smendlik

Wish I had the money right now, seems like a good deal. 3.5 hours away from my house but would be worth the drive if I was ready to buy. http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/for/4430168127.html

I'm a little jaded as I'm not a fan of Glock's but I can certainly appreciate the customization as I love it when people customize their things so they are unique. Nice work.

Correct, I made a copy of the text and applied an outline until I got the look I wanted, this was then the background of the text without the outline. This is the only way I have seen to ge the effect I was after, is there a better way to do it? I'll take a look for that box you mention tonight, thank you for the suggestion.

It hasn't gone unnoticed by me that the ce5000 is on sale right now. If I get the two jobs I have placed bids on I'll probably pull the trigger on one. If I don't get the jobs I'll have to wait for a great deal on a used one <cough, wink, hint>

Good to hear, thanks.

It would be worth the extra money just for the silence. I wear earplugs when I make cuts that will take a while. My ears ring enough already. Does the ce5 have enough cutting force to cut reflective vinyl?

Thanks gcextreme. I'm at the point where if the price is right I will be able to upgrade from my USCutter SC to a Graphtec and was looking at the CE5000 as even the new price at USCutter isn't bad since it's an older model. Sounds like for my need the ce5000 will be just fine.

Congrats on the new baby. As I'm very ignorant with specifics of Graphtec's can you say what the differences are between the ce5000 you already owned and this ce6000 is that made you buy it?

I like it, nice work

It was weird, I did what you suggested and it still produced the spikes until after I expanded the compound path, then they disappeared. All is good now, thanks for the help!

Thank you! I'm learning but it is slow (or I am slow)!!

Thanks everyone, I'll give your suggestions a try tonight. As stupid as it sounds I was struggling to find tutorial online as I couldn't find the right words to search for what I was trying to do! Sometimes the hardest part of trying to find answers on yoru own is figuring out what words to use in the searching.

I tried deleting the nodes but was having problems. I tried with it still as a font and converted to an outline. I'm done for the night so I'll spend more time tomorrow trying to figure it out. I did find out that different fonts provide different effects. Most still have spikes of some sort, some do not. Odd.

Like this? I believe I got this image from this site so I'm just giving it back, this is not my original image. s_Zombie Response Team.ai

You're welcome, congrats on making the deal. Sorry if I caused an unexpected expense!!

Hope it works out. I have a couple of storefront jobs I might get and was thinking that if the Graphtec was still available if i get both jobs I might buy it, looks like that might not be my destiny! Guess I might have to go with plan B, buying a CE5000 from USCutter.

Thanks. Nice work BTW.

Agreed, if you aren't on a budget. if you are on a budget though might be worth the risk. Forgetting the vinyl it's a $650 savings over new, and they might be willing to negotiate even further. If it's truly only about a year old I wonder if there's warranty left, and if it's transferrable?

Out of curiosity, which vinyl did you use for these decals? 651, 751?

I did research here before posting and still don't know how to price it. I know how much materials will cost me, I just don't know how much to charge over that; profit, installation, removal of old vinyl on doors, etc... I'll be doing their logo on 7 windows, the logo will be two colors but single layered, size is 24" x 24". Then there will be a text on each of the 7 windows and their door. Can I just take the material cost and multiply it by some factor, estimate my install time and use that for the price? It should be a simple install. Pretty simple design and no layering. I plan on giving them a price for Oracal 651 & 751 to let them choose how much quality they want to pay for. What's a fair price per hour for old decal removal / installation of the new decals? I'm not sure what other information I can give you to help me with a price, if you need to know anything else let me know. Thank you!! Proof Copy.pdf

Thanks for some constructive advice instead of just telling me everybody differs on pricing so I have to figure it out for myself. I wasn't looking for an answer of charge them $xxx amount, I am looking for guidance on how to figure it out (what process people with experience use) and some ballpark figures (like your $7/sq. ft for 651). I laughed at your estimate the time and double it comment as we use that at work for projects all the time. We always say to take your time estimate, double, then add 10%. It sounds ridiculous but it's generally more accurate than the original estimate.

Very nice, especially for your first time. Seems like you did great: got a little money, a lot of exposure, possible future business, and possible retail space, seem like a great deal to me.

I have used this tool and it works great. I export the template as an .svg, open it up in Illustrator and do an envelope distortion to match the arc of the template.

I'm using the 70 grit AO from Harbor Freight any 651 has been holding up great for me, even the small details. I had problems with the vinyl blowing off until I lowered the pressure to around 40-45 psi. I also found that paper app tape works great to mask large areas if you want to save on masking / painters tape

The decal looks like the old sketches of the Unibomber to me