Truckntran

You are going to need to do some undercover research in your area to see what common signs are going for at the other shops.. Price out a typical real estate sign 18 x 24, maybe an oversize load sign 1 x 5 , a two or three color 4 x 8 aluminum panel sign.. I use the online calculator and it seems OK, but doesn't make allowances for some factors, which I fudge myself. I have seen by the square inch but again, that won't factor in lots of lines of text like a menu board vs a simple single large word, or weeding Americana with all its thin serifs vs weeding plain ole helvetica bold. And then there is design time on more involved work. I don't usually charge for design on stuff I can whip out in signblaster fairly quickly. Involve a logo, picture, or vectorizing stuff, I will need to charge for that. Good luck!

If I click on power weed option on my Graphtec using SB, I get a series of small squares sometimes where I have blanks or used the space key... and occasionally these will get cut into letters or designs too.. I have given up power weeding and just weed each copy now.. Can't take the chance to ruin the sign.

The local sign suppliers are saying the omega board with aluminum sides is giving them about a YEAR dependable service, same was said in a magazine lately... I have some used stuff where the aluminum has separated and corroded to powder, in dry sunny Texas. I do not know how old it is.. but I wouldn't install a sign face I had to stand behind for any time unless it didn't have wood in it. Seems crazy, $100 a sheet for stuff that only is guaranteed for a year. It does say to seal the edges..

If you haven't seen this... try: http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,3750.0.html it is a sticky at the top of teh Pcut forum for the blade holder..

Have you asked the previous owner if he had this problem?? I am not familiar with the Pcut but if it has a removeable blade hoder like my Graphtec, take it out and try cutting some vinyl by hand with it (just use a scrap taped to your weeding table ) ..If you cannot get it to cut by hand at the proper depth something is wrong with the blade or blade holder.. gotta have a sharp blade, no gunk gumming it up, blade has to rotate easily..(Watch out a good blade is SHARP !!).. If you can make decent cuts thru just the vinyl and not cutting the backing paper, install the blade holder and play around with your pressure settings...Good luck!

They sell a similar product in the Walmarts here... That product is good for short term use but the standard inks do not seem to hold up for repeated washings...this may be better at ink retention but at that price why not just give it a try ...seems inexpensive enough..

What are folks using to put temporary graphics on new cars like the vinyl prices you see at the dealers? How long can it stay on safely? mANd can it be removed by dummies or would an experienced pro be needed instead of letting the dealer pull it off?

If you want to node edit EVERYTHING at once you will probably have to convert to curves and select everything by dragging a box around the whole sign.. I think the way it usually works is you can select any object and node edit the one object.. which is the way I usually prefer to do it.... Might try it without converting to curves and select everything first, if that doesn't work for ya then convert to curves, just realize all your text editing should be all finished before you conver to curves.. I have had trouble selecting all of a design that has a border around it, sometimes I just drag the border off the workspace and select everything else.

I would think at the size you are thinking you may need to lessen the detail and the drop shadow.fancy lettering. Might be difficult to read /weed/apply. Full front T shirt size might work tho. Something about the AT sticks out.. might try small case or simple arial for that word.. or just reduce the size. I'm not much of a fan of word puzzles either.....I'd much rather see "I race at Pops" with an outline of the racer around it or below it.. However it is all a personal preference thing.. Others may disagree. At least you are thinking about it which is a great first step. Sometimes when I am working on something like this I will print it out on paper and tape it to the wall, and just walk by it for a day or two. Eventually I figger it out.. I also have a couple of folks I run ideas by....one guy gave me an OBVIOUS solution for my own personal logo that made a huge difference...and he isn't a sign guy at all.

Just curious why you chose to cut out the orange where the blue covers? I have seen lots of folks do this and haven't gotten a straight answer as to why.......is it more durable that way, less apt to fly off the car, ...?? Looks great BTW.

I don't know what I am doing wrong but I can't seem to get larger signs made without some nasty bubbles that just won't go away. Even with wet apps I run into it occasionally. I have been using some reclaimed Omegapanel that the old vinyl was peeled off of, adhesive cleaned with lacquer thinner, even sanded down with 220 grit on an orbital... altho I had similar problems on Coroplast, and even on top of reflective vinyl I have problems with black oracal. I've been cleaning with rapidprep or rapidtac, using cheapo paper towels, and using paper transfer tape (main perfect tear?) Oracal 751 and also some old Avery /Vector vinyl. I have been applying both wet and dry... wet helps a lot, but they say not to wet apply reflective. I made my own big squeegee and now applying transfer tape is going a LOT better but still, a 1 foot wide piece of reflective seems to always get the better of me. Either it goes crooked or bubbles. While squeegeeing I try to use the same technique as the videos linked to here lately. Pretty flat for the first go round, then increase the pressure. Some bubbles will move to the edge of a letter, other times they are trapped and more pressure just stretches the vinyl, making an ugly mark after you pop the bubble and get the trapped air out. I have a transfer tape tool coming (Signwarehouses version of the Weber made tool) to help out on the larger stuff.. What else could I be doing wrong that makes all these dang bubbles!!?? BTW a sample of the signs I have been trying to make would be a 5 foot long by one foot high engineer reflective background with black 2 inch brush stroke letters saying OVERSIZE LOAD. Small 2 inch by 6 inch decals come out perfect....its just the larger stuff that gives me fits.

