deth502

thank you

looking for a quick yes or no, i just unpacked my mh871and im dying to make a first cut, but before hand... in front of the machine, right ion front of the metal roller, there is what looks like a strip of masking tape going across the machine. im thinking this is a protective thing?? all i want to know is, do i need to take this off to start cutting?

nice, thanks!! i saved that one for later, i actually planned on using that one to try my first cut. i like it better with the grass field in it, but i still think im going to try mine first as i dont want to get too complicated for my first cut. amof, maybe i shouldnt even do my simpler gadsden first, might try to find a simple outline. but for now, i just put my stand together and im really anxious, but i gotta post a question here first!

so, if anyone has seen my other thread, i just got into this, and i really know nothing. so i was looking around here and found a lot of eps files, which i assume are whats needed to cut vinyl (and a big thanks the the forum for that, a lot of great stuff here!!! ) so, just screwing around, i tried to take an image and make a single color eps out of it. let me back up, i noticed i can open teh eps files in photoshop, and also save a file as eps in photoshop. since i just ordered my cutter last night, i dont have it yet. but i made this up in a quick 5 min. im looking to find out if i did anything useful. i know it isint too sharp, could have been better, but will this work?? can i take this file i just made and cut a decal from it?? (i mean without any extra work, point and click) original pic and my eps file eta---- ok, the eps file wouldnt upload, it was over the size limit, so i zipped it instead. ak47.zip ak47.zip

thanks, like i said, this is all new to me. 2 days ago i was thinking i could cut out basic one color graphics, and nothing more. after watching the video stickied in the instructional forum here, you guys make it look so easy!! lol.

so, im still playing with inkscape. the tracking info says my new cutter will be here tomorrow. last night i was playing around and did this. wanted to try something with 3 colors. from what ive seen in some of the tutorials, i put the yellow circles there for alignment. so, if i follow correctly, once i get the signblazer software on, ill put the white vinyl in, print the white square and the yellow. then put in the red or blue, cut that and the yellow, then repeat with the 3rd. so heres the file i made up. u think it will work? or am i doing something wrong. anxious for tomorrow to find out for myself, so i can stop bothering everyone here akrwb.eps akrwb.eps

thanks! yeah, i had that feeling. i used the same one i posted, it looks like it says its 300x 250, and it did look pretty pixelated when i got it to full screen size.

soooo... i had some questions to ask before i got started here, but last night right after i registered here, i said screw it, and i just went and bought a 32" mh series cutter. so now im still left with a lot of questions. first, about the cutters. i plan on getting maybe 10 hrs a month on this machine tops, but just for comparison, say this machine was used in a shop 40 hrs a week. under that kind of use, how long would you expect a set of blades to last. a week? a month? 3 months? longer? second is the programming. i see it comes with a program, which i will probably use for now. i was thinking of getting the flexi starter. $100 isint too outrageous to me, but then i see the full versions are in the thousands of dollars, it leads me to believe that this $100 version would be so watered down it would be near worthless. basically, what i want to do is take a picture, i can turn it into a line drawing in photoshop no problem, but then get it to whatever type of file i need to cut a decal with. is this feasible with the included program? or with the flexi starter? now the BIG question. vinyl. what are the differences? i see things like intermediate cal, ect, i have no idea what they mean. now, im sure many here who know what they are doing will see these as simple dumb noob question, and i wont argue they arent, but im just looking to get a few quick simple answers, not a "do a search" or "check the stickies" bs. thank you!

i probably wouldnt have noticed it if you wouldnt have mentioned it, but yes, it does look like it might be a little crooked, i still think it looks good though!

thanks, i was doing some other stuff trying it out last night and i noticed this as a reoccurring problem, i was actaully going to start a thread asking about it now, until i saw this. as long as i know its normal. actually, i have been saving them as both as soon as i realized this last night. i thought i was doing something wrong when i kept getting error messages when i tried to open them.

i got some of this: http://www.uscutter.com/BGS-24quot-By-10-Yard-Vinyl_p_157.html in red white blue and black. i did read the article from joeblow about the differences in vinyl, i got this stuff to try it out and get started, i have a feeling theres a good chance ill be throwing alot of it away, so i wanted to go as cheap as i could. and i got a roll of this cast stuff for when i find something i can do good: http://www.uscutter.com/ORACAL-751-High-Performance-Cast-Vinyl-24quot-x-10-Yard-Roll_p_107.html in black. now... this stuff seems to be built up pretty good in the description, but its still not a cast, what do you guys think of this?: http://www.uscutter.com/ORACAL-651-Intermediate-Cal-Vinyl-24quot-x-10-Yard-Roll_p_105.html its still pretty cheap, which is what makes me wary.(for later. i think i will probably pick up another blade holder when i need another vinyl order too.)

