cxixer

Good call, yeah, this was clear but I guess it was needed. I do have both kinds of app tape, but I much prefer the clear over the other stuff. I had so many issues with the other stuff which is why I switched to the clear. I guess I know for the future at least! Thanks

So I cut a 2 color decal for a local high school, turned out perfect. I loosely rolled it, grabbed an invoice, and drove up to the high school no more than 8-10 minutes from my house in my car with no air conditioning, it was kind of hot out side but not bad, maybe 90 degrees or so. When I got there, the tape over the entire decal (10x28") was bubbled pretty bad. Instead of freaking out, I put the decal on the hood of my car and smoothed it out with my credit card, which seemed to work fine. Once I got it back in to the air conditioned building it didn't seem damaged... So here it is, does this happen to anyone else? How do you prevent this? Does it damage the decal at all? I ship a lot of decals from my online sales... Do all of my customers receive bubbled crappy looking decals? I have not gotten any feedback of this nature and have asked a lot of customers. They all say it's great, but this recent issue makes me wonder.

I had the same idea to send to car dealers with an oval with "your logo here" lettering inside, or something similar. I havn't gotten around to it yet, and I've actually skipped my brochures and made pieces of paper with info.... Not enough time in the day! I think it's a great idea though, people can see exactly what you do, as well as the quality of your work, and have a real world example, plus they're relatively cheap to produce!

I've been on the phone with insurance people and lawyers all day and they all have recommended liability insurance. The problem I have isn't with drunkards, it's with small children that play on it and break their leg and the parents that want compensation. Sad to say we Americans have created a world where people can sue for anything including spilling hot coffee on ourselves and being ignorant enough to think it wouldn't burn us (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_coffee_case). Any business should have liability insurance anyway, but it depends on the insurance company whether or not that general coverage will cover these ad benches. You'll need to contact your insurance company to see if these apply. Apparently, an ad bench is different if you own it and advertise your own services vs. if you own it and charge others for ad space. I'm waiting to hear back from one of my insurance guys to see if I can get a pretty inexpensive policy to cover the business (out of my home) and some benches. He said the part that might throw the policy for a loop is that I am selling ad-space. As far as legal issues, anyone attempting this may call their local public works department to see about zoning issues too... I know in some cities around the US there are strict guidelines regarding advertising! Great idea though!

Anyone know anything about liability issues? I talked to a guy about placing a bench on his lot and he asked if I had liability insurance. I had thought about this, but assumed that if it's on his lot, his insurance would cover it. He mentioned that it may, but since he's not the owner of the bench, it may not be covered... ? If no one knows, I'll be talking to insurance people and lawyers regarding the issue tomorrow, and I'll post my results. Always cover your butt! It doesnt matter if you make a grand a year off these things if someone busts their head on it falling off of it and sues you for all you're worth!

Holy perfect cutting vinyl machine batman! My pressure was set to 70, which was acceptable from what I read somewhere. Well, I set it to 120, the blade seemed to rip through the vinyl, and after adjusting the blade depth a bit and backing the pressure down to 100, smooth sailing! Perfect cuts! I even set my offset to 0 and it cuts perfectly! Anyone who has had this issue, try setting pressure higher before setting offset higher! The lower the pressure, the slower the blade seems to move downward, which seemed to be the problem in the first place. After testing the pressure at around 40, the blade moves very slowly, and has wider non-cut parts. THANKS SO MUCH!

PCUT 24" cutter, thanks!

OK, I've been having this issue pretty much since I bought the cutter. It doesn't finish all of the cuts it makes! Some do finish fine, others leave little parts uncut, making it difficult or impossible to weed nicely. I understand this has been "covered" before, I've searched the form and all anyone has said to do is adjust the offset. I have adjusted it from 0.00 to 1.9 in .1 increments, and cut a letter "A". Even at the highest tested setting, the cut still does not close all the way, it just screws up the letter even more. I can take a picture of this if you need it! Can something be loose or can I adjust something else?

mach - let us know how that water blade works out!! gogetemgraphix - I too have that stress problem. if I get too tired or annoyed, I just stop what I'm doing because it's all downhill from there - I start making really stupid mistakes. that's why I bought an xbox360 - to lower stress levels between working. Being a day late to ship out a properly made order is better than being 3-4 days late because of all the screwed up supplies and having to order more! again, Conform Clear = A+ in my book. It costs about $20 more than the other stuff, but who doesn't make that back after one decal? other than that - less headache!

