Wildgoose

The average joe will walk by and glance and see Warn, the seasoned wheeler will do a double take and get a good chuckle out of it.

OK mark, good to know. I may try downloading a free trial or something to give it a whirl before I decide. I like the $ound of $100 better than $300. I'm just so used to signcut that it worries me and I spent money on SCALP thinking it was going to be awesome and was disappointed. Flexi is much less worrying because they definitely know their stuff but I have been worried that the base versions wouldn't do much. The Summa comes with MacSign and Winplot to do rudimentary cutting but without upgrading there isn't much in the way of utility. No nesting, no tiling etc... Thats not new to me because there is even less options available in Signcut

I also started building separate color files for each job so I didn't have to fight the program getting those messed up. I decided on my big HTV orders from my maim clients to do it that way all the time because I can stack all of one color in a smaller area and save a lot of vinyl so i still do some files that way.

Ya I remember that I did. Seems like it did better in one version or the other but I can't remember which it was. I think it liked the newer CS5 which surprised me because most other cutting programs I have tired like it in version 8 except when I contour cut with winplot and it likes version 3. If you are in doubt at all post the file and I will open it and make sure there aren't any problems with the file itself.

Ok I did four shirts for a friend of a client of mine, she supplied the shirts from costco. While we were discussing the layout she mentioned she had this old heat press in her garage her folks had given her and her husband would like out of the way. I told her bring it over and I'd take a look. I am probably dumb but I traded her vinyl job which would have been about $8/ea. for $32 but in actuality used about 5 feet of HTV for this old old OLD I mean OLD Hix HT 400 clam press. Serial number is 5101...way old. It's a dinosaur but I think it might be just the ticket for a back up if my swing away takes a crap.

Are you guys using version 8 or 10? Ok let me give you a few real world scenarios to see if it is comparable to SignCut. You have a large detailed design and during the install you make two mistakes and need to replace one little piece over here and another little larger spot over there where the wind blew and the vinyl stuck to itself and is ruined. The rest of the design is ok. Can you isolate two spots (or more) on a design and just cut those two leaving a user determined (say 1/4") overlap to patch it up and will the program nest those so as to utilize the vinyl as efficiently as possible? Does flexi read the vinyl width from the cutter? Or do you have to tell it how wide it is? Can you insert weeding lines and a weed boarder? Does Flexistarter have a cut by color option? Sorry for so many questions!!!!

I have a big old half chow half black lab that is silver and black and looks very similar to a bear. He tries to act all tough but he's a real pansy. The UPS guy has him all figured out and brings treats. Last box I got he must have been in back because the deliveryman left his treat sitting on the top of the box! Too funny. I don't have a fence and I let my dog roam free and I have no sign (although he is old enough his hips are getting bad so he stays put mostly). I'm liable to get sued some day I just don't like chaining him up. He knows he's not even supposed to bark and won't do it unless it's dark and he wants in the house.

The cutters are all about the same for the most part so try a MH or P-Cut or a different brand. There will be a few minor differences with the buttons and such but the vids aren't going to show much of that anyway. Some of that stuff is just better when you have hands on. Don't take my comments wrong either, feel free to ask questions when you need answers. MOST of us won't give you a bad time. LOL Videos worth watching are the ones about weeding and application and applying app tape using a squeegee properly etc. Take everything with a grain of salt too because nothing says any one of us knows what the heck we're doing either. Ha ha!

Do a LOT of searching and reading on the forum. There are answers to just about everything you will encounter. Also recommend watching any youtube videos that you can find for extra tips. It's not super complicated but it is a craft that takes some practice and learning. We are here to chip in and help but we all have jobs and are trying to make a buck just like the rest so time to spend on the forum is sometimes time away from our own work. Be mindful of your requests and try to find the answers you seek first and the forum will be appreciative. This is about as helpful of a group as there is anywhere and most of us have received a lot of help and then have stayed around to help the next guy just out of appreciation for what we got at the beginning.

Hey I said that first!

Wow Jaybird. I must have gotten lucky with the one I had in stock. I just used it up after setting here for several years and it was fine. That one looks like it was run over by a forklift while rolled up. maybe they do that to increase the amount they can fit in a shipping container. doh!

Probably a good learning machine. The cutter is just one part of the equation however but the whole process is exciting and enjoyable. Welcome to vinyl.

I agree with the others just re-do it on your own, you'll score big brownie points. You were in a rush is why it happened anyway. You might also be able to swing by with an exacto and slice an equal amount off the other side and I doubt you could tell the letters were off. It just shows up because the box is so obvious.