Sometime it will help to pull the top layer of tape off and resqueegie before you pull off the bottom layerof transfer tape... I've chanced it many times myself and usually it comes out fine....but every once in a while you do run into demon posessed vinyl that doesn;t want to cooperate just cause you don't have the right width transfer handy..lol.

I think I saw them in the Glantz catalogs...you will need to contact your local branch to find out what they can get for you... http://www.nglantz.com/index.html also in the back of the signs and digital graphics mags I get they have a few post system sellers.

Looks great, now lets see your JEEP!! (2A column shift addict myself)

I would guess at $10 a sq Meter??

Hey guys, I am starting up here in a small Texas town where homemade signs are the norm, unless you buy your banner from "Mr Cheap" and nail it to a chunk of used plywood. Been doing some cold calls, today was an antique mall. Lady there wanted me to price out a 4 by eight double face for her new jewelry only antique shop she is soon opening. I said I'd take a look, see what the existing sign frame looked like, and be back with some ideas.. On the way I happenned to check out the new sign the antique mall had recently put up. Upon closer examination it turns out to be a printed banner, stapled to the old plywood sign of the restuarant who had the sign previously (they had a nice sign but went out of biz a few months ago. I stopped to talk with the other antique mall in town.. and he introduced me to the local sign supplier, from a town 48 miles away. This guy does printed banners from your jpeg or eps or whatever, for an alleged $1 a square foot. THAT IS $96 for a two sided 4 by eight sign. 90 percent of the places with professionally done signs in town are banner signs, usually stapled to a plywood backer. The local shop is a part time affair, hard to get hold of, prices out of the price guide, and generally tries to act like they are doing you a favor. Those guys I can compete with, but this guy seems to have most of the shops in town buying his banners... I have folks buying truck lettering from me, sure would like to sell something else too... but how? How the heck am I gonna compete with this nonsense?

I've made a few free coroplast signs myself.....and one site where there are always a bunch of trucks has already paid for the coro sign in new biz. (I did tell the folks who I made the coro sign for here's a free sign and some of my cards....and if anyone asks about pricing, tell them ya don't know as the sign was a favor.) Good luck and don't undervalue your work!

I saw those boxes and wondered just what they were for....THANK YOU!

Hi guys.. I am enjoying using Signblazer elements but have one feature I don't quite understand....How the heck do you uniformly space the letters if the original spacing is not what ya want? I can go to node edit, but usually I am not as precise with the mouse as I'd like, and end up shifting up and down as well as sideways. I can cure that with a a guideline and moving gthe word up and down after I have kerned the text manually, but I bet there is something where it will do it for me?? In Dr Stika I could just enter a number in the text spacing box and there I go, but this doesn't seem to have that function. I have fooled around with compression but entering a number even .01 off from what is displayed usually results in bunching the letters up into one unrepairable mess. So...what obvious solution am I missing??? WinxP computer BTW. Elements from the trial download is what I am using, have n't got to download full version quite yet.

Whatever you did to do your original example is exactly right, just need to do it twice, the second time just for the words "musky shop" you follow the arc COUNTER CLOCKWISE which you do by unclicking the box for clockwise......I'm not sure how you got a straight line of text....

do what you are doing for the first two words, then do the musky shop as a separate line of text, and uncheck clockwise in the follow arc window.......That worked for me in a quick trial attempting to do what ya want.

No, but I do have a stock class Cub Cadet 122 that has pulled in two meets........What sort of graphics were you looking for...

That is a standard paint department hardware store item, should be in stock at any Home Depot, Menards or Lowes, altho at a lil higher price than HF. Heck, might even find one in a pawn shop. John, I would be curious as to exactly how you use the big squeegie on coro dry to avoid bubbles...I've been plagued by air bubbles lately, partly cuz I haven't built my app tape roller setup and usually mess up there and get wrinkles.. Any hints to share?

For pens, amsterdam or national pen will do what ya need.. for that small amount look for someting with small setup charges in the catalogs... If you have a press you could order custom transfers from transfer express, or whomever and make those yourself, otherwise find a small shop near ya to do it....

I am also a Stika SX 15 user, who was hooked on DR Stika... What I would suggest is just start to play around with signblazer for a while, I haven't started DR Stika in a while now.....and my signs have definitely stepped up a notch. (I did upgrade to a Graphtec at the same time..) I'm betting in a month or so you are gonna wonder why you waited to dump the doctor for so long... BTW....the free version I downloaded didn't have help files within the program, but when you look at your desktop you will find you have a help Icon that DOES work. Just being able to NODE EDIT was a huge help. If you have any specific questions ask away....