Booper

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Everything posted by Booper

  1. For all us guys & gals printing graphics on the epson printers, I was stuck in traffic today and was thinking about how to contour cut the laminate 1/16th of an inch BIGGER than the graphic in order to create a total seal of the printed surface so water cant get in underneath it. Ive come up with this process, wondering if anyone has a better way, 1. shrink yer graphic down 1/16th of an inch overall to allow for the oversized laminate. 2. Create the contour line around the graphic. 3. Create a second contour line 1/16th of an inch outside of the first one. 4. Print the graphic with the registration points 5. Run the graphic thru the contour cutter to cut both contour lines 6. Weed out ONLY the vinyl BETWEEN the contour lines. 7. Laminate the print 8. Goto your software and delete the inner contour line. 9. Run the graphic thru the cutter again to cut the laminate 10. Weed off the excess laminate and vinyl with the registration points on it. Anyone have an easier way???
  2. Off the old school Dodge Trucks, anyone have a vector of it? I have a jpeg that I live traced but it needs tonnes of work to smooth out all the small lines. Thanks very much!!!
  3. First attempt tonight to use the contour cutting feature with the roland and cut studio, I followed the directions and watched the youtube videos on how to do it, and I got as far as printing the decal with the registration points, drew the outline path for the cutter to use and sent the job to the cutter. It fires up the lazer, finds all three points and then just stops. No error messages no nothing, everything is exactly like how its supposed to be except the actual cutting part. Help???
  4. Yeah that dont sound good, if the button does other functions EXCEPT reverse the vinyl feed my guess is you need a repair. Ben
  5. Booper

    what is vectorizing and can I do it myself?

    ^^^^^^^^^^^ Good post. Great advice for a newbie. :thumbsup: Ben
  6. Booper

    can I make profsional decals with epson 9800 pro

    You are correct, when he/she used the term "Car side graphics" my brain is programmed to immediately think wraps LOL! Ben
  7. Booper

    can I make profsional decals with epson 9800 pro

    Agreed, for short term applications like temporary wraps you can get away with not laminating. Debating the multitude of vinyl/ink/exposure variables is pointless as you said given that any number of reasons can cause a wrap to fail. At our shop however we do not send out any wraps that will be on the vehicle for more than a month without lamination. The upfront cost far outweighs the anger & frustration down the road for the customer when they have to pay us upwards of a 1000 dollars to remove the old faded wrap & adhesive, & then design, print and install a whole NEW wrap because some crappy shop talked them into taking the cheap route & told them Oracal or whoever have 3 to 5 year fade warranties which is not the case. Regardless, point being is if the OP wants to get into the vinyl wrap business he/she will NEED a laminator in order to be able to supply long term high quality wraps, the same way they need to use good quality vinyls & inks & proper installation techniques along with all the rest of the tools & equipment, or they are doomed to produce nothing but temporary wraps & spend eternity doing free warranty repairs. Ben
  8. Booper

    4'x8' sign help wet or dry

    If it was me, I'd lay the stripe down on the polymetal and position it exactly where you need it, center hinge it and using a grease pencil or china marker mark the top edge of the vinyl on the polymetal at the ends. Peel the backing off and wet down the surface using whatever app fluid you prefer (I use rapidtac2). Then lay the stripe down aligning it with the grease pencil mark & using a squeegee with a nylon sleeve or felt edge lay it down & repeat the process for the other side. The grease pencil marks are the key to a straight application once the backing paper is removed. If you dont have a grease pencil a piece of tape butted up against the stripe works too. Cheers! Ben
  9. Booper

    can I make profsional decals with epson 9800 pro

    Real nice, did it occur to you english might not be his/her first language? Nice to see the veterans around here treating the first timers in such a manner. Dosky, no this printer will not work, you need something that prints with SOLVENT ink, like a Roland or Mutoh or Mimaki. Epson does make a new one that uses solvent ink, but if you are just starting out try to find a good deal on a used one. You will also need a laminator, even with solvent ink a wrap that is not laminated will fade and fail very quickly. Cheers! Ben
  10. Booper

    Car striping

    Take a photo of the car as dead on as you can, import that photo into whatever design software you prefer & draw the stripes. Once yer happy with your stripe design save it & import it into your cutting software, scale it up to fit the actual car size (its always easier to design in smaller scale & up it for the cut), Cut them, mask them, apply them & get paid large sums of money from the customer for all yer hard work. Save the files for future use & enjoy! Ben
  11. Booper

    What printers?

