Wildgoose

If that one Jaybird made doesn't work let me know and I can bust one out for you. You say you have photoshop? Do you have the whole suite with Illustrator? If so I would be willing to give you a step-by-step keystroke how-to for illustrator. Photoshop isn't going to help much without doing a trace at some point which IMHO ends up a lot less clean.

I think these guys are right and your pinch rollers aren't set over the grit areas on the drive shaft. I assume they did this too, I know I did. Didn't click for some reason that there are only certain places that those pinch rollers can be set. Once you figure it out it all makes perfect sense.

There are so many options for jerseys, you're going to want to research a few wholesalers. If you don't already have an account it may take some time to get set up. SanMar is good, I also buy from Statononline. Both of these require a state resellers licence. JiffyShirts is a decent place to look for basic T-Shirt options but you can beat their price if you are buying in bulk. I'm out in the west so I don't know what wholesale suppliers are in your area. For the numbers most leagues have some sizing guidelines, you will want to check to see what size they require because it uses a lot more vinyl for 6" and 8" numbers than 3" and 4". Most of the locals around here are good with 4" front and 6" back but I have seen a few that required 8" back. College or Jersey or Susperstar are some good M54 fonts that most of the regulars use, there are a few others that work too. Most regulations require the numbers to be a consistent thickness, sometimes of a set thickness and the M54 fonts typically meet that requirement.

I'm no expert either but I did save a lot of money on my car insurance through....wait, never mind that. I did buy a new cutter this year and asked pointed questions to the staff at Summa. Summa uses a 36* standard blade and then a 60* for thick stuff (and they told me also some use the 60* for super small fine cutting) I bought a 60 and the additional holder for it but haven't needed to use it yet and I've cut some seriously small lettering. The theory for thick stuff is that there is more blade at the steeper angle so you can cut through thicker products like flocks, twills and sandblast. I BELIEVE the theory behind using 60* for fine cutting is the steeper angle helps reduce the lift when dragging the knife through corners. Makes some sense to me although I have yet to use my fandancy blade and holder I suspect I will some day.

Welcome from Idaho. While your here I got a question....I see a lot of street signage that is some sort of resin covered stuff. Do you do any of that type of sign? What the heck is it? Just trying to expand my knowledge without having to ask a local and looking dumb.

Gotta keep the humor up! I concur with xpaperman on the font

The Sure Cuts a Lot Pro (SCALP) software it will come with will allow you to cut the designs you come up with in Illustrator. SCALP as a design software is pretty limited but it works ok as a cutting utility which you will need in order to communicate with the cutter. Most people end up designing elsewhere and if you have Illustrator and know how to use it then you're set. There are other cutting utility options out there too but SCALP is as good of starting place as any. I would second Dakota's recommendation to skip the starter kit. There are some stuff in there that's really not that helpful, particularly the rolls of Green Star vinyl. Not that great of stuff and you will find that the colors you need are on a case by case basis with the exception of Black and white and maybe light red. Over time as you pick up work you will accumulate a lot more colors but I made the mistake of buying all kinds of colors many of which are still unopened after 2-1/2 yrs. You're going to need a cutting mat at least 24" wide and a straight edge of one sort or other and an exacto knife with a huge stock of replacement blades. some squeeges (buy the good ones from 3M) and some app tape. I stock app tape in several widths and have a mixture of types that I have tried out to see what works best for my work. I like the paper RTape 4075 the best but I also have a 12" roll of the Green Star brand that does ok too. Clear tapes can be tricky but the RTape Clear choice AT60 is a medium tack that I have had good luck with on crafty items that I sell to local ladies. They like to be able to see things better and it come off a little easier for them. In general, paper tape is superior to see through.

Uh That looks like the same font the weavers used to embroider the emporer's new clothes.

Yeah, What kind of cleaning did you do on the new paint? Soap is bad. If you use soap then you need to go through a whole second cleaning to remove the soap residue. I usually clean with a mixture of 10-20% denatured alcohol and water. It's cheap and works good for basic cleaning. Some of the wet app products claim to be good for pre-cleaning too and it makes sense that they would be but they are more expensive. You would want to get it squeaky clean by using some alcohol to wipe it down as a final step after the other efforts you already went through. I use 90% rubbing alcohol but I think 70% rubbing alcohol works fine too. I'm always a little creeped out trying to put vinyl on fresh paint. I too would have just ran a color layer of vinyl under then lettered over the top. The wet app might be the culprit but if it is then the soap water probably ruined things for you in my opinion and if you still have the graphic its probably junk due to the residue. Rapid Tac wouldn't have hurt you. Silly question but you did squeegee the fluid out I hope. Vinyl adhesive is pressure sensitive wet or dry and you still have to get some pressure on there and particularly with wet app you have to chase the app fluid out from between the vinyl and the substrate. After a good squeegee I let my wet apps sit for about 15 minutes and then usually wet down the transfer paper and let it soak a minute to help release from the front of the vinyl and it will usually come right off. Sometimes small lettering will fight you. I don't wet app unless I have real big hunks of vinyl that I am afraid will trap air or that I need to be able to move a little before final placement.

