Wildgoose

SCALP was supposed to integrate that into their program by mid summer of 2013 but it never happened. Tiling too which is pretty much a must have for serious signwork. Sooner or later you run into something bigger than your vinyl or cutter. You might drop the weeding frame off and see if the rest goes ok.

I did the ribbon in two passes. First the outline then peeled the interior and gave it a quick once over to get a good frost. I did this on the front but should have done it on the back. It still looked great but would have been more useable on the back, not that they will likely use it for a plate. I got it all cut before I thought about going on the back side and didn't feel like cutting and weeding a whole second time.

Thanks all. BTW I looked all over the place trying to find plain glass plates like that before happening across that one at Target. No one else in my area had plain, the rest all had designs.

Does it fall off the pinch rollers by the end? If you are still on the vinyl and just having problems with the graphic being off by the 1/4" then you might consider trying to use SignCut Pro as a cutting software. They have an option in the advanced cutting palette called stp-by-step cutting that lets you cut everything in a user defined distance before moving on. I used it a lot when I was running my P-Cut because I had the same problem you are having. It will cut everything within the first 10 or 12 inches before moving on to the next 10 or 12 inch segment. You set how long you want the segments to be, 10 inches worked about the best on my machine. When you get to the end your done and you don't have to worry about the off track. SCALP doesn't have this feature and I don't know if SignBlazer does or not. You can try a free trial of SignCut to see if it will work for you but it's a subscription based program that needs access to the internet or you have to buy a dongle.

I don't think it will make much difference when removal time comes, especially if you plan to take it off in five years. It's the 15 year old stuff that is cracked and hardened that is tough to get off. The reflective it more expensive and a little tougher to deal with but only on smaller designs. You won't have any real issues with the size of lettering your talking about. I would be more interested to know if you think you need the reflective. Are you expecting to get extra exposure at night? If you primarily function by day then the advantages of the reflective are null. In fact I find a lot of the reflective is actually a little duller during daytime due to the composition. I have some reflective white but it's not white unless you are shining a light on it at night, by day its at best a dull eggshell color and really doesn't stand out like I want white to look. Now I use that for sandblast resist! Nice and tough and 7 mil thick.

You are going to want to still use some app tape with that. It's pretty hard to get vinyl on where you want it without using the app tape. If the pieces overlap I would plan on at least 1/4" minimum. Any less and over time you may develop a gap. I would have your cutter cut it if you are just going 4ft long pieces. just make a file that has the width you want, probably like 12inches so you have a nice even 1" top and bottom (which will help a lot when placing the text) and 4ft 2in long or however long you think will work best. The nice part about a simple stripe like that is you can go a little long and just cut off the extra on the ends.

Calendared is intermediate or lower quality for the most part, however many many many of us use a lot if Oracal 651. It is a nice product and super tough. In a nut shell, calendared is basically squirted out like a tube of toothpaste and then rolled out flat and thin. Once it gets to the specified thickness and cures they cut it into rolls and sell it. Eventually it has a tendency to try to return to its original shape and shrinks. Cast is mixed up like a thick paint and sprayed out onto a flat surface. Once it cures it is in its original shape so it doesn't want to shrink so much. Also more pliable and they use better grades of adhesive on the higher end casts.

If you can even find a compressor with a bigger tank you can possibly get by with a few stops here and there. The eraser is probably not worth the money. I recently bought a harbor freight cabinet and also a small pressure pot blaster. I have found that for basic glass etching the cabinet is perfect and SUPER fast. I mean for a quick frost without going in deep you can blast a basic glass jar in about 30 seconds to a minute. If you are doing a two stage job and getting deeper on the initial cut then you might spend a few minutes but it gets it done real quick. I have an older Emglow compressor that has a 20 or 30 gallon tank and it will work it out pretty hard if I keep going for a long time on something like granite.

