slice&dice

OK, here's the procedure for grounding --- When you look at the bottom of the machine, there's a bolt that's marked with the "ground" symbol and that is where you attach a wire (you supply the wire, anything you have is fine, even speaker wire) -- the other end of the wire will now be affixed to a nearby point on the stand frame with a self-tapping screw (maybe worthwhile to scrape away the paint and be sure of the contact).

Top speed, man. 600. Downforce, maybe 20. Or less. Blade spins 360-degrees. Put a drop of 3-in-1 oil in there and let it rotate like crazy!

+++ Bumping the thread +++ Many people have asked here on the Forums if these MH cutters are good units. Bryonmax, (if you are still following this topic after you've overcome a slight out-of-the-box glitch), would it be possible to share your experience over the past month in using the MH machine? Provide some further feedback and give some of your impressions, it would be appreciated, I'm sure.

Howdy and welcome. My SC 34" is hooked up directly with a serial cable, it's running from WinXP on SIgnBlazer UK version (cracked, no nag screens), LiYu HF1202 driver. This is a working configuration that operates Smooth as Silk. I couldn't be happier, and the price I paid $370 was a killer deal. Since taking the unit out of the box last month (May 6th) and cutting a variety of different sign jobs with it, I've easily earned $2000 above and beyond my initial outlay for the machine. In this tough economic marketplace, being the go-to-guy for local people to request signs is a lot of fun, and quite profitable.

Yes, OWJ, it's a steady flow of these 'one-off' jobs that are allowing me to pull in several thousands of $$ monthly, all from a tiny shop/garage. Charging fifty dollars here, thirty dollars there, ninety dollars on the next. It all adds up quickly.

RedSail drivers.

You can pretty much depend on US Cutter for immediate shipments, which is excellent when ordering vinyl and other consumables. In the meantime, go ahead and set up the stand, organize your work area, make sure you have things located in an ergonomic and practical way for production, and do some test cuts to verify the blade is correctly positioned in the holder, and familiarize yourself with the cutter keypad controls (including checking that your vinyl runs without shifting).

What about them? You call a supply company and they send you one. Fellers is a prime supplier, also Advantage, Grimco, and you can search for others in your local area.

Just viewing that SDG website (which offers an online look-see at the various topics covered) I would imagine it's far too deep and complex for the casual vinyl-cutter user to appreciate, but it does show what the wide-ranging sign business is doing these days, and how amazing this industry is. We are indeed tiny minnows in the vast pond of Sign-making. For instance, I look at my 500 sq.ft. production facility and realize that I am an insignificant speck compared to, say, GABLE SIGNS.

Not silly at all, I would be willing to bet there are some of us who have accidentally clicked into that little corner, changing the measurement parameters, then setting a workspace with 24 (thinking it was 24" but in reality it's 24mm) and then gone into cutting without realizing their whole design has been miniaturized from 24" to 24mm.

Incredibly common, actually, to see customers make all sorts of errors in their requests for work. Spelling, colors, sizing, etc. Your offer to replace is perfectly fair under the circumstances. Custom decals are sold to order specifications, and a proof, once approved, indicates an acknowledgement of the accuracy of the job. Don't you have any wording on the proof itself or billing invoice indicating orders are NON-REFUNDABLE?

SDG http://sdgmag.com/

The trick to this is installing the "cracked" SB (eliminating the start-up registration nag screens) and that UK version will contain drivers for hundreds of different machines. LiYu HF-1202 is the correct driver, having sufficient cutter parameters for 34" width.

Customers lying about what they "paid" or were "quoted" for something? Shocking !!! Many years ago, I was selling cars, and we had a policy regarding ridiculous "quotes" they claimed had been offered at a competitor which we were being asked to beat --- We told the customer, "If it's in writing, with the signature of a sales manager, we would honor it, and give them $500 below the figure." Never did anyone produce such a signed quote.

Go for it, you won't be disappointed.

Jeremy, howdy! I wouldn't worry about anything from this point forward, since you have gotten it re-aligned and that'll be fine. Those are well-built machines, and can likely provide years of reliable work.

When configuring your cutter order, there was an option of getting a 9-color starter pack of 30" x 10 yards Oracal vinyl for $260. (under $30 a roll, which works out to about a buck a linear foot) In my small shop, I was able to produce a few signs within the first week of getting those rolls, and got paid nearly $1000. for that work, covering my outlay cost for the SC, all the vinyl, and then some. The markups on vinyl cutting is so great, that it's not worth worrying about saving a buck or two on supplies, the key thing is having enough vinyl on hand and try to avoid having to wait days and days to get re-stocked. Believe me, once you get going, you'll be amazed at how rapidly you start running out of materials. 10-yards goes quick.

