Truckntran

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    183

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Truckntran

  2. Posted

    i bought the cheapie Martha Stuart corner rounder at walmart from the crafts section.. WHile I am embarassed at purchasing anything associated with the queen of neat, it does work just fine for magnetics. I used to use scissors myself and this is way neater. The cutoffs fall right out too.

  4. Posted

    I wonder if he has one of those long term car waxes on it. I think there is some sort of imcompatibility problem with the surface....Definitely do some more research and maybe a third application if he is willing..If you can get it right it will be a positive for ya.

    Also go with some wax and grease remover solvent Before the rapid prep. and if you can have it stay out of the water for 24 hours.

  6. Posted

    Might be able to enlarge Independence House  and shrink  at northview.  Also may need to go with a white background (reflective would be nice) around independence house, perhaps an oval working with the arch at top..

    I bet if you put the sign you are copying up in the same location they would all have the same problems with it.. I hope someone is paying extra for all this redoing and redesign.. :thumbsup:

  8. Posted

    Ok....ya asked for opinions...... :thumbsup:...I think it is a prime example of what is wrong with most wraps today. IMAGE OVERLOAD!  ....Way too busy, making the impact of the message way less. All that overlapping money kinda blends into visual mush. Why not make an image of two or three Canadian bills, enlarge them to fit the scale of the auto, and plaster them across each view of the car. Leave the rest white, and put your text there.

    And just because you CAN wrap a window doesn't mean you HAVE to..

    Don't feel like I am picking on your design..... I hate the one Fellers features in their website too.  :thumbsup:

    My opinions might change if I start to actually DO wraps.

    Stepping off soapbox now..  ;)

  10. Posted

    You are going to need to do some undercover research in your area to see what common signs are going for at the other shops.. Price out a typical real estate sign 18 x 24, maybe an oversize load sign  1 x 5 , a two or three color 4 x 8 aluminum panel sign..  I use the online calculator and it seems OK, but doesn't make allowances for some factors, which I fudge myself.   

    I have seen by the square inch but again, that won't factor in lots of lines of text like a menu board vs a simple single large word, or weeding Americana with all its thin serifs vs weeding plain ole helvetica bold.

    And then there is design time on more involved work. I don't usually charge for design on stuff I can whip out in signblaster fairly quickly. Involve a logo, picture, or vectorizing stuff, I will need to charge for that.

    Good luck!

  12. Posted

    If I click on power weed option on my Graphtec using SB, I get a series of small squares sometimes where I have blanks or used the space key... and occasionally these will get cut into letters or designs too.. I have given up power weeding and just weed each copy now.. Can't take the chance to ruin the sign.

  13. Posted

    The local sign suppliers are saying the omega board  with aluminum sides is giving them about a YEAR dependable service, same was said in a magazine lately... I have some used stuff where the aluminum has separated and corroded to powder, in dry sunny Texas. I do not know how old it is.. but I wouldn't install a sign face I had to stand behind  for any time unless it didn't have wood in it.

    Seems crazy, $100 a sheet for stuff that only is guaranteed for a year. It does say to seal the edges..

  15. Posted

    OK

    So I am new to this used Cutter/Plotter. I finally got the blade to start in right position, but now it rips the paper. I have the pressure at 74, speed at 20 and using 2mil vinyl. The blade is barely sticking out.

    Is the blade dull or to much pressure?

    Have you asked the previous owner if he had this problem??  I am not familiar with the Pcut but if it has a removeable blade hoder like my Graphtec, take it out and try cutting some vinyl by hand with it  (just use a scrap taped to your weeding table ) ..If you cannot get it to cut by hand at the proper depth something is wrong with the blade or blade holder.. gotta have a sharp blade, no gunk gumming it up, blade has to rotate easily..(Watch out a good blade is SHARP !!)..

    If you can make decent cuts thru just the vinyl and not cutting the backing paper, install the blade holder and play around with your pressure settings...Good luck!

  18. Posted

    If you want to node edit EVERYTHING at once you will probably have to convert to curves and select everything by dragging a box around the whole sign..  I think the way it usually works is you can select any object and node edit the one object.. which is the way I usually prefer to do it....

    Might try it without converting to curves and select everything first, if that doesn't work for ya then convert to curves, just realize all your text editing should be all finished before you conver to curves..

    I have had trouble selecting all of a design that has a border around it, sometimes I just drag the border off the workspace and select everything else.

  19. Posted

    I would think at the size you are thinking you may need to lessen the detail and the drop shadow.fancy lettering. Might be difficult to read /weed/apply.  Full front T shirt size might work tho. Something about the AT sticks out.. might try small case or simple arial for that word..  or just reduce the size.

    I'm not much of a fan of word puzzles either.....I'd much rather see "I race at Pops" with an outline of the racer around it or below it..

    However it is all a personal preference thing.. Others may disagree. At least you are thinking about it which is a great first step. Sometimes when I am working on something like this I will print it out on paper and tape it to the wall, and just walk by it for a day or two. Eventually I figger it out.. I also have a couple of folks I run ideas by....one guy gave me an OBVIOUS solution for my own personal logo that made a huge difference...and he isn't a sign guy at all.

  20. Posted

    Just curious why you chose to cut out the orange where the blue covers? I have seen lots of folks do this and haven't gotten a straight answer as to why.......is it more durable that way, less apt to fly off the car, ...??

    Looks great BTW.

  21. Posted

    I don't know what I am doing wrong  but I can't seem to get larger signs made without some nasty bubbles that just won't go away.    Even with wet apps I run into it occasionally.

    I have been using some reclaimed Omegapanel that the old vinyl was peeled off of, adhesive cleaned with lacquer thinner, even sanded down with 220 grit on an orbital... altho I had similar problems on Coroplast, and even on top of reflective vinyl I have problems with black oracal.

    I've been cleaning with rapidprep or rapidtac, using cheapo paper towels, and using paper transfer tape (main perfect tear?) Oracal 751 and also some old Avery /Vector vinyl. I have been applying both wet and dry... wet helps a lot, but they say not to wet apply reflective. I made my own big squeegee and now applying transfer tape is going a LOT better but still, a 1 foot wide piece of reflective seems to always get the better of me. Either it goes crooked or bubbles.

    While squeegeeing I try to use the same technique as the videos  linked to here lately. Pretty flat for the first go round, then increase the pressure. Some bubbles will move to the edge of a letter, other times they are trapped and more pressure just stretches the vinyl, making an ugly mark after you pop the bubble and get the trapped air out.

    I have a transfer tape tool coming (Signwarehouses version of the Weber made tool) to help out on the larger stuff.. What else could I be doing wrong that makes all these dang bubbles!!??

    BTW a sample of the signs I have been trying to make would be a 5 foot long by one foot high engineer  reflective background with black 2 inch brush stroke letters  saying OVERSIZE LOAD. Small 2 inch by 6 inch decals come out perfect....its just the larger stuff that gives me fits.

  22. Posted

    Sometime it will help to pull the top layer of tape off and resqueegie before you pull off the bottom layerof transfer tape... I've chanced it many times myself and usually it comes out fine....but every once in a while you do run into demon posessed vinyl that doesn;t want to cooperate just cause you don't have the right width transfer handy..lol.