Wildgoose

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Posts posted by Wildgoose

  1. Posted

    I have never installed tint but in my mind it almost seems like it would add an extra level of trouble to pre-cut them if you don't get it aligned perfectly all that effort would be fruitless where a little extra around the edges can be hand trimmed to perfection. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, I just know that I have installed pre-cut cover layers to aluminum signage and it can be a problem to get it just right. I HAVE heard that tint is a PIA to cut though so your trouble getting the pressure setting just right are probably due to that stuff being a bit touchy to begin with. A low angle blade speaks of hard material. 

  4. Posted

    For what it's worth I have a construction supply outfit that I do about half of my yearly revenue through. They have about 50 sponsors who share co-op money with them based on how much of their products they sell the previous year they get basically a kickback toward advertising that they can use for tee shirts. The kicker is they want their logo on there placed a certain size and a certain place or at the very least approved prior to releasing the funds. I bet I have had to recreate 90% of them because they always just send a raster image to be used. The first year or two I spent a lot of effort to go through all the hoops and try to get vector files. Some finally got the vector to me some never did but they all were fine with the end result and I quit fighting it and just send in the proofs with the logo I have re-made. It would be sweet to have a few of those to grab from a file like that. I have found a few out on Brands of the World but they are usually someones else recreation and often are inaccurate (and I'm super picky). 

    End result of your question is that no you can't take a Pepsi logo and start making unlicensed shirts legally. You will find that most of the big name corporations have online detectives who's job it is to scour the internet to find mentions of their logos.  Pepsi will probably visit this post at some point. We always make it a huge point to pass on information to new users to avoid breaking the law. As your skills increase it's actually very simple for anyone with any talent at all to make near perfect copies of about any logo imaginable. It calls for restraint and honor in respecting the efforts they have made and the investment that building their brand took. The is why our forum bylaws prohibit posting working files that are copyright protected. The people who own and fund the site do not condone any illegal acts and will not tolerate them being passed around on the forum. We appreciate you following those rules along with the rest of us. Great bunch of people here and lots of helpful advice. 

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    medicine man -  I suggest you sign up officially for the forum. It will get faster response times. Any guest posts have to be approved ahead of time by a mod and you never know when we may be around or not. 

    You should be able to edit the trace after the fact. There are node edit tools in there that let you clean things up. I usually use the image as a template and hand draw over the top of it to get really nice looking reproductions when I need to do what you are talking about. I often rebuild clients designs if they don't have the vector (pretty common especially with my construction worker clients). Text is by far best done from scratch even if the rest is auto traced. Figure out the font and type it out and adjust to fit.

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    Are the logo's base building blocks that you add in the specific data? If so those are good to use, they typically have something like "lorem ipsum" where you would put your text. You may want to look through the documentation that will be in there somewhere that will give you details as to what specific license comes with them. Most will have certain things you can and cannot do with them. You can go to any of the typical artwork sellers like shutter stock and purchase similar designs with varied license agreements as well. If they are an actual logo like Nike or Monster then they shouldn't be in there. If you find actual trademarked logos out there (and you will) I would avoid them like the plague or covid19. 

    The best logo's are ones you actually cook up yourself. 

  9. Posted

    How hard are you thinking about it? The most budget minded new printer is probably the Roland BN20 at around $8,500. It's a smaller width machine but very capable from everything I have read, everything else is well above that price point. 

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    I would bet that when you vectorize the image it is vectorizing the edge of the picture or something like that. Have you viewed it in wireframe mode after vectorizing? 

    I rarely have had acceptable traces on images. Most of the time the computer cannot accurately figure out what is what on a raster image and you get inconsistencies which carry over into the trace as wicked little nodes that are aiming at all sorts of angles. I end up spending more time trying to clean them up than just recreating the design from scratch like the original artist did. I often recreate clients old logo's that they do not have a vector of. 

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, Cjay said:

    I print the registration marks on to the paper/sticker with my printer and then I put the printed paper/sticker into the cutter and trying to do the contour cut with ARMS. 

    I don't understand how can the registration marks goes together with a cut as the registration marks are has to be printed and my cutter isn't print it is only cuts. 

    It's probably just my incompetence, but I don't really know what you mean to send the registration marks together with the cut

     

    You have to have the registration marks built into the design in order for the location in relationship to the registration marks to be accurate. I am not a Graphtec guy as mentioned but I found this video that clearly explains the process you need to take. You will find there is some step in here that you have missed.

     

  13. Posted

    Tri-blend are the most comfortable and work good with HTV. You will want to be sure the HTV you select is capable of the tri-blend. They are a little more expensive but super soft and comfy. 

