sarconastic

Just go in and help the zipper not work so good any more But also right now is the perfect time to watch at SAMs club I bought a new wetsuit there for $15 last year. Kevin

There isn't a law saying you cant charge fee for credit card usage. Everyone thinks there is since EBay and Paypal started shutting down accounts that did it. And that's just because theyown both companies.

That's the kind of humor I missed,,,,, or did I ?;D Hmmmmmm

I can speak from experience to that, I got so busy over the last 10 months that I haven't been here much. I come in spurts, and then I am gone for a while. But it's nice to come back and see all my old friends still here for the most part. Even though none of them talk to me lol. Kevin

Funny, just checked my email, and got an email from Square that the device had shipped today. LOL

You started here discussing switching clear back in October, which i assume was prior to your signcut expiration, so you shouldn't be berating Uscutter, because you waited until the last minute decide to go ahead and order it. Feel fortunate they did contact you and let you know prior to processing your order. Something I have learned with business, if you wait till the last minute to get something you will never get anything done on time. S#!t happens with shipping , stock, installation troubles it can be anything, so prepare early and lay blame where it is deserved, on yourself for waiting till the last possible second. Just my 2 cents. Kevin

I ordered mine a few weeks ago, still waiting on the dongle. Hopefully it wont take 3 months like the rest of you had to wait. But I used the software last weekend on my Ipod at a band show and was able to get $90 in sales for shirts that I would have missed if not for the software. Just had to pay the higher rate for manual entry. But profit is profit. kevin

$40 should be the absolute minimum. Think about it. Especially if your designing. By the time your done designing weeding cutting and finishing any decals your going to be into it for an hour. Is your time not worth that? Not to mention the overhead for Electricity etc. I constantly get people ( family included) that want a design they saw on the internet, "but just a little different." That's custom design work. When I quote them a price I always hear " But it's cheaper on the net. I replay, yes it is for the stock image you saw. but not if you want it custom designed. the other thing I hate about doing work for family and friends is that they will badger you to hell and back during the whole process. You have to order custom materials and tell them up front it will be a week to complete because of the custom order. They call you every day and want an update. We don't have time for that crap. Or they call you the day after your order ships and want to change the colors. It's maddening. So I changed company policy earlier this year. $40 minimum for the public, 50% up front, $50 for family 100% up front no exceptions. Stopped a lot of "could you make me this" moments. Kevin

A word of warning. Not sure of the actual material that the rollers are made of but rubbing alcohol will dry out rubber materials and increase the deterioration rate of them. It's best to get a cleaner designed for rubber rollers, like that designed to clean the capstan rollers of a reel to reel tape machine. Or a general purpose cleaner with no solvents in them like fantastic diluted in 2 parts water to one part cleaner. Even Denatured alcohol is better than regular Isopropyl alcohol. Kevin

I press across seams all the time and they are fine. Just do like Screenprintr says and use a backer on both sides of the seams. I actually use and old wet suit that I retired, I cut pieces as I need them and you can layer them to get the thickness you need. Kevin

I use a laserpoint 24 for doing exactly what your describing. the only short fall of a budget cutter, is that lettering at or below 1/4" is a little tedious to cut. If all your wanting is for that size work a professional 12" cutter by be the best option. Kevin

Deep Breath.......... 79 El Camino, 86 T-bird Turbo Coupe, 79 Monza Wagon - 350 V8, 2006 Kia Sorento, and 2010 Chevy Silverado Ext Cab. Not counting motorcycles and boats in that lol. Whew. Kevin

I just received some samples from 3m to test out making Screen protectors for Ipods phones etc. Was wondering if anyone had a template for the Ipod touch 4th gen already made up. I can make one when I get to the shop by scanning my ipod, but would be easier :-) of course if someone already has one. Thanks for your help. Kevin

good job. I found doing these kind of decals help you out int eh long run. This way when some guy comes to you wanting 100 4 x 6 4 color decals for $1.50 each you can laugh at him. Then have a friend with a printer cut them for you LOL> Woody

Nice job! I'll give you a tip I learned when i started making vinyl shirts. Large areas of vinyl make you sweat like crazy. Even in cold weather under a coat they don't breath. So I had to alter some of my designs, and make outlines instead of solid areas, or cut breathable section out of the vinyl. They get so warm you can almost visualize the vinyl area in your mind from the heat of them. I have a few shirts around that I used a big chunk of vinyl on and it doesn't take long to realize they are hot as crap in that one spot. Woody

Great tip roxAnne, I picked up a cricket mat a while ago. Didn't think about using it for small vinyl pieces.

The FSUTIL.dll error is more common than most realize. It most commonly happens in my experience after a computer has been infected with a particularly aggressive virus or trojan. These leave corrupted entries in the registry causing errors. there are several registry cleaners out there that dill help. Also run a program called Combofix to ensure your not I infected with other troublesome items.

