Shrikezero

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    34

  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Posts posted by Shrikezero

  1. Posted

    Despite the thousand or so signs I've engraved I am still learning. Here is a little something I learned today.

    When engraving Gravo-tac or a similar "raised lettering" adhesive material... Do not leave off the weeding and cleaning until after the weekend!

    All the chips will embed themselves into the edges of the adhesive. Instead of a quick brush and vac, you get to spend hours with a toothpick cleaning each and every nook and cranny.

  6. Posted

    Welcome!

    I had to jump into cutting with both feet and no net. Also my prefered learning environment.

    On these forums, I've found my own "stupid" questions often aren't that stupid. And there are a ton of people dealing with the same issues. Also this place has core group of high end users, who can answer just about any question.

  7. Posted

    You can make a customer prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have the right to copy. How??? Make Steve Jobs send you a personal email?? And what customer will ever come back to your shop with such an onerous requirement.

    You do the absolute safest thing you can legally do. Which is to only use your own artwork and text. No school logos, No municipal logos, No team logos, no business logos. Good luck staying in business.

    Or you can have a customer tell you they have the authority to use a piece if artwork covered by copyright in writing. Most easily with a Hold Harmless.

    At some point you have to take a customer's word. The Hold Harmless puts you in the position of being able to say that without a doubt the customer made the claim that they had the right to use the artwork.

    Again, not a lawyer. Not advising. Engaging in a discussion only.

  9. Posted

    Kinko's used to have (probably still does) a form they'd make you fill out for material that looked like it might be under copyright. Basically it said the person was assuring Kinko's they had the right to copy the material. That way if someone/company comes back they could shift responsibility to the customer. I'm no lawyer, but I bet it something like that would be good for this situation.

    Any lawyers in the house??

  11. Posted

    The posters you buy retail (Like that Motley Crue poster in your 14 year old selfs room) are printed on coated paper using a full blown 4 to 8 color offset press. If this is what you want to do, talk to a printer and see if they'll work a deal with you for short run posters (100). Some printers will set up a regular run in which they impose a bunch of posters, etc from a bunch of customers. The upside is they'll charge less. The downside is you get the posters on whatever coated stock they use in the run and you have to wait and/or hope for space on the run. There are also print shops that run presses like the Indigo, that are designed for short run 4 color work. The quality is no where near what you get from an inkjet or large offset press, but the cost is usually reasonable.

    The ones you get from Fastsigns or similar copy/sign shop are printed on a wide range of possible papers.

    Everything from plain white to actual canvas. Look through Epson's materials for starters. You can get most of the same materials for less from third-parties, but it will give you a good idea what's out there.

  12. Posted

    I have a few minutes to kill at work and it looks like its been a while since we had a game related topic...

    So, what do you play?

    I play:

    Borderlands

    Dark Age of Camelot

    Plain Sight

    Half Life 2

    Left 4 Dead

    Gratuitous Space Battles

  13. Posted

    ainakeaboy, you were also asking about software.

    Depending on the artwork supplied, I've used a ton of different programs. MS Publisher, QuarkXpress, Pagemaker, Adobe's stuff, various freeware. I'm a slut for new toys. Lately however, I've been using Gimp for raster images. Photoshop is expensive, Gimp is free. For vector art I prefer Illustrator, but CorelDraw came bundled with some piece of equipment I bought and does almost everything I want. My Art Director father would grimace if he knew, but I tend to use Publisher for imposition and down & dirty layouts. That's mostly due to, um, frugal, bosses.

    And I have been known, in time of duress, to use Word for layouts. Although thats a last ditch, hail mary kind of play. Actually, I take that back. The time I used Excel for a layout would qualify as the hail mary.

  14. Posted

    You print with an aqueous on the Avery vinyl? Fellers? I'll need to look into that.

    You know, I bet if someone wanted inkjet-compatible, UV-resistant feral badgers... Fellers would suddenly have them in stock.

    The lightfast rating does sound (ahem) slightly grandios, but all I care is that the ink doesn't fade for the next 5-10 years (or whenever is after I leave/retire:)). Epson make the same claim for the R-1900's UltraChrome inks.

  16. Posted

    My head hurts from trying to figure out how to get this to work.

