splash0321
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Posts posted by splash0321
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On 9/11/2016 at 6:03 PM, andygeekboy said:Ah ok, they're all metal too.
The vinyl I used when the plotter went west was trailing on the floor if that makes any difference,
It looks like you have the issue solves, at least on this job. Just to add my two cents, I used to experience this issue as well and it was very discouraging. I would sell some graphics that were about 7-8 feet long and it would happen all of the time and waste all of that vinyl. Your job is fairly small so you really should be dealing with it. I still do jobs with longer runs and one thing that has virtually eliminated these static issues is to unroll some vinyl before cutting. If I know my job will use up 4 feet of vinyl, I unroll a little more than that from my vinyl roll before initiating the cut. This, and slowing the cut speed down, has eliminated the issue for me completely. Don't forgo the grounding process because that does help. It just didn't solve the problem for me. Hopefully you get all of the kinks worked out.
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other than the triangle, does it complete the rest of your design as wanted?
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On 9/1/2016 at 2:04 AM, NWAWraps said:I have an eBay store. My cheapest decals are $1.99 for 2.5". I also have 5" decals for $2.99. My most expensive decal is 9.5" for $10. Those don't sell as often, though. People like the cheap decals. I also offer an "install kit" free with every purchase which includes an alcohol wipe and a PVC card squeegee. I also offer a buy 2 get 1 free promotion. And yes I also offer free shipping. Yet, after all that, I still manage to maintain 100% positive feedback, and 100% customer satisfaction. Now I'm not as big as a few of the other stores, and I'm sure when sales start to get to a level where I won't be able to manage it on my own, there may be some issues, but as of right now, I've had no problems.
With eBay, the trick isn't to make the most money off one decal but make the most money off a lot of decals. People are so stuck in the "I gotta make as much as I can off this one job" mentality, or "I won't turn my cutter on for $2." But I bet they would if they were selling 125+ decals a day with a $2 profit margin. Think about it. If you have 100 listings, and 25% of them are hot selling items (so 25 listings are selling really good), and you're selling 5 decals per hot selling listing, that's 125 decals per day you're selling. Multiply 125 decals by $2, and you get $250/day. That's approximately $31 an hour if you're "working" an 8 hour day. How many people do you know make that kind of money? Back to the big picture. If you're selling 5 decals from 25 listings, you're making $250 a day. Now multiply that by 30 days in a month. NOW show me someone won't turn their cutter on for $2. This example was just using someone who has 100 listings. Someone small time like me. There's US companies on eBay that have 45,000+ listings. If just 25% of their listings sold 5 decals a day at a $2 profit, well you do the math. I bet that $1-$2 profit isn't looking so bad after all is it?
eBay is all about volume selling. That's how people get away with selling decals so cheap. People say, "my time is worth more than 50¢, $1, etc." and it may be. But when you're selling quite a few decals a day, that number isn't as small as it looks. Just remember, there is always a method to the madness. It's just a matter of making sense of it all.
I have a different viewpoint on ebay selling. On smaller decals, I don't think its realistic that 25% of your listings would be hot sellers. I feel like 10-15% is more accurate and might even be generous. At that pricepoint and margin, I'd need to sell 125 minimum each day which means I would have to have between 850 and 1250 listings. That's a lot of small decals and it would be hard to find that many hot selling items.
That being said, that's why I like selling medium and larger items. If my profit on each item is $40-75 on average, I turn on my cutter every other day and work for 3 hours and make that same money it would have taken me to earn in two days. I only need a limited number (a dozen or so) of really hot sellers and my other listings only need to sell mediocrely. I make shipping and handling 3 days and sometimes I turn my cutter on every three days, sometimes every other, and occasionally every day. It all depends on the time of year and what I have listed.
I am certainly not putting anyone down who does small decals. I can see the potential. But at a quick glance there are a lot of people in the small decal niche and fewer in the large decal niche. I even see sellers from china selling med-large graphics for less than $10. Its hard to compete on ebay with sellers who don't care to make money.
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That's a nice spreadsheet. Thanks for sharing Primal
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I have a customer that wants a "built ford tough" decal made for his truck. I told him I cant/wont reproduce the ford logo, nor will I even spell out the word "ford"...I offered to do a "BUILT TOUGH" decal as long as I could ensure it wasn't violating any CR laws. Does anyone have advice on this? A $10,000 fine is too much to risk making a quick $40.
