lueman

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    380

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by lueman

  1. Posted

    There are two discussions going on here. As best as I understand it the Laser Point series does not have drivers for printing directly from Corel, or Ill, or Inkscape in that case you need the plug-in. Roland, Graphtec, etc do have drivers so it's possible to print directly.

  4. Posted

    If the PC has been sitting a while, it may be dust & heat buildup Carefully blow out the cpu fan & heatsink , the power suppy fan and be very carefull with pins blow out motherboard. Heat often presents itself as stalled PC's and HD hangs. unfortunaely you probably lost all if not most of the data after the reinstall, but hopefully that's not the case. Good luck! -

     

     

    PC TECH - sinces before there were PCs!

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    PS: When it comes to digitizing: remember it's the price that the market will pay. There really isn't a set price, when I first started in the business I was asking $12.00/1000 stitches I would get as much as $200.00 per design. Unfortunately once manufacturers starting selling embroidery directly, that caused a flood of digitizers to come on to the market, and prices dropped. Also remember when you use a cheap online shop - it's a one time deal - any changes to the design will cost you again and again they usually give you just 48 hrs or 5 changes before you have to pay extra for modifications.

     

    Like dakotagrafx said find someone you like, develop a healthy relationship with them, and they will be worth whatever price you pay. Like a car you can buy a Yugo really cheap, but it's still not a Mercedes Benz.

  8. Posted

    Hi all. I've been digitizing for 15 years, with this tough economy I've had to offer free digitizing for anyone bringing the embroidery work to me. It's without the embroidery file, but I treat the digitizing as a one time fee so in effect as long as you use me - digitizing is free. if you need a copy of the tape (embroidery file) then it's $50.00 life time. check out my web page specials at: http://www.caribemb.com/SPECIALS.html And since I'm a contract embroiderer I can offer wholesale sewing prices to screen printers & sign shops. Hope I'm not breaking any rules, but this was a direct answer to the question.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

     No doupt that SignBlazer changed things for many here in 2007 when USC started packaging it with their cutters . I have tried to keep up with SignBlazer's path since Jerry's passing . Since that happned in 2008 ( ?? ) there has been NO support or tech available directly ( Color Chrome First was the parent company as Edge Craft is to SCALPro ) . Member Moby ( Mike O'Brian ) has given the most support etc & has Hot Shot versions for sale . The civil lawsuit about owning certain rights ended in both parties getting some ownership . The person who is developing the evolved software was in the floods in Austrailia last year & has had obstacle after obstacle . They are still trying . Finances & getting a major customer seems to be a part of the delay . Until an evolved software comes out , SignBlazer will stay as it is & get further dated . At some point , it will stop working with newer operating systems . It won't acccept newer EPS files now . SignBlazer was a deal because of USC , same as they have done with SCALPro , they did with SignBlazer . From Color Chrome First , it was several hundred dollars or more for Elements . The 30 day free trial kept working after 30 days & that is why it is considered free . If the evolved software is released , I was told that should change . I think the price on SignBlazer Hot Shots is $500  . if anybody is interested , contact member " Moby " .

    $500 is not unreasonable for quality software, but even flexi starts at $99.00. moby should concider having a stair step pricing system. When I bought my first embroidery program the full version was over $14,000. I bought a starter program for $6,000 and over the years I upgraded, all in all I ended up with the latest full featured version and it cost me about $12,000 total. Imagine one cd and one dongle costing $12,000! But it was worth it and moby, may find it much more profitable to go that route!

  11. Posted

    At this point I'm not commenting on SCAL, you are welcome to see my other posts on the subject. But I have to say, even as a total Newbie, I started cutting with SB and from day one I cut professional looking stencils I join the community on the regretful way the software development was forced to stop. SB raised the bar on what budget conscience professionals could expect from software. And if the development team could figure not how to unlock SB-hotshot they would really go a long way in cementing its customer base. SCAL may get better, but there is a very high bar set by Signblazer.

  13. Posted

    Ok so now that I'VE vented, here are the good points:

    Rhinestones are so easy to make, I added them to my offerings, hopefully there's money to be made.

    Importing svg files is accurate down to 1/10TH mm - Nice change from Sb's input

    The layers tab is clunky, but sometimes a true godsend-thankyou for that

    Overall if they fix the path editor Scal passes

  14. Posted

    This software is amazing! Unfortunately, It's amazingly bad

    .

