phrog

You know I had tremendous problems with my LP 24 tracking vinyl using the methods shown in the manual. I don't know if this makes any sense but it works perfectly for me. First I have a stand so this wont work if your machine is on a table. I have installed one of the aluminum discs on one roller where I want the left edge of the vinyl, then I stick the roller thru the tube of vinyl letting it hang on the roller instead of sitting on top. Important for newbies make sure pressure rollers are over rough portions of the feed rollers. I just pull vinyl thru and when its straight with the left guide disc on the roller I lock down the pressure rollers. It works well enough that I don't even check by feeding forward and back before I start anymore. Oh yeah another little help, a piece of scrap vinyl stretched over the curved metal outfeed area from the cutter line to edge of machine keeps the vinyl from catching on the scallops and raising up as it feeds out.

Ditto on what smallsigns said!

SB node editing, clean up the vectors?

If it were me I'd open graphic files (jpg, bmp ) in a windows program such as paint.exe (you'll find it under programs/accessories SignBlazer won't "open" these type files. You can "Import" them into SB then look at them, but opening them in paint.exe would be easier. Also if you have photoshop, paintpro, or any image program you can use that. Personally I have photoshop cs and use that to view all my images.

It's all political!!! FatDad, you just haven't ran a good enuf campaign!

IN SBE: In node edit mode you can select the area of the center of an "O" or "A" and the nodes will turn green hit delete and they are gone

I just open pictures in photoshop and save them as a bmp or jpg at 600 dpi then import that into SBE and then monochrome it and vector it there

Someone on here emailed me a question, I tried answering but the email address it went back to was bad. It was (something hippy) if I recall.

Ithink the one thing you are overlooking is that all parts of the design have to be combined

I agree with Jay there's at least one in there that SBE considers corrupt.

even after you vectorize a bmp image the bmp image stays on your workspace along with the vectorized image, its best to delete the bmp image that way you won't get the nag ( that the BMP image will not be cut)

I'd say XP Pro, Its still available, and will be supported for the next 4 years. (Heck Windows 2000 Pro is still available) XP requires 1/2 the memory and takes up 1/10 the space on your HD. IF you buy a new style motherboard that doesn't have a serial port on the outside, I'll bet that there is a serial connector on the motherboard all you will need to add is the nine pin serial connector on a ribbon cable.

when using the pen my LP 24 distorts the rear right corner of a rectangle shape I presume because a pen has zero offset

First your LP 24 is 28 or so inches wide. That is so that when you put 24inch vinyl on it your cutter will have room to avoid hitting the left button.Those red buttons prevent the cutter head from slamming into the side of the cutter frame. Position the vinyl 3 or so inches in from the left side, I have the stand on my LP24 and I have one of the circular aluminum stops on the back roller set so my vinyl cannot go closer than 3 inches to the left side. Setup shows the vinyl roll riding on top of the two rollers, but my experience has been much better with poking the rear roller thru the middle of the roll of vinyl. I drop the vinyl over the roller it slides down to the stop, I then reconnect the roller in its stay. Then pull the edge of the vinyl up into the machine and under one pinch roller, go around to the front of the machine and adjust the vinyl till it looks semi straight and set both pinch rollers down. Run your vinyl forward and back using the arrow keys and watch the left side to see if its drifting, and adjust the forward or back a little under the right pinch roller till its straight ( actually since I set the stop on the roller in back I rarely ever have to adjust it) Now I move my cutter head till its over the right corner of the vinyl about a 1/2 inch in from the leading edge,(LP's have a measuring strip next to the cutting strip that will catch the vinyl if you start at the very beginning of the vinyl). In signblazer the cutter moves from the right to the left. signblazer has adjustments if your cutter isn't cutting a 2" letter when you tell it to then adjust it, but mine has been exact on since it came outta the box. There are many threads on here about setting blade depth and pressure, these are common sense and easy to follow. I hope this help you get started.

Yes they can! I have the LP 24