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6 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:I gotcha. Yeah that is definitely tricky, especially if the car isn't at your disposal.
I watched one of the hotrod shows a while back that was wanting custom hood graphics and the guy who showed up to discuss it with the host pulled out some low tack paper app tape and stuck it on there and traced out the area with a pencil then pulled up the tape and took it with him. I haven't tried that method but it seems to work, the area they were working was not that large. The only thing I have done similar was for some Peterbilt emblems. I did the pic method. Scaled it and then actually printed out the outline since it would fit on a piece of paper and tested it out before I cut them. I had to do minor adjustments to the radius on both ends but the final product fit pretty good.
The app tape isn't a bad idea. It is essentially the same idea as the static cling only its more widely available and cheaper. That would work the same way. Im coming up with all kinds of ideas now. I think that's what I needed. I appreciate your help Wildgoose.
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4 hours ago, darcshadow said:I don't do this type of work, but what you are describing sounds like the perfect fit for the knife less finish line cutting tape. There have been post on here in the past about it and there are some videos of it's use someplace. Some pretty neat stuff.
To get a cutter to cut something to exactly fit a hood or what ever and then apply it perfectly, is going to be near impossible.
That's pretty cool technology...its just not something that will work for my needs, unfortunately.
I specialize in online sales so my graphics are shipped out and installed by others. They fit precisely so the end user doesn't have to do any modifications. One method I had though about years ago but never tried was to buy a reusable sheet of clear static cling vinyl to apply over the surface I wanted to work on. I could then trace out the design onto the vinyl, pull it off and trace it out onto the paper, scan it and go from there. I am apparently doing something that most people don't do or just don't want to give away their methods. Oh well, if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears.
That knife-less cutting tape is sweet. I'll be ordering that soon for other projects.
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Im not looking for templates that are "close" to original. I don't do wraps or anything. I simply want to exactly replicate the existing lines of a part of a vehicle so I can make graphics that fit it perfectly. Attached is a picture of a hood. If I wanted to make a template of the areas that are red (which follow the edges of the top contour of the hood), what would be the best way to do that? Ive thought about laying wide format tracing paper over it and making marks along the edges. Having that paper scanned and importing it in, then I can trace it and scale it. This is a time consuming process as it takes some tweaking each time to get it perfect.
I know people do this but Ive never seen any tutorials. Ive actually never seen it mentioned aside from my own queries. The vehicle template software is nowhere close to the accuracy I need.
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Hey everyone. Most people wouldn't remember me but I was a frequent user of this forum a few years back and am now getting back into this.
The problem I am having is creating templates on vehicles from scratch. Basically Im trying to make a template of the body contours of certain areas of vehicles (hoods, tailgates, etc.), then somehow scan that template and import it into my design software so I can then trace it and cut it out to be installed on vehicles. The process I have been doing is time consuming and I am wondering if others have mastered this and could provide input on how they do it.
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Im cleaning house (literally, selling and moving) and am listing all of this bundled together for a quick easy sell. The plotter, last used 6 months ago was in working order and was being used as a side business. The plotter boots up and cut a perfect test cut and ford logo. It comes with several extra blades. The specifics of everything in this auctions are as follows:
- US Cutter 53" plotter MH-1351, working condition, comes with stand, several extra blades, power cord, serial and usb cables.
- 2 wall racks as pictured.
- Over 40 rolls of vinyl, various brands, varying lengths and widths
- Oracal 651 48" vinyl: 40yds matte black, 40yds gloss black, 4yds gloss black, 8yds matte white, 5yds gloss red, 6yds brushed aluminum/nickle, 8yds light blue, 5yds silver, 4 yds gloss white, 5yds gloss blue.
- Oracal 651 24" vinyl: 35yds gloss blue, 20yds gloss orange, 20yds metallic silver, 10yds gloss blue, 8yds matte dark red, 5yds matte tan, 5yds matte khaki, 4yds matte dark brown, 10yds matte light blue, 35yds silver (was a 24" roll that I had my supplier cut 3x1.5" rolls off of it. yeilding 3 1.5" rolls and a 19" roll)
- Oracal 30"- 4yds metallic gold
- 3M 30"- 35yds forest green.
