darkdan

After I bought my wonderful beautiful super reliable MH1351-SE my brother decided to buy a plotter. He tried to one up me and instead of getting the same 50" plotter I have he wanted a 54" plotter and got an ArtCut 54" SD1360 off ebay. He has had nothing but problems with this thing. It will stop cutting right in the middle of a job and just reset. The cuts looks horrible and squiggly (like it's off track, but it's not, and he's played with the offset forever). I believe he's running WinXP and a serial cable. Anyone have any experience with these things?

Thank you. Nice to see people are listening and I'm not just speaking (typing) to hear myself.

Everyone is new at one point, but through practice anyone can master the dry application technique and not get bubbles. It does take some practice, but it won't take years and people won't go broke doing it. Once they've mastered it, they'll save time and money. I have faith that if someone tries it, they'll be able to get the hang of it rather quickly if they give it an honest try. I don't try to put fear into them, I try to encourage them to get out of their comfort zone and improve themselves.

I like the metal tree.

1.) Duplicate your text (copy/paste) 2.) Arrange > Convert to Outlines 3.) Click the fill/stroke editor. Click stroke. Increase stroke size to whatever looks good. 4.) Arrange > Convert Stroke To Outlines 5.) Weld Then just order it to the back and you'll see your original text over it.

This video demonstrates a dry application using the center hinge method. Good for both rectangular and square decals in the medium to large sizes. Normally the tape doesn't start ripping the pre-mask, but I used some cheap stuff I had laying around that I hate instead of my normal R-Tape 4075. A moderator or admin might want to merge this thread with my other video thread. Thanks.

Here's a video of side hinge, on glass, in the cold (according to www.accuweather.com it's 28 degrees when I made the video). Practice, practice, practice. That's the only way you'll get better. Cliff notes of the video: 1.) Side hinge 2.) There are times when you can't do things wet or just doing them wet would give you a headache. Mainly compound curves, recesses, reflective vinyl (trapped water can cause delamination), vehicle wraps, cold temps 3.) Practice isn't expensive. Use some scrap! For the cost of one bottle of a popular application solution, you can buy a whole 15"x10 yard roll of medium grade vinyl! 4.) It's all about squeegeeing technique. It's a swipe or "slicing" motion. Easy and smooth and you won't trap air. 5.) It's fast and effective. No cleaning up application solution. 6.) No worries about contaminating the adhesive with improper solutions (some degreasers, perfumes, dyes can hurt the PSA) and no worries about pH problems. 7.) Being able to use both dry and wet application makes an installer more versatile. Sorry the video cut out. I kept talking for about another minute. My camera has a 3 min limitation on video and I didn't hear the beep. You didn't miss much, just me peeling off the application tape. Came off in 3 pieces (it was high tack paper after all). Then I went to clean up and take that vinyl off the glass, it was stuck down so well it wouldn't come off! Since it was cold it was postage stamping (tearing off in small pieces). I had to get out the scraper. Enjoy the video!

Signwarehouse.com carries 8 inch ORACAL 651.

Which driver are you using for flexi? Roland PNC?

Grommet machines are nice, but I don't think he's going to drop $260 for his first banner just for the grommet machine. But Fellers does have a grommet kit and it even comes with 24 pairs of grommets. Just FYI for those that want to grommet themselves.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Making your own is going to significantly reduce your cost. However, if you're buying one blank and have to have it shipped, for a very small amount more you can have it finished and save yourself some time.

Set up fee for screen printing is perfectly normal (to make to screen). Some places also charge art fees for vectorizing images. After all, most shops have to recoup the labor costs associated with the labor of doing so.

I mentioned a banner blank, but it depends on what his cost is going to be. Depending on where the blank is ordered from it could be $15 to $20, but if it has to be shipped it may end up being $30 to $40. Add in pre-mask and vinyl and the all important time..... Considering there's places on ebay that can deliver a premade banner to your door for under $50, subbing it out may be an option if you don't plan on doing a lot of banners or aren't spreading out the shipping costs on a banner blank with other items. Of course, when you sub it out then you're at the mercy of whomever is making to deliver on quality and on-time. It's just another option to consider. If it were me, I would order a roll of banner material, hemming supplies, and a grommeting kit (strike it with a hammer). This way you're set for next time and making banners will be cheaper in the long run than ordering blanks.

Maybe just sub out the banner making process, mark it up, and then make pure profit. Unless you want to have to order in materials if you don't do banners often. If you plan on doing banners, it's always good to have the stuff on hand.

Here's the next video. It's a side hinge "one swipe" technique. The other videos showed medium sized applications, and this technique is best for small decals. I did this outside in the cold (windchill is about 15F and air temp is about 35F).

It would depend on what your local area prices are. It would also depend on what your material cost is going to be. Are you going to have to order in banner material? A banner blank?

Addressing a few questions: 1.) Yes, you can do dry applications at all temperatures. I just stressed the cold weather aspect because someone here was having trouble with wet applications at near freezing temps. Most vinyl manufacturers don't recommend wet application below about 60 degrees and don't recommend any application near freezing. 2.) There are sometimes that popping the film up won't work. Plexiglass comes to mind. Once vinyl hits plexiglass it's stuck.

Decal app in the cold, fixing mistakes: Also, what to do when your high tack application paper's adhesion to the decal is greater than your decal's adhesion to the substrate.

You looking to maintain the colors for printing or just need a cut-able file?

This one is huge: http://www.autofanblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/vauxhall-logo_965324.jpg

According to ORACAL, no. http://www.oracal.com/products/_docs/prod-bulletins/5700_03082006.pdf

Correct, and not on all substrates. It depends on the initial bonding strength of the adhesive (and the strength of the paper!). It does take practice, but it shouldn't take years of practice. Maybe I'll throw up some decals tomorrow, I just didn't want to take the time to cut them. I actually planned ahead and took pics of my IR thermometer because I figured someone would want them. The top temp is the non-contact (reading the wall) and the bottom temp is from the probe that is touching the glass. It's not bad after you get the hang of it. IMO, it would be harder to install wet because you'd have to wait, then risk the paper lifting the vinyl off the glass when you go to peel it. Not to mention you have to worry about leaving behind water that might freeze!

I wouldn't go so far to say it takes lots of practice. Medium sized pieces like that will most likely be mastered rather quickly. I'd say by the time that proverbial 15"x10 yard roll is gone - top, side, and center hinging could be done with very high confidence with 15" material. That will translate well to 24" material and larger and larger once the basic skill set is in place. Here's how to fix mistakes during application: That doesn't work all of the time. I'd say you're good up until the substrate temperature hits 75F or 80F depending on humidity.

Well I'm in the shop and the heat was off, but the door had been opened recently. Since you asked, I went out and threw on the old raytech IR thermometer. Had to use the probe. The glass is about 30.2 degrees. The wall (inside wall) behind it is about 34~40 degrees depending on where I pointed the aiming lazer. I guess the studs are colder than the insulated part. I just mentioned the temperature so people know it's a low temp application and not the middle of summer. But you can see how stiff that cast + conform paper is.

Here you go, maybe this video will help you: http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,11201.0.html