splash0321

That's all stuff that will work but my graphics are oracal 751 or comparable and I'm looking for the comparable price as well. I guess there just isn't any reasonably priced.

So I hadn't been offering carbon fiber to my customers until recently because I just wasn't worth the investment cost. I primarily sell on ebay and people just don't want to pay a whole lot more for carbon fiber than they do for a typical color like matte black. I recently found one by general formulations called Dragon Wrap...the price was decent (240-250$ for a 60"x10yard roll) so I bit the bullet and tried it out. While it is thicker (5.6 mil) and is textured, I actually prefer it to the printed carbon fiber....it just looks more realistic. The only changes I make is cutting at 100g force instead of 90g. Ive had no issues. I boutght it from Ordway and it only comes from them in 60" rolls. They do offer a 12"x60" piece for just under 12$ though so you could just order a couple of those as a trial. Where are you located? If you tell me how much you need I could price you out a section of mine (at cost). I cut my roll down to 30" so just let me know if you want a section to try out.

Im bringing this old thread back to life just to see what advice some of the full-timers have on building a production table. I want to build one and my local sign shop has a solid glass (3/8" thick) probably about 6'x12' table. I like the idea of the glass top table over the self healing mats that are available because they are smoother, and are easier to clean, and they dont gouge. Anyone have a legit production table that they'd be willing to share a picture of?

I have a customer that wants a "built ford tough" decal made for his truck. I told him I cant/wont reproduce the ford logo, nor will I even spell out the word "ford"...I offered to do a "BUILT TOUGH" decal as long as I could ensure it wasn't violating any CR laws. Does anyone have advice on this? A $10,000 fine is too much to risk making a quick $40.

I dont think I've ever formally done an intro on the forum so here goes. Im in my 30s, married, and am a nurse. I have a masters degree and teach nursing at a private college. My wife does the same and we do pretty well in that area. Ive always had an interest in graphics and have even given it a go a couple times before and never really found a niche I felt successful in until now. I do primarily online sales and have found a niche in the vinyl graphics market that allows me to make great money for only working about 4 hours a week as a side business. I want to add how much I appreciate this forum and all of those who contribute daily to help newbies out.

well, i appreciate what you do. Im the nurse that goes around fixing all the crap the female nurses break

What do you do at the hospital? I teach nursing in Ocala and have visited the villages hospital for my student's clinicals.

Just south of Ocala. We arent too far from each other. I get to taveres in about 50 minutes

FYI to anyone ordering from uscutter, they have a free GreenStar color guide that they'll ship to you. Dont know how long the offer will last but if you are paying for shipping on another order anyways, why not grab this for free?

thanks for the reply.

Quick question. Does anyone know if green star vinyl rolls come with a white backing? If so, is the "green star" logo on the back of the backing?

I have a customer that is requesting some graphics in matte silver or matte charcoal. The only stuff I can really find is high performance and high priced. Does anyone know of an intermediate vinyl in either of those two colors that is reasonably priced? I'm looking for 30"x10yard rolls but can make it work with 24"x10yard. Any help would be appreciated.

It looks like you have the issue solves, at least on this job. Just to add my two cents, I used to experience this issue as well and it was very discouraging. I would sell some graphics that were about 7-8 feet long and it would happen all of the time and waste all of that vinyl. Your job is fairly small so you really should be dealing with it. I still do jobs with longer runs and one thing that has virtually eliminated these static issues is to unroll some vinyl before cutting. If I know my job will use up 4 feet of vinyl, I unroll a little more than that from my vinyl roll before initiating the cut. This, and slowing the cut speed down, has eliminated the issue for me completely. Don't forgo the grounding process because that does help. It just didn't solve the problem for me. Hopefully you get all of the kinks worked out.

other than the triangle, does it complete the rest of your design as wanted?