    When making vectors to rhinestones the paths disappear and there is no way of converting the path back from rhinestones to correct them.

     

    The text editor has no kernelling ability so as you widen letters they overlap.

     

    The path editor is a piece of work-in-progress spelled with a capital JUNK sometimes misspelled with a capital S__T they turn a simple job into a frustrating molasses filled cesspool of useless moves and wasted effort! I could truly get poetic at it's total failure but I have a life and I'd rather move on.

     

    USCutter I want you to know I have great respect for your company, and you have always done right by me, but this software is an Edsel.

     

    This is my opinion and your results may vary - good luck with that!

  15. Posted

    I bought this specifically for contour cutting versus buying a month or week license of SignCut every time I need it, a few time a year.

     

    To help speed things along, I did some port sniffing and research on the protocol.

    Here is what I found:

     

    When doing laser offset alignment, or "Test connection", nothing is actually sent to the plotter and the software usually locks up.

     

    When doing contour cutting (print and cut), the alignment goes OK, but between alignment and cutting, it sends a new page command which sometimes leaves it saying "Waiting", or more often reboots the plotter.

    If I capture the serial data from this whole process and remove new page command, "; !PG;" from the data and send the whole thing to the plotter, it duplicates all the registration mark alignment moves, then cuts the design as it should. The alignment is off though because the laser offset is not set. I can manually enter offset values, but it does not work as expected.

     

    As for the 5 keystrokes before it moves, that is a plotter issue. Scalp3 is sending data for the keystrokes when the keys are pressed. Signcut did the exact same thing as well.

     

    The CraftEdge folks have been doing an excellent job of resolving issues so far, hopefully they can use this info to get us LaserPoint 1 folks get up and running sooner.

     

    Edit: This testing done with version 3.044

    Nice work with the serial capture,  what program did you use? I used to program in "c" and vreated several, but non since Windows XP

  17. Posted

    Hi DJB, Welcome!

    To answer your original question: I have an LP24 for almost 4 years now, I love it it cost under $500.00 and it does contour cutting. That and $100 in vinyl is all you need, at least until you get the BN-20 or the versacam 300. as a part time business I've made about $5k/per year but my primary business is embroidery. You only real concern at this point is finding customers, once you have them and the equipment the rest can be worked out. A business plan is great but in this economy forget going to a bank, get your equipment, get your customers, and save like crazy. as soon as possible add a heat press and connect with stahls.com transfer express. Then once you have some cash you can decide where to go next.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    I have the lp24. Tackle twill is difficult because of the cross fibers, they almost never cut cleanly. I always use a new 60deg blade, slow speed and a high down force usually around 180! and even then it doesn't always cut clean. Note down force should just be strong enough to cut the material not the carrier substrate. some time I lower the down force and run 2 copies over each other. I love the lp24 but twill is really hard on it.

  24. Posted

    I know it sounds scary, but once you're in it, you'll never look back. Begin by writing down what your immediate goals are (within one year), intermediate goals (up to 3 years) and long term (about 5 years plus). Who is your target market (more on that later). I met my intermediate goals within the first year. At first cash flowed so fast, I overspent on myself & Family instead of growing the business! With new equipment plan on repairs & supplies at 10%, of costs, but after 5 years that could be as much as 30%. SAVE NOW$$$ Brother I can't stress this enough, treat it like a religion save at least 10% every month, open a CD and do an automatic deposit, it works! Unless you are a very good technician (I am very good) you will need to replace high end equipment after 2/3 of it's useful life has expired. If you don't you'll be stuck with outdated equipment and high repair costs.

    Scare you yet??

    Screen printing & sign making is a hugely profitable business, start with what you know: Police, Fire, EMT. If you like sports try the motocross & racing circuit, stay away from big name brands some mouse comes to mind..... stay in niche marketing it's safer and much more profitable. and hook up with the trade shows such as ISS, The Big Show, and Sigh Expo. At first don't pay any memberships, after you have some name cache, then try the distributor memberships they are usually the least expensive (Don't ask I'm not even going to recommend any.)

    Try to have customers lined up, if you don't try working in the business part time before committing everything. Customer satisfaction IS YOUR PAYCHECK, take care of your customers and they will take care of you!

    Finally, relax,Go for it! Good luck!