sluggo2u

I do a lot of small stenciling with Oramask 810. It's low tack and not the answer you're looking for but.........I have a workaround for small letters that might work for you. I simply cut a second copy of the stencil and apply the knockouts of the letters as a second operation. you will need to include some sort of registration marks to do it this way. So, basically, you have one stencil with the lettering weeded out (including the knockouts) and a second stencil with the letters weeded out and the knockouts left behind. Apply the first stencil then align the second and drop the knockouts in place.

I did an image search and looked through all my stuff but am coming up empty. Thanks

Thanks Mark! I was looking at Octins and Stencils.

Check your messages.

Have a sugar skull on my pc at home. I'll try to remember to send it to you later. I suffer from CRS so feel free to message me a reminder if I fail to remember.

I used some 631 to make a stencil for my wife to use when painting a bedroom at our house. Behr latex seemed to cover it and stick well. I can't say how it would hold up because I peeled it the second the paint flashed over. The paint stuck to the vinyl as it was removed.

Yes, the clear tape sux. I use the asterisk and cut away the ap tape from the top half of it to see through the ap tape.

I struggled a bit with shadow layers in Illustrator until I got a tip from Wildgoose. Offset path command under the path menu is your friend. Google it for a tutorial and play with it. Always convert your type to outlines as well. With your text selected click type, create outlines and the text will be converted to a shape. Be sure you have finished editing it though because you can no longer edit it like text. You would also do this prior to running the offset path command. You should also select the entire shape and unite it all together, especially when using cursive fonts. Like Goose said, I like to use two reg marks. If I were to do what you did above, I would have two reg marks (I like to use the asterisk shape in scalp) a different color, say red, and both the silver and black layer laid out just like they will look when completed. In Scalp, choose cut by color and turn on the red and black colors, cut them together on black vinyl, then do the same with red and silver on silver vinyl. Now you have reg marks on both colors and they will line up perfectly. Everybody does it a little different, I just though I'd give an example.

This? http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/14388-roll-vinyl-calculator/

Good advice. I have a Summa and cut tiny stuff almost exclusively. The problem when working that small always comes to weeding. Certain fonts, particularly cursive and asymmetrical serifs are not friendly when cut small. Even if you can cut them, there is not enough surface area on the insides of the letter to keep them in place. You can apply ap tape and weed them from the ap tape but there is still a limit to how small you can go. The CE-6000 will definitely cut smaller than you can weed.

I had a similar problem with mine. It had a bad solder joint where the wires connected inside the cutter head. Remove the cover from the cutter head and see if one of those wires is loose.

Nice stuff. I particularly like the crazy mofo.

It has very similar hardware and castings to the HPN hat press I bought recently. I'll say this about mine..............It needs a lot of re-engineering. It's very sloppy where it swivels and whoever welded it together was either coming of a three day crack binge or had no clue what the terms plumb, square and level mean.. But it was cheap and all I plan to do with it are t-shirt sleeves.

Indestructible rig right there. Worked on yotas for 32 years. About the only thing these ever need done is brakes and front knuckle seals. Good looking set of tubes.

You really only get one crack with it. It leaves behind a witness (using Epson with Cobra ink) that undoubtedly would contaminate anything else you tried to use it on.

I started with an MH871 and quickly upgraded to a Copam only to find out the Copam, while it was a better machine was still not up to the task. I recently purchased a new cutter. I looked at Rolands, Graphtec and Summa. I went with the Summa D75R. It's fabulous. The software that comes with it (winplot) is amazingly simple and does precisely what it's supposed to do. Contour cuts are simple using the opos. I use Illustrator for all my design work and really only need a plotting interface. I was considering upgrading from SCALP to Flexi but no longer see a need for it. I've used SCALP, Sign-Cut, and tried Vinyl Master.

I contour cut both with a negative .001 offset path if the design merits it. If it's a simple design I cut it with an x-acto or scissors. I do not cut into the backing paper. I'm still experimenting with masks. 3G seems a little harder to work with and the contour cut depth is critical. I've had pretty good luck using leftover transfer mask from thermoflex. I think I'll try Siser mask as Jay's advice is pretty solid.

Here's a logo I did for a friend who's a photographer. He had a pretty vague idea what he wanted. An iris, an A, Albarran Studios, Films, and Photography all needed to be included and it needed to fit the left chest of a shirt. So, I drew up the one on the far left first. He liked it but was not a fan of the A that I chose. Middle top is the second go. Took him a couple minutes to figure out it was a tripod so that was a fail. Right top was the third iteration. This was the result of him sketching up the "A" that he had in mind. Once it was done he did not like like it. The bottom one is what I determined he wanted after sitting him down and looking through fonts. Everything he liked was asymmetrical and had serifs. He loves the fourth version and ordered 8 shirts and 20 decals. 10 of the decals and the front chest logos for the shirts are 3.5 inch in diameter making the text around the rim of the lens pretty small. Nothing the Summa can't handle but man does it suck to weed! Lesson learned: Asymmetrical fonts less than a half inch in height are a pain in the arse. I respect the opinions of everybody here. I'd like to hear what you think of this design, good or bad. It's one color. Anything that is not black is knocked out of the design.

Yes. He has no interest in that iteration so I can't see putting any more effort in that direction. Next time I'm tasked to do a logo I'll start simple and go from there. I could have saved a lot of headache using a font similar impact.

Actually, we did have that talk and I did do one shirt for approval. The weeding is not too bad on htv but is pretty time consuming on 751. I have already told him the smaller bits on the 3.5 inch decals may not adhere too well. He want's to proceed. I think what he was looking for was for the iris and the A to be instantly recognizable. Did the logo white on a black shirt with Siser glow in the dark. I was surprised how well it reads. Granted, you have to be pretty close to read it but it looks good. I think the second one would be my favorite if not for the S and the shape at the top of the A to contain the S. I have 13x19 JPSS and 3G opaque but he wants glow in the dark on black, charcoal and military green shirts. If I could have got him to go with white shirts, JPSS would have been the ticket and contour cutting it on the Summa would be a breeze.

Do you mean far right when looking at the machine from in front of it? The side the cutter head parks on? If so, I have had similar experience with my CP4500. It's quite annoying. Since the 4500 is a 54 inch cutter and I cut mainly 24 inch vinyl, I just moved the vinyl to the center of the cutter. Can you load the vinyl on the other end of the machine and adjust your origin point accordingly?

Nice work. Seems like I know you from somewhere...............

Best price I've seen on it so far is Versatrans. I think it was 32 bucks for a 15x5yd roll. Most other places are in the low 40s for the same size. I pay 42 locally when I need it now. http://www.versatranz.com/vcut-materials/

Just wondering, why not just click the type drop down and select create outlines turning the text into a vector based shape? Is there and advantage to converting the font aside from the obvious that the text is no longer editable?

I use both. In illustrator, once you have your layered file prepared and saved it's easy to make a copy with knockouts by simply selecting everything and clicking trim in pathfinder. Everything that is hidden is knocked out. There are times when using knockouts you'll want to use traps as well. Illustrator will set trap as well but I don't care for the way it does it.