haumana

if the little red text in the core of the top photo says 4075-RLA, then it should be a medium tack.

I guess the important question really is .... are you getting successful design cut?

So the design you're doing is 30" x 4"? Set your workspace up (in VM) with the proper dimensions, make sure your design stays within that area. Set the vinyl in your machine and make sure you reset the point of origin so that the machine knows where you want to start the cutting from. You're saying that it's going over, how is it going over? what's happening when it's going over? is the vinyl just getting fed in excess of 34", or is there actual cutting happening in excess of the 34"? I'm not as versed in VM as I'd like to be, but make sure that there isn't some kind of scaling going on.

what software are you using? are you designing your graphic larger than the cut area?

For that quantity, you'll need to cut many stencils if you're hoping to stick with vinyl. You're better off looking for something thicker and more rigid that is not inclined to stretch. That's why stencil material that's sold in office supply stores and such, are made from thicker card stock. I've make stencils out of foam core before, but that really only works if the graphic/text is large enough - which I don't think the contents of the roads cases might be. Might be worth your time to find someone with a cnc or laser machine that can fab one for you out of some sort of rigid material like wood or acrylic.

Try the USB first, if that doesn't work, then go serial.

I think if you're a little more specific, rather than, "things are missing," you might get a better response for the users on this board to have that software.

Ditto on the SignBlazer. It may look a bit dated, but this is not rocket science. I still use SignBlazer to push things out the door quickly. Another application you're going to want to grab is inkscape. It's a free opensource program that you can design in - think of it like a free Illustrator. Not as many bells and whistles, but still powerful enough to do what needs to get done. One of the best features is the ability to vectorize a raster image. Good luck!

Good to know. I think there were doing their best to minimize cost, but thereʻs something to be said for the amount of space thatʻs required if they were going to try and do it themselves. Iʻll have call around for quotes from sign shops, maybe that will give them an idea of what its going to cost get this stuff done.

Is it worth my time to try and find someone who can make a screen print, so that they can make their own signs? Theyʻre not opposed to having to make it themselves, it just getting someone to do the screen for them. I think that way they canʻt put it on a metal substrate or coroplast depending on where the sign is going. Drivers here tend to be abusive to the tow away signs once they realize their vehicle got towed.

Mahalo!! I will take a look.

I have a friend that is starting up a tow company and needs to get signs up at different properties. A tow company that she used to work for had someone who would silk screen (2-colors) for them, in 100ʻs of signs at a time. I donʻt want to cut that many decals, and they need to signs to be a little more permanent that the possibility of the decals peel after being in the hot Hawaii sun months on end. Should they be looking for another silk screener? or that an obsolete method? Iʻd like to be able to recommend something to them (so I donʻt cut a bunch of decals that will eventually just curl and peel). Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Mahalo in advance.

there was no other follow-up on this thread by the OP, so no real way to tell what he ended up doing. For the record, just because a file has a .eps extension does not automatically make it a vector graphic, or that it's cutter-ready.

Find the comport like Skeeter suggested, then go into Sign Blazer and manually change it to match. I don't recommend using "Auto" because most of the time it doesn't work

I suspect that it might not be an actual font, but text designed for the logo.