Wildgoose

I added an embroidery machine to my operation several years ago. It is a bird of a different color and takes some practice and learning to get going. Plan to make a lot of mistakes as you learn. If you have been around any kind of sewing machines previously it will help since a lot of the overall concept is the same. Your machine will have specific needles with either a round base if it's a full on commercial machine or will have a flat side if it is more home/hobby built. If it is a round base you have to set the angle of the hole and there are a couple ways to do that. One is to drag a thread through and hold both sides so that the thread is angled according to your machines design. I use a small magnet and it will sit nicely on the flat side of the front of the needle and you can see where the hole is oriented from that. I also use a cheap set of doctors pliers that have the locking ratchet grabbers in the middle that clamp and hold it tight on the needle as they probably are designed to do on blood vessels or sutures. The standard size most people use is usually a 75 and if you are sewing tougher things like hats or canvas sometimes jump up to 80. I have occasionally ran 70 on really light material. Most people run 40wt thread but you can also run 60wt but again you are going to be messing with your tensions. I run poly/neon thread but some run rayon. You can read up on the pro and con of each. I tend to the poly because it is known to resist sun fading better and most of my work is for clothes that will be outdoors or washed a lot. I have not tried rayon but I have heard that it runs at different tension so bouncing back and forth will lead to problems. My machine runs L bobbins and I buy pre-wound bobbins. I have been told that the consistency of the rewound helps with overall machine tension staying consistent. As to embroidery files, I have some software but I almost always hire out the digitizing to pro's. It is far more complicated than I would have thought. I am a wiz on graphic arts and through it would be simple. Not even remotely. Plan to spend $35 a logo for a decent job. There are some cheaper people that do them for $10 or thereabout but some are crap so you get what you pay for and a crap file will not run well and being new you will be trying to decide if it's the file or your machine messing up. I recommend using the Wicked Stitch of the East. There are plenty of others but they are good and actually sew them out once they build it to be sure it runs good. They take a few days to get back to you so you have to plan ahead. You will find more questions the more you get into it. Hoops and hooping aids are all important too. Thread stabilizers are varied and there are topping materials for fuzzy stuff. Good luck and I have felt your pain. I would consider finding a commercial shop in your area and go ask if you can hang out. They may consider you a threat (probably not if you just have a single head machine) and not let you but you will learn more in a day at a pro shop than months of trial and error. (same goes for vinyl cutting!)

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I went and found a free vector of carbon fiber and was able to change the color and use it for fill as a clipping

I don't know my way around VM very well but possibly you could do a Clip of the sample. They probably call it something different maybe trap. I'm an Adobe person so I'm only fluent in AI terms. The trick will be getting the carbon texture to be size accurate.

What equipment and software are you working with?

I would do similar to darcshadow and reintroduce the original dog shape (just the outline). Maybe offset the line a pen width outside the original edge so you don't kill the negative space you have so laboriously created. Then you can use the same line (or a copy paste of it) to crop out all the outer lines.

I suggest contacting tech support with Oracal/Orafol. If you can get a real person to talk to they will give you some good tips and probably give you a difinitive answer. I called them about their HT55 Oratape tranfer paper for matt finish indoor vinyl and they were very helpful and gave me all sorts of interesting data that helped me better understand how that particular product perfomed. This is just a users forum and MAYBE some here have done some applications but you are getting someones opinion and their take vs a manufacturer who knows for sure whether your going to have complications or not. With cermaic coatings having entered the norm (we bought a new Hyundia and that was an option from the dealer) I guarantee they have gotten out ahead of this already.

Looks awesome! I don't do enough of that kind of thing to warrant a cutter like that but I am a tool addict and my secret self is envious. Every time I DO pick up a high volume decal job I always wish I at least had a big enough trimmer to handle larger sheets.

The screen shot is NOT adobe Illustrator. Whatever you are seeing there is being inserted by the Cricut interface. I would assume it is somehow sending some interface instructions meant for your cutter that are transposing as cut line? Just a guess... I would suggest trying a newer or older version of your saved AI file or even change the file type from AI to SVG or EPS or whatever the Cricut program likes. My cutter interface prefers Adobe Illustrator version 8 which is a much simplified legacy version. There are a LOT of extra "doodads" especially in the CC version of AI that may be complicating your file.

