abullock22

thanks guys!! - the weeding was not so bad but i had bad light which didnt help..now bought myself something decent so my eyes dont go crosseyed!!

Im interested in expanding my business into creating stickers as well as vinyl decals - i dont however have a printer that will print the stickers inhouse. I was thinking about finding a company to print the artwork onto sticker material in sheets and cut them out on my own vinyl cutter to save some cost - is this a way that doing stickers has been approached or am i looking at very small savings and more hastle this way? Cheers

For whatever reason i cant get the cutter to start cutting at the start of the vinyl, it seems to spool the vinyl for random distances and then start cutting at random places. Is this a setting on the graphtec cutter or in signblazer? Ideally i want the cutter to start cutting form wherever i locate the knife - any ideas on what im doing wrong. I was reading something about changing the the gp-gl to hp-gl in the command settings - but i dont know where those settings are located. thanks guys andy

I have bought myself a graphtec ce5000-60 and finally got it cutting yesterday after wrestling with illustrator and sign blazer all week,for whatever reason sign blazer was cutting random lines and behaving like my plotter was broken and was really turnign me off the whole idea. So as a last resort i downloaded my copy of cutting master and corel and quickly i was cutting out some small decals with ease- great! my only problem is trying to set the page up correctly and knowing exactly where the cutter is going to cut. I had everything grouped in the bottom right hand corner of the page in corel, and when i hit print i made sure the layout tab i had reposiiton images to: bottom right corner but when it printed the cutter seemed to goto the middle of the vinyl and cut there, the cut came out perfectly but the positioning of artwork is confusing me. Essentially when i get jobs i would like to just group everything on the page in corel and just hit send so knowing my start point is crucial to how i like to work - so my question is, does anyone know of any links which shows how to set a page up for print in corel? or can any explain how i need to set up the cutter and artwork to know exactly where the cutter will start. Sorry a bit of a ramble but hopefully gives some insight. Thanks

i have used the set start point but still nothing, it still moves position when it starts cutting - any other ideas?

anyone?

thanks for your help mr300s i tried what you said again last night and it was still giving me greif so i decided to step away before i started to rage lol - i will try again tonight

thanks, i do have it on sheet, i actually did it on roll 1 the first time and it just spooled about 4 ft of vinyl then cut the artwork, to avoid doing that again i cut off a small section of vinyl and kept the setting at "sheet" to test with. I will retry at rool 1 and see if it makes any diffrence so just gave that a try and it comes up with "no media" in the graphtec display

outline the text type>create outline, highlight it all then use the transform dialog (window>transform) box to type in the height and that should do it, make sure the little chain is clicked on so it scales both height and width proportionally, but as MM64 says it depends if your doing lowercase or uppercase on what size the overall text will be

there are loads of websites online that offer vector images that you can cut, google vector silhouettes for a start, otherwise you can get books such as the dover series which include a cd of all the clip art featured - best bet is to just google what your after and add vector after the word!

Im deciding on a vinyl cutter, i really want to get a copam, but its lack of contour cutting is pretty much a deal breaker for me and I might have to go with a laserpoint which im getting the feeling is a big heres my thread.... http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,27563.0.html Anyway my question is as stated in the title and a last gasp attempt to see if I still have any choices on what to purchase. So.... has anyone actually got their copam to contour cut using the manual method? Ive been told there is software to aid but I want to know if you have actually got it to work and If so, how did you do it (software etc.), is it tricky? Im somewhat computer literate but we have a Summa T-series vinyl cutter in my office which also supposedly has a manual way to contour cut and Ive never managed to get that thing to work either so its casted serious doubts on my abililities to get anything to manually contour cut. So has anyone got this to happen?

hmmm so further research... Im actually reading the D60 desktop has x-y axis alignment for contour cutting whereas the D60SE has OPOS, for auto align. Since it looks like he has the D60 desktop in the photo is it easy to contour cut with x-y axis alignment - what is that?

nice one, we actually have a summa t120 at work and its a beast, just wasnt sure if this trickled down to the cheaper cutters The seller says it contour cuts too (just what im looking for!!) but im just wondering if anyone else can back this up - I just asked if he can give me a demo so hopefully he can but wanting to know before I set up to meet

congrats on getting the contour cut to work, im sure thats just opened up a whole new sector for you to explore - pcut is the same as a copam?

did you ever get it to work?

nice one boosted let us know!!

I work in a sign shop and constantly use the summa vinyl plotter we have here - I actually enjoy it working it but most of the decal jobs are large commercial jobs and we frequently pass up on the smaller decal jobs. This made me realize that if i bought a vinyl cutter I could step in and plug the gap with my own equipment. The shop also does not have the capabilities to contour cut stickers, so Im also looking to move in on that area too. Looking around this site which is great BTW!!, I am coming to a head of what to buy, either a Copam CP-2500 or a USCutter LaserPoint Vinyl Cutter - looking at the 24" widths - (my budget being only around 700 dollars for starting off). My question is for contour cutting, is the laserpoint a better machine? Im presuming for cutting vinyl decals they measure up equally?- do they both do a good job, i guess the only reason im thinking the laserpointer has the advantage at the moment is due to its contour cutting for the stickers, I was reading the copam doesnt quite have the capabilities, or you have to do it manually at least (sounds like a would become a bit of a headache over time) Additionally I have an epson 1200 printer for printing the stickers on - so i belive i have to get a UV ink CIS, and papillo vinyl and also looking to get some over laminate such as frog juice, or can someone reccomend a better overlaminate to use to protect the stickers that I can just squeegee on top of the printed stickers...im not sure about frog juice, sounds like something you just pour all over your work?? Am i missing anything else, would love to hear opinions on the set up and it it sounds like im on the right path at least much appreciated andy

thanks levi for the suggestion - looks like a decent peice of kit, but i had a talk with myself last night and decided to reduce the width of the cutter im looking at getting (im only going to do smaller jobs anyway, plus im confident enough to join up sectioned pieces if required) and go with the CE5000-40 Craft ROBO Pro 15 inch desktop, if i really start to get bigger jobs then hopefully by that time I will be able to put the money I make towards a 24" copam

excellent, would love to hear how it works out - im sure theres few other members who would be intigued too!!

oh really, *sigh* ok so that doesnt sound to promising..if only the copam would contour cut ...grr!! Ive put in a thread in the copam area to see if anyone can explain how to contour cutting with a copam, using the mentioned software or otherways, i really hope someone can step forward and provide proof it can be done!!

thanks speeddoggy - im actually watching a big on ebay at the moment for a Graphtec CE 1000-60 24", who knows maybe i can get a steal - but if not, at the moment I just cant swing that money even with the sale sadly :/

interesting, ive still not seen any posts about anyone succesfully using a copam to contour cut no matter what the software cliams looks like a laserpoint is the way i might have to go - i was really looking towards the copam as well, least it will be cheaper though - gotta look on the bright side of things!! (quikly looked at a graphtec but there to pricey, nothing on ebay either)

Thanks for the info, think ill do some more digging on the contouring with the copam, if its a slight headache ill struggle through if the vinyl cutting is that much better _ thanks again!

thanks guys so signblazer is a good way to go! So dakotagrafx there is no chance to contour cut with the copam at all - thats to bad, is the laserpoint that much worse than the copam in regards to vinyl cutting?

great ill have a google, any opinions on the cutters? oh also how much are the programs to run the cutters, ive been hearing some programs are like 800 dollars to upgrade to the full version - is this true?