It's a Thrift Store so your pricing has to be thrifty. I often use the rule of thumb of FedEx/Kinko's RTA price list -- 50% of the letter size is the price. For example, 6" letters = $3 ea. For anything between 20" and 28" letters my charge is $15. ea. (my cutter can take 30" vinyl so I'm restricted to using 28" letters on the horizontal as the vinyl unrolls). 23" font @ $15 per letter x 11 letters = $165. Then, duplicate that for the shadow and now you're at $330. Installation (you're up on a ladder, kinda tricky) = $250. I'm at around six hunnert. FWIW.

Cheerio Cath & Andy! Glad to see you getting your feet wet. Think of it this way --- in this world there are two kinds of graphics: Pixel and Vector. Pixel graphics are composed of tiny dots, each one having a defined color, and the mixture of them all creates what your eye can absorb as an "image" (whatever you see here on the computer screen is pixel-based) Vector graphics are defined by X-Y coordinates and are Linear. That is what the plotter can do, following these lines. For example, the letter 'A' is cut by the blade on the plotter tracing around all the edges. Here are two different items -- one is something you can cut easily, the other is not -- (this needs to be converted in order to make it cuttable, but it is easy to do that within SignBlazer) and (This is a jpg file, but it's not 'cuttable' and can't be coverted)

T-Y

Sorry about that, Bruce! http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/sounds/SorryAboutThatChief.wav *** more terrific sound bites from Agent 86 are here-- http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/sounds.html

Last week, on that famous E-normous auction site, I won a set of clip-art DVD discs, 10 in all, with around 35,000 images, all cut-ready vectors. (Search: HUGE MEGA VECTOR CLIPART FOR SIGN VINYL PLOTTER CUTTER) Now, I'm overwhelmed with the vastness of choices, and it's really time consuming to browse through everything (there are .pdf reference pages in every folder with thumbnails of each item) and I haven't been able to review it all yet. Anyway, today a customer walks in, wanting a few 18"x24" bandit signs to advertise their horse stables. Lo and behold, my new disc collection has a category "Horses" and contains just the right element for adding to the design. I highly recommend this set to anyone here wants to own an amazing assortment of cuttable artwork, with subjects such as Frogs, Scorpions, Flames, Racing Logos, Skulls, Hearts, Fairies, Dragons, Swap-Meet stuff, 150 funny Stick People, Wings, Turtles. Tribal art, Kanji, Flowers, Animals, Butterflies, etc etc etc etc This Horse job paid for the entire 10-discs.

You're welcome, glad to assist. Here are my own observations regarding the SC ---- 1. Watch a YouTube SC-stand assembly video (and use a magnetic screwdriver because it's tricky to seat the screws into the side holes) and remember that the rubber feet will need to come off and then reattached to the machine from under the two brackets in order to get the unit mounted to the stand. 2. Ground the cutter to the stand - I used a self-tapping screw. You'll need to provide your own wire. 3. When inserting the blade, it is going to sit REALLY deep into the holder, almost not even sticking out. 4. I have my downforce pressure set to 2g. 5. Always make sure your vinyl is tracking properly, by manually advancing it a few feet and seeing that it isn't shifting. 6. As a rule, don't let the cutter pull vinyl directly from a roll, but rather unspool the amount you require and leave it loose. 7. While not provided with the cutter, having a catch-basket is very nice, and making one yourself isn't too complicated. Search the forums for instructions and photos of how to do that. That's about it for me, let's hear how you do after it shows up.

I dunno what auctions you guys are watching, but this is the actual collection I'm referring to, there are 22 hours left to bid, and the price right now is 1-cent. (No reserve) http://www.ebay.com/...R-/330754069078 As I indicated, when I got into one of their auctions a few weeks back, it ended around $50 and I was top bidder. If you just want to pay right away and not get involved with bidding, the same set is BIN $99. I was tempted to do that (after being outbid in four previous auctions, being sniped by a buck or two) but I finally won these discs by being persistent. Anyway, good luck and have fun. (Oh yeah, I should mention that today a client came in and wanted menu signs for a Food Truck, and right next to the selection for "Hot Sandwiches" some FLAMES burst forth from my new DVD)

In reality if you are going to purchase a cutter at almost $2000.00 or even at $200.00 you should have became knowledgeable about the product and the way it works... Yeah, one would certainly think potential buyers know what's what, but apparently, that isn't always the case. I can't even begin to count the number of threads on these Forums that start "Newbie, what cutter should I buy?"and proceed to completely flabbergast us with a series of already-asked and answered questions. Research? Pfffffffttttt. Whip out a credit card, get the unit delivered, hook it up, and THEN ask how to go about doing stuff. This is not something only unique to cutters and equipment in our field, but is prevalent in consumerism in general, I've noticed over the years. Has the internet helped? I often am frustrated to see that it has made some people less inclined to find out answers on their own. I mean, now there's a popular site called LMGTFY, which exists just to offer a snappy reply to those who ask such basic question, because they're unable (or maybe too lazy?) to even type in a search on Google. Which blows my mind. At least this thread did bring up something that was kinda not obvious to the unitiated (the photo showing a fully weeded output)