I have a different viewpoint on ebay selling. On smaller decals, I don't think its realistic that 25% of your listings would be hot sellers. I feel like 10-15% is more accurate and might even be generous. At that pricepoint and margin, I'd need to sell 125 minimum each day which means I would have to have between 850 and 1250 listings. That's a lot of small decals and it would be hard to find that many hot selling items. That being said, that's why I like selling medium and larger items. If my profit on each item is $40-75 on average, I turn on my cutter every other day and work for 3 hours and make that same money it would have taken me to earn in two days. I only need a limited number (a dozen or so) of really hot sellers and my other listings only need to sell mediocrely. I make shipping and handling 3 days and sometimes I turn my cutter on every three days, sometimes every other, and occasionally every day. It all depends on the time of year and what I have listed. I am certainly not putting anyone down who does small decals. I can see the potential. But at a quick glance there are a lot of people in the small decal niche and fewer in the large decal niche. I even see sellers from china selling med-large graphics for less than $10. Its hard to compete on ebay with sellers who don't care to make money.

That's a nice spreadsheet. Thanks for sharing Primal

The app tape isn't a bad idea. It is essentially the same idea as the static cling only its more widely available and cheaper. That would work the same way. Im coming up with all kinds of ideas now. I think that's what I needed. I appreciate your help Wildgoose.

That's pretty cool technology...its just not something that will work for my needs, unfortunately. I specialize in online sales so my graphics are shipped out and installed by others. They fit precisely so the end user doesn't have to do any modifications. One method I had though about years ago but never tried was to buy a reusable sheet of clear static cling vinyl to apply over the surface I wanted to work on. I could then trace out the design onto the vinyl, pull it off and trace it out onto the paper, scan it and go from there. I am apparently doing something that most people don't do or just don't want to give away their methods. Oh well, if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. That knife-less cutting tape is sweet. I'll be ordering that soon for other projects.

Im not looking for templates that are "close" to original. I don't do wraps or anything. I simply want to exactly replicate the existing lines of a part of a vehicle so I can make graphics that fit it perfectly. Attached is a picture of a hood. If I wanted to make a template of the areas that are red (which follow the edges of the top contour of the hood), what would be the best way to do that? Ive thought about laying wide format tracing paper over it and making marks along the edges. Having that paper scanned and importing it in, then I can trace it and scale it. This is a time consuming process as it takes some tweaking each time to get it perfect. I know people do this but Ive never seen any tutorials. Ive actually never seen it mentioned aside from my own queries. The vehicle template software is nowhere close to the accuracy I need.

I havnt been around the forum for a while (school, etc.) but would like some input from some of the experienced people of the forum. What I want to do is take some of the designs I have in my head and get them into my computer. My designs are vehicle specific. For example, i have several designs where the graphics flow from hood, down the fender, and along the side of the vehicle. Something similar to the style I am envisioning is the cobra jet mustang race car. Designing the hood to scale would be simple, as would the side of the vehicle, but the angles where the two would meet would vary slightly from vehicle to vehicle. So the question is how do professionals lay their ideas out on a vehicle, then transfer it to the computer. Could you tape paper onto the vehicle, sketch your design onto that paper while its on the vehicle, then pull it all off in one piece and somehow use that as your design template? Im just throwing an idea out there...any help would be appreciated.

I have all the templates but it doesnt get me exactly what I need. I mean I can use them to design a kit that is almost perfect....but I like perfect more. When I try to align the fender graphic with the hood graphic they are slightly off. And the graphics follow the body lines of the vehicle so there is really no shifting of the graphics allowed. The problem that I always run into is the transition from fender to hood. If I were installing all of these myself then I could easily modify the kit "on the job" as needed but I sell kits online ...and I want the lesser experienced installer to be able to install this with no modifications needed. maybe im out of luck...doesnt seem like anyone else has ideas...oh well.

these should only really take about 2-3 minutes to produce on your own. take a look at this eps and see if it does the trick 4wheeldrivejeep.EPS

Is there a tool for cutting down vinyl into custom widths? I can get oracal to do this but its 6-8$ for each cut. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

im in the process of designing one for myself....i will upload the plans for it when i've perfected it.

id be interested in that tool.....the cut edges have to be clean enough to actually apply to a substrate...I dont think a miter saw would cut the edges clean enough