dinki

Hey guys, I'm looking to 'color' a traced (eps) coloring book character in Flexi 8. I'm not having any luck figuring out how to 'color' the different parts of the character. I know that in photoshop, you can use the magic wand to select an area (like the character's shirt) and then use the paint bucket to fill. Is there some way to do this in Flexi? Also, if I do manage to get the character colored the way I want, do I use auto-trap to make the color portions slightly bigger so that when I lay the black outline on top there are no gaps between the outline and the colored areas? Please help!

Hey guys. Been cutting decals for over fifteen years with a Seiki SK720H and Oracal 651 vinyl. I cut a lot of decals with small text and up until recently have had problems with dots over the 'i', dashes, slashes sometimes to often staying on the weeded material. This caused significant frustration and time to recut and manually move. I had been using Flexisign starter for most of this time but recently switched over to Vinylmaster Cut. I went through the whole calibration procedures to get everything zeroed in. All seemed well but I continued to have the issues. I decided to give two pass cutting a try and now I'm having a much better success rate (~98%) on these small pieces staying on the backer. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why this is happening. I've tried increasing the downforce from 120g (leaves slight impression on backer paper) incrementally up to 160g (nearly goes through backer paper) with single pass. This did not affect the small pieces staying where they should at all. I am using a quality Clean Cut 45d blade which I purchased a month ago. I have been using those blades for years. I've also reduced the speed to see if that helped, but that didn't help either. Can anyone suggest something to try so that I can use one pass instead of two. While the two pass is great in reducing my frustrations, it does take twice as long to cut the decals and is not ideal. Thanks for your time!

So I gave the new blade a try in another blade holder. Set up the same as above (little blade showing). Was able to cut at 150g but had to keep inching up. Got to 220g and decided to stop. Still losing pieces while weeding. Just for fun I went back down to 150g, increased speed to max, and did a two pass. Weeded perfectly. I don't know what to think. Perhaps overcut? I'm using a value of '1.00' in Vinyl Master. Admittedly, I'm not sure what that value should be.

I agree, I was concerned with having to apply that much pressure. I do have those cheap blades that I can try. I'll see if they need the same pressure as the SC blade. I'm guessing if it's less then maybe the blade is damaged indeed.

So here's what I found: My blade appears to be WAY too far out when comparing to what @MZ SKEETER suggested. I backed the blade way back and was surprised that, yes, it still cuts even when only that tiny bit is exposed. I tried by hand and was able to cut out a square that could be weeded. I moved to the cutter and slowly worked my way from 120g up up up until I was able to cut the cutter's test pattern triangle. I think started cutting small text and slowly crept up until I was able to cut small text repeatable and all pieces stayed on the backer. This turns out to be 350g which is way more pressure than I've ever used. I then started cutting text smaller and smaller. I cut text from 0.4" to 0.25" with only the 0.25" having any problems. On that cut, I ended up losing a '1' character. I think I will try these settings for today's orders and see how it pans out. Again, thanks to all for the help. You've increased my speed by 100%!

Thanks for this. I just took a close look using a magnifying glass and it appears that the blade is not damaged. When testing at different strengths at no point did the blade go all the way through the backing paper. Understood about less pressure needed. I've used these blades for many years. In fact, I switched to some cheap Roland 45d knockoffs before switching back to the more expensive Sure Cut blade I'm using now. I think my problem is with the blade depth adjustment. I'm not exactly sure how to do as instructed though. The manual process of adjusting and cutting the vinyl by hand is a bit confusing. How much/little pressure do I use? Is there something I can use to gauge the blade visually? Thanks again for the tips. It is most appreciated.

Thanks guys. Should I be able to see the break if the tip is broken?

Sue2, thanks for the advice. As you can see I obviously don't know much about dogs!!

@OWJONES, this is pretty much what I am looking for. Thank you for posting @Sue2, I do agree that they are not ideal, but I should be able to use them for identifying other silhouettes I already have a bit better. The afgan and border collie images aren't very good but the others are pretty close, right? I think I'm will to take the risk for $15.

@skarekrow, understood and thank you for the advice. I was really only asking as I see a good many people (I think) selling these on eBay/Etsy/etc and I'm guessing that they may have downloaded/purchased a master file with all this information in it. From my searching and these replies it seems less likely that this exists. I have identified some of the ones I've downloaded and also have asked a friend who does dog rescue stuff to help as well.

@FRUSTRATEDINHAWAII, thank you for the link. Yes I did find those and others. @darcshadow is correct. The real work is in figuring out what the different breeds are. I do not mind paying for this but I've yet to find a source that has multiple identified breeds. I have found small groups of the same breed for sale on etsy at a price of $3-$5 but that will probably get real expensive real quick. @sue2, exactly! And unfortunately I don't know enough about dogs to identify them all or even say if they are drawn correctly.

Can you share the search term you're using? I've spent most of the morning looking for this and I can't find what I'm looking for. Perhaps I'm dumb, but trust me I've tried.

I know that this an old post but I'm looking for this and can't seem to find anything but there must be something as I see lots of people selling different decals on eBay. I'm trying to find simple dog silhouettes with names. I did find the one at all-silhouettes.com but most are hard to identify. Can someone tell me where people are getting these? Free is preferable but I don't mind paying a little for them either. Thanks!

I've had a customer request a sun setting / sunset graphic for a memorial decal. Does anyone have something like this? It needs to be cuttable. Thanks!

Hey guys. I'm working on a 3/4 size Donkey Kong arcade machine for my kids and need your help. I will need side art contour cut on printed vinyl at approximate size of 16.5" x 21" inches. I will need two in total (one for each side). I have the artwork in vector format. Can you guys give me a quote on what you might charge for this? I am trying to avoid doing this myself with layered vinyl but budget is a concern. Please let me know if you can help.

Urrrmmmmf. Hadn't thought about that.

This is a shot in the dark, but does anyone have a driver for Seiki 720H cutter for SignBlazer or know the correct settings to use to get it to work? Would really like to try SB but I can't get it to send to my cutter.

My sister is looking for a decal to put on a white board and I'm having trouble finding one of the fonts. Can someone id this font and, if possible, point me to a source for it? Thanks!

It would be really easy to trace that in Inkscape if you can take the picture looking straight at the back rather than at an angle. You can then resize it as needed once it is vectorized. I can help if you can get the picture. PM me if you need my help.

That is cool but it is not what I'm looking for at all. Something like the attached image for different professions.

Hey guys. I'm looking for any pre-made business vehicle decal/magnet designs. I'm talking about the decals that go on the doors for plumbers, landscapers, mobile dog groomers etc. Does anyone have a collection of these or know where I can buy some?

I've never laminated. Will I get similar results with clear vinyl?

Creating some 'skins' for cellphones, game consoles, ebook readers, etc for some people I work with. I saw someone selling some on Ebay that appeared to be printed vinyl that was removable/repositionable. Where can I get this vinyl? Do you know what type of printer (laser/inkjet) I would need to print on? I assume I'd use my cutter to contour cut the vinyl after the design has been printed? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the info. Could I layer clear vinyl on the top of the printed vinyl after it has been weeded? I'm thinking weed it then layer a piece of clear and then recontour cut it to final product?

I've seen various things that have been monogramed that look like they could be good sellers at our local flea market. I've never seen them in person but it appears to be painted. Does anyone know what techniques are used to get such crisp results? I'm only guessing that this is not done freehand. Please see the attached jpg for an example of what I'm talking about. Thanks.