mikeomatic

I to have an old pcut 630. Have been using it on and off the last 10 year. Mostly on now and also thinking about a new cutter. That said, the pcut has been a great cutter and I have no real reason to replace it. I think I will do as posted "put a little bit aside"

Hi JP, I have had my creation Pcut over 10 years. I originally bought it to cut spray masks for my wife who is an airbrush artist. I have also cut decals and a few signs. I never really got into sign making or real art work. SB has always worked with out any problems all shapes seem to cut fine and weed pretty well. Now I have started doing small jobs for friends and family. The Pcut and SB combo still work fine (actually I am surprised at how well the cutter has worked all these years with out any problems). I only have weeding problems with very small letters ( less then 3/8") or small complicated decals. I always use a 60 deg blade and have to change the pressure sometimes when I change from mask to vinyl. I am not very software savvy so I really can't offer much help, sorry. Guess I am one of the lucky ones Mike

I would like to thank the members of this forum. With out the wealth of information here I would have never been able to use our pcut 630. My wife and I have a "hobby business" doing custom paint and metal work on motorcycles.I really did not care to do any vinyl work, (last Christmas I did cut some vinyl for my grand kids and wife :-) I purchased it about a year ago to make air brush paint masks, wow does it work great! I can import flames (or anything for that matter) out line them, make then the size and configuration I want, then cut the mask.Once I have the mask, I spray the entire project with the color of the "pin stripe" apply the mask with the outline still attached to the flame,then peel the flame out of the center, spray the center, cover the center and spray the rest of the part. Then peel the whole thing and walla, perfect flame job with perfect pinstripe.I also cut stencils for my wife's airbrush work. Last week my next door neighbor asked me if I could help his son out and cut some vinyl signage for his new business. I said sure, thinking a quick easy deal...well it wasn't quick, or easy but it sure was fun and I think it came out great being as I never did anything like it before (my biggest project has been to cut some flames for one of my rc planes) I still have text to apply to both the side and rear so I will post some more pics when I finish next week end. Again thanks to all the forum for the wealth of info here. It would have been impossible for me to use SBE and my pcut with out you all (lots of time spent reading :-) Mike in sunny St Augustine FL

Locknload, I am in the "mask making/applying" part of a job right now. I will be happy to take some progress pics and post with a short narrative.will have it done in about a week. Mike

Sorry if I ruffeled some feathers, was not my intent. I am not in the sign bussiness and don't intend to be. I also do not want to "screw things up" for other sign companies in town.I am friends with 2 of the most sucessful vinyl sign shop owners in town. Both of which have cut paint masks for me in the past. I helped a young man and his family (who also happen to be the children of my next door neighbor) get a business started. We charge a lot of money for our custom paint work and know the value of a job well done. If I was going to enter the sign business, belive me, we would charge properly to make a profit and cover all costs. Again thanks to this forum for all the help. Here is a pic of one of our custom bike paint jobs, price for this runs between 3000$-5000$ depending on how many parts etc. Mike

woops forgot the rest,

I finished the van this morning. Except for the left rear door (I wanted to replace the word cleaner with better spacing and same fontbut the owner would not letme) I am very pleased for my 1st vinyl job. This is not my bussiness, nor do I plan on making money with the cutter, we do use it almost exclusively for air brush masks or spray maske. If I was going to charge for a job like that I would charge 600$. I would not do it for any less. I gaing lots of valuable knowledge about the process and SBE. Any way here is the finished product Mike

Hi again, trying to help ourselves but can't seem to get this one? We are hand drawing/tracing an image then scanning it in. figured out how to vector the file and get just one image. However when we cut the image out in a paint mask it is ragged. when you magnify the image you can see the pencil "jitters" for lack of a better word. The machine (pcut) then cuts what it sees. Have tried node edit and tried to remone the worst of it, which i did....but it is still not acceptable. I will post the image if need be but I really want to know how to do it rather then some one working on it for me.There must be a way to "smooth the images" that I have overlooked. We purchased the machine mainly to cut spray masks and will be doing lots more (we do custom motorcycle paint thanks for any help, mike

Node editing is how to clean up a vectorized image. Nodes are what define the shape of your image. Select an element then select Node Edit. It will let you clean up or move nodes. Thanks Jay, Thats what I was afraid you were going to say. It is tedious work but I am getting better at it. I thought there might be a faster way to clean up an image. Mike

Never mind :-) found it.....split object duh :-) mike

Hi All, Have had our creation pcut for about two weeks now. I have done really well so far by reading the forum and the sign blazer book which I downloaded and printed.We are working in signblazer. Here is my problem. Wife draws outline of what she wants for an airbrush mask.We scan it in,monochrome it, then vectorize it and wow, I think this is really great.....nothing to it....only problem is the cutter is seeing only the pencil line and thinks that is what we want to cut. The cutter then proceeds to cut the pencil line both sides :-( She needs to use both parts of the mask (outside and inside) so the cutting of the pencil line wont work (it really is an amazing machine). Can some one walk me through how to make the center of the object become one with everything, or is there a way to erase just the inside of the line? I have researched the forum archives and read the book and just can't seem to find out how to do it thanks in advance. Mike

Hi from Mikeomatic...(mike) I have been reading this forum for weeks learning from the wealth of information here. My wife and I are 3+ years from retirment. We currently have a hobby bussiness custom painting motorcycles. We also ride,so it started out on friends bikes and seems to be growing. We are in beautiful NE florida and have been for almost 30 years. My wife is an airbrush artist and does the art work part and I do all the prep and regular automotive paint part.We have been making paint masks by hand, needless to say its a tedious pain job. We purchased a creation pcut and are trying to find a place to set it up in the art room (whole nother project :-). We are hoping to start making paint masks with our cutter after the learning curve. This sure is a helpful site, thanks to all who have made it that way. Mike and Susan

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Finishing up the art stuido re-do and will set up the new cutter over the weekend.I have been reading every evening and have printed out all the information to hook up the cutter using SB. Lets see if it all works :-) Will post a few pics of Susans art work so you can see the kind of stuff we do. Again thank you for the welcome. Mike