juniorranger

My small orders have done well, i just did 20 6x18 magnets for charter cable and charged them 10 bucks a magnet, so 200 bucks in a evening wasnt bad.

I buy from a place here in texas called Regal Plastics, 817-492-8870, they have locations all over, they also will mail you what you need. Very reasonable and can get whatever you need. I may pay a little more but i get to see what i am buying..

I'll stick with FDC, i used the oracal and wasnt real happy with it, Never bought off ebay, I buy from a supplier here local, i pay 43 bucks for 50 yards of the fdc in any color. I prefer to buy local so i can see the vinyl and look at what i am getting. I only use fellers for the expensive specialty stuff, like chrome or whatever.

Cleaning the blade can help a bunch, try that before ordering new blades or changing them, I thought i had to have a new blade, my machine started running real rough, the carriage started to rattle when it was changing cuts and started skipping on cuts, well i ordered new blades, all the while waiting on them and had stopped cutting, Well when i got them and took the old blade out it was covered with adhesive from the vinyl and tiny little pieces of vinyl, changed the blade anyway but probably cleaning the blade would have fixed my problem. Check that before changing or buying more blades. (You still need extra blades anyway)

I am wondering how these three machines compare? I want to get the most value for my money but dont want to over spend for no reason, I am going to try and cut vinyl for contractors for their rear window advertisments and would like to know how these 3 units compare, Everything i have read says the copam is the best but it's twice the amount of the other 2, I only want to make one purchase and not end up buying the other after i buy one. Is it realistic to think i can justify buying one of these to supplement my income with only being able to cut vinyl with no color or shadowing or am i missing something is there a way to do that? I just dont want to buy a machine and find out all my request for jobs and work exceed my machine limitations. Please help.. Been riding the fence with this and need to make a decison soon..

I purchased the copam 2500 and love it, Glad i didnt buy the 48" like i contemplated purchasing, my 24" has and will cut pretty much anything i need to do, I do mostly rear windows, custom layered stickers for a few race teams and a few banners, so it fits my bill fine, I use the FDC Calendered and love it, the price is right and it holds up great, i got some free oracal and it sucked, just my opinion, I'll stick to the FDC. I use it outdoor and indoor and it adheres great and seems to be good vinyl. I am paying 43 bucks for 15" x 150'. Works out to about .31 cents a foot, so i can build a pretty good profit margin in my jobs using FDC. Not sure what others are paying for theirs, would like to know if anyone cares to post. I am also paying 1.11 sq. ft. for my banners, any custom size i need, and 1.20 for my 18 x 24 coroplast sign board and like 2 bucks each for my 18 x 24 magnet substrate. Hope this helps......

I ended up buying the copam 2500 and couldnt be happier with it, all the functions and setup menu's are easy to use and it is really well built, i have had mine a couple of months and have changed the blade once and other than that it is a great machine, like others have said any problems i have had have been user error not the machine. If i had to go back and do it again i would buy the same machine, i am totally happy with it so far.. Signblazer is kinda different to get used to but once you do it is very simple software to use.. I cut my first door sticker within 45 minutes of setting the machine up and getting it put together and it came out perfect, I dont have knowledge of the other cutters so i cant speak about them, but this machine was well worth the money no doubt. Hope this helps with any ones decisions they may have on buying one of the cutters. And USCUTTER has been great as far as shipping of parts and being very helpful.

Try and scan it in and "select item" and then go to "image" and select "monochrome" and then click "vectorize", When you go to "cut" or "cutter" to cut the image it will give you a message that it wont cut it, just click ok thru the message and it will usually cut it anyway.. Has always worked for me anyway, maybe i have just been lucky, but try that and see what happens, hope i could help..

Jenny, Tried to reply to this post yesterday and show you the App. holder that i had made years ago, not sure if that will help ya or not but something to look at to give you a idea.. Like i said in earlier post i could build more if there was a interest.

