BrandonJ

I am an ebay seller and also do local work for some friends, but I've been in the vinyl business for years! My vinyl of choice is Oracal 651, due to it's decent lifespan and great price. I've been experiencing some issues lately with the backing sticking terribly bad and ripping (sticking to the vinyl). I ship ALL of my orders from ebay and my customer's are having some true difficulties trying to get the backing off. This problem just caused me to get a NEGative feedback on Ebay (tarnishing my perfect 100% score) and I had to refund $100+ even though I cut, packed and shipped the decals to the customer next day. I know other people are having this problem and I just want to know what to do. I'm seriously thinking about just giving ebay up, because I can't ship everything twice and still get negative feedback and having to refund money. It's killing me time and money wise.... **I live in a humid area, with lots of heat** **The problem has only come to fruition within the past month or so (May-June)** **I also re-calibrated the height and cutting pressure on my (USCutter SC25) so that the backing isn't cut at all** Has anyone else had these problems? IF so, with what vinyls/tapes, etc. and how the heck do I prevent it and help my customers with installation when they are trying to install in a humid environment, with little to no vinyl application skills??? All help/comments are appreciated and desperately needed!!!

Well, with that said, I'll take the 5600. It seems to beat out the 5500 in every category that matters....

Unfortunately, I think it has mostly been white and matte black in the Oracal 651

I have worked in many sign shops in the past and continuously for the past 10 years. I'm only having problems in my own personal shop now. All I use is Oracal 651 (and a UScutter SC25). It's all I've ever used with the exception of some 951 metallic a few times. Never had a complaint on that though. I have recently used a Roland 24" plotter (new) and haven't had any problems.... but that's a whole different type of vinyl and setup. The place is climate controlled too and all of there products come from Fellers. BASICALLY IVE NEVER HAD TO MESS WITH A PLOTTERS BLADE HEIGHT / PRESSURE SO MUCH IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!! The Roland GX-300 never had the blade adjusted at all. It just cuts and cuts and cuts.

What about large decals though? Like I used to sell stripes for trucks that went down the side..... there's no way I could lift up a 48" stripe without screwing it up... I've improved my methods, blade pressure and blade height..... I think my customer's are having some installation woes. I will write up a very intriguing installation document tonight for my buyers. THANKS ALL FOR YOUR QUICK COMMENTS/POSTS! I HAVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE ON THE NET TRYING TO FIND SOME INFO, I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE CAME HERE FIRST!!

That's not a bad idea. It is in my instructions, but maybe I need to make it a little more prevalent. I am a very experienced installer, and have never had issues like this. But even when I try to put on one of the decals myself, I have the backing rip or try to pull the vinyl away from the tape..... Uggghhhh.... Very frustrated.

What vinyl were you using and what vinyl do you use now? I need all of my vinyl to be outdoor grade vinyl. Preferably 5-6 years+

Does your vinyl sit outside in an uncontrolled environment with HIGH HUMIDITY? Arizona has almost no humidity.... very dry heat there. You know about that though.

I actually spent like 2 hours calibrating the height and pressure settings....... doing test cut after test cut. When I got barely no scratching of the backing, but could still weed it up..... that was my medium. So, honestly with my SC25 from USCutter. there's no way to get it to stop cutting in to the backing>>>

Unless Budweiser is selling LP Tank wraps, or leasing adspace.... do you think they really give a crap? Honestly.... They probably have it posted on their Instagram page.....

You always have to know the use of a sign before you can produce it, no matter the size.

Nice silhouette of the boarder. Niceee. Hey how much did you charge for the shirts?

What graphics program are you using? You need to check out Adobe Illustrator CS 4, 5 or 6. It's a great vector editing software and will help excel your design efforts. Also, you could probably go to youtube.com and find some short tutorials that tell you how to use the software. Also, a few sites like David Airey ( http://www.davidairey.com/ ), http://99designs.com/ (to practice your design skills) , http://www.howdesign.com/ and LAST BUT NOT LEAST: http://www.graphicd-signs.com/about-team-dan (Dan Antonelli - the most current and awesome sign designer that I have ever seen) Read his articles, you will love them. He is very talented.

