rrc1962

Members
  • Content Count

    263
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by rrc1962

  1. My Refine will do this. Cut some 1/8" text and make it look like Cessna did it from the factory. The Roland I had wouldn't do it to my satisfaction. Depends on how picky the customer is. The panels I did were inspected by an aircraft historian for accuracy before the customer would pay me. On the other hand, I've seen tape and magic marker on some experimentals. To the OP...Looks like Dakota can cut your text. Farm out the job.
  2. Depending on the cutting software, you can change the orientation of the part to what every your want. A plotter and a CNC machine just don't see things the same way. The way a plotter...and cutting software...operate as far as orientation is more like a printer than a CNC machine. You need to forget about what you know about CNC machinery when you're working with the plotter. It's just not the same. If you import the turtle as a DXF into your CAM software and position it right side up, the resulting part file will...or should... have an origin point at the lower left of the part. If you import the same DXF into your vinyl cutting software, position it right side up and send it to the cutter, the origin point will be at the lower right. We have a CNC plasma cutter and I routinely cut the same designs in vinyl and steel. I export a DFX out of AutoCAD and if I'm cutting vinyl, I import it into Flexi. If I'm cutting steel, I import it into Artcam. Flexi puts the origin at the lower right. Artcam puts it at the lower left.
  3. In the CNC world origin is lower left. In the plotter world origin is lower right, but your cutting software should know that. For instance, When I generate a part file in ArtCAM for the plasma table, origin in the part file is at the lower left. When I create a job in FlexiSign, the origin is set to lower right of the design. I can manually move the start origin on the cutter, but that just changes where the cutter starts cutting. The origin is still lower right of the cut design. What cutting software are you using? If it's cutting upside down and backwards, it sounds like you have it set to cut mirrored or you have the wrong driver selecting in your cutting software.
  4. I could never get acceptable quality on something that small with a drag knife cutter. Even the Roland I used to have wouldn't do it. A buddy has a Gerber pin fed machine with tangential knife that does a decent job with very small cuts. Depending on the job you could screen print the panel. I've done a few of those for people restoring warbirds. If it's just a guy looking for a few decals for a panel, this won't apply, but some of these guys restoring war birds will pay big money to get an exact reproduction panel.
  5. I was under the impression that Omega was only compatible with Gerber plotters. I was comped a copy of a newer version, but never installed it because the rep told me that it only supported Gerber plotters.
  6. Probably the biggest difference is that the high end cutters are servo driven where the cheaper ones are stepper driven. Servos are capable of maintaining accuracy at higher speed. In a stepper system, when the drive tells the motor to move 1000 steps, the drive doesn't know if it actually did. The drive just puts out 1000 pulses and expects the motor to respond. If the stepper motor stalls for some reason, the cut will be short because of the missed steps. In a servo system, the motors have encoders that feed back to the drive. The drive tells the motor to move 12" and as the motor is moving, the drive is reading the encoder to see how far it actually did move. You can stall a servo motor and it won't cause a problem in the cut. Servos are also smoother than steppers because they are just DC motors and do not move in steps. In the real world, stalling motors only happens when the motors are undersized or there is some other mechanical problem. I've had stepper driven CNC mills, lathes, routers and plasma tables and I've only seen motor stall when there was a mechanical problem or operator error. I used to mill parts for an aerospace contractor on an old Bridgeport that I converted to CNC using steppers. Those parts had to pass QA and had a tolerance of +0.0005, -0.0001. I guess my point is that steppers aren't a bad way to go as long as the system is designed properly. I think for $299 the Refine cutter is a fine machine and has cut everything I've asked it to cut with no problems. For $1500 I'd expect a lot more. I guess it's no different than anything else. Buy the best machine you can afford. A $299 Refine will work and make you the money you need to buy a better one. Actually, the cutter in the only piece of equipment I've ever purchased that paid for itself in the FIRST job.
  7. rrc1962

    where to advertise my website

    The customer never pays the fees. I pay 1.47% swiped and 2.17% keyed. Those are not added together. Start doing some real numbers on credit cards and you'll see a huge difference at the end of the month.
  8. rrc1962

    where to advertise my website

    Any of those clearing houses will have stupid high fees. You'll need a legit CC processor to get the low fees. We pay 1.47% on Visa, MC and Discover with a $5 monthly fee and a $.10 transaction fee. The catch most, if not all of them have, is that there is a minimum monthly discount of $25. That means they have to make at least $25/ month from your account. If they make that amount then you pay the $5 fee and your done. If they only make $10 then they charge you $15 + the $5 fee. In contrast, PayPal virtual terminal charges you $30 per month + almost 3% regardless of how much business you do. Look at both methods in an instance where you only do one $10 transaction in the month. (1) You run the card and pay about 15 cents + 10 cents. They made 25 cents on your account for the month. At the end of the month they will charge you $24.75 + $5 = $29.75 for a total of $30. (2) You run the card and pay about 30 cents + trans fee (12 cents I think). You pay 42 cents + the standard $30 monthly fee = $30.42. That's with one transaction. The number stack further in favor of a real CC processor the more you use the account.
  9. rrc1962

    Long Cuts

    Get an old XP box with a serial port and dedicate it to the cutter. I cut 10 feet long routinely on an 871 with an old 1.6Ghz machine running XP that I paid $40 for. On long cuts I turn off weed lines and borders.
  10. rrc1962

    How is your revenue split?