    Ring Spun cotton is softer than regular at least at first. Over time all cotton will usually get a little thicker and stiffer but the ring spun is the best of the cotton options. Blends with ring spun are a good option too and often softer hand. Some people are allergic to polyester and will request all cotton but most of my clients prefer a blend. Polyester holds color better but can have reactions with high temperatures like glazing/sheen on 100% poly. 

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I tend to run my cutter about 1/4 to 1/3 speed capability most of the time. I have actually had issues with messing up a big job because I had it set so high (just to try it out) it was throwing the vinyl back and forth to the point it folded poorly in the catch basket causing a crease which in turn caused feed issues and ended up wadded up before the project was complete. I look at it like why would I want to cause premature wear on a fine tuned machine. Take a corvette, CAN it run at 6500rpm? Yep. Will it do it for consecutive hours and days? Yep. Will a car that has been ran like that show signs of excessive wear as compared to one that has been treated differently after a few years? You better believe it. In my humble opinion this is true on all levels of cutters. My current cutter is Belgian made top of the line equipment and can take it but the time saved between running at 600 or 800 mm/sec vs 200 is negligible. I don't think running at super slow speeds is necessary unless you are pushing hard through something heavy like sandblast resist. I recommend starting out about there and you can start winding her up as you get some more experience and see what seems good to you.  

    I agree with Slice on spending very much time dialing in the pen although if it has an actual pen attachment it should be capable of having the tip at roughly the same elevation above the material as the blade would be. It's a great idea to play around with pen and paper to be sure you completely understand the basic operation of the thing before you begin to cut. You will later have to dial in your blade exposure, down-force and offset once you are cutting actual vinyl. 

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    15 hours ago, mactube said:

    I mostly try to find problems with stuff that I invest in and then repair it myself. In this case.. even though the SC cutter might not be the latest model but it is hardly used.. 

    I'm still using the very first blade that I installed which is till sharp.   The parts that I order like the Cables to test and isolate the problem will be sent back to amazon if thats not the problem.

    Since I didn't get the cutter moving yet, is def. the Mother Board or the I/O board, which I will both order in April when they are back in stock. As soon as everything is installed I will post here what the problem eventually was.  Thanks everybody for your input so far ! 

    Luckily I'm not in a position, where I need the cutter right now. 

    That falls under the Journey not the destination that matters type of out look. Happy travels and we look forward to the follow up. Most of us do our journey via the other forum members so it’s all good stuff. 

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    2 hours ago, dvddvd said:

    I was looking at the comparison chart. I assume if it's got a green dot in the chart, it's got it?

    But is a black dot only part of it compared to no dot?

    Yep. You made a great choice. The pro version has about everything you will need for a cutter. The highest level adds some printing tools for people with commercial printers mostly. VM is a really good program. I had prior experience with Adobe Illustrator so it is my tool of choice but looking VM over I would probably have went that route if I was starting from scratch. Plus I run a mac and fewer programs are mac compatible. I'd have to create a windows environment to run VM from my main workstation. 

  21. Posted

    For a starter press that looks like a decent machine, unsure about the knob on the back mine was o a screw on the top of the rotating part. Get hold of an infra-red thermometer gun and check around on the heated platen to see if it has any cool spots. Set the temp based on the cool spot if it has one or in the middle if it seems to be fairly evenly heated. The Chinese heat numbers will likely be off by quite a ways so don't be worried about that just record what it should be and make a little note and tape in on the side so you know what temp you want to use. SOME of those will let you adjust the readout, I never figured mine out on my cheap press. That one has springs to allow even pressure across the whole platen like Dakota mentioned (over center pressure) which most swingers do but not all clams. I had a clam for a while and burned my knuckles trying to get the HTV on in the right place and square to the shirt. You may find that you do far more heat press vinyl than other types once you get going. It's the coolest thing since Ice cream.

     

    <edit> I just took a second look and I think that adjustment wheel will be ok for a hobbyist. It's a big screw running down the shaft. The ones that I think were weaker are ones that adjust on a cantilever like several of the clam styles. Just my opinion but not a bad one to start out with. When you get your cutter up and start messing around be sure to remember to mirror your work on HTV because you are generally cutting on the adhesive side. 

    Doh.jpg

    • Like 2

  25. Posted

    On your question about wet app. Buy an app solution like Slice recommended. Making some home made crap might negate the adhesive of your vinyl. There are several and they are not expensive. I rarely wet app either. Takes about 5 times as long IMO. I sometime wet the application paper after I dry installed to help it pull off a little easier. 

    If you do wet app, and I think it's great to learn so you can do it when you need to, use paper tape not clear. 

    • Like 1