. Confident enough to vectorize anything I draw and edit groups and such. I'll check out your tuts for sure. I did want to invest in some pre-made graphics because although some thing are a dime a dozen, they definitely seem popular enough to sell across multiple shops. I'm afraid I'd be shooting myself in the foot for not offering them and don't want to reinvent the wheel by re-designing "Live, Laugh, Love" for the 400th time. I've also read that it's better to have a lot of designs up in your shop and not having to create every asset would let me round things out faster. Though if I don't have anything original to sell, well, why would anyone bother when the other guy has 5,000 good reviews for the same thing? I get the feeling it's going to be a balancing act. Will bag up the HT55 and add a different width to my list. That squeegee might be out of my budget for the moment but looks super handy. Thanks for the tips! Definitely going to do this now, thanks! I'm thinking black, white, brown, gold. I actually only wanted the 28" model, but the 34" refurbished is cheaper. Figured I'd start small and go up to bigger sizes if I want... I guess the price diff is negligible on the black/white though. May as well nab it. Txtx. Thanks for the responses! If I cut down your post in my quotes it was only to save space, I read 'em all.
  4. Hey there, new here and new to vinyl— I’ve been lurking and doing my homework and I think I have a decent list picked out to start doing up wall graphics, but I wanted to run it by you experienced folks for your thoughts. I’m out of work due to the pandemic and looking to use that stimulus to try and make ends meet and hopefully start a new career to boot. I mention this because I’ve got an absolute hard cap of $1k to spend, and a lot of incentive to make it work for me. My goal is to do this full time, though I definitely don’t expect to get a living wage off the bat, especially with such a small starting setup (SO is essential and has been handling the bills). Vinyl wall art appeals to me both as decor I would use and because I am myself an artist. I’d like to sell a mixture of purchased vectors and my own work. That said, I have no cutting experience and have only ever casually sold my art (no business startup). My plan is to sell online through Etsy and Ebay to start. I’ll probably put feelers out for local business but it’s not my main goal. I know there will be costs involved with setting up the business as an entity, but what do you think of the attached list for just about everything else? What am I forgetting? Anything unnecessary? I’m still giving this real thought but I think I’m going to move forward once I nail down more details. Input appreciated!