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Of course it never fails when I buy something a few months later they introduce a new version. Looks like the upped the down force and added perf cutting, more memory, 3 year warranty. The GX 24 had a one year and you could extend it to 2 years by registering it. http://www.rolanddg.com/product/cutting/gs-24/index.html

0 feedback on the GX-24 seller is really reassuring also.

Amazon also has a habit of screwing 3rd party sellers. I have read stories of people closing down there amazon “shop” but amazon keeps there items up but unavailable and links to their own version of what you were selling or another 3rd party. So if you move off of amazon to your own site not only do you have to try to rank against other sites for you keywords you will be competing against your own items still showing up on amazon and amazon’s SEO is pretty good. I believe Etsy has a similar licensing agreement but I am not 100% sure. I also have been accepted into handmade at amazon but just have not had the time to play around with it. I might give it a go with some pretty generic items that sell good on Etsy for me and see what happens. Amazon has 250 million shoppers compared to Etsy’s 20 million that’s a big difference. I am willing to pay a little more in fees if I sell more items.

I decided to get out of dye sub and move into a slightly different market. I have been reading everything I could about CNC Routers and calling up all the manufactures in my price range with lots of questions the last two months. I decided early on I did not want to build one because I would rather spend my time learning the software. I also wanted all metal except the spoil board and not HDPE which narrowed down my choices considerable. In the end I went with a Probotix Comet It arrived this afternoon and I was up and cutting in a few hours. I will say I have a lot to learn but I have had a smile on my face all night

I think I might understand( not 100% sure though) . If you are cutting identical decals you want them all the same size after they are masked and trimmed? If that is the case what I normally do when cutting mutable identical decals is put a weed box around what I am cutting and align everything up in a grid. When I weed my decals I leave the weed box on the backing and mask the entire sheet. I then use a large rotary paper cutter similar to what you where explaining and trim along the insides of all the weed boxes. Everything comes out square and exactly the same size.

I am a little over $4000 into it when all said and done with software, router, bits and dust collection. Crating and freight for the cnc was $300 alone. My original budget was $3500 I looked at the X-carve, Shapeoko 3, Zenbot and the Romaxx HS-1 ( nicely built but too small) . I also wanted lead screw over a belt drive. I would have loved to get a Shopbot but that was way over my price range. I was really contemplating a build from cncrouterparts.com but was concerned with build time. With having a fulltime day job , 2 young kids and my regular eBay and Etsy orders at night I really wanted to maximize my time and get learning the software and making sawdust and money right away. By the way if I went with the build from cncrouterparts.com I would have cost me around the same price but would have been a more robust CNC. Have you played around with the Vcarve Demo? It is a pretty cool and the previews are great it pretty much shows you exactly what you will end up with. With your working envelope you would need the pro version $$$ to take advantage of the of the 31.5x31.5 bed. The desk top version only supports up to a 24x24 inch bed. The comet is 25”x25” so I am losing about a 1” which I am ok with for the price of the desktop version. Have fun when you get the X-carve built and running. There are just so many possibilities of what can be done.

Vectric Vcarve desktop

I will post some pictures once I get the hang of it. Dust collection was a big issue for me I went with a KentCNC dust shoe which is on its way. I ordered it Monday so hopefully it will be here today or tomorrow. My plan for now is to go from the dust shoe into my Rigid Shop Vac with a .1 micron dust collection bag and a hepa filter in there. I will be adding a cyclone next and then a harborfreight 2hp dust collector with appropriate filters sometime down the line. Right now I am over budget with everything else I needed to get going like software, bits/endmills, router/spindel Etc. I want to wait until I have some money coming in from the CNC before I add anything else. unless the shopvac is not cutting it then I will have to upgrade While vcarving it really did not produce too much dust then I tried some pocket cuts and that was a whole different story.

Hopefully it will be a good investment One of the main reasons I decided to go the CNC route is exactly what Dakotagrafx said there are not many people offering it especially if you compare it to cut vinyl which is very over saturated unless you have a really good niche or are selling trademarked decals.. Thanks Guys. Once I get past the learning curve there is just so much you can do with a CNC

I am trying to figure out what paint mask would be best for my application. I have been making some personalized distressed wooden signs lately. I am using pine wood and craft acrylic paint. I have been making my stencils using some extra Oracal 631 I have laying around. My problem is the 631 is pulling some paint up. So far it has been working in my favor because they are distressed signs but I would like to make some that are not distressed. I was thinking Oramask 811 would work from what I read. I can try some Oracal 651 I have but I would think that would be worse than the 631 in pulling up the paint. Do you guys have any recommendations on what paint mask I should try?

Do you guys know what the difference between oramask 811 and oramask 813 is. besides the color. is one more tacky then the other?

