TimnAng

Once we finish up the Tree Service job we're working on, and receive the remainder of the payment, hubby wants to invest in a heat press to do T-Shirts, mugs, etc. I'm all for it, except for the fact that we're already crazy tight on space around here, and are working our vinyl out of our living room/kitchen! My one corner in the living room houses the cutter, and a rack with all of our vinyl & transfer tapes. We do the weeding and assembly at the kitchen table. Adding a heat press to that, is going to be interesting, to say the least! I've done a lot of reading and searching around the forums, but I'm pretty clueless when I read most of it, as I have never even seen one in person, and have NO idea, the smallest thing about these machines. I could use as much info as y'all want to throw at me. For instance, does one machine do T-shirts, mugs, hats, etc? How much are we looking at for a decent machine, and what vinyl's/transfer tapes am I going to be looking at? I assume all of my work can still be done using the same programs that I use to do my cutting now? Anything you all wish you had known, or would do differently, if you were starting the journey all over again? We didn't do much research before we purchased our cutter, but we got lucky and have been very happy with it... I just don't want to jump in with both feet on this one, with as little as I currently know about the subject. Thanks in advance!

Sorry you're having trouble with your cutter! I also have the MH, and while I'll say that after hearing some not so great things about it, I really worried and wondered if we shouldn't have done more research and made a different choice, but I love my cutter, very few hiccups, and does what I need it to do. It's already more than paid for itself, and I'm very happy with it!

I found the image and traced it, and then someone fixed it up for me, to make it easier to cut in layers.

The one we did, was layered. Was interesting to layer something so small, for our first attempt at layering!

A Hurst Olds decal was one of the very first designs we were asked to cut.

Thanks a bunch for all of the information! I really appreciate you taking the time to give me information that is probably already here somewhere. I'll keep y'all posted on what we decide to do!

Do the shirts done with sublimation hold up better than the vinyl? I worry about cracking and peeling after just a few washes?

Nice. One sided, single color would definitely be the cheaper option. These guys own a tree service company, so they wanted the tree to be brown & green... they weren't interested in a single color, even to save some money. More hassle for me, but more money for me also.

Looks like sublimation printer for mugs- but also have read that you can use sublimation on T-shirts... Maybe I should stick to decals- something I know something about. lol There's just way too much info, in too many places, for me to wrap my head around it all.

Dennis, is that one color? Single or double sided?

I just find it easier to keep track of everything, when it's all on one page. Seems to work well that way. I do use multiple pages for other projects though, I love having that option.

I charged $25 per sign, for what we're doing. A little lower than I probably could/should have charged, but it's for a long time friend, and I wanted to be able to use this job as a stepping stone (it's the first BIG job we've been hired to do), something to put in our portfolio, and great practice as well.

Luckily I never balked when he said he wanted to buy a new, larger cutter... otherwise I'd be eating my words for as many small projects I've done around the house for myself. LOL

My daughter insisted we make a decal to give to her Teacher, as her "thank you" gift this year. Worked for me, no need to run out and buy a random gift!

If your main business, is cutting vinyl... I'd go with that, just because it'll show off some of your work. We're doing 10, double sided, 3 color yard signs, and while it would have been much easier to have them printed, we decided to do the cut vinyl to show off our work. Will I regret it? Probably after the first sign. lol

Haha... No, not yet! I do plan to add him. Probably decent size, on one of my back side windows. He is on my cutter though. Of all the thousands of designs I have, he's the only thing I've even considered using, so far. Hubby has quite a few on his truck. Even one that I made for him, probably 6 or 7 years ago when we did cutting the first time. It's still lookin' good, you'd never know it was that old!

I'll need to make a trip to Dollar General as well! I'll be trying my first wet application in the next few days! I've read enough around here, I feel like I've done it a dozen times over. lol

Our fish fry banner (today's the day!) and some other small projects from around the house. (The fridge is in our garage, made decals for the party today, showing what beverages are lurking inside! Personal use, not for re-sale.)

Very nice!

Wouldn't it be easier to change the color of the lines, and then use the cut by color option, Monkey, instead of making a new page for each color? Cutting the registration marks with each color as well.

I have NO decals on my truck! I've had numerous people ask me, why, if I can make them and am so quick to make everything for anyone that asks... do I not have a single decal on my own truck. LOL I just can't decide what I want for myself. I just finished up our advertising logo, that will definitely be going on there, but besides that, I just haven't found anything I had to have for myself. I was trying to hold off on our Gettin' Sticky! ad, until the web guy finished up our website. Hopefully it'll be able to go on soon.

Ain't that the truth!

We just use a small basket to keep our tools in.

My brothers were stationed at K.I Sawyer for a time, my Mom was raised in L'Anse, and my parents lived in Marquette for a short time as well. The U.P is gorgeous.

Come on up!