I am not a SCALP user either but I suggest saving a working file to the side or whole other file when practicing so if it goes badly you can quickly revert to the original starting place. I would also consider saving your work in a non-proprietary file type. Seems like SCALP can export or save as SVG or EPS or similar. If you ever need to send one to another person or change design programs you will be glad you did. I had a beta version of SCALP way back but just didn't ever fall in love with it. I am an Adobe Illustrator design guy but was attempting to use SCALP as my cutter interface because I run on Mac computers for the most part. They (SCALP) have made progress in their capability since those early days and there are some on here who know the idiosyncrasies and tricks to get it to perform fine. I wouldn't want you to think I was disrespecting them.

Paper tape is better IMO. I know you can't see through it to layer but overall application success is better. That's a large graphic so there will probably end up having some bubbles trying to get it stacked prior to application and then potentially along the edges where the two layers meet there often ends up a small line or rill of bubbles following that edge. If you have a simple application surface like a sign you can just install it in two layers but some things like race car bodies make that really hard to do. Good squeegee control is the key to reduce bubbles. Again, that is hard to employ when layering pre-install but still relevant. Search videos of actual pro's doing it, they make it look easy but there is a lot of skill you don't see if you aren't watching closely. You can use a pin to puncture and then deflate bubbles but if there are a lot it turns into a lot of work. If this is for a client it looks unprofessional. If it's for your own use the small bubbles will often disappear over time. My first big job was on my own suburban window and one side had a whole bunch of tiny bubbles because I sucked at the squeegee. A few weeks later they were gone from the heat and cool of day to night expansion and contraction. In my early days I had a few go a little rough. I made an excuse and told them if they didn't go away in 30 or so days I would replace the logo. They never needed to but I don't think I came across as a very experienced installer. I watched a lot and read articles about proper installation and things got better with time and practice.

A common misconception with new cutter owners is that the blade cutting depth is somehow related to the exposed length of the blade sticking out of the blade holder. Follow Skeeter's directions on setting the proper amount of blade exposed and then you adjust the actual depth of cut into the vinyl by the down force applied to the holder. The blade exposed should be only slightly farther than the thickness of the vinyl and not at any time far enough that it could cut all the way through the vinyl and carrier sheet. It's not much and most people have far far too much exposed. She suggests removing the blade holder altogether and drag it across a scrap piece by hand to verify that it can't quite cut all the way through. (Use a cutting mat beneath in case you do so you don't break a tip). I would also be sure your blade is fresh and not either broken or worn down. For many people when they aren't able to cut deep enough they think they need to crank the blade out of the holder farther and this is exactly wrong.

Another tip I would give is use some parchment paper (or even better if you happen to have any Gerber 225 vinyl it has a clear carrier that is totally amazing for layering) I submitted a video a few years back using parchment paper:

Welcome from Idaho. Great fun to own a cutter as I'm sure you are finding out. Takes a bit of learning but it's worth the effort.

I would add that the logo is copyright protected so be sure to get permission to use that and not get yourelf into trouble.

I do a lot of shirt work. Rarely have I ever had anything like a stain guard on regular tee's but there is always that posibility. The 150C is a bit on the low side by most standards. Siser regular easyweed is about that but most HTV is higher by another 15 degrees. I would try more heat and do exactly what Dakota suggested, verify your press temp with IR thermo gun to be sure it's actually giving what it's supposed to. Even my $2500 Fusion was way off when I first got it. (It was actualy high and cause scorches but still off). The techs at hotronix had me buy an IR gun and check so that's the correct proceedure and important. Pressure on the shirt is also important. I usually error a bit on the high side just to be safe. Typically if you overdo it you can see some adhesive ooze out at the edges of the vinyl (hard to see on anything except double layers thgouh). I have never had a failure from too much pressure either. The HTV techs get touchy with it, worrying that you can squish it all out the sides but like I said, never had a failure and I have occasionally over pressured significantly on accident. The only failures I have had were 1 roll of bad HTV (very very very unlikely but is possble) but that would only happen on one of the colors. And lack of either heat time or temp. Most often due to temp or something like a thick neck collar holding part of the platen up causing eneven pressure (baby onsies are the worst!) Heat most likely in your case. EDIT: Just saw that only the black is lifting. If you are putting the black on last and the others are getting more swell time it could do what you say.

hotrodz0321 my biggest advice is have a good tax accountant help you stay out in front of the tax burden. You will probably see a significant jump in earned income through your new venture. Also if you have not been collecting sales tax (assuming your state does that like most) be prepared to toe the line. I almost went down the first year I got some big contracts. With new equipment purchases you have a great write-off but after this tax season you may find yourself surprised how much money uncle sam takes if you don't have significant purchses to write off next year set some money aside. Most tax accountants can work you a forecast and you can and should pay quarterly estimates if it will be a lot of money. Not sure what Florida tax laws are like so gettting some sound advice from a good tax man would be smart. I can't give you much help on the printer. I've talked myself out of them several times just due to the need to keep them busy. My business model has shifted away from sign vinyl and I do primarily aparrel work now so the need for a printer has dropped.