OK, i couldnt open the image again in inkscape (the final eps i posted), i just kept getting errors when i tried, but it did still open in photoshop, so i opened there and saved it as a jpeg, then imported that back into inkscape and retraced the image...... sounds complicated, but really it was a 30 second job. when i did, my "white boxes" were gone, but the letters traced badly again, so i did as suggested and just deleted the node points, and it was simple :thumbsup: teh i redid the text again, and i think i got a good one. the snake did move the edges a bit again when i retraced it, but i still think it turned out ok. GADSDEN STICKER.eps GADSDEN STICKER.eps

well, i was going to wait till i got the machine and got started, but im getting kinda anxious about all of this, and i have to say, i blame ALL OF YOU for most of it!!!! so i didnt know if id need the 45deg or 60 deg blades, so i bought a set of both. from the comments here that should be around a 2 yr supply or better, which is great. so what is the difference in these 2? also got 4 rolls of the cheap vinyl and one roll of the good stuff (semi good) and some of the clearance transfer tape stuff. so i think i should be good to go for a while. enough to get me started and knowing what im doing somewhat i think. afa the programs, thats some amazing work, speedoggy, i doubt ill be doing anything that intricate. i did download inkscape and played with it some, ive got a few things down that dont seem too hard, but im far from having it mastered yet. i see that you can directly import cad files into flexistarter, which is very cool, i do alot of machining, therefore i have alot of cad files. doing so though, has also made it nessicary to find out how to change a cad file to share it, so if i hadto, i could make it a jpeg to load onto inkscapre, so i think im going to pass on the flexi for now, until i can see what i can actually do.

hmmm, im sure that would be the "white boxes" i made to "erase" the old text. i watched the tutorial, therr was something about selecting and choosing the "difference" option, but that part was all over my head. i think i just have to play with it some more.

the only points im worried about is that there were some white spots to touch up on the snake pattern, what i did was to put a black oval over them to blot them out. im hoping that dosent make the program cut all those little elipses? also, the text got all screwey in the changeover, so i redid that. idk how i got the text out in the first place though!!

ok, round 2 i downloaded ink scape and gave this another try. i spent nearly 2 hours on this, im kinda rusty on photoshop, and have never used inkscape before. so, the first jpeg is what i started with i used photoshop to remove the grass patch and sharpen the pattern on the snake a little cuz it kept blurring out in inkscape. thats the 2nd jpeg. then i made an attempt to turn it into a usable file with inkscape, thats the 3rd eps file. so how did i do? is this a usable pattern? i think i might have it down now. Unnamed document 7.eps Unnamed document 7.eps

excellent, thanks again! i dont have sign blazer yet, ive seen it mentioned here with links to download it free, but from what ive read i should be getting a copy with my cutter when it gets here, so i didnt bother. i just finished installing ink scape (took a while!!) and im off now to play with that for a while

thanks! i was just recommended to get inkscape in the other thread i started, im downloading it now. and i also downloaded the ak file, thanks again! i can see the eps files in photoshop, but i cant preview the ai file. either i will be able to with inkscape or i will once i get my machine in. either way, ill be ready now!

oh well, should have figured it wouldnt be as easy. i guess ill just wait till my package gets here and have a trial by fire. im sure ill be back with more questions. and on the rare instance im not, ill still surely be back for all of the files posted here!!! great site!

so this should be all i need then? cool! (other than the free inkscape program) i skimmed the vinyl article, im going to go back and read it in more detail now, thanks!! now can anyone comment on the blade life on these?

oh, by the way, i think i forgot to mention, on the "big question" of vinyl, im not looking to learn everything, just what will be applicable to me with the machine i just bought.