SignCut is a great cutting program but has almost zero design ability. You CAN write basic text and cut it from within the program but its not going to get you where you want to go. If you are on a PC then the signblazer option is a good way to go to at least get started but if you happen to be on a mac it's not an option. I have not used it much but I believe you can effectively design and cut right from the same program. This is what SCALP was aiming for but hasn't been able to get going good enough as yet. A lot of people design in Inscape which is free also and it will export files that you can open in SignCut or SCALP. I personally design in Adobe Illustrator and then just save my file and open it in SignCut. Some files have to be saved to a certain file type or version. Once you do a couple you'll have that figured out. Best way to get what you want is to start with a workspace the size of your sign. You can do this in just about any design program out there. Setting the workspace size is a different process on each program but there are help topics and youtube vids for each and every program. (Alternatively you can just make a box that is the size of your sign and choose an outline color but no fill.) Once you have the size where you want it you can start sizing your text and graphics to a best fit. If you design this way then when you save the file and open it in the cutting program it will be the correct size. Some folks design smaller and then resize within the cutting program but I advise against this. You will be surprised how often you will re-use files and especially if you have to fix something you don't want to be trying to remember what actual size you cut something. If it's at the correct size then you can just open it up again and cut an exact replica. Your question about tiles: Within SignCut you have the tile menu. I find this useful in a number of ways. The main idea is that is you input the size of your vinyl on the main page you will see a dashed line across your graphic if the desing is bigger than your vinyl. You will need to lap the vinyl to make the larger sign. The program will allow for some overlap ( there is a setting for tile overlap, I think it's best set at about 1/4 inch) so you don't have to try and figure that out. You can drag the tile line around and make it do the lap in a better spot if you don't like where it made it. Another application I use the tiling tools for is that on multicolor designs the cut by color option will create a lot of wasted space on certain colors. I create tile lines at tops or bottoms of the specific color and then click the X out option which deselects all the tiles then you just click the one you want and it will only cut that area and you won't waste so much vinyl. This is particularly handy when doing heat press vinyl because you are less likely to need to need registration marks to line stuff up since you can just lay it on the shirt. You can save a LOT of expensive HTV (heat transfer vinyl) on some designs. On larger mulyi-color designs you may not want to do that because getting all the elements to land in the right spot is often worth more than worrying about vinyl consumption. Last main use for the tiling tools is if you just need one letter or maybe a small part of a big design that got screwed up during install. You just use the tiling tools to chop up your job so that only the part you want is getting cut and it will ignore all the rest. On all of these options just be sure that you have the weeding frame tool checked so that it will cut off the vinyl at the appropriate spot. If you don't use a weeding frame it will just stop cutting at the tiling line and it will be connected to the weed and unless you are really paying attention you will be doing it over. SUPER HANDY and one thing that is a lot tougher to do with SCALP as it doesn't have any tiling ability to date (I think, unless they have finally gotten it in an update)

SCALP should do the letters without a problem IF you can make the workspace large enough to accommodate that big of design.

Not bad at all. Those are either dirty with abrasive dust or you need to tape off better. Particularly the mug. I usually leave about an inch around the outside of my graphic and then tape the rest off with either left over cheap vinyl scraps or just masking tape. Clear app tape works good but the paper style is a bit thin and I think you could accidentally blow right through it. I would resist the urge to use the electrical tape just because I think it will leave a lot more glue residue to clean up. I completely tape off the rest of whatever I am blasting. There are bits of blast bouncing everywhere and it will murder a new clean cup or plate. Ask me how I know this? Yep been there and ruined that.

It might help to attach a pic of whats going on. Sometimes we can give you an idea based on what we see. You will want to check blade depth first. Just the smallest amount sticking out. Even cutting the thick GreenStar vinyl it is only 3mil which is only enough to see a slight glint off the blade when your looking at it. Somewhere someone gave counsel to use 1/2 the thickness of a credit card but we have found that to be erroneous. Thats about twice as much as you probably need. I personally take my bet guess (which is now fairly educated) and then as it's cutting I kneel down and shine a flashlight so I can see how far above the vinyl the blade holder is setting as it cuts. It should just barely be clearing the vinyl. The second thing is the pressure.I'm not sure what pressure the Copam is going to run at for basic vinyl but my P-Cut ran at about 112-114g for GreenStar and 85-95g for higher quality vinyl. My new Summa runs about 85g for GreenStar. I never exactly trusted the P-Cut pressure values. Symptoms of over pressure will be seen if you are cutting into the liner. If you cut into the liner it will often come up with the letters when you pick them off with the app tape. You should test cut before the actual job. Most cutters have some form of a test options that lets you see if it's cutting through the vinyl. Do a small test or make a file to test with and then pick the vinyl off and you should just see a very light scratch in the wax on the carrier. If you are not seeing a scratch then you're still a little light, if you are seeing deeper indent or even cutting through the liner you need to back off. Once you get the depth and pressure right then you need to be sure the blade offset is set correctly. Your info that came with the cutter should tell you what your settings will be with the blade. IT changes if you change blade angles and as you wear your blade down it may need minor adjustment (I never bothered with it with the P-Cut, I just swapped in a new blade when things started cutting poorly) You will get a lot of life out of a blade unless you start cutting reflective. By the time you need a new one you will probably be seasoned enough to recognize it.