    I wouldn't mess with shirts unless I was screen printing them. We used to do it way back. Even now if we decided to do shirts again, I'd find a wholesaler, farm it out and make more than if I did the printing myself. Plastisol transfers are a nice compromise and actually look better and hold up better than oven dried plastisol. That's how we handled our regular customers. We would run a couple hundred plastisol transfers, then just press what they needed when they needed it. Doing it that way, we could sell them small orders at bulk pricing because the transfers were on the shelf. Vinyl is OK for the one-offs, but you always end up with more time in the artwork than you can get out of the shirt.
  11. My guess would be carriage off track or possibly a loose of broken pen/knife holder. Some mechanical play in the system would cause it to do what it's doing. I still say that it's pointless to be messing with software if it won't even draw the test square. If it's consistently leaving contours open by the same amount every time, then it is probably something in the firmware. If it's an erratic problem, it is most likely a mechanical issue. I don't think these cutters have a calibration feature.
  12. rrc1962

    To add or not to add phone number.....

    I think there are too many different fonts. I try not to use more than 2 different fonts in one design. I agree with Jeremy. Symmetry is important. It's all about making it easy to read. If it's not easy to read, people won't read it. Fancy backgrounds and curly fonts all make a design harder to read. If it's a logo or text used as artwork that's different, but as far as readability, nothing beats arial or helvetica on a neutral background in a contrasting color. Also, don't be afraid of white space. You don't have to fill the entire canvas. My rule of thumb with business cards is this... (1) Have a well designed and simple logo that identifies your business. Look at the most successful businesses in the world and look how simple and recognizable their logos are. (2) Unless the business name IS the logo, text including the name should be a very readable font. I want someone to be able to glance at my card while driving and be able to read it.
  13. If it's not closing contours on a machine test with a pen, there is something else going on. I wouldn't even be messing with software until it passes a self test with a pen.
  14. rrc1962

    USCutter Driver Pack

    Bad com port on the PC or bad serial cable? Pretty sure it requires a cable wired straight through, not one made for transferring data from PC to PC. Check the cable with an ohm meter. Pin one on one end should show continuity to pin one on the other end. You are using Flexi? Does flexi say it is cutting or holding after you hit send?
  15. rrc1962

    USCutter Driver Pack

    The light above "reset" should stay red. To set the home position of the knife, press "Offline/Pause" then use the arrows to move to your desired home position. The light above "Offline/Pause" will be on. Press "Origin" to set the home position. The cutter will not cut while it is in Offline mode. Are you using a motherboard mounted serial com port or a USB to serial adapter?
  16. rrc1962

    Brand new cutter won't power up!? *UPDATE*

    OP is welcome to try it. I personally wouldn't waste my time. Serial port works every time.
  17. rrc1962

    Media Shift Copam 2500

    I know they are a good machine. I also know that if a person is having tracking issues, it's probably because of setup issues or operator error. He can submit a ticket and go through tech support, but in the end, finding the right combination of settings is largely trial and error. Good call on the weed border also...
  18. rrc1962

    Media Shift Copam 2500

    It is if it's not set up right. Roller pressure and blade pressure have to be right. Too much blade pressure will cause drag on the side of the vinyl that is cutting and cause the tracking to go off. Not enough roller pressure will cause the same issue. If you look at the video he posted above, the tracking on that machine is not perfect. Looks to be 1/8' - 1/4" off over 12 feet when cutting, yet tracked perfect in a dry run. That's because of blade pressure. I can get less than 1/4" over 12 feet with my MH781. I did a 10' job for a trailer the other day and it tracked within 1/16". It's all in the setup. Just aligning the vinyl slightly crooked (and I mean VERY slightly) will cause noticeable tracking issues over 10 feet.
  19. rrc1962

    Brand new cutter won't power up!? *UPDATE*

    Serial cable won't cause it to not power up, but if you use a USB cable when it does power up, your next post will probably be asking why it won't cut.
  20. rrc1962

    USCutter Driver Pack

    The US Cutter drivers work fine with Flexi 8.1. Just drop them in the drivers folder and they will show up in the cutter drop down list. Oh...and use the serial connection...NOT USB.
  21. rrc1962

    Really need help!

    Turns out I have this font. I Typed it into flexi, hit weld and it's ready to cut. I agree with speed though. Anything smaller than 4" and I'd need a microscope to weed it. Could be the OP has some cutter of software settings a bit off.
  22. rrc1962

    Really need help!

    Post a photo of what it looks like after the cutter cuts.
  23. rrc1962

    Tupperware font

    It's probably not a font. It was probably designed from the ground up just for this logo. Most companies with the cash to pay graphic designers want something original, not something that can be typed up in MS Word and printed by anyone with a computer.
  24. rrc1962

    Really need help!

    Photoshop is not a vector editing program. If you're working with an image that you created in Photoshop, I'm surprised you're able to get it to cut at all. You can open a vector in Photoshop, but Photoshop basically converts it to a raster image. You need something like Illustrator, Corel or Inkscape to edit vectors.
  25. rrc1962

    Garage Door

    651 will work but 751 will conform better, especially cold. I use a rollepro but a tennis ball works also. If the grooves are real deep, you have to heat the vinyl then roll it in. I did a trailer the other day with 651 and after heating and rolling over the rivets, the vinyl looked painted on. The finish on a garage door shouldn't require heating. If the texture is real shallow, you might even get away with a felt squeegee.