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DeepEllumGlass

Question about reflective vinyl on trailer

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Got it. I will be setting up our vinyl room tomorrow.

I read all of the included items with our plotter.

I'll do some plotter drawing tomorrow hopefully

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It won't help you set the blade but it helps a TON with everything else.

 

 

I wasted a crap load of money messing up, forgetting to put the pinch rollers down. 

 

Like I said before, for some reason SCALP and signblazer wouldn't cut correctly for me.  I'd get random diagonal cuts through the whole image, or it'd just put the blade down and unroll the whole roll of vinyl.  

I went through vinyl like crazy learning.  Then I got the painters paper and I could screw up all day and it only cost me $5.  

 

I learned alot that way.   

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So using the pen attachment and painters paper is a way to see if what you plan on cutting is going to come out correctly?

Yep. Practice time. It should outline your design just like if it was cutting the edges of the vinyl. It is the absolute best way to learn the basics of load, orientate, and so forth. once you do this a few times you may never do it again but initially it's a great way to get to know your cutter. The only other thing I have ever used the pen tool on was a massive welcome home poster that the kids wanted to hand color but needed the outline to get the font to look right. 

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I'm in Texas and in the next couple of weeks will be cutting then installing our letters on a 24' enclosed trailer.

It will be in the 30-50 degree temp range. What should I use to clean the trailer with and should I use rapidtac?

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I'm using the 5600 reflective red for this. What is the best oracal yellow to use?

I bought some yellow off the big auction site. Not sure if it's a good vinyl though.

It doesn't give a brand name. Now after learning a little I don't want to use some cheap yellow under the expensive red color.

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Seriously . . . that deep?

I was cutting 3m with the release stuff and it takes more blade than standard reflective, at least for me. Cuts that perfect but if I forget to change back it makes paper mache out of 651 and even cuts too deep on oracal reflective.

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So using the pen attachment and painters paper is a way to see if what you plan on cutting is going to come out correctly?

I used the pen once to draw a design bigger than I had vinyl for. Then taped it to the light table to use to line up my cut pieces and keep everything straight, then taped the vinyl and applied it as one big decal.

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I'm using the 5600 reflective red for this. What is the best oracal yellow to use?

I bought some yellow off the big auction site. Not sure if it's a good vinyl though.

It doesn't give a brand name. Now after learning a little I don't want to use some cheap yellow under the expensive red color.

I would recommend some Oracal 751. It's cast and will not have any unusual shrinkage problems. You would be surprised how much shrink and expansion goes on with trailers and even glass. I try to use cast on most vehicles or trailers that I do. The material costs a little more but in the big picture it's not that big of a percentage of the overall project. Much more goes into the labor to build and install than the cost of the vinyl. That being said I also use a fair amount of Oracal 651 on flat surfaces without any problems to date, but it's a calendered product and more likely to shrink. 651 is also a little stiffer which you will notice when weeding and doesn't conform around rivets and bumps very well.

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SCALP should do the letters without a problem IF you can make the workspace large enough to accommodate that big of design. 

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I'm kinda rethinking using reflective after reading about it.

Will it be really hard to remove after 5 years or so if we need to take it off this trailer?

We may need a larger trailer in the future. From what I've read, the thickness of reflective it may be best if I don't use the yellow background. Maybe only the lettering?

Thanks, Robert

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I don't think it will make much difference when removal time comes, especially if you plan to take it off in five years. It's the 15 year old stuff that is cracked and hardened that is tough to get off. The reflective it more expensive and a little tougher to deal with but only on smaller designs. You won't have any real issues with the size of lettering your talking about. I would be more interested to know if you think you need the reflective. Are you expecting to get extra exposure at night? If you primarily function by day then the advantages of the reflective are null. In fact I find a lot of the reflective is actually a little duller during daytime due to the composition. I have some reflective white but it's not white unless you are shining a light on it at night, by day its at best a dull eggshell color and really doesn't stand out like I want white to look. Now I use that for sandblast resist! Nice and tough and 7 mil thick. 

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If you lay out the design so the base color is standard vinyl and just apply the reflective over the top of that come removal time you're really just removing the base vinyl and not fighting with the reflective.

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="jaybird" data-cid="339234" data-time="1388414505"><p>

If you lay out the design so the base color is standard vinyl and just apply the reflective over the top of that come removal time you're really just removing the base vinyl and not fighting with the reflective.</p></blockquote>

Exactly what I was going to say.

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Today I put 15" wide yellow vinyl along the top edge of our enclosed trailer.

Tonight it's gonna get down to 29 degrees. Will the water/alcohol mixture freeze?

Should I put a heater in the trailer?

I just don't want any water trapped under the film to freeze.

Thanks, Robert

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