OWJones

It looks like either MDF (medium density fiberboard) or HDF (high density fiberboard). I would guess MDF to keep it lighter weight.

Check out his other channel, Direstafan, where you can watch all of his TV shows and other videos he did with his brother - https://www.youtube.com/user/direstafan?&ab_channel=direstafan

He's got his own YouTube channel. He's done at least 3 different TV shows (Trash to Cash, Dirty Money and Hammered) and is a Maker for Make: Magazine. I'm one of those people who can sit down to watch one of his videos, and the next thing I know it's 4 hours later and my eyes are drying out and I've just watched him make 18 different things...

Agreed, but it's for a party, not a permanent business fixture...

Some noob just opened up a vinyl shop here in town and has been plastering his business Facebook page with John Deere, Monster Energy Drink and every other popular brand logo you can think of. We actually have a major John Deere facility here in town, so he's really playing with fire. I considered being nice and warning him, but do I really want to help my competition?

I have a teflon sheet that stays on my lower platen 24/7 and I've never noticed problems.

The only issue I could think of with stepper motors would be in precision at small sizes. SS6 stones are only about 2mm in diameter, and cutting perfect 2mm circles may be beyond the capacity of a cheap, stepper motor cutter. Only way to find out for sure is to try it. Be sure to report back and let us know!

Yes. Before I got into vinyl (and sand blasting and dye sublimation and everything else) I was looking seriously at a ShopBot CNC machine and played with V-Carve and Aspire and most of their other apps. They're nice pieces of software, but in my opinion they're over priced for what they can do. VCarve Pro is $700 and Aspire is $2000. They're really slick, but that just seems crazy expensive for what they do. I understand they have a smaller potential market than there is for something like Adobe Illustrator, or CorelDraw, but $2000 is large chunk of change for software - especially when that's more than I paid for the equipment I would use it on...

If you'll forgive my boldness, may I inquire as to how much that ended up setting you back? I've ordered a 1 meter x 1 meter X-Carve CNC from Inventables that should ship today or tomorrow, after a 4 week wait (which I knew about and expected when I ordered). It provides a working area of 31.5" x 31.5". It comes with a less powerful spindle that what you've got, but they offer mounting plates for a variety of small routers similar to the one in your picture, which I'll probably upgrade to once I've got it all figured out. The one it comes with has been used to cut/carve wood, aluminum, engrave brass and copper, and that's adequate for my needs. With shipping, minus the wasteboard, mine came to a little over $1200. Adding the wasteboard would have added another $257, more than half of which was just extra shipping costs. I ordered the threaded inserts ($9) and will cut down a $17 piece of 3/4" MDF to exact dimensions (I actually plotted the template for it using a Sharpie holder in my Graphtec). It won't have the pretty black grid on it that the original one does, but it's a wasteboard that is going to get torn up over time, so I'm not too concerned with that. It's a kit, vs. an assembled machine, but I figured this will give me the opportunity to learn more about how it works and be able to make modifications or improvements if necessary. They provide access to a free online design/CAM software tool called Easel. It currently doesn't support V-bit carving, but there is a free program called F-Engrave that will generate the g-code necessary to carve signs with v-bits, and that is something they plan to incorporate in to Easel in the future, and the machine supports any software that can export g-code, so all of the Vectric applications are available (and if they weren't so darn expensive I'd consider buying one of them!).

Walking Dead is on summer hiatus, but coming back in October - plus there is a spin-off series that is supposed to be starting, too. Zombies are always popular!

Mz SKEETER nailed it. Unless it's drastically different in thickness, you make up for the difference with pressure settings, not blade depth.

US Cutter sells sample rolls that are only 100' in length of the Green Star tape http://www.uscutter.com/GreenStar-Layflat-Classic-Transfer-Tape-Medium-Tack-Assorted-Widths-Sample-Rolls. I bought a 24" roll two years ago for one big decal I made - still have 80' of it, but I doubt it's still good.

We have a soup kitchen here in town called Blessings Soup Kitchen. Unlike what most people think of when they hear "soup kitchen" this one is a lunch-only restaurant where you pay only what you can afford - if you can afford anything. Each day of the week is a different meal, and it's usually not soup... Anyway, shortly after they opened, I made 20 "I (heart) Blessings Soup Kitchen" buttons and took them down along with a $0 invoice. I told them that they were welcome to wear them, sell them for a profit, whatever, and if they wanted more to give me a call some day. Flash forward a few months and I get a call today that starts out with "Are you Michael from Ottumwa Decal? Did you make us some free buttons a while back?" and she proceeds to tell me that she would like to get a few more. They're starting a Blessings Baking Club with various church groups that will donate baked goods to the kitchen and she would like to give buttons to the church ladies who volunteer. She asks how much they would cost, and I tell her it all depends on quantity and she then proceeds to order 200 buttons and insists that she be allowed to pay for them. Well, if you insist... I guess I'll take your money... ow, ow, quit twisting my arm! Buttons cost me ~$0.10 each to make, so I put $2.00 into the original free gift and now plan to earn that back plus a lot more and I don't even feel guilty about it. Not everyone can see the value in inexpensive promotional items - until they get their hands on them and see that people actually want them... Then they're willing to place an order and spend money.