That's a state by state thing and it's all about sales tax not income tax. In Idaho I did it quarterly the first two years and then last year I they changed and said I was below some threshold and I only had to send it in at the end of the year. My sales doubled so I will probably be back to quarterly this year but I haven't heard.

Those are some nice tweezers

Be prepared to see the price tag on the Summa. With a stand and additional 60* blade holder I was at over $3200.00 They don't come cheap. I don't honestly know if they will do better on tiny stuff like this over a Graphtec or Roland but they are the best at tracking, period and that is mostly why I bought mine. I don't do a lot of contour cutting but the Opus X system for that is supposed to be the best too and it does work awesome. I just use it for contouring around transfers when they are small enough to still have room for registration marks. The fine cutting ability is due in part to the accuracy of the motors and the other high end machines probably have similar success for the same reason.

The only thing I wish it had was auto open. Their clams have that option and it would be nice at my little operation to be able to walk away and not have to time my trip to be back for the opening. I am not going to buy a clam though. I spend too much time placing small layered stuff and I don't want to be under the platen that much.

I have a Summa

Just a follow up on this machine. I did two jobs with it to give it a good try and was pleased with the results. The only complaints I had are #1 I am spoiled with my swing away and don't like working under the platen and it's harder to place fine cut layered items when under there. Burned my hand only once though. #2 the handle would occasionally pop up on it's own, not every time. I suspect some of the linkage might be getting worn or something for this to be going on. It only did this near the end of my last session. As long as i stayed there and kept my hand lightly on the handle it was fine. #3 The old fashioned twist timer is noisy and annoying as are the sound of the springs when moving the upper platen at midnight doing late night work. All in all I'm thinking this is a perfect back-up machine to have around. I really like the ability to lace shirts on and just heating the one side, my swing away is a lot more cluttered under there and more trouble than it's worth to go that route.

Thats a nice press Jarrotto. One of these days I want to get me one of those.

Good point, if sluggo can leave that stuff alone and weed from the final resting place it would be easy, well maybe not easy but very reproducible. Not sure if you can see where to install it without at least a little weeding though.

Any of the Opaque feel stiff like that, I'm not a fan either. I did just buy a few sheets of the IYA brand that is supposed to be the old Iron-All dark and it is a little better but not like I was hoping for. I have a couple clients that call me and want one or two sweatshirts here and there and they like them in a hurry of course. I do enough other stuff that I basically do them for the cost of the product and donate my time to the cause. They sooner or later end up ordering nice big orders that more than make up for it. Like 500 hats last summer and 50 hoodies this winter, the hat job was my jumping off point to upgrade my cutter. There were two colors front plus a small logo on back. If you are already doing the rest of the shirt with HTV then you can at least squeeze them in during that time and reduce the overall time spent on the flag itself. If you are already doing the whole shirt then throwing the flag on for a buck or two is a lot less of an impact to the costs of that job. I throw names on the back of shirts for a buck all the time if I'm already doing the shirt anyway. At least your only doing 9, that may actually be a good thing. Personally I would probably say something like "I would usually charge XX amount for the three color flag on the sleeve but I'll throw these in for nothing for you because your one of my best clients" and butter him up rather than worry about the 9 bucks.

I took a shot at it but that stuff is pretty small and most of the stuff that is outside the panels just comes up with the weed. One of these was on a scrap of greenstar and the lower boxes with the cirlcles came up wit the weed, pretty well got the two dashboards or whatever these things are. THe second one was some ORacal 751 and it did better on the lower squares but weeding them without picking the whole thing off the carrier was tough. The right dash I tried to weed with a pair of tweezers and you can see the result with the dash setting up above. It got stuck on the tweezer and wouldn't come off. I would hate to have to do these on a regular bases. My eyes aren't good enough to even see some of the smaller holes so I quit trying to stab them and took a pic. If you were doing a one off for a special model and had the patience to cut a dozen of these and keep trying I think you could get all the elements but my experience with tiny stuff is you had better cut extra and plan on cannibalizing a few to get all the pieces.

Thats pretty good doug! Sluggo - the servo motors are much more accurate but I don't know if it's worth it just for that?

The HTV cost isn't an issue on that small of item but the weed on the starts and stripes would be time consuming. I think I work too cheap but even I wouldn't touch that for $1. Maybe if he was a major client and this was a promotional good buddy type thing then you could at least justify the investment of time. You will be lucky to get 6 shirts an hour done. I would say if it has to be HTV then probably 3 base color and at least a dollar per each color on top so $5 minimum. If you could do the transfer you could get like 10 per sheet of paper and easy to cut out nice and square and maybe then for a buck or two.