Wildgoose

That's a tough one....I have such an eclectic collection that it almost makes no sense. Everything from Johnny Cash and Roger Miller to AC/DC and the Cult. Outcast, Adam Ant, Cinderella, Everclear, The Kinks, Old Kiss, Nazareth, Wallflowers, Steve Winwood, Jet.... Basically I like most of the iconic big hits since the 60's. Some certain bands I take a special liking to and have their albums but since the advent of itunes I mostly buy one song or another here and there.

BTW, I don't drink anymore but back in my wilder days your avatar was my favorite buddy.

I would like to HAVE a 20x16 but I wouldn't want it to be my ONLY press. I use a 15x15 and have rarely needed bigger. When I did it was something I pressed in two shots. If you are going to print real big transfers then the bigger might be a must have but most of the stuff I put on is usually about 10-12 wide. I also have a good used hat press that I find handy for sleeves and weird small places (besides hats). I have a swing away and love it. I also picked up a used clam and used it a while to make a firm decision on which I liked best and the swing won out easily. I don't like the platen being right over my hands and on intricate detailed HTV work it is easier to get a good look at the layering without having to get so close to the heat. Sunie is a well known affordable brand that everyone seems to have good luck with. I have a USCutter model swing out that I don;t think they offer anymore. A heat press with some HTV will also turn huge profits in conjunction with your new cutter. My wife actually talked me into the press when I set up the first time and I figured it would just be a fun thing to have to build shirts for the kids and myself but it has turned into half or more of my total gross sales.

If it was cutting fine before and then started having problems then you have something that has come loose or your cutting strip could be the culprit like slice said. I would take a good look at your blade and blade holder and check for loose grit rollers.

The FC is a great choice. I was almost going to buy one myself but then heard about the SummaCut D75r which has all the features except 200g cutting force for about 1K less (set up similar with stand and extra blade and holder for 60deg blade). I can say that there have been a couple times where I have had to make a second pass on real thick sandblast media. The FC are known for being great at muscling through the sandblast resist and diamond grade reflective products like they use on interstate highway signs. You won't be disappointed in the machine and unless you are totally inept you will have no problem generating enough work to pay for itself. The quality will always be there and re-sale of an FC is like selling a Corvette or a Harley, their is always someone looking for a good used one.

I too switched to a 60. My Summa has a 36deg standard which actually does fine but I bought a 60 from Clean-cut to try out (the Summa 60 is SUPER thick, I have one in a separate blade holder) and have been happy with the results and I concur with OW that it seems to do fine cuts a little cleaner. Less lift on tight corners. My stock 60 was just to dang thick and had a .90 offset and was not an improvement for tight stuff just good and tough for thick stuff. The CC blade is the same diameter as my 36deg with just a slight offset difference.

Here are a couple more for fun. Still not completely right but I needed some stress relief. (I stole Skare's top and put it on mine and then modified his whole design to more what I would think the pop-out should be, although it's mot completely symmetrical) American-Demo_mod.svg

I like Skare's top. I blew the pic way up and everything appears to have rounded corners so I tried to match but his looks better than my result up there. That design is a little screwy. They have tried to create some 3D perspective on the middle section but didn't tie it in to the main shield.

I don't own either but have followed along as the Titan and Titan 2 have come out. They seems to be a pretty good machines (especially the servo model) with some extreme pressure ability. If the literature is accurate it has more down pressure than most of the other cutters including the FC which would make it a likely choice if you are doing a lot of sandblast resist. That being said, if you only do occasional resist cutting and tend more toward regular work like most of us then the pressure is not a real issue. Graphtec is going to hold it's value over the long haul and is a time proven performer for not that much more $$$. The CE-6000 has upped the pressure from the 5000 series (at least in the 48" model)

You have a die cut machine or a cutter plotter?

Stands for Scalable Vector Graphic

Here is a try from me. It was hard to tell what was supposed to be going on up on top. Download12.svg Download12.eps

Show how little I know about car wrap vinyl. Learn something new everyday though. Maybe my cruiser doesn't need to stay dark green after all.

Didn't want to start a new thread but wanted to post my experience with the HOT MELT cleaner. OH MY! I have an older stahl's hat press that I bought off ebay and apparently the PO never ever used a cover sheet. I have been thinking about cleaning things up and finally got around to buying some of the Hot Melt Cleaner. I was surprised and appalled at the amount of black gunk that come off that hat press platen. Holy cow! I still plan to do my regular swing away and I have been religious to use a cover sheet (minus a couple mishaps) so I am curious to see how much I have accumulated on it. The hat press was bad! The Hot Melt was Awesome! What a great product and reasonably priced, even the shipping.

There is some printable stretchy HTV that the guys with solvent printers can print on that might work. Not sure if your vinyl shoes can handle a heat press or not though. I have my doubts that regular vinyl on shoes would hold. Shoes do so much flexing that you are going to see a lit of movement unless it's just placed at the toe or heel.

Summa has lifetime free tech support even if your not the original owner. They'll fix you up. I don't know what is wrong, my guess is that the OPUS isn't working while it is running through the load sequence so it can't find the width of the vinyl.

as long as it's cotton or poly (or blend) you should be good. If it is Nylon then you will have to use Siser Extra. (Also once in a blue moon canvas is treated for stain resist or with water repellent and might cause issues but not likely)

Printing can be a real challenge to match the look you can get on a computer screen. To combat this I run a series of test colors with the CMYK numbers beside them and see which one I like the look of best. On a regular sized work area just make some rectangles and color them each with a little different shade of blue and print the color code right beside them and then you can choose the one that comes out the closest. (If it is a simple design use HTV for vibrant colors)

mopar, I'm a pretty dedicated AI guy but have watched the speed at which Skare can crank out good looking results and it has made me re-think my methods a little bit. I'm pretty quick with AI and usually just hand trace most rather than use the easy button because the results are so much better without all the node chasing that skare mentioned. BUT for those messy re-creation jobs we all get from someones last remaining business card that has been in their wallet for a year and has all kinds of detail and color I plan to spend a little more time building my raster skill set to help speed up the process. He has reminded me of an old adage that a construction manager once told me. "There are 10 ways to do a job right". His point was that as I moved into upper management that I would be well served to allow people to use their own ingenuity rather than try to get them to always do it MY way. If after seeing the results were sub-par then maybe they would need to do it MY way but often as in Skare's case their way may be just as good or in some cases better than my way.

If you are still having issues you might try some anti-static spray. I had problems with my old P-Cut and it was static related. I started using the spray that sewing folks use to remove static cling on clothing. I just sprayed it wound the ground and stand before I started a cut and it solved most of my stalling out. Some of the budget models are more susceptible to static than others. BTW I run an imac and a windows laptop. I cut with a USB without any issues but many have found good results by getting set up with a serial cable or the proper null version of a keyspan adapter. I started looking into this originally and in talking to tech support I ended up just running the USB to my widows 7 laptop without issues. I upgraded my cutter about a year ago and have it running from the mac or the laptop either one using SignCut Pro. They have a free trial but I don't think the stalling out issue has anything to do with the cutting software because mine (the old one) did that with any program I tried, it was definitely static issues in my case.

I wouldn't send anything high quality. Put a water mark over the top and send them a normal pic nothing fancy

A bit expensive to get into but pretty amazing product. www.hgarts.com

You will probably find that you change your designs a little to make things work out and the minutiae details go away with no one even noticing.

Welcome from Idaho, the other redneck state. LOL Most of us were in your shoes at one time or other.

Then over the last few weeks I did a set of slider (previously posted in another thread) I think i'll do the rear bumper before I worry about a lift and tires.