    I'm trying to recreate a simple 3 loop celtic knot. In the attached sketch, the overlaps aren't correct all the way around. I'm looking for a spiraling overlap. I can get as far as a set of three circles overlapped and "welded" to create the basic knot. What I can;t get to work is the proper layering for the overlaps.

    post-8439-12986556443739_thumb.jpg

    post-8439-12986556460844_thumb.jpg

  17. Posted

    After a lengthy discussion with way too many VPs, I've convinced them that moving forward we put up a sheet of the same material we use for wall protection in the hallways. That way in 3 months when they decide to change the text again I can pull the vinyl off of a hard durable surface instead of the drywall.

    As a matter of fact as I'm writing this I'm thinking I'll convince the Carpenters to set it up so I can pull the sheet down and change the vinyl in my shop instead of on a ladder in the middle of the hallway.

  18. Posted

    I am partial to Epson. I've had a lot of good luck with their products. I know folks who like HP just as much and/or hate Epson. Its not dissimilar to the whole Mac v PC thing.

    The printer I use is an Epson 9880. 44" wide. It uses an aqueous, pigment based ink system. It retails for $6k, but there is a 24" version for $3k. I also have a 3880 for smaller work.

    My main reasons for choosing the 9880/3880 have to do with:

    1: Archival K3 inks (supposedly lightfast for 200 years)

    2: I have yet to see another (comparable) printer do a solid black quite as well.

    3: Excellent quality. Photos are stunning.

    4: Large ink cartridges (they are expensive, but that's a given)

    5: Easy to set-up, easy to maintain, easy to load.

    There are HP's that do everything except the black. For our in-house sign system it's all about the heavy black coverage.

    The problem with aqueous is that you cannot print on vinyl. For that, you would need a solvent based printer. For comparison, Epsons 64" aqueous is $10k, the equivalent Epson solvent printer is $25k.

    I use a material called Teslin and then laminate it. Teslin is a synthetic, so moisture is not an issue. From my distributor it costs around $1 a linear yard at 44" wide for the basic stuff. There is a version that is treated for ink jet for about twice the price, but the Epson does just fine with the basic stuff. It is not adhesive, however.

    If you need adhesive vinyl, then I'd suggest finding a print shop that can print it for you and sub that part out.

    For everything else you can get Epson's or a ton of third party materials.

    Here is a link to the 7880/9880product page for the Epson

    http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Pro/SeriesStylusPro78809880/Overview.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes

  19. Posted

    I'm an in-house sign shop for a large hospital campus. The previous sign guy was buying vinyl from who knows where. All the rolls have no name, item #, blank cores, nothing. (I have a sneaking suspicion they were off batches that were reworked and sold at a discount) And when I first started I threw out 20+ "brand new" rolls of vinyl with QC dates in the early nineties.

    So, no clue what kind of vinyl it is.

    For the new vinyl to replace it I'm using 3M's Scotchcal. I've been pondering changing over to oracal when the 3m runs out. I just have to make sure it matches well enough to the rest of the sign system. The bulk of the vinyl work I do is on glass, plexi, and the occasional metal surface.

    I should have tried the heat. I've got two more locations I'll need to rework. I'll try it on there.

  20. Posted

    Anyone have some suggestions on removing vinyl from painted walls? Especially drywall or plaster.

    My problem isn't the elbow grease of picking. That's a given in this business. No matter how carefully I peel/pick/grimace it always ends up peeling some of the paint and in the worst cases pulls the surface of the drywall. This happens regardless of how well the walls were painted/primed.

    These doodads make a huge difference, but even these don't prevent it all. (side note, these things are awesome when removing from anything else)

    http://www.uscutter.com/Lil-Chizzler-Removal-amp-Application-Tool-405-Pack41_p_177.html

    While you ponder, I'll just be over here with my patching compound and touch-up paint.

  21. Posted

    Are you looking to print one or two at a time? or large quantity?

    Are you looking for archival or short-term?

    What substrates do you think you'll need to print on?

    What kind of coverage are you expecting to lay down?

    Photos? Text?

    If you can answer most of these I can probably aim you in the right direction. Just last year I had to find a large format printer and practically broke my brain doing research.

  23. Posted

    Clear coating over cut vinyl is always going to be a problem. The vinyl expands and contracts in heat/cold at a different rate than the tile (even more so for calendered) Then you have the clear coat itself which expands at a different rate from either one.

    However, what I have seen done (sorry, can't find any samples) is to use the reversed vinyl as a stencil for painting. Stained glass paints work well as they are meant for the slick surface of glass. Some are even designed to be baked on.