Siser says it can and even has hand iron install instructions. I can promis you that anyone doing it that way will NOT get the same quality of job even the poorest of clam shells can produce.

I tend to favor higher tack. There isn't many things more frustrating than trying to do an install and having some of the letters stay on the carrier. Or worse PART of a letter and having it get stretched or ruined. If they are sizeable they will be hinging and installing in place somewhere. 751 transfers pretty good but I still sometimes fight an odd peice here and there. Maybe a greasy hand print on my part when weeding who knows. That being said, if it's going on interiror walls all bets are off. LOL

Try some parchment paper, neatly trimmed. I'm slightly confused by the question since it's HTV rather than regular adhesive vinyl and am assuming you want to protect the sticky carrier around the edges so it doesn't collect dust bunnies. I do enough install that I just save two used backings and place them face to face to create a base and then stack on it. I do NOT sell to others for them to install so a bit different application. In fact I save most of my larger carriers for later use as weeding sheets to collect small weeded pieces. You could ostensibly even ship it un-weeded and let the buyer do some of the time eating work. just a thought.

Oh Slice, you're still just pissed that Santa didn't bring you a red ryder bb gun.

Excelent point haumana. The new chip is an issue for sure. I upgraded my imac last winter and my old hard copy of Illustrator CS5 became an issue. Even updating my old 2010 imac when I put a new HD in it had started to cause some program crashes in AI when scrolling through fonts. That's the price of progress I guess. I ended up biting the bullet and joining the darth vader team and now have an Illustrator subscription. It was nice not having a payment but the new digs are kind of handy because I CAN now run on multiple computers so I can save work from my home workstation onto the cloud and keep going at my day job if I need to. Or just use my AI skills to amaze my co-workers in the construction industry LOL. It blows their minds when I open a PDF set of drawings and make all sorts of notes and resave it and send it back to the dude that drew it. Tons of fun. Anyway your point that the M1 will probably come into play is a very important one that may kill off a few options out there.

I run on a mac. I have zero experience running parallels or any other conversion so can't help that way at all. I made the moveto get away from that platform for a reason. My best advice would be either switch to a mac friendly platform for cutting or just pick up an old windows laptop for just the cutting and still do most of your efforts on the mac. I actually have SignCut Pro 1 (the original old version) and it is just a cutting utility and is cross platform compatible. They have a newer version out now that also does some design. Oddly, I ended up settling in and doing my design on my iMac and then I just transfer the file to a thumb and go cut it on an old windows 7 laptop that I keep Quickbooks on. (because quick books does not make a good version for mac which sucks) In your case the old laptop may be the cheapest route to get going IF you can't figure out the parralells angle (I have no idea what expenses running parralels entails either). There are a few other mac compatible cutting utilities. I looked at them at the time I switched and like the SignCut Pro the best. It's not cheap so if this is for hobby cutting then it may not make sense. I like SC Pro because if my pc laptop fails I can roll the cutter over and plug into the mac and I'm back in action. I don't know of another program that will run on both. I bought the lifetime dongle for Pro1. I don't know if that is even offered anymore and I don't know if the new Pro 2 is even available as a lifetime program , they may have joinded the dark side and went subscription only. Good luck and hope you have success.

There are a couple brands that may be ok with thermal printing. I have went back and forth on buying a DC5SX myself but we live in such a dusty environment that I keep side stepping it. Plus being maxed out on production as well. I found a product that was ok to use the thermal printer but I can't find what it was. It MIGHT have been Thermoflex. Siser Colorprint PU gloss MIGHT work and I was planning on trying it out just to see what happened if I made the leap on the printer. They don't claim it will work but I'd love you to try in and chime back in with any information. Lots of MIGHT's in there.

Regular red Siser is red front and back. Bright red is white on the glue side. Both are available in stretch. Most of the time when people ask for red the bright red is what they had in mind. only a handful of times has someone wanted the plain old red. I still use both when the choice is up to me but bright red pops better especially on colored apparel.