To anyone who has had the same problems as me!! I wanted to follow up with the answer to my problems. I was a bit passed annoyed when I had cut and weeded a 30" decal... twice... and screwed them both up with my transfer tape. By this point I was out of black vinyl, and so I could not complete the decal that was already paid for (usually I ship packages out the day they're ordered, so it didn't help my mood, or the customer's). Because I needed the vinyl anyway, I placed an order at signwarehouse for some vinyl, the tape, and a few other supplies. I bought the Conform Clear series transfer tape (the more expensive, recommended product) among the other things.... OH MY GOD what a difference! It lays out smooth, no wrinkles, to top it off, I love the clear tape that you can see the substrate through. The oracal vinyl also cuts and weeds much nicer! The packaged tape and 15 colors of vinyl I purchased because I was new and didn't want to spend gobs of money, but wanted to start out with a bunch of colors. It was a cheap option. I now find that signwarehouse not only stocks MANY MANY more colors and styles, and much better product than off ebay, AND it comes on a cardboard roll instead of wraped over itself, IT'S CHEAPER TOO! So other than the semi-pushy salesperson I talk to who wants me to get a very expensive graphtec, I'm very impressed with my new products - and signwarehouse. LESSON LEARNED: Buy your cutter off ebay, buy your supplies elsewhere, and don't skimp on transfer tape!

I mean the 56" one that you purchased, you said it's slightly different than the one you made. What makes it different?

Out of curiosity, what is different about it? Does it still use felt? Is it curved or angled or something? Thanks for the replies!

OK, updates. I've tested all the methods listed here (ish) and added one more. Hands: The hand strategy may work for smaller transfer tape (as pictured earlier) but I was having a very difficult time getting all 24" smooth with no additional help. The tape roll was raised, the tape was stretched out and attached to the table, and I tried to smooth it with my hands, working it all, from center outward, side to side, nothing was perfect. Result: wrinkles. Tubes: I cut three sizes of cardboard tubes from ~2.5" dia to ~4" dia. I tried each one by setting the roll of transfer tape on the table, sticking ~2-4" down on the table, and setting the empty tube down and pushing forward and down on the tube. The largest was by far easiest to push, moving the tape across the table, but in each instance I noticed that not all of the tape was actually sticking properly. This, too, led to wrinkles. Wooden Squeegee: I cut a 26" x 9" x 5/8" piece of MDF, rounded over a single corner on one 26" side of the board, and both corners on the other 26" side with a 3/8" roundover and sanded everything smooth. I attached the tape to the table as mentioned above (Tubes), and set the wooden piece down as shown in squeegee videos all over the net and pushed. I tried this on each corner, providing each would net a different level of friction and pressure on the down side of the transfer tape. This was harder to push forward than the tubes and provided only slightly better results. Still, wrinkles. Polycarb Squeegee, I cut a 26 x 8 1/2 x 1/4" piece of polycarbonate, and sanded the edges smooth, sanding one of the edges to a mini ~45 degree angle. Set it up as mentioned above (Wooden squeegee), and pushed forward and down. This was by far the hardest to push forward requiring excessive power, even sliding me backwards in the capeted room as I pushed. This, though, provided by far the best results out of any of the tests. Out of three separate tests using this technique, one was perfectly smooth, two had very small wrinkles. Practice makes perfect? Questions: Using these techniques described, would anyone recommend anything different? Should I be pushing down harder, or angle the squeegee, or something else I didn't think of? Would covering the polycarb edge in felt make it easier to push (darkdan)? Would using a thinner lip (1/8" instead of 1/4") make it easier to push? darkdan - 1. how hard was yours to push? 2. you mentioned you redid yours, what modifications did you make? I was also thinking that the larger the object pushing forward on the tape roll, the easier it was. So I may try to attach something onto the polycarbonate squeegee to push the roll, while still giving me the results I desire. The point here is that I know there are sellers selling much larger (50+ inch) squeegees, and if this is THAT hard to push, 50+ inch would be dang near impossible without a machine or impaling yourself on the table if you slip. Any other comments, suggestions? I don't know if I'm just doing something wrong with all of these techniques or what, but I can imagine I'm not the only one having issues!

I'll try cleaning the blade and whatnot. How often do you clean your blade for proper maintenance? And great tip about ebay, quite the price break if you buy in bulk! Anyone have a good tip on license plate blanks? Cheapest I've found is from signwarehouse that doesnt require a minimum purchase. I only want a few in white and black. I could also cut them on my CNC if they're not very cost effective anywhere, but I hate to waste my bits if they're cheaper to order.

True statement. I thought of trying that out too, I do not have any empty transfer tape rolls as I'm new at this, but I may have some shipping tubes that would work. If not, I have some metal tubing I could convert. I'll give that a try too as it would be easier than building something else. I just need something that works!