freezermink

I placed an order for 7 rolls of misc Oracal vinyl... 651, 631, etc. no crazy big order, but pretty large for a guy like me just starting out. I hit the submit button in the afternoon on Monday (Jan 31). Seeing as though entire middle of the country is getting hit by some weather, i expected a possible delay, and thats fine, i'm in no big hurry. Today, i was on my way out when i was met by the FedEx guy handing me a large box from... USCutter. You've got to be kidding me. $10 to ship that box AND it arrives in 2 days? Whats the deal, am i the 1 millionth customer or something? Huge props to the USCutter team... I've had nothing but the most positive experiences with them so far. Keep it up guys, your work is MOST appreciated. :thumbup:

a fellow sign-maker and i have done a few small ones and mimicked standard road signs with pretty good results. the road signs we looked at are a super reflective backing with a translucent vinyl over top. for example the typical green highway signs (or at least the one we had to go off of) was reflective white with green vinyl over top. the green was over the whole thing with the letters cut out to expose the white. i'm not sure where he got the backing material but the signs we had came out almost spot on to the real thing. gives you another option.

hit me up, i can help. send over the details to ryan.topsecretstudios@gmail.com

So i've been contacted by a few guys that are starting a high-end performance bicycle/casual bicycle apparel business. They're looking for a local guy (me) to help them with some simple die-cut vinyl to advertise their business with a few custom bicycle decal sets. They have designed them on their own and sent them to me to be cut using the scheinholographic chrome vinyl i have in stock. I have spend a good hour or so getting things ready for the plotter and given them a test set on some cheaper avery vinyl for them to install and check sizes etc on the bike. once ready, i'll cut 2 sets of decals in the chrome for them to install. the decal sets will use ~18in x 15in of vinyl each, and not an overly difficult or extensive weeding job. I'm having a hard time deciding what to charge them for this whole process. the confusion is compounded because they are planning to order many sets of simple decals for sale and advertising for bikes and their clothing line, as well as future custom bike decal sets. So... with all that in mind, do i become the super cool guy and give them a screamin deal on the decals so they'll be sure to come back? i've read many times that undercharging is worse, which i tend to agree with. I am more fearful of UNDER charging them. However, i don't want to shock them and have them reject the rest of their planned business with me. So far i have overwhelmed them with my tactfulness in getting them exactly what they've wanted twice as fast as they expected and i want to continue as to keep them interested in my services. given my time and the amount of vinyl, considering all other factors, do you guys have any suggestions as to how i proceed? i appreciate those that took the time to read that lengthy post.

hadn't really used it until then, but it seems pretty decent when its printed out - not too difficult to read.

i'm not usually a fan of the script fonts in general, but a client of mine had me use one in his design for the back of a t-shirt i printed a few days ago. in context it actually looks pretty good. its called 'edwardian script' - pictured below:

does anyone know of an online retailer of the flexistarter 8.6 (or similar) software that i can use to purchase and download online? i don't mind ordering and waiting a few days, but if its all the same i'd love to have it in a few minutes instead. Thanks!

oh i'm with you 100%. as a recording engineer, i have much less pity than most for those that pirate software, especially on the music side. My point in this case, though, was that its not really the fault of the site. I'm sure megaupload doesn't do much in the way of regulating, but it is the user(s) that provide the illegal software. The website has little to do with the content, they're just the vessle for the piracy. also, thanks for the offers for the software... after using it a bit more last night and this morning, i'm realizing that it doesn't really do anything for me that i wasn't doing before. Thats what demos are for, right? ha. i'll keep it in mind if i happen to need it though. thanks again!

thanks john! i'm actually messing with it a bit (in the demo) right now. it won't allow me to print AND cut in demo-mode, which is really what i was looking at trying out. though i've been reading up and watching a few of the tutorials on how to print and cut from two different sources, and it doesn't really look ANY different from what i've been doing now. (using the wf1100 and the MH721). i'm manually adding registration marks and manually aligning for the contour cutting when necessary and it seems to be doing a great job. i'm sure it would be easier with a contour cutting plotter, but with the plotter i have now, it doesn't seem like flexi is going to be that much of a time saver... sure its easier to add the registration, but i'm editing everything quickly enough in illustrator anyway, so i might just skip this one. I'm glad i checked out the demo first!

the megaupload site is really just a big file sharing site. its not necessarily an illegal software site, though thats really what its used for most often.

it does quite a bit, many thanks Ash! i'll give'r a try and see what i think while i get an order placed.

ooooooh. worth a shot!

oh oh oh. i see. i'm a bit slow. apparently there is a software dongle involved. its pretty tough to download hardware. disregard. i'll order it up.

hmm... that doesn't quite look legitimate. i'm all for saving money on software, but for this kind of stuff i'd like to see that someone actually gets paid for it! i know, its rare. i was expecting to find it for purchase/download on a manufacturers website or something, but i don't see a thing. its strange how some companies make it really tough for people to purchase their stuff. heh.