I have had the same thing happen, What usually is the case is the customer picks a design out or doesnt think out to well what they exactly want or changes their mind about about the wording or someone else tells them the wording doesnt make sence or looks stupid or makes fun of it and now their embarressed and not happy with it, I bet you a hundred bucks it's one of the above scenario's. I agree I wouldnt give them their money back either, If they had a problem with it they should have addressed it then and there. And if there was a true problem you would have caught it or they would have said something upon pick up. Thats why they scraped it off cause there wasnt anything really wrong with it, Buyers remorse.....

Sounds like it would be easier to spend the buck...

I had a guy ask me to make him a masking holder years ago way before i ever was involved with vinyl cutters, I just now thought about it when i read this post, So i priced some thru "sign warehouse" and they were like 200+ dollars, I dug thru some old hard drives and found some pics of the one i built, So i may try and make another one this weekend, If any one is interested in one let me know, i think i sold the last one for like 100 bucks, let me know what you think. I dont know if the one i made was right or not, he was very happy with it so i guess it worked, any suggestions would be appreciated. I can build what ever you can draw so if you come up with your own design let me know. If you want more pics just let me know and i will email ya some........

I used 1" square tubing and 1" pvc and 1/2" round rod to go in to the pvc, and a little spring attached on one side to provide tension. Was really pretty simple to build and in my opinion is better and more well built than the ones for two hundred bucks that just clamp on the table, To me those look cheap..

I have a few images i need to cut but cant figure out how to drop the background image, For instance if you have a logo like say "maxim" for sake of the conversation and you want to cut it but it has a picture of a girl behind the letters, how do you remove that so when you vectorize it, it doesnt cut the image behind the logo aswell? I have many like this that customers want me to cut but all of them have something else behind the image that i dont want in the finished product?? I am using sign blazer. As you can see the sample i have attached has a portion of a picture behind the logo.

I got a free sample roll from oracal and avery, It seems the mil was very thin and it ripped at all the points where the cuts were small like at the top of a v or the bottom corner of a w and so on, also my vinyl released from the backing and tore in other areas, i think the mil they sent was just to thin and was cheap, i just gave up on the roll and went back to my FDC, Not a good sample if your trying to get someone to buy your product.. I didnt even bother with changing the pressure or anything i was already frustrated and wasted enough time as it was jacking with it.. Not sure why it all released though, still a mystery...

All the vinyl i use is fdc, I have a few bubbles here and there, All i do is a dry install, never have tried wet application, what i do if i get bubbles is (not sure if your suppose to do this or not) I use a very small sewing needle, the smallest you can find from the sewing department at walmart, I just poke the bubble in the center with the needle and work the bubble from outside in, works great if you only have a few, been lucky i dont usually have enough to worry about, Also make sure the surface is clean, dust and dirt and other contaminents can cause bubbles where the adhesive doesnt make contact. Most other bubbles i can usually squeege out the side.. Hope this helps, i am new myself...

I have tried various placment with this fifteen inch roll, when i try to cut a sign length wise on the cutter it cuts a straight line across then advances my vinyl out the back of the machine then tries to start cutting. If i try and cut something across the vinyl it seems to do fine, this is driving me crazy.........

I dont think it had something to do with that now... It still does it.. ? ?? What am i doing wrong...

What type of software do any of yall suggest for generating logos and such for customers, Like when you have to do a custom from scratch logo, Most all i find available are for generating web graphics..

Figured it out... You have to put slack in the roll or it sences a jam and vibrates and kicks the vinyl out the back of the machine.. I think............. :-

Tell me about how this wet application works, i have only donw dry, how do you do it...?

Hey can you send me the file with the monkey, would like to cut that for my son.. Thanks

What type of screen print machine do you have or should i get for this type of work? iIhave no clue as which one to purchase. Would like to do alot more of this type of work.. jw

Can you sen me the tutorial on this???? That is one cool logo...........

Hey can you send me the 3 skulls file and what type or brand of thermo vinyl did you use?