JuliaTN

It is on a surge protector and I just moved 2 months ago and threw away the box after holding onto it for that long (of course!). Support finally picked up and they are going to send me a new board.

I have an 18 mo old Titan 2 that suddenly went berserk this afternoon. The carriage first started shuddering back and forth. I cut the power, waited a bit and then powered it back up. Now the rollers don't move and the carriage just sits even if I'm trying to manually move it with the side to side buttons. It occasionally makes a crackling noise and then goes crazy again. I've been on hold for tech support at US Cutter for 15 minutes now and, to be honest, their customer service has been horrendous lately so I'm not holding my breath. Anyone here have any ideas?

I'm using Oracal 651 (gold, silver, copper, matte black & matte white if it matters) to make wholesale products and I'm generally happy with it. The only thing I don't like is the Oracal branding on the back. Does anyone know if Oracal ever does any white labeling (i.e. where a known brand produces their product for someone else to put their own or no brand on it)? If so, where could I buy it? I'm definitely not trying to go to a lesser product and price isn't the issue - although I don't really want to pay more than I am now. The volume is way too high to bother with taking the decals and transferring them to another backer, BTW.

Price is not the issue at all. I'm not looking for a cheaper product, just for one that doesn't have its own branding. I would, in fact, be willing to pay a slight premium if I could get the same Oracal product without the Oracal name on it.

I'm currently using a Titan 2 and find that it isn't completely reliable in terms of tracking. For example, if I'm cutting a long page full of 9s there might be a couple of them that have the inner bit of the 9 offset just a bit from where it should be. Not horribly so but enough that I have to recut them. There's no rhyme or reason to when it happens except that it's worse on runs over about 45". To compensate for that, I just don't do runs any longer than that. I've called support on numerous occasions and it's better than it was but the bottom line is that I end up having to babysit the machine instead of setting up a 10-15' run and walking away. If I were to upgrade to the Graphtec, would it be noticeably more reliable in that way or do I need to resign myself to my current fate?

Thanks guys, I'm currently looking for bigger digs. As soon as I have a bit more space I'll go for the Graphtec and keep the Titan for smaller stuff.

Do you have a particular light that you use? Whether a brand or a style or just a I-use-a-lamp-without-a-lampshade sort of thing. I work next to a huge window with an overhead light in the middle of the (very large) room. I often find myself squinting/leaning over/leaning forward to see where the cuts are when I'm weeding - especially if it's white or black vinyl. Any recommendations for a particular light or angle-onto-the-workspace to use so that I don't end up a contortionist?

@Primal Decals, did you just build a basic light box with fluorescents inside? Does it backlight the cuts?

After doing an hour or so of research, I'm starting to get a feel for the pros/cons of the different processes, anyone feel free to chime in and correct any misconceptions: Gerber/thermal seems to be best for spot color and typically requires changing out the foils between colors. Metallics available. Low maintenance. Solvents print full color. Inks clog if they aren't used quite often. Prints take a while to dry and offgas during that time and a couple of days after. Requires a ventilation system. Metallics available. Latex prints full color with prints that are dry off the press with no need for ventilation but require a 220 line. No metallics. Can anyone give me a feel for the cost of consumables for the different options?

I'm in the mailbox number business and I currently do them as cut vinyl. I like the look of not having any background so that the color of the mailbox shows through. I'm trying to get my costs down to the point that I can cut my prices in half and work on volume. It seems that the best way to accomplish that would be to eliminate the labor intensive weeding and taping by printing onto a clear adhesive. But I have absolutely no experience with printing. Any recommendations for a printer and clear substrate and that will be durable/not fade outside for several years?

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of direction I was looking for. Printing white is an absolute must (white is probably half of the market). Looked at the Gerber online and the option to print metallics is a huge plus. It would definitely be an investment but I'm excited about the possibilities.

Are there any plans to do more tutorials/webinars? I know there are things that would make my life easier that I don't currently know exists.

Any idea what could be causing this offset? The squares and the flower are somehow moved over from their original spot so that they overlap with another image. Using a Titan 2 with VinylMaster Cut on 24" wide Oracal 651. Pinch rollers are all in the right spots and there's a good bit of the roll spooled off before cutting so that there isn't any weight on it.

After spending 45 minutes on the phone with US Cutter tech support, it seems to have been some glitchy/corrupted software from Vinyl Master. With updated software, I'm crossing my fingers and tentatively calling it solved.

@Wildgoose, I drew those lines as my own style of weeding lines (I find the automatic ones don't work well with my designs). They're literally just "polylines" drawn with the software @Mz SKEETER, pinch rollers are at widest settings - there's about an inch of vinyl to the outside of outermost pinch rollers. I've had the same results running at about 750 and 550mm/s @signyouup, it's random all over the cutfile. I've attached a screenshot of the latest f-up and highlighted the parts that are out of whack. At the top, my drawn in line cuts through the "1" of 15, in the middle, the space between Compound and Loop has disappeared and for the 9009, the first 0 is overlapped with the first 9 and the interior circle of the second 9 is out of sync with the outer portion of the cut.

^^That was me, by the way.

The screen shot of the cut file was done after the cut (without touching it). The 526 <squares> Rebel Ridge Rd were all grouped together so any nudging should have moved the whole thing. I did the same cut file again and got a similar result. It was a different part of the file but the same looks-like-it's-been-nudged problem. Sending file to support.

Thanks, I wasn't sure if it was a software or a hardware issue.

I ordered and just now used some Oracal 5300 for the first time. It's definitely the easiest weeding reflective I've ever used. By FAR.

Just got the VM Cut software with a new Titan 2. In order to make the cut I have to lay it out like this in order to cut it out like that. There has to be a setting or something that I'm missing which would make the layout look more like the cut.

I knew it had to be something stupid easy.

Thanks, that helps.

I've been trying to match this for an hour. Help!

They're all terrible in my experience. If you find one let me know!