    The quick & dirty answer is you need a printer that uses SOLVENT ink. None of the wide format HP's or Canon's or whatever use solvent ink. Epson has come out with a solvent printer, its about 20 - 25 Grand, not a bad price for a quality machine. The industry standards are Roland and Mutoh, they can go upwards of 50 grand but can be had used for around the 10 grand mark in excellent condition. Keep in mind the printer is only the half of it, print heads can be thousands of dollars each and ink and material will quickly suck up all yer cash. A bundle roll of 3M 180 will run you a grand easy.
  12. Booper

    vinyl removal question

    Use the heat gun & warm the vinyl up as you go. Dont over heat it as there is a fine line between removing it clean and heating it up to the point where the adhesive delaminates itself from the vinyl and yer left with a holy mess to clean up. If yer removing a printed wrap cut it into strips and peel it off in sections, much easier & quicker than trying large sections. Ben
  13. Booper

    apllying vinyl to drinking glasses?

    Side hinge it using a piece of tape.
  14. Booper

    Paper Application Tape for Layered Vinyl

    No you cant do RTA layered decals wet the backing paper will get all gummy & ruin the decal, wet is for installing onto the substrate. You can use paper tape instead of clear if you have a light table to help line up your registration marks. Another way is mask the top layer with paper tape leaving the registration marks exposed, then apply a piece of clear packing tape over the registration marks & the top edge of the paper tape. This will help you see the marks better & when you are done you cut the registration marks off anyways so the customer never sees the clear tape. Cheers! Ben
  15. Booper

    Rounded edges are not curved

    Brother if you have yer blade sticking out 2 millimeters you are WAAAAAAAY off, the term 2 mil vinyl refers to 2 thousandths of an inch thick. 2 Millimeters is 120 thou. When you are in your cutting software switch to wireframe view & show all control points, if there are alot of nodes the thing will cut jagged. You should only have a node on a direction change so for instance a zero should only have 2 nodes, one for the start/end of the inside circle & one for the start/end of the outside circle. Ben
  16. Booper

    Adobe Illustrator

    Also make sure the eps file you have created is an actual VECTOR, you cant just take a jpeg & resave it as an eps you have to live trace or "vectorize" it first. Save it as eps version 8 or earlier as stated above. Ben
  17. Booper

    94 Ford Mustang Third Brake light template?

    Dude thats just flat out lazy. Take a digital pic of it straight on, import it into your design software, draw a cut line around it, scale it to size & voila you have a template. Ben
  18. Due too the weeding I'd be at 2.50 each. Ben
  19. Booper

    Text not xferring over...

    Try converting the text to curves before exporting it.
  20. 350 bucks RTA vinyl 500.00 installed on the Lexan.
  21. Booper

    Laminate question w/ followup

    Correct. Your customer is an idiot, you can NOT laminate cut vinyl as you will get bubbles on all the vinyl edges. Use a good quality vinyl like Oracal 651 & the magnets should be good for at least 5 years.
  22. Booper

    layered vinyl decals... use an overlam?

    Laminating a layered decal you will get bubbles at the seams where the layers overlap. I only laminate printed stuff.
  23. Booper

    What do you charge?

    60 bucks plus shipping.
  24. Booper

    Plywood Type Boards????

    Marine Grade plywood?? Ben
  25. Booper

    Print on Vinyl

    ^^^^^ What they said you need vinyl that takes AQUEOUS inks (water based) and then laminate it.