Did you even notice the brand name on the box? That definitely sounds like something kinky...

How much for that roll of tape?

You mean in place of using a wrap? When the dye sublimates, it turns to gas and will leak away - the reason you use a heat press, or a tight fitting wrap is to keep the dye trapped against the polyester so it can't migrate very far. I don't think it would be feasible to just tape it on and stick it in the oven - even with multiple wraps of tape.

You'll get the same issue when imprinting too close to the handle, too. The handle and the bottom of the mug act as heat sinks and draw heat away from the rest of the mug. To get edge-to-edge coverage, you need a thermal wrap and to put it in an oven where the whole thing can come up to temp. I see it's wet in the picture - please tell me you didn't dunk it water to help it cool...

Inkscape will import CorelDraw files from v7 - X4. CorelDraw will let you save files in earlier formats, too.

I wouldn't do a business vehicle with 651 unless they were really strapped for cash and couldn't afford better. I use a metric crap-ton* of 651 for other things, but a commercial vehicle deserves better material. Especially if you're only doing one color like that, there is no good reason to not upgrade it to 751 or 951. I'm not sure how much work went into their horse jumping logo - if that's clip art or something of theirs that you traced or maybe even an original design, so not sure how many hours you've got in to that... but if it was me doing that job in 651 and clip art or a trace, I'd feel guilty charging more than $100-125 for it. My prices are lower than average because of where I live - an area that is hovering just below the poverty line, but that's about where I would be on pricing. Upgrade it to 751 or 951 and I could go as high as $200 before I felt guilty. *1 metric crap-ton = 3.25 American ass-loads

For that price it should weed my garden and yard, too!

Yes. Tell people that sublimating on colors is just like running that same color paper through a printer. Print a yellow design on orange paper and it will barely show - print a black design on orange paper and it will come out black. Make sure the shirt is 100% polyester, as shirts made from a blend of natural and synthetic fibers will only accept some of the color (sublimated ink chemically bonds to synthetic fibers) and so it will appear washed out and "vintage" after you wash it once. Black text on an orange 50/50 blend shirt will come out with really dark grey text instead of true black. For solid black text on an orange shirt, heat transfer vinyl is a better solution.

Based on that, it sounds like the LLC can protect you from criminal and contractual issues, but not Tort issues. I'm going to go out on a limb and think that criminal copyright infringement is a criminal, vs. a tort issue - but I could be wrong... IANAL - nor do I play one on TV.

The initial infringement occurred when you clicked "Print" and created an unlicensed, physical copy. It may even have occurred when you downloaded the original file, but it's unlikely you would be sued for just downloading. The part that is most likely to get you sued is when you transferred the item to another party - whether it was for free or for pay. There are no hard rules of when exactly you will be be sued for copyright infringement, especially since it's up to the copyright owner - they can choose to let Bob down the street make 5,000 copies and not do anything, and then close you down after you make one. The best way to be safe is to just not do it and if anyone ever asks if you can make copyrighted items, the answer is always "NO". What you do between your family and close friends is your business, but if anyone ever calls you out of the blue or stops by your shop unannounced and starts asking, the answer is always "NO". Don't post copyrighted items on display in your shop - if you make something copyrighted for a friend or family member, don't post pics of it on Facebook or your website - and tell them not to do so as well! If your friend drives a race car, don't cover it in copyrighted brand logos and then put a big "THIS VEHICLE SPONSORED BY ILLEGAL COPYRIGHTED DECAL DESIGNS MADE BY ME" decal on the hood. Don't ever believe a customer that tells you they have permission to violate copyright - get it in writing. Remember that "fair use" and parody are legal defenses - meaning that after you've been sued, you can discuss those in court - it does not stop you from being sued! If you can't stop yourself from violating copyright, then get the kit to create an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) and transfer all of your equipment and materials to that corporation before you start - that way if/when you get sued, they can't take your house, car and everything else...

Doesn't matter if you have Facebook or not, apparently...