It's a good idea to read the license restrictions that are part of the purchase. MOST of the ones you BUY are restriction/royalty free for commercial use. I would be a little careful with stuff on ebay personally and make sure you know what you are buying. The ones I have purchased are good to go BUT they also have restrictions on what I can do with the actual file. I can make products using the designs and sell them but I can't sell or re-distribute the actual design file. Did that make sense?

Better tracking is easily worth a little more out of pocket.

I'll tell you what most of us do to get a better idea what things are going to look like. I take a picture from the side about as square as I can to the vehicle and then import that into my design program and then put the lettering over the top of the picture to get a good idea how it will look as a finished product. If you take a measurement of a window or something so you know the actual scale you can do a little algebra and come up with the actual height and width that matches up with the scaled down picture. This is a good thing to know how to do for preview mock-ups with future clients. Also helps a TON to sell them on a certain color that maybe you happen to have sitting in inventory and you're trying to get used up...just saying. I don't know how easy that's going to be in SCALP but it may be possible.

I would recommend some Oracal 751. It's cast and will not have any unusual shrinkage problems. You would be surprised how much shrink and expansion goes on with trailers and even glass. I try to use cast on most vehicles or trailers that I do. The material costs a little more but in the big picture it's not that big of a percentage of the overall project. Much more goes into the labor to build and install than the cost of the vinyl. That being said I also use a fair amount of Oracal 651 on flat surfaces without any problems to date, but it's a calendered product and more likely to shrink. 651 is also a little stiffer which you will notice when weeding and doesn't conform around rivets and bumps very well.

Yep. Practice time. It should outline your design just like if it was cutting the edges of the vinyl. It is the absolute best way to learn the basics of load, orientate, and so forth. once you do this a few times you may never do it again but initially it's a great way to get to know your cutter. The only other thing I have ever used the pen tool on was a massive welcome home poster that the kids wanted to hand color but needed the outline to get the font to look right.

Good idea to one word long, two high. You shouldn't really have major tracking problems with basic text work because it should just be cutting each letter and then moving on so the length won't be a huge issue but I can't remember what the max cutting length is in that program. I had it but gave it away with the P-Cut when I sold it. My USCutter machine was purchased back when they sent a years subscription to SignCut Pro and I have had great luck with that program, in fact I have been using it with my new Summa even though there is a free cutting program that came with it. SignCut is better. If you get to having problems with long graphics off tracking then you might want to look into a program that will cut step-by-step like SignCut. SCALP said they were going to integrate that into their upgrades some time last summer along with tiling but a far as I know they never did. SCALP isn't a bad program for normal sized stuff but the design side is seriously lacking. You are going to want to download a copy of Inkscape (free open source vector program) or something similar (Like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, both cost $$$) to so your designs in then just load them into SCALP to cut. (Personal opinion)

Hey good tip on the rub n buff! I used some antique gold on one of my Christmas plates and it worked great to bring out the etch and add some Christmas Cheer.

I'll try that but either way its still a bunch of extra work just to show something off.

What cutting program are you using with your cutter? You may run into a length problem in some of the cutting software. Being new you might want to do a test run with some butcher paper and the pen attachment that should come with your cutter. In fact I would suggest doing several and some regular vinyl small work just to get a handle on things before going for a 16ft high dollar cut. I would also use 24" vinyl and double up and cut Deep Ellum with Auto Glass below so you are actually cutting 8ft and saving waste. Just some tips from someone who has been there and made a few costly mistakes.

5600 is only 5 mil. It will be tougher than regular vinyl but you shouldn't have any real issues with 10" lettering.

That's a good looking job but it's time for you to get a sandblaster!!!!!

I did some round Christmas globes last year and after the cut, weed and transfer tape I hacked away at things so each line was separate except right in the middle and was able to get it on easily. (I also did the graphic so it was corrected for the size of the ball) I have that file still tucked away somewhere, maybe I'll post it if I can find it again.

Yeah I have noticed also that a lot of my native AI files are too big to upload. If they started life out with a big jpg image then for whatever reason the program tends to stay fairly big. Doesn't seem to cause me any problems until I want to upload something here on the forum and I end up copy pasting into a new virgin file to get it done. Kinda weird.