That is a pretty sweet sign, but you'd have to charge a lot for making them cuz your bullets are pricey!

Nice Shirt. is that a wig?

THE CAR: You need to make a stripe like on the guy's bandana, with the tear drops and the stripe edges. The only thing is you need to make your pattern huge to cover from about 3" above your fenders and go all the way down to the bottom. That would be sick. On a second note, If you vinyl up your propane tank in your own backyard for your enjoyment, is that a crime against copyright holders? No. If you are using it to profit from, well then yes.

Yeah it does look very nice. Suits the guitar well too, the color / texture combination of the slick guitar frame vs. the rough texture of the gold.

Great job guys. Damn fine looking job.

WHOA! That is a pretty sweet idea for the whole "moonshine craze" going on right now. You need to get a professional label put on those jessies and start selling them in Walmart, for about $9.99 a piece?

Personally, I think $350 is fair. I mean you use a quality substrate (no rust, no decomposition, no repaint), you probably used decent vinyls...... You did a good job pricing it, although it always depends on where you are located. I mean in New York City, this is probably a $550-$600 sign. In bumf**** North Dakota it might be a $200 job. (No hard feelings, if you live in North Dakota.) Overall great job, neat corners, high quality materials, fair price & MOST IMPORTANTLY, LOW OVERHEAD!

Oh, I miss the beach! Nice clean layout.... definitely no problem telling what the business does.

Nice! Old English is classy and always in style!

I am at a crossroads here..... I have been experiencing the same exact issue. Long stray lines right in the middle of a freaking cut. Most of the decals I cut are (2) 12" x 46" decals that are fairly straightforward, lacking a lot of detail. I have owned my US Cutter TC Series 25 for about 6-8 months and haven't had a lot of issues with cutting at all, until the last month or so. Now EVERY time I cut a decal it stops in the middle, or cuts the 45 degree line right through the freaking decals. I just sent one job to the plotter, it fed out about two feet cut the first three letters and then literally takes off for about 6 EXTRA feet, ruining everything... .the vinyl and the decal. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. THIS PROBLEM JUST STARTED A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO AND IT HAPPENS ON EVERY DECAL I CUT!!! HELP!!!!

The best way that I found to layer decals is to actually create a large square that fits your decal comfortably inside it. Then for every color vinyl you need to cut, you use the same weed border and line up the weed borders and apply and repeat. It's very easy, but tends to use a bit more vinyl.... but that's not a problem if you are doing smaller mobile phone decals anyway.

At least you are smart enough to understand the importance of having a reliable computer. This is what you need: A simple machine that has at least Windows XP on it, if not a later version. I figured though, that if I'm going to spend the money to buy a new computer then I would get something at a good price that performs like a champ. You don't need 16gb of ram and an i7 processor to cut vinyl decals. However, if you do plan on using Photoshop, Illustrator or HD video editing software, then you will need a little beef on your machine in order to smoothly perform all of the functions you ask it to. At the time of this writing (12/28/12) I would suggest that you search eBay or even better Craig's List (www.craigslist.org) for a computer. I found an HP Pavillion Slimline on Craig's List for $140 (Here's the specs) Intel Core QuadCore Processor, with each core running at 2.5ghz. Windows 7 Integrated graphics card (not great, but it works) DVD Burner 6x USB Ports 500 GB Hitachi HD (failing, had to replace) 120 GB Kingston HyperX SSD (Thumbs Up, Rated 7.7 on the Windows Experience score!) 6GB RAM (Rated 7.2 on the Windows Experience Score) Overall excellent computer, runs My Plotter, My HP Printer, MY Portable HD, A Speaker System, YouTube, Illustrator and Signcut all at the same time with no problems! Now you don't necessarily need a quad core pc to do vinyl cutting as I said before, but I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Premiere and After Effects a lot for video editing and graphic design related jobs. So, I kind of validated myself to go ahead with the quad core. It's awesome!