slice&dice

In most cases, to turn a hobby into a business you don't need to be LLC. Generally, the process of setting up a legal and officially-registered retail shop (even from your home) involves the following steps: 1. Register with the Assessment and Taxation Dep't. and get them to verify your "DBA" ('doing business as' = fictitious name) is not already being used by somebody. You can choose to be a Sole Proprietor, rather than a Corporate entity. Highly advise you first apply for a FEIN. Use that instead of your SS# 2. After you are given the "L" number at the Assessment office, take that over to the Sales and Use Tax people, and they will issue you a CRN identifier (Central Registration Number) that allows you to collect State Sales Taxes on your invoices, and file with the state monthly (most states offer online remittances). This certification is sometimes referred to as SUT and in my state, it's 6% 3. When filing Federal Income Taxes, you will be asked to provide a PBC number (Principal Business Code) and I have been using 541400, Specialized Design Services. 4. In order to claim the utility room portion of your residence as a business deduction on Federal taxes, you'll have to calculate at $5 per square foot, with a maximum of 300 square feet. ($1500) and file using Schedule C. 5. Keep books. I've never done my books with a computer program (like QuickBooks) and instead just used a ledger that I bought at Office Depot. You can also buy invoices from them (and order a personalized ink stamper there, too). Good luck, let us know how you progress with it.

Yes, I see that comparison chart shows the vectorize only for the two higher levels. Strange, because we have that feature now in all versions. Best thing is to contact Future Corp. directly and see what they have to say.

So, just to make sure I understand you, there is a keypad request for a two-digit password when you try to access the settings function (switching from Print to SerialUSB/VirtualCOM). You went through all 100 possibilities and the machine did not accept any of them? Your seller has never replied back, and left you with a machine that's not working right? You can't make any Danish Kroner money because you are unable to get this cutter to run properly, and have blown (the equivalent in DKK) $335 dollars on it, and are stuck. I would like to know, what are you expecting anyone here on this Forum to do at this point? What's your plan of action?

A robust 'vector engine' is included with all versions of VinylMaster. In fact, although I don't use VM as the default design/cut application with my USCUTTER machine (SC2) there have been plenty of instances when I needed a raster graphic to be converted into paths, and VM does it really well. (Inkscape also provides a convert-to-path function, but the one in VM is just so easy and clean, it's my go-to when SignBlazer chokes on the vectorize effort). Where did you see information that the v5 upgrade has eliminated the vectorization scheme? I find it hard to believe that critical element would be removed from VM, even at the 'CUT' (lowest) level program.

Semper Fi

How much do you need? https://uscutter.com/20-Siser-Easyreflective-Heat-Transfer-Vinyl

Sounds like a windows issue.

OK, so you're in the Netherlands (DKK is Dutch Kroner) and got a $335 unit that the seller is not assisting you with any support. How's breaking that password thing coming along? Getting a new machine that functions perfectly would not be considered 'blowing' money on it. Here in the USA, we call that an 'investment' that allows a small business to charge money for the cutter output every day, and get a return on that 'investment' and even make a profit. How much money have you put in your pocket so far with this thing? Do you intend to earn Kroner by using it? After my asking you twice, you've still ignored a basic question -- is that a two digit password? Yes? No? Maybe?

Thomas, how did you get from "It cuts fine from EasyCut just not in the right scale as I send" to it now thinking there's a printer involved? What happened when you went through the 100 possible two-digit passwords? Why did you change computers? Although you're not a millionaire, how did you arrive at a conclusion that $500 for a brand new cutter is beyond your reach, financially? How much did you pay for this 'crap' ?

IT'S NOT A PRINTER

bransoning, please cease reviving old threads with comments that add nothing to the overall discussions. Go to the "Introductions" section and post something about yourself, OK? As a newbie, it's always the courteous thing to do.

