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harleyrkc

New from Michigan

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Hello all.  Been lurking for a few weeks trying to gain some knowledge and settle on a cutter.  I'm already in a specialized field and have been making my own graphics for online user navigation of the products I service and install.  I started looking into buying some cut vinyl to put my company logos on field installed panels and soon decided I should just buy a machine.  I'm currently leaning towards the 28" Titan 2.

Any advice on the right general purpose machine for cutting indoor/outdoor vinyl stickers, indoor wall vinyl, and stencils for old barn wood signs would be greatly appreciated.

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Grrrrr...... the day I make up my mind to pull the trigger.  I was prepared to purchase over $1,500 in cutter, software, and material.  I call USCutter and get a message about a snowstorm.  

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You can order online...I order everything from the website online.. This side of the US,, like Michigan is mostly shipped from Memphis. TN   Usually in about 2 days. and I am about 90 miles south of Coldwater. 

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I usually would order online if this were a product line I was familiar with.  But since I'm not intimate with vinyl cutting I figured the call was my chance to make sure I was getting everything I needed.

Does anyone have a list of things not to forget when starting out?  I was going to add three colors of Oracal 651 for some test cuts.  What's the best application tape for that vinyl?  Any tools that are must haves? 

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welcome from Colorado!

651 is a good basic vinyl - I would recommend:

1. Black, Red and White 2, a pack of squeeges 3. Rtape 4075- pretty dependable paper transfer tape for application to flat and smooth surfaces. 4. an exacto knife with a dulled blade for weeding- 5. an envelope style opener for cutting off the cut job from the cutter....

 

 

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9 hours ago, Jburns said:

welcome from Colorado!

651 is a good basic vinyl - I would recommend:

1. Black, Red and White 2, a pack of squeeges 3. Rtape 4075- pretty dependable paper transfer tape for application to flat and smooth surfaces. 4. an exacto knife with a dulled blade for weeding- 5. an envelope style opener for cutting off the cut job from the cutter....

Black, White, and Blue were actually on my list since I can do my own company logo with those.  Is red a particularly popular color for other stuff?  Thanks for the Rtape recommendation.

 

 

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Vinyl colors you choose, pretty much depends on what niche' your going into....For me, it would be BLACK, WHITE, SILVER, RED

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I'm getting into this to cut my own logos.  We'll see where it goes from there.  I thought this might be a good side business to help fill in during the slow times.  If I can employ another family member to keep the cutter busy thats great, if not then no biggy.  I'm mostly excited about being able to customize my own logo's on a job to job and panel to panel basis.  This will also allow me to tag a lot of equipment that previously wouldn't have been worth tagging.

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If it's not too personal, what type of work do you do on your "day job". You mentioned panels and made me curious.

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I do Commercial / Industrial building automation.  I build and install the panels, then I build the graphical user interface to allow the end users to access everything from HVAC to lighting controls.  I take existing blueprints, import them into something like gimp, clean them up and make graphics that are usable for navigation.  I alter HVAC equipment graphics quite frequently, and I build lots of small graphics and animations to represent various states that equipment may be in.

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Awesome! You will have a lot of fun with the cutter. I do construction by day and cut vinyl by night and weekends. We mostly do site work and excavation. 

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My nights are often spent invoicing or doing estimates.  But this seemed like a natural evolution since I'm already somewhat familiar with editing graphics.  I already have my original logo because I inbed them into my navigation graphics.  Usually I would color my backgrounds to alpha so I can layer them, but it can't be much of a jump to Vector a graphic for cutting purposes.

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Welcome.

 

" it can't be much of a jump to Vector a graphic for cutting purposes. "

Absolutely correct, and the Vinyl Master software has a great tracing/vectorization engine.

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On 2/9/2017 at 2:04 PM, slice&dice said:

Welcome.

 

" it can't be much of a jump to Vector a graphic for cutting purposes. "

Absolutely correct, and the Vinyl Master software has a great tracing/vectorization engine.

I'll soon find out.  Order was placed last night.  Tracking says I'll have it Tuesday.  I would love to say I'd have some stuff ready import into Vinylmaster Pro that night but I'll be chasing a 2 yr old all weekend.

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First cuts made.  I didn't have much time to mess with it but after watching about 5-10 mins of setup videos I set a blade exactly the way the video showed and I was off to the races.  First cuts came out perfect with no additional adjustment of blade and not the slightest hint of scoring on the waxed back.  For my purposes VinylMaster couldn't be any easier, I found it very easy to figure out.  Now I just need to figure out how to align two different colors onto one transfer tape.  

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9 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

Here is a little help with layering. 

Thanks Wildgoose.  That looks quite easy and explains exactly what I needed to do.  After seeing how easy the Titan 2 operated and now how easy layering is I'm certainly glad I went with a little better and a little bigger machine.  I'd post yesterdays cutting but I'm not sure whose image I swiped from google.  I just quick grabbed a dancer image and made a small sign for a little girls wall.  I haven't even tested my own company logo yet.  I figured I'd practice with some of the cheap Greenstar vinyl that came in the kit before I got into the Oracle I ordered for my own stuff.  

 

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First hobby I have ever had that actually MAKES money. I ended up turning my little obsession into a side business. 

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Just what I didn't need......Another hobby.  I'm all in now, ordered extra cutters and holders from clean-cut and more supplies will be ordered tomorrow.

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