sarconastic

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Posts posted by sarconastic

  2. Posted

    I figured you would still use them both a lot FS, but I had to try LOL. Should a jumped when the opportunity arose  :thumbsup:  Funny thing is, I was on the Phone with a rep ready to order the new Ce5000 when I got the call from the wife about the MIL. So that got put on hold. We spent over $600 in fuel/food etc, in a week running back and forth.

    My best upgrade since the cutter has definitely been to FlexiSign PRO. it makes things SOOooooo much easier once you figure it out.

    MIL is doing much better BTW, thanks.

    Kevin

  3. Posted

    It has to be either a combination of heat or Pressure. I personally would lean towards pressure. On my Chinese press I have to bottom out the springs, and it takes quite a bit to latch the handle. One thing I found after I did a couple and found the right settings was that when properly pressed, you should see some sort of impression in the vinyl of the fabric beneath it (doesn't apply to sweatshirt material). It may be faint. But you literally have to press the crap out of it to get it to bond.

    A higher end  press gives you this pressure without having to work as hard to get it.

    The other  thing is temp/time, I always set my temp a few degrees above what they recommend. Within 5. Seems to help with the recovery time between shirts. And I use the upper limit of time they recommend. I have done hundreds of shirts on my Chinese press and not had one failure, and I have done some VERY fine detail ion them.

    I would sacrifice a test shirt and try the following. take some easyweed and cut some very thin lines on it, like 1/16" or so. cut them into strips and press one line on the shirt, peal then before it cools very much, try to remove that line with your fingers. if you can get it off of there then it's not being pressed hard enough. repeat this with new lines, increasing pressure until you get it to stick correctly.

    Good Luck

    kevin

  4. Posted

    Here is something I do on graphics that are tough to align. It just takes few seconds and makes sure your aligned properly.  In SB add 2 guidelines at the center of your graphics both horizontally and Vertically. then create a thick line center on it according to the graphic. Then you can lay on your graphic, get it measured out and aligned and taped into position,then either cut out the marks, lift the app tape and remove them. I only do this when it is a rather large image and alignment is critical, but it does work.

    For some reason the export only shows the horizontal marks, I had vertical ones in there as well.

    Kevin

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  8. Posted

    It's tough to get them to stick in cold weather, anything below about 50 makes it hard. Not sure I would want to use a heat gun to warm up the surface on a Propane tank either  :-

    There may be some tricks out there others have used, but I am not aware of them. One thing you might want to explore is cutting stencils for them to paint their logo  on the tanks. I bought a couple of the Cricket mats to use for that. Just stick the stencil material to the mat and adjust the cutter to match. You do do a separate stencil for each color. Just a thought on it.

    Kevin

  11. Posted

    Oracal 751 or 951. Hopefully these are new tanks. The old ones that have been painted several times are a bear to apply to, they are so rough. Also make sure if it is not a new tank that the surface is cleaned very thoroughly. That paint tends to oxidize rapidly and your decals won't stick.

    Kevin

  13. Posted

    it is frustrating, but hang in there. Once I figured it out, it wasn't so bad. One tip I can give you is to make sure when you place your printed sheet into the cutter. Make sure the left registration mark is farther back, by a little bit that the right one. Where ever you set the right registration mark is the farthest that the machine will let you move it in.

    Also the way I adjusted my cutter to get the registration right was using the pen. I printed out a 3" circle on plain paper with the reg marks, then I used the pen to contour cut it. Made adjustments in the software and redrew it to see where I was. Once I had it dialed in it was a breeze.

    Kevin

  14. Posted

    You need to get a baseline measurement from the actual car to be able to do this correctly. Say take a measurement of the actual width of the door panel itself. Then go into Corel and create a line that is that exact distance. Then size your jpg or whatever to match that width on the door panel. Then anything you design will be in proper proportion to the car.

    Just remember to remove the line prior to any cutting.

    Kevin

  16. Posted

    raise your pressure a little bit, like 120 or so. That seems to be the sweet spot on my LP. I only drop when cutting thin cast vinyl.

    also check your blade holder. Unscrew the cap from the blade holder with the blade still in it and wiggle it back and forth. There shouldn't be any play to speak of. My holder has a little more play than it's supposed to and when I cut very small items, it doesn't always close them. Even though I can cut a 10' long graphic and it will close fine. I am planning on getting a replacement soon but haven't had the time.

    From your description it almost sounds like it is hopping up a little bit when it turns the corners, which would lead me to believe it is one of the things i mentioned.

    One other thing you might do is try a different blade. I got one in my kit that had a bad edge when new, and it would cut for crap.

    Kevin

  18. Posted

    I wasn't dissing the guy for building it, I have done the same many times in the past, built my own to just have done it. What I found funny, was he bought a P-Cut in the end from US Cutter, the coincidence is what I found amusing.

    I used to CNC programming and maintenance, and have custom built a number of machines using PLC Controllers scales and stepper motors over the years. I love the process of designing and building things from scratch and having to overcome the hurdles involved.

    Kevin

  20. Posted

    I have the 6 in 1. As a flat press for shirts I like it. It does pretty good job. i like teh swing away design. But there isn't enough room between the lower platen and the post  at teh back, so it makes doing hoodies a little cumbersome. but I have pressed a hundred or so on it. As a hat press I was a little disappointed. It's fine if your only doing. 5 panel, solid front caps. But it's not good for most 56 panel hats, and there are no additional platens offered for it.  Haven't tried the Mug press. The Plate press platens work pretty good for Chest emblems and sleeve logos though.

    As a starter press for someone who isn't sure if they are going to use it a lot, it's ok. but if you mainly looking to do shirts and not all the other stuff, then spend the same money on a good larger platen shirt press. like the MAXX series.

    Kevin

  23. Posted

    I use Flexi Pro so I don't know if starter has all the same tools. What I do is select the text then in the Effect menu I click on Distort. Then a window opens that allows you to select different shapes and manipulate them.

    If that fails, try the Arrange/Clear Transform tool if it has it.

    Hope that helps. 

    Kevin

  25. Posted

    All items in Signblazer must be converted to a vector format to be cut. If you goto a website and download an image, it will be in either jpg or bitmap format, which is a raster image, and is not cuttable. Signblazer allows you to open them so you can print on vinyl, then cut it out. You need to use a program like Illustrator or CorelDraw to vector the image. This converts it to a path that the cutter can read. There is a free program out there called InkScape that does very good job of this. there is a whole forum here dedicated to that program.

    Kevin