Well, After trying to provide actual answers, I realize that my original 'rolling eyes' should have been my only answer. 1. The cutter works fine. The scale is incorrect, and that just means a setting of calibration within the software is needed. 2. Spending $500 on a vinyl cutter is certainly well within the average person's budget, especially if they are serious about doing work for payment (running a small business). I've made tens of thousands of $$ using the MH, SC, SC2 over the years. If you were a millionaire, perhaps the Graphtec would be a better choice than the basic SC2? 3. How much did you pay for this unit? Did the seller ever show you it functioned properly before you handed over money? 4. You never answered about the two-digit password combination, which is simple enough to run through all 100 possible choices. 01 02 03 etc. Why even bother the seller when in less than an hour you can cycle around every numerical two-digit code and unlock the settings? 5. You said that your cutter only has USB port, so the tripp-lite is totally incompatible. 6. We're trying to assist, but you have to be precise, and give us better details that add to this troubleshooting effort.

I hated to get involved with this fiasco, but now I'm intrigued. 1. Does this cutter respond when a vector cut file is sent to it? 2. Perhaps you have a spare $500 and can just get a SC2 cutter (34") from USCUTTER that will work just fine, right out of the box? 3. Since this 'crap' machine of suspect origin doesn't have a serial port, and only USB interface, then that's what you'll have to live with. 4. Is that a two-digit password? You can try all the possible choices, for a total effort of 100 permutations. That shouldn't take long to cycle through them all and come up with a winner.

I hate to restart a necrothread, but recently someone wrote me saying that they couldn't locate a download of SignBlazer anymore at USCUTTER archives. This is true, since USCUTTER cannot promote or support that program, as they have a perfectly fine cut/design software with VinylMaster (and also SureCutsALot, that works with macintosh). However, in the interests of those who still prefer the SignBlazer interface, or just want to play around with it, here is a link to the installer ------ keep in mind it has an internal 'crack' scheme for the elimination of the nag screens, so it shows as a danger/trojan/virus to many security algorithms, alhough it's not actually a problem at all and does nothing to 'infect' your computer. http://www.thebuttontaylor.com/sb/signblazer7_setup.exe

I would never even attempt to cut gasket-thick material with a vinyl cutter. https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/how-to-make-your-own-gaskets

This guy Derril has a very strange handle history, with random posts that made little sense, dating back to 2018. And now he comes into a necrothread to say "yeah" out of the blue. Lately there have been some really strange things on these Forums, keeping the (volunteer) moderators busy with deleting the junk. Kudos to them for those efforts, it's an ongoing challenge to maintain the integrity of these boards.

Wildgoose -- BINGO. When I first started to work in the sign business, one of the guys at the shop where I apprenticed was a font savant. He could just look at a font and know its name, maybe a thousand of them he knew by eye.

Did you get the Roland running with SBE? Yes? No? Maybe?

You have to manually select the USB port in the Device Manager probably --- these cutters are not plug and play.

You might want to consider unlocking your caps key. Thanks. P.S. -- Run your Roland with SignBlazer and it'll work just fine.

A decade has passed by since this thread began, and we still don't care about your stick figure family! By the way, there's a kinda goofy stick figure collection available at clipartandfonts website -------> perfect for assembling a grouping of character decals on your favorite soccer mom's rear window.

Where are you located? There is a section on this Forum for selling ("Buy Sell Trade") although shipping a cutter and supplies usually is quite costly, so a face-to-face transaction is preferable. To answer your question, SignBlazer Elements is all that's needed ---- it's abandonware, and can be obtained from several dowload sources as offered in the SignBlazer section. (runs on windows all versions, from Win95 onwards). SBE will do both designing and cutting, it's software that was shipped along with all USCUTTER machines for years, until the developer, Jerry Bonham, passed away, sadly. Jerry used to participate in these discussions himself, and you can actually go back into the archives of posts and read his stuff and see the passion that man had for the cutting community. I was able to get into this business due to his brilliance in producing a program that any newbie can figure out quickly. Just out of curiosity, why are you getting rid of your machine?

On my SC2 I'm comfortably cutting 651 with pressure 88.

Send me a private message with more specific details and attach the .eps file and I'll quote you a price for the quantity you need. Hopefully it's a standard color intermediate vinyl I have on hand and a TrueType font that's easily obtainable. Let's see what we can manage together.