try this one out... used it for a mirror etching a while ago owl.eps

i had a small vinyl decal on the rear window of my GTI for quite some time (2 years?) and the rear wiper never seemed to affect it in any way. it was small with quite a bit of detail so there many edges exposed, and it never pealed or showed any wear. i don't remember the specific vinyl i used, but it was 3M. just to give a point of perspective, i lived in seattle at the time, so you can imagine the amount of precipitation that i dealt with. i can't really speak of the ice/snow aspect. that being said, i think its going to come down to the specifics of the wiper. the GTI wiper blades were really great in that the blade itself was made of a soft silicone. some others may be older and a bit more stiff which may cause problems, depending on the location of the decal with relationship to the wiper. i'd simply prep them with that info before installing.

this whole business with screenprintr and the deal-gone-wrong is none of my business, but i see no reason to vote every single post down when they have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with what had happened. i don't know the story and i'm not interested in the details. his post above is asking a simple question with the intention of gathering information in order to HELP the original poster of this thread. it has nothing to do with anything previously done. voting every post down is immature and irrational. with that in mind, he wouldn't have a reputation of -77 would he? almost every post i can find from him seems to be attempting to help in some fashion (most of the time very successfully.) i'm not defending him in any fashion, as again, i don't know what had happened earlier. i'm only calling it as i see it. its ridiculous. i'm tired of seeing it throughout the forum. there, i've said my piece.

when rolling it up to ship, make sure that the vinyl side is towards the outside of the roll! it will keep it firmly attached to the backing that way. if you roll it with the backing-side out the vinyl sometimes has a tendancy to wrinkle/bubble/pull away from the backing.

the scheinholographics chrome is pretty impressive. not quite as mirror-like as some i've seen, but half the cost, over twice the durability (5 year) and its thinner and cuts/weeds much easier than some of the others. its a great option.

in illustrator it is pretty simple. make a circle and create a stroke thickness that is as thick as you'll want the stripe. once you've got it, go to object > path > outline stroke. it will create paths at the edges of the stroke. done.

i think the rapid tac solution has alcohol in it, which would take any residue off, but it will also take the wax off. as long as you inform the customer that he/she may have to prep/wax the paint again when you're finished, that should work well.

i'm not sure its the wax that is causing the tape not to stick... when i did my own vinyl i waxed the hell out of the car as it was brand new and i knew the vinyl would be there for a while. i wanted to ensure that it would be able to be removed without damaging the paint. after ~3 years it was still perfect, but we were able to remove it very easily with no residue or paint damage. i would like to think that it is, in part, because of the wax protection. i've suggested waxing the paint before vinyl application many times with no ill effects to my knowledge. dawn soap will clean the truck, but it will take some of the wax off as well. if the customer is ok with that, i'd say go for it. it'll probably get whatever problematic residue off of the paint. but they may need to wax the car again when its finished, because there will be little protection of the paint left after washing. i would try a wax-safe cleaner first. however, if they had used some crazy wax that i'm not familiar with, maybe it is causing the problem?

so i've in only 3 months time, i've rapidly gone from hobby vinyl cutter and for-fun screen printer to having to cut 100s of decals at a time and just reciving 3 shirt orders totalling ~1000 shirts. i'm sure its not the big-time compared to some, but thats a ton for me. so far its been mostly for friends and a few locals, but as of this summer its going to get serious. since this has become as big as it has, i'm looking for some sound small business start up advice. aka - what the hell do i need AND (more importantly) what do i NOT need as far as resellers permits, tax ids, etc. (you see the emphasis on what i do NOT need, because this is really not going to be a full time income for me, so the less i need to dip my toes into the federal and state tax pool the better, obviously.) i have been getting information that has been so scattered that it really makes me cringe when i think about it. i'm sure it can't be that hard, but i'd really like to know for sure. so to get down to it... any of you from california specifically go through this process? if so, is there anyone willing to give me a basic idea of what needs to happen and what routes i can skip? of course i'm willing to pay someone for their time if it is necessary. thanks guys.

i'm happy to hear you've got a good copy. takes the guesswork out of it.

don't mean to hijack your thread, but this image brings up a question i have... at the risk of causing a sh*tstorm... if i were in your position i would possibly offer to clean up that image a bit before printing. I'm sure he is proud of his son's design, but it is a fairly rudimentary jpeg, pixellated, inconsistent line widths, background colors, etc... that would all be exacerbated once printed. what do the rest of you think? this is one of the situations that i would be stuck in. on one hand, that is the image they gave him, so he should simply print it as-is... but that novice design might mistakenly reflect on me as the printer, and i would have an issue with that. i think i would offer to possibly 'clean it up for printing' before it went to the press, and see what kind of reaction it got from the customer. obviously the customer would want it to look as good as possible, and they may not realize the condition the actual image is or what it might look like upon completion, and it may be in their best interested to be informed, but at the risk of some hurt feelings... i dunno. thoughts? (let me know if this isn't wanted in the thread and i'll gladly remove.)