A couple of notes from my past experiences. I used to have a few employees when i ran a constructions company. The norm around here was to pay them as Sub Contractors, Everyone did it so I started that way. After about a year in Biz The administration in the Unemployment tax office changed. I got a friendly visit from the rep for our area one day. He asked why he didn't see any withholding taxes filed for the employees he had observed working on my job site. I explained they were Sub contractors that I 1099'd. He kinda nodded and said " what time do you tell them to be at work?" I said 7am. and what time do let them leave? I said 6 or so. then he asked me who decided how and what they worked on. I told him me. SO he proceeded to explain to me that If I tell them when and where they are to work, and tell them what projects they work on and in what order etc. that from the legal stand point they are employees not subs. As such i would be liable for any and all things involved with them. Liability wise on the job site and medically as far injuries etc. If they broke a $1000 window on the site I would be liable but my insurance would not be since I classified them as Subs. So after that I got my ducks in a row and started the whole company and employee withholding and filed the quarterlies etc. Fortunately I did, because 2 months after that a new guy I hired fell off a ladder and landed on the hood of a customers 2004 Cadillac. My insurance covered everything or else they could have bankrupted me. Now I am not saying everyone has to be the general definition of legit. To me Running as a DBA for a single man operation is fine. and you can still claim all the deductions you can for any other business if you file your schedule C. Talk to an accountant it's worth the money, or better yet get a hold of your local BBB they have free counselors that will be glad to help you explore your options. Either way you better be damn sure you some sort of liability insurance in place. Because if you damage a customers property during and install you can be assured that you are going to pay for it, no matter how great a deal you were giving them before. an example is the front window on a typical downtown store will cost in excess of $1K to replace, and if your sqeegeeing on a decal when it cracks, it's your baby. Also you can probably register your business with a PO box, but nobody will ship or sell you anything without a physical address. Kevin

This is a known problem with some installs of Signblazer, it happened to me when I was using it too. I know of 3 or 4 others who had the same issue. Never did find a solution. With mine it was sort of intermittent at times. Finally said ta heck with it and got a different program. I love SB but I needed that function to be reliable. Kevin

I think he's selling them, meaning lost in translation. Kevin

another way to do this is to duplicate or triplicate the graphic during design, with each layer being a different color, stacked on top of one another. Then when you go to cut, tell it to cut all colors. Kevin

if you don't have any of the fancy tools to apply it, the simplest thing I can tell you is to have your roll at one end of the table, hopefully in a holder, or have someone hold it for you to keep tension on it while your applying it.. then pull your app tape out the full length of you graphic, making sure your coming off the TOP of the roll. Then Stick the whole end of the app tape tothe table a few inches in front of your graphics, keep tension on the tape to keep it off your graphic. Using your HANDS, not a squeegee, from the end you just stuck down, start smoothing from the center out with each alternating hand, working your way up the tape about 5-6 inches at as time. when your done cut your tape, and then use a squeegee work for the center out and get it stuck down good. The reason I like doing it this way is that when you have a really long piece, the squeegee will tend to stretch the app tape and cause some wrinkles in it, and we all know how fun it is to apply with wrinkles in the app tape. Also if for some reason the tape does wrinkle you can most of the time pull it back up and fix it when you do it by hand. I have noticed since doing it this way I have a lot less distortion problems when I apply the graphics. Kevin

I do about 50-50 split as far as work goes, but the Vinyl part of it is more profitable for the amount of work you do. so in dollar amount it would be 30% apparel and 70% vinyl. depending on the season. But at times I can make more per hour doing shirts, if I am doing short run custom work that people want. I do 90% vinyl on shirts, hats, coozies, thongs, aprons also sandblast etching falls in there too, and some screen printing. It's all in what your willing to spend time working on and using stuff other than vinyl to offset your down time if you have any. Kevin

Your experience I am sure is more common than we hear about on here. We have all had the misspelled wording, everyone on here told me to have it proof read by at least 2 people before you cut it. But also, Your not the only one to finish up a sign and realize that the Dots above the eyes, or a comma or an apostrophe has somehow disappeared during the prep or install. The more you do it the more you will pay attention to those sorts of details. Before you know it you'll be a robot going through the process without thinking. kevin

A little insight in contour cutting. The Laserpoint will do contour cutting. Is it a simple process to use for the average user, NO. I do contour with mine but it takes some time and patience to get it set up just right. The other thing to know about the LP is that the contour function is NOT automatic. You print your design, and with it you print the registration marks on the vinyl for registering it to the contour sheet. You then load the vinyl into the machine. and you have to manually jog the cutter head until the laser lines up on the first reg mark, then the same for the second one. With the higher end units like the Rolands and the Graphtecs, this is automatic. You slap your print in hit tell it to contour cut, it scans the reg marks automatically and then cuts it out. The main question you want to ask yourself is this. Do you really NEED contour cutting and will you use it regularly or do you just WANT it. I thought I needed it badly. I have honestly used it about 10 times int eh last year if that. The other thing to think about is if your wanting to contour sut, is that you have to have a viable source for printing your graphics. Your standard ink-jet isn't going to cut it without the correct ink or some modifications. That being said. I love my LP, it has paid for itself 20 times over since I got it. Just some things to ponder.