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DeepEllumGlass

Question about reflective vinyl on trailer

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We have a new sc cutter, 25", and we are thinking of using oracal 5600 red reflective vinyl on a new enclosed trailer we have. We would like to put our company name along the top in 10" letters.

Will our new sc cutter cut this vinyl ok? We are new to vinyl cutting.

We purchased the cutter to do our trailer and our company trucks.

We haven't even set the cutter up yet.

Thanks for all the advice we have received about other questions! Everyone here has been so helpful.

Robert

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It will work fine. Just don't use the wet apply method when you install reflective.

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It will work fine. Just don't use the wet apply method when you install reflective.

Yeah believe me the wet method on reflective will make you cry before it's over. Been there, done that on a printed pc. that ended up costing me $100 to replace.

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5600 is only 5 mil. It will be tougher than regular vinyl but you shouldn't have any real issues with 10" lettering. 

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I don't even have our new cutter set up yet but we plan on putting this lettering in 10" tall letters along the roof of a 24' enclosed trailer.

Hopefully it will look like this. Got my fingers crossed!

It looks like I will do this sign 16 feet in length

I hope the pic will attach properly.

post-83155-0-88599000-1387598002_thumb.j

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Will I need to order more blades to cut this many letters out of reflective? I read reflective will go thru blades faster

Indeed it will.

 

You will need to do a few TINY test cuts. Reflective requires a lot more pressure/blade depth. Get it right before you start the actual cut.That stuff is too expensive to waste.

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I have forgot to reset for reflective and sat there for an hour with my knife following the cut line to make tit deep enough so I didn't have to waste it. Hard lesson learned and I'm pretty sure I'll make the same mistake again at some point, seems I never learn.

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What cutting program are you using with your cutter? You may run into a length problem in some of the cutting software. Being new you might want to do a test run with some butcher paper and the pen attachment that should come with your cutter. In fact I would suggest doing several and some regular vinyl small work just to get a handle on things before going for a 16ft high dollar cut. I would also use 24" vinyl and double up and cut Deep Ellum with Auto Glass below so you are actually cutting 8ft and saving waste. Just some tips from someone who has been there and made a few costly mistakes. 

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I have forgot to reset for reflective and sat there for an hour with my knife following the cut line to make tit deep enough so I didn't have to waste it. Hard lesson learned and I'm pretty sure I'll make the same mistake again at some point, seems I never learn.

 

I have a very professional looking piece of masking tape on my cutter right above the LCD display, on which I've written the settings for different materials and I try to make it a point to double-check those numbers every time I load a different roll.   Key word there is "try"...

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I'm a creature of habit which could explain why I keep making the same mistakes over and over.

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What cutting program are you using with your cutter? You may run into a length problem in some of the cutting software. Being new you might want to do a test run with some butcher paper and the pen attachment that should come with your cutter. In fact I would suggest doing several and some regular vinyl small work just to get a handle on things before going for a 16ft high dollar cut. I would also use 24" vinyl and double up and cut Deep Ellum with Auto Glass below so you are actually cutting 8ft and saving waste. Just some tips from someone who has been there and made a few costly mistakes. 

 

I have SCALP pro that came with the SC uscutter machine. I will defenitely order more blades and do several trials on scrap before I take on the actual sign.

 

I thought of doing them in 4 foot lengths with 24" film of course. As stated above I will do Deep Ellum

                                                                                                                                           Auto Glass  like so.  One above the other.

 

I GREATLY appreciate all of the help you guys are giving. Hopefully one day I can return the favor to you all.

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I have SCALP pro that came with the SC uscutter machine. I will defenitely order more blades and do several trials on scrap before I take on the actual sign.

 

I thought of doing them in 4 foot lengths with 24" film of course. As stated above I will do Deep Ellum

                                                                                                                                           Auto Glass  like so.  One above the other.

 

I GREATLY appreciate all of the help you guys are giving. Hopefully one day I can return the favor to you all.

 

I'd highly recommend getting some painter paper from the hardware store and using the pen attachment to practice some.  SCALP wouldn't cut properly for me.  

The painters paper is a cheap way to make alot of mistakes.   

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I have forgot to reset for reflective and sat there for an hour with my knife following the cut line to make tit deep enough so I didn't have to waste it. Hard lesson learned and I'm pretty sure I'll make the same mistake again at some point, seems I never learn.

Seriously . . . that deep?

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I have SCALP pro that came with the SC uscutter machine. I will defenitely order more blades and do several trials on scrap before I take on the actual sign.

 

I thought of doing them in 4 foot lengths with 24" film of course. As stated above I will do Deep Ellum

                                                                                                                                           Auto Glass  like so.  One above the other.

 

I GREATLY appreciate all of the help you guys are giving. Hopefully one day I can return the favor to you all.

Good idea to one word long, two high. You shouldn't really have major tracking problems with basic text work because it should just be cutting each letter and then moving on so the length won't be a huge issue but I can't remember what the max cutting length is in that program. I had it but gave it away with the P-Cut when I sold it. My USCutter machine was purchased back when they sent a years subscription to SignCut Pro and I have had great luck with that program, in fact I have been using it with my new Summa even though there is a free cutting program that came with it. SignCut is better. If you get to having problems with long graphics off tracking then you might want to look into a program that will cut step-by-step like SignCut. SCALP said they were going to integrate that into their upgrades some time last summer along with tiling but a far as I know they never did. SCALP isn't a bad program for normal sized stuff but the design side is seriously lacking. You are going to want to download a copy of Inkscape (free open source vector program) or something similar (Like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, both cost $$$) to so your designs in then just load them into SCALP to cut. (Personal opinion)

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Go-C. I'm at lowes home improvement store trying to find painters paper. Is it just the brown paper or is it a 2 part paper with an adhesive backing? Thanks, Robert

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From the USCUTTER web site

 

Included:
  • 1x SC Cutter/plotter Unit
  • 1x Aluminum Stand with Lockable Wheels (Optional)
  • 2x Superior Ball-bearing Dual Roller
  • 1x Cutting Blade Holder
  • 1x Pen Holder with Blue Ink Cartridge (for plotter drawing)
  • 1x USB Cable
  • 1x Serial Cable
  • 1x Cd with Windows Driver, Corel Draw Driver & PDF Manual
  • 1x Dust cover
  • 3 high quality blades: 2x45 degree and 1x60 degree

It's the 5th bullet down on the SC model.  

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