Shoot I just go ahead and put the registration marks on the vehicle. As long as you pull them off as soon as you're done they come right back up. If you were to wait too long you might have a little trouble but I rarely even have any adhesive residue to worry about.

That right there is easy money too. Nice and big but beautifully simple. The customer is seeing LARGE and expects a sizable cost but talk about easy weeding and text almost always goes on easy. Nice job.

Yeah buddy! A little time spent learning the tricks will yield a lot cleaner results than auto traces. Downside to Adobe is the substantial learning curve at the start but if you are already good with InDesign I would think the transition wouldn't be as bad as a total newbie.

Jaybird is spot on about the size too. 15"x15" at least or you will regret it real quick. You can press in two passes if you have to but if you have a 15" you won't need to very often. I'm not a cowboys fan but I have plenty of fun with stuff I wear but don't sell.

I suggest both of you buy a heat press. There are economical choices out there. I bought mine on a whim at the suggestion of my wife and it generates probably half of my business now. I bought the swing away press from USCutter (not the multi-pad variant) I think around the $400 mark and it works great. The only complaint I have had was the temperature gauge is off. I have since bought an infrared thermometer to dial in the proper heat and now have awesome success. Siser can handle a lot of extra heat with no ill effects so if in doubt go a little higher for a little longer. I run about 5-10deg hotter and about 3 seconds longer just because I want to be sure it sets good. If you are buying an econo press of any type take a look at the design and try to find one that has some sort of mechanism to center the press point. THe swing away I have has a set of springs that allow for uneven objects. Some of the cheaper clamp presses do fine on single layer shirts but don't handle thicker garments or adding press pads very well. They end up squishing real hard on the inside but not enough on the outside and you can get adhesion problems. You can even get adhesion problems if you have your vinyl too close to seams and pockets. I ended up buying a few press pads that help with seams and also keep from re-heating the stuff on the opposite side of the garment.

I believe Oracal recommended application temperature min is 40deg and max at 90deg. Those are actual surface temps. I use a touch of shade in the summer and squirt the window or surface with action tac or just regular cleaning solution that I use which is a blend of denatured alcohol and water. If its cold then I too use a very careful heat gun but a hair dryer would suffice to just raise the temp a few degrees.

Freakin cool man!

Ya 200K fonts is good and bad. I only work with about 2000 and spend WAY too much time trying to decide on fonts or trying to match the obscure versions. I use Font Manager Pro which lets you group and toggle the ones you want but I'm on a mac so I don't know the other options out there. This one works great and wasn't too expensive.

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-eatdrink062.gif Darn it didn't work

You guys are the best. I love this forum. We need the smiley that has a bag of popcorn watching the action.

have you tried going into the "cut by color" tab once you send to the cutter and seeing if there are any white layers? Often you will have objects that you don't realize are there that are white or transparent and you can de-select them in that portion of the menu before you cut.

Probably would. Jeep is not quite as anal about things as Harley but I know they can get testy at times. A lot of kickback happened the first time they tried a smack-down about it and I think they have backed off. You'd think they would appreciate everyone spreading their name as a household word.

That's weird that it cuts some ok but not all. Are you sure it's not going over the circles more than once? You are cutting on Siser which is heat press vinyl and has a fairly heavy plastic carrier that can usually take a decent amount of over-pressure without a problem. I would give the advice to watch a test cut (after adjusting the blade length and hopefully finding the pressure adjustment as suggested by previously) and see if it's making more than one pass on the circles. Nothing like wasting spendy SIser products You might try experimenting with cheaper stuff until you get it figured out.

Hello and welcome from Idaho

I don't buy vectors very often but I came across this company and there art is real affordable if you add up the cost per vector and their stuff is made for guys who plasma cut and is clean and I mean CLEAN! Comes in various formats so you can pick the one you need. http://www.signtorch.com/store/home.php

Cool! Thanks!