DCMoney

Just as a disclaimer, I'm not a professional, just got into vinyl myself 15 months ago and t shirt only 6 months ago, this is all done out of my basement. I've tried keeping things cheap to maximize profits, but the more I do the more I just buy the right tools to make the job easier. T shirt side has taken over and I don't do that many vinyl decals any more. I had a Titan 2, so not exactly a cheap cutter but it's no Graphtec. With the titan 2 I had to spend a good amount of time getting it to cut tiny text (1/8" tall), anytime I replaced a blade I had to start all over to get it dialed in to the optimum cutting capabilities. Titan 2 example. Graphtech, pull out of box assembly, set blade height according to Sketerz post all over this forum. Cut 3/32" text out of the box. Graphtech example- didn't have anything in the pic for size reference, overall height was around 4 inches. Semper Fidelis was less than 3/32" tall. Graphtec has an abundant amount of features the Titan 2 doesn't, to the point it was almost overwhelming when I got the graphtec. Media Sensors, push roller sensor, prefeed (nice feature to making sure the media is going to feed true). Most here turn off the media and push roller sensors but I love them both. I do a lot of HTV t shirts and most of my graphics are less than the push roller width on a 15" roll of media so I can load the roll hit a button it finds the start of the media, knows the width of the media because of the push roller sensor. I send the graphic, trim the graphic once it's done cutting, tap the push roller lever, hit the button again and it finds the new start of the roll. Before I would load the media and spend 10-30 seconds trying to minimise the waste, where now the sensors do it for me. I also have the software (Cutting Master 3) set to feed 2.125" once the cutting is done and it leaves about 1/8" gap for trimming, this could be done with the titan 2 software as well. I save probably 1 minute of time per cut because of the features on the Graphtec over the titan 2. I haven't taken advantage of the ARM, but I do use Adobe Illustrator and the CM3 (cutting master 3) plug in, which saves me time over using AI then going to SCALP (Sure Cuts A Lot Pro what came with the Titan 2 when I bought it) or another software. If you already have a customer base that buys embroidered items from you, adding HTV to it is going to get you even more customers and business. Dont skip out on a heat press. I bought a cheap china 15x15 t shirt press to start with to see if the t shirt thing was going to work out, and it did so after 500+ t shirts between February and June I finally started looking to upgrade. I decided to go with a Geo Knight DK20SP. Pros of the DK20SP It's pneumatic, 16x20 heating pallet Swing away. Auto Open Cons It's pneumatic, so you have to have an air source. Weights a ton. Expensive Brand new $2250 Why I didn't buy the Hotronix Fusion - no auto open, wanted to be able to start a shirt and walk away to multitask and not have to rush over to the press when the shirt was done. Plus hitting two buttons and have the press do its job is really nice.

I started "cheap" and after 9 months upgraded to a Graphtec CE6000, wish I would have started with the graphtech from the get go.

If you've already got the digitized file should be easy for someone to do it. If digitized right, don't think there should be a huge loss of detail. Hat looks good.

Someone will have to digitize it, standard vector formats won't easily convert or possibly at all. I have tried a few times to digitize but there's a lot more that goes into it compared to making a cuttable vector.

Having a hard time tracking down this font, any help would be great! Thanks!

Looks great!

Figures it happens a day before a race weekend, will be too busy loading the trailer to play with them... Most likely it will probably be the fastest I've ever loaded the trailer! Extremely happy to be upgrading from my $250 15x15 swinging Chinese press!

Ha! We have a lot of unused space in the basement, all of it but a small section where the furnace and what heater is is unfinished. Ive been thinking of buying a printer, but most of my purchases go 6 months to a year before I finally commit.

Finally got everything set up and in the spot I think I want it. Airline ran and hid, might make an adapter block and do away with the hose hanging out the hole but for now it works. Wife is the one that normally does all the pressing did about 50 shirts yesterday and said it was the easiest 50 shirts she had ever done.

Congrats, I love my Graphtech! What software are you using?

For smaller decals ive been using one of these for a while. They even have one with a laser on it now. I do a lot of individual race numbers and have gotten really good at squaring them in seconds.

Yeah I cant wait, the china one would have to be adjusted almost every press because it would tighten up while rotating the top heating platen out of the way. Ordered a part this morning online from Geo Knight and received a call an hour later asking if I really wanted 3 day shipping and that ground would arrive in the same amount of time but at 1/3 the cost. I must say thats the first time that has happened. Really happy with my choice so far!

My "basic" colors are, Red, Blue, Silver, Gold, Black, White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Pink. With Red Black and White being the most popular.

Same here.

Got to play with one of them last night before going to bed. Its going to be so much better than my china press! They were sold as a set for a killer deal, will probably end up selling one of them but I haven't decided yet. First impressions, super heavy duty! The swing motion is really smooth, love that there's a swing stop to position the top exactly over the platen each time. Pressing the two buttons is so nice! Its a lot quieter than I was expecting, the one video of the press running on youtube it seems to have an extra loud blow off. I was a little worried but had a plan to run the exhaust out of my basement but after running it its not necessary. My old press made a lot more noise. Bad, it weighs a ton! Had time to shoot a short video just demoing the press, didn't feel like waiting the 15 seconds I had set on the 2nd timer so interrupted those but it it run for the 3 second first timer. Air line will be ran through the wall eventually.

I store mine on a wall rack, ones that get used daily have nothing on them, the ones that are less frequent get the plastic sleeves that cove with them left on to keep the dust off them. Have 2 of these, need a 3rd... http://www.signwarehouse.com/shop/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SE-WALL-16B&Store_Code=SC&gdftrk=gdfV28537_a_7c3120_a_7c12364_a_7c2563&gclid=Cj0KEQjwrJ2tBRD13N7T5u7k9I8BEiQA5APAAKMINrylQDDwAiMLuIhH-tuXeMaXI-iO0eEFhqGbIPMaAk8B8P8HAQ

I use to have this issue when I used SCALP, I would just start a new document and start over when it happened, no matter what I changed the adjustments to it never was right. Not using SCALP any longer I now see why it's so disliked.

It was just time consuming, but it was for a good friend of mine. You're going to love the Graphtech, the fusion will be awesome too, I was going back and forth between that and a DK20SP and ended up buying a DK20SP (waiting on delivery) mainly because I wanted a pneumatic machine.

I was in the same boat back in February, called Uscutter they accepted my titan 2 back and allowed me to upgrade to a CE6000-60. I've cut letters out in HTV that are less than 3/32" tall with zero issues with the Graphtech.

Wow thats crazy! Never seen that done. Hydrodipping is probably the easiest option.

Decals I put on my helmets are pretty small as there's too many different contours to do anything too large, cant imagine trying to do a full wrap.

I recently had to look up how to do the same thing since I wanted to cut outside the pushrollers max width of ~22.9". Its in the manual under Setting Cutting Width (EXPAND) Page 4-4 https://www.specialty-graphics.com/media/pdf/CE6000-Users-Manual.pdf On the cutter itself it's under "Area", then "Expand", then you can adjust the "Set Expand Limit" to +- 10mm at +10mm it should give you the max cut available.

Wow that blows, one of my chihuahuas dug up and killed a mole the other week, right in front of my wife and I. He was really proud of himself. I always wondered why my neighbors yard had mole tracks but ours didn't... Pic of the little killer, his name is Leonidas, Leo for short.

Anyone else see the Razorcut announcement in the last promotions email that USCutter sent out this morning? Did a search and nothing came up. Any ideas what its about? Is it going to replace SCALP? Looking forward to 9/25.

Etsy removed two items I added (trying to take advantage of the situation) 10 minutes after I listed them...