randalle

I did a bunch of regular vinyl cuts earlier, they were perfect. Only time I have a problem is in contour cuts. And everything about the contour is off the mark. One thing I noticed, when you set your first 3 point cal mark, typically... when the cutter advances to the second mark... it automatically takes it to a reasonably close area in relation to mark 2. On mine right now, it is only advancing like 2 inches instead of 4-5". Same oddity occurs when it advances to mark 3.

My process is: print on WF1100 laminate with oragaurd 210 and a big squeegee contour cut peel stick As roxy stated, tons of threads on it here.

so, RT60 melts almost immediately at 350 degrees. That was an epic fail. Using the transfer paper from ez weed actually pulls the ink off the printed 3G, another fail. I'm still lost. JPSS works great bc the image is mirror printed and the ink side is down with a carrier sheet on it natively. 3G, not so much. Any suggestions?

A couple months back I took the plunge and ordered a pack of 3G Jet Opaque. I had a few good test runs with it, but when I went to do a client piece with it... the experience was horrible. I ended up scrapping the effort and did a 2 layer with ez weed. At that point I shelved the 3G and pretty much wrote it off. (an expensive purchase to just scrap) So I'm ready to give it another shot. I watched some youtube vids last night on it and competing products and it seems as though what I'm missing is a carrier sheet to hold the contour cut pieces in proper shape / placement wile I get ready to press. What can I use for a carrier sheet? All I have on hand is RT60, not sure if that is advisable or not. Looking to test the process again this weekend. If I can come up wiht a suitable carrier sheet. I guess, if need be..... I could use some scrap pieces of the top sheet of ez weed... but I'm not completely in love with that idea. Anyone else experience this? Thoughts, recommendations??

when I save a file to cut in Ily CS5 - I save it as AI version 10. That works fine.

I read a bunch of threads regarding plastisol transfers. (After I spent the entire day weeding and pressing 10 shirts for a client) I'm going to need to be able to pull my price point down from +/- $12 per shirt to something more competitive. I presume this would be most easily accomplished via plastisol xfers? I'm not in love with screen printing, that takes the entire process out of my hands. I still want to be involved. Where is the best place to get them, fm expressions seems to be the popular choice? What do they cost? I get confused when I look on the fm site at pricing. Can someone give me a couple real world examples of pricing? All of my orders will be custom designs that I provide them to print. Lastly, is there a minimum quantity that make them cost effective? ie.... 2 isn't worth it, 20 is ok, 200 is great? Thanks!!!

I could easily gang it with stuff from my retail line, so multi locations shouldn't be an issue. Yes, I stock plenty of shirts. I don't have a screen printer. Most of my clients use art that I have done for them, the others provide their own. I guess my thought process was to replace the need for a screen printer by having this as a cost effective backup resource if my in house processes can't compete financially or as a matter of practicality.

In the simplest of forms, Google docs is a great place to start if you aren't ready for Quickbooks, etc... yet. I have an invoicing system in G-docs (free template) that I customized and it works great. G-docs is a nice place to start if you just need basic stuff.

I spend a good $50 a year on fox hats,,, it'd be cool to go ahead and buy a hat press and save / make a little money. Anyone here have a hat press? Worth the investment? What kind of hats do you buy? I prefer the flexfit hats, but haven't seen them for sale anywhere I can purchase from. Most the hats I see are a cotton-wool-spandex mix. I looked at one of my hats and it is xx% cotton-x% spandex... no wool. What's up with wool? Anyone have any good brands to speak of? I'm a stickler for a matching underside of the bill + flex fit. Any feedback greatly appreciated.

sorry Rodger, yes humor fail on my end. Anybody got any thoughts on hats?

roger, no pun intended, that! Sorry, I just meant that as a reference for the style I wear. I would never even think about knocking off anything of theirs. I did find the yupoong 6580 and like it enough to try to track a couple down and try. Jiffy doesn't carry them,

I'm self taught on Ily. It is simple if you are patient. Spend a weekend on youtube watching tut's, there are a ton of them. After that - practice, practice, practice. I've been doing Ily for 8+ years and still learn something new almost every day. You can get the basics pretty easy, pretty quickly too. Then just be patient, and google is your friend.

I have a customer that asked if I could put vinyl on a softball to use as a trophy to give to the players at an all-star game. I think they are meant to be for display purposes only... Good idea, bad idea, terrible idea?? I put one of my logo's on one to test conformity and even though it is only 651, it went on very well. I just don't want to do something that will peel and look bad. Obviously, playing with the ball will destroy the vinyl... but that is their decision. Anyone ever done anything like this before? Thoughts? Comments? Opinions?

I'd love to knock the dust off the old airbrush. This would be a great excuse. I'm 50/50 on that vs krylon. Good ideas, thanks!!

Tested that, won't be an issue. I was slightly amazed at how little real estate exists on a ball. Dang manufacturers have writing all over them.

cool idea snapper, just rattle can it with some spray paint?

Does it only happen on this one design? Other art works? Static? Blade sharp? Care to post a sample of what you are trying to cut?

Thanks Roger.

awesome stuff man!

for a starter press, i got this: http://sunie.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2 I love it. Great unit for the $.

For jpss or 3g jet, you don't print in 'mirror' and then contour and press. you print regular (not mirrored), then contour and press. For siser ez weed (which is just heat pressable vinyl - non print) you cut it in mirror. Then press it. When I started out, I thought that printing and contour cutting would be the cats meow the majority of the time. I, in my humble opinion, was wrong. I very much prefer cut vinyl, not printed and cut vinyl. Some comparisons and / or pro's-con's of each: siser ez weed, way better color than printed vinyl. If someone can make a liar out of me on this, I WELCOME you. I have a WF1100 being underutilized because of this. Advantage = ez weed gradients, not possilbe with ez weed. Advantage jpss / 3g placing multiple items on a shirt, ADVANTAGE EZ WEED. I tried ONE time to make a shirt that had a first name, last name, and number on the back that was printed and contour cut. By the time I had the first name lined up, it was curling. Then I started the last name, and the first name curled into a ball, then I got the number on and by the time I had it lined up, the first name and last name curled up and stuck to each other and had to be thrown away. It was a complete debacle. I threw it all away and did it with siser ez weed and was done lining up and pressing in less than 60 seconds - no muss no fuss. and lastly, layering 2-3 colors of ez weed is super easy... way easier than even layering decal vinyl. I mean it couldn't be easier. The only real 'suck' about ez weed is the price. and that, does suck. I figure it at about $2 a square foot.

they are all great, but that 'protect 2nd base' was freakin' great! I hadn't seen that slogan before. A+ across the board.

oh... Very cool btw sandgink. good work.

I had the same problem before, if not worse. I cut a few the other day that were in the 4' range and what I did was load it, pre-roll / feed it, and then adjust only the far right hand pinch roller. I'd just loosen it and bump the vinyl a tiny bit and retry. Usually, in 3-4 small bumps I was spot on out to 4'. Not sure if that was exactly how you were doing it or not, but it's worth a try. It helped me get mine feeding really accurate.