Thanks for the info guys. I am pulling the mask up 5-10 minutes after stenciling but before the paint dries. I am using craft acrylic paint and let it sit for a day before I apply the mask . The acrylics dry pretty fast but my guess is it needs more time to fully cure. I think I am going to order a roll of 811 and see how it goes.

That sucks. I would have just returned that whole thing to amazon for a refund or exchange at that point.

I have had my Tech Plus license or whatever it was called before they got rid of the morse code requirement since I was 15 wow that was 25 years ago I feel old now. I picked up a Baofeng dual band last year to see if wanted to get back into it but got bored of the repeaters pretty quick. I would not mind getting my general class licenese and doing more on hf though.

OWJones I feel the same way with the 3d printer I do want one but I just cannot justify it right now espically with 2 kids in daycare. On the other hand with a CNC router I think I would have a much better ROI . I have been working out ideas of products I can make and there are a lot. The learning curve does not seem all the difficult either for just the 2d. 3d carving might take some time to learn The Xcarve looks pretty cool.I was actually considering ordering a Shapeoko 3 but if I am going to do it I think I am going to go with Fireball V90. http://www.probotix.com/FireBall_v90_cnc_router_kit/ SeeJay post some pics when you get the printer setup.

Is it for fun or do you have plans to make something you can market and sell ? I have been toying with the Idea to of picking up one but I am not sure what the best way to make money with it would be. I have also been thinking about picking up a small cnc router .

I still seem to be having issues with the ce6000-60. I have tried every setting I can think of and the only way I can get clean and sharp corners and O’s with out “hang nails” is using tangential mode 2 and offset -2. With these settings my test triangles are sharp . This setting is consistent with both the Graphtec stock blade and a 45 & 60 Clean Cut Blade. Everything I have read on this forum and others say the offset should be 0. When my settings are at 0 and everything is defaulted my cuts look bad . Little nubs on the corners and the issue with circles It’s not the cutter it’s not the computer or software so I must be doing something wrong and I am not sure what. I have searched and found a others having the same issues with ce6000’s & 5000s in a few different forums but no one ever posts a resolution. I have readjusted the blades many many times. I am confident it is set correctly. I have pretty much only used 651 but have tried 4 different rolls. I have tried just about every setting there is (I wasted a lot of vinyl) I am not sure what else to do Am I expecting too much from the cutter? Do you guys have some pic of text close up that you can post so I can compare. I am very frustrated at this point. I will give Graphtec a call Monday.

Have you guys had any experience with reflective sheeted blanks? My main concern is applying non reflective calendered vinyl on them. I read somewhere that applying calendared vinyl on top of reflective is not a good Idea and will fail. Hs anybody experienced this. Should I just bite the bullet and order pick up some cast.

Just trying to figure out what direction to go in . 2 of my Ink cartridges have been expired for over a month and the other 2 are coming up. My dye sub volume is not huge but has been slowly picking up in the last 2 months. Not sure if I want to drop $300 + for a set of ink or for the same price move to an Epson/Cobra ink system. From speaking with Conde it looks like I can go a few months past the expiration date but who knows. My choices or keep running until I am out of ink refill and hope I do not brick the Ricoh or Buy an Epson/Cobra system. Run it in tandem to the Ricoh until I get everything matching and then switch? I know with the Epson and my current volume I will need to run a test sheet every few days but not worrying about expired ink and the lower price of the ink might be worth it. What do you guys think?

That is what I was thinking but if I make the move to the epson I would like to get it before I run out of ink on the Richo so I can get everything set up and running smooth. Just not sure if I want to make the jump. The 3110 has been pretty good but I always seem to have some banding on solids which I can mostly adjust out but they keep coming back.

SeeJay pick up a Tecre Button Machine if you can. Made in the USA and They are built like tanks. I picked mine up at http://www.americanbuttonmachines.com/ they have free UPS shipping for just there button machines. And if you are gong to do it get the graphic punch it makes life so much easier when doing larger quantities. It is funny one of OWJones post from last year inspired me to pick up a button machine. I liked the idea of setting up at craft shows and having people/kids drawing there own buttons. I have to admit I actually sold way more buttons then decals last month but that is more due to how I have been marketing myself but still they have been moving pretty good. Thanks OWjones

Same here on Etsy. I get about 1 review for every 10-15 sales if that

What do you guys do when you get sick and have orders to make. I have been down for the count the last 2 days and starting to get a backlog. I was running a 103 fever yesterday so there was no way I was getting out of bed. I am feeling better this morning but I try to get my ebay orders out next day and I am already a day behind. My etsy orders I have a little more time with. Having 2 kids in day care does not help either. Whatever they get I get :-(

That is a good idea. It is something i need to look into. Thanks

My backup SC cutter that was purchased new from USCutter in October of last year did come with a null modem cable. I also have the keyspan adapter and no issues cutting from scalp