- 3M 15"- 5yds forest green, 15yds kobalt blue, 30yds dark blue, 8yds brown.
- 30"x 150yd roll of R-Applitape
- 13 24" rolls of off brand intermediate vinyl, most with between 5-9 yards on them each.
If I can answer any other questions I would be happy to do so. I am pricing this for a quick sale. Thanks for looking.Email me at rodneyrml@gmail.com or text 352-697-5716. Im trying to get $750 for it. For sale on ebay as well.
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I have all the templates but it doesnt get me exactly what I need. I mean I can use them to design a kit that is almost perfect....but I like perfect more. When I try to align the fender graphic with the hood graphic they are slightly off. And the graphics follow the body lines of the vehicle so there is really no shifting of the graphics allowed. The problem that I always run into is the transition from fender to hood. If I were installing all of these myself then I could easily modify the kit "on the job" as needed but I sell kits online ...and I want the lesser experienced installer to be able to install this with no modifications needed. maybe im out of luck...doesnt seem like anyone else has ideas...oh well.
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these should only really take about 2-3 minutes to produce on your own. take a look at this eps and see if it does the trick
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I havnt been around the forum for a while (school, etc.) but would like some input from some of the experienced people of the forum. What I want to do is take some of the designs I have in my head and get them into my computer. My designs are vehicle specific. For example, i have several designs where the graphics flow from hood, down the fender, and along the side of the vehicle. Something similar to the style I am envisioning is the cobra jet mustang race car. Designing the hood to scale would be simple, as would the side of the vehicle, but the angles where the two would meet would vary slightly from vehicle to vehicle.
So the question is how do professionals lay their ideas out on a vehicle, then transfer it to the computer. Could you tape paper onto the vehicle, sketch your design onto that paper while its on the vehicle, then pull it all off in one piece and somehow use that as your design template? Im just throwing an idea out there...any help would be appreciated.
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im in the process of designing one for myself....i will upload the plans for it when i've perfected it.
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id be interested in that tool.....the cut edges have to be clean enough to actually apply to a substrate...I dont think a miter saw would cut the edges clean enough
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i clicked the link....had to register....registered and the link still only puts me at the main page....can you point me in the right direction? thanks
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Is there a tool for cutting down vinyl into custom widths? I can get oracal to do this but its 6-8$ for each cut. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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thanks everyone...i just wanted to be sure my price wasn't overly brutal. I want to make money but Im not about to shaft any of my customers.
Thanks again.
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they wanted the metallic colors and the carbon fiber because it was eye catching. just wondering what others would have done in this situation. Printing wasnt an option because of the specialty colors wanted by the customer. I dont think im going to charge less than 150 per. Probably closer to 175-185 per.
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Had a friend (who I am giving no discount to) who needed these banners NEXT DAY.
They wanted black banners, I only had white so I had to cover these banners in black 3m 7725 vinyl so they could have what they wanted. Next is the lettering which is oracal 951 premium cast metallic for the 2 large banners (1'x8' each). The two smaller banners are 1'x4' and lettering done in 3m carbon fiber vinyl which is 9$/sf MY COST. They wanted it next day so they will be paying for next day service. All banners were grommeted in all corners and middle. The edges of the banners were hemmed using 3m double sided tape because they didn't want to see threads along the edges.
Im sure I left out a couple things but I think everyone's price quotes are going to be as brutal as mine....so lets hear them.
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signblazer and driver...but both can be downloaded off this site for free..
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gloss or matte?
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shipped and on its way!
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are you still looking to buy a cutter? i have a MH-721 24", I've had it for about 18 months. It works just as good as the day i bought it. I imagine I could let it go for 225. Its probably going to cost 40-50 to ship so if you wanna just say $250 shipped to your door we can make a deal. I have a 48" and am looking into a printer/cutter combo so i wont need this when I get it.
Inexpensive outdoor Matte Silver or Matte Charcoal
in Business Practices, Sales and Pricing, etc.
Posted
I have a customer that is requesting some graphics in matte silver or matte charcoal. The only stuff I can really find is high performance and high priced. Does anyone know of an intermediate vinyl in either of those two colors that is reasonably priced? I'm looking for 30"x10yard rolls but can make it work with 24"x10yard. Any help would be appreciated.