randalle

(adding edits / advise from users in red) Purchasing my cutter on monday (tomorrow). I've been researching and toiling over the decision for about two years. Luckily for me, lack of funds narrowed my initial purchase options WAY down optimized my search criteria. I have a background in web and graphics and I'm extremely proficient in AI, so I'm not 'too' intimidated by taking the leap. 99% of the work I do via my cutter will be stuck to a truck, trailor, dirtbike, or ATV. Phase 1: intro cutter. mh-721 from usc @ $269. I plan on practicing with this for a couple months. I already have a couple fleet vehicles lined up for simple jobs. And of course, have a garage full of dirt toys to practice on as well. I plan on purchasing Oracal 651 for this. Is 651 good enough or should I make the jump to 751? The price doubles from 651 to 751... so I'd really want to know if it is worth it? I really don't know what type of app tape I need to get. Any suggestions? And what size? I plan on buying a few rolls of 24 x 10y vinyl to cut my teeth on. - Based on recommendation, I'll go with RTape AT60 from Coastal @ $18 for a 6.5" roll and go from there. If anyone wants to sell me 10yds of some 12 or 24"... I'd be interested. I plan on purchasing my vinyl / app tape from usc. Any other recomendations (looking for best price)? I'll be unlicensed for a few months while I settle in to all of this... so that might affect what sellers I can buy from. - recommendations for vinyl vendors: ordway sign supply, sign warehouse, coastal Any glaring errors or omissions in phase 1? Phase 2: intro press. something 15 x 15 and within earshot of $250. Now I know I'm not gonna get a rolls royce @ $250... but again, that's my budget. I'll just stand real close, listen for the timer, and cross my fingers a lot. I'll pick this intro press up within 4-6 weeks of getting my cutter. - look into (sunie 15x15 and transpro 15x15 are both good options) I'd like to be elbow deep in mx jerseys and custom mx t's by the thick of summer... Family and friends alone should keep me plenty busy. Siser easy weed the way I want to go on this? Other recommendations? - Spectra Eco-Film from imprintables I had bookmarked a site where I can get white T's for $2 each, but can't find that bookmark. What would be my best couple of options for t-shirt suppliers? (EDIT, found it.. jiffyshirts) Any glaring errors or omissions in phase 2? - IR thermometer , teflon sheets Phase 3: Printer. WF 1100 with CIS. Mind is made up. Would welcome any 'other' ideas, but price needs to be competitive though. I'd like to expand my stickers and shirts into printed / cut. What's the best vinyl to print / cut for outdoor stickers? -Sihl 3988 / signwarehouse or allsquareonline. -laminate with Oraguard 210 What's the best vinyl to print / cut for shirts? -JPSS for white shirts and 3G Jet Opaque for darks Is it worth it to print / cut my own vinyl for shirts? I know there are a lot of people I could farm that out to... but I just have a hard time letting go of the 'yep,,, did it all myself'. If I tried real hard?... Would it be possible to contour cut utilizing reg marks via my printed media? What I mean is could I include reg marks on my printed media and set the cutter origin on those marks and essentially contour cut without the 'automation' of the contour provided by higher end cutters?? This would be kind of important / nice... as it could put some time between phase 3 and phase 4. Is it possible to do this? -upgrade to flexistarter 10 Any glaring errors or omissions in phase 3? Phase 4: Big boy cutter. IF I still enjoy this, and IF I'm making enough money to warrant continued investment... I'm thinking I'd like to get a Xen Green or Xen Black. And of course, if the money tree is watered regularly and gets plenty of sun... I'd be looking to step into a nicer heat press. Maybe something that pops automatically so I can make beer runs while the bird's in the oven. And after all this, assuming the "IF's" are still flowing in my favor, I'll want to build a nice redneck 4 color screen printing station... although... I am real hung up on how I'm going to dry that ink. It's enough of a concern that I am in no hurry. Thanks to anyone willing to chime in.

I take back what I said about easy weed not exactly living up to it's name. It really does weed easy, just different. I knocked out some shirts this weekend for the photo shoot and was overall very pleased with working with ez weed. The weather failed us, we had too much wind and clouds and it was cold. Sooo, we didn't get to do the photo shoot. We didn't let the day go to waste though, we still got the bikes out and did some work.

And since you can't work ALL the time. This is me a couple weekends back. I have a 45' tabletop in my back yard. We spent a solid week grooming it for the summer. Put an extra foot of height on the lip and set it to some rediculous slope. I don't know what degree it is, but it launches pretty hard. Up close, it looks more like a wall than a lip. I'm not pleased with this pic, I was getting a solid 5' higher pop all day... then the camera came out and I pulled a dud.

Had my first Uh oh moment with the heat press. Forgot to put the teflon down and now I have a lovely graphic stuck to the top of my press. Grrrrrr. Any easy recommendations on how to remove that? Heat it up and press it on a piece of scrap fabric?? Been doing a lot of custom layered vinyl decals for a customer and that has had me completely booked solid for the last two weeks. The money is starting to trickle in.... but not as fast as the orders are. No complaints. Discovered google docs, great free way to do invoicing over the internet. I recommend. I also use google docs to keep track of all of my order / status. I just email clients the link to the specific sheet that has their info on it. Got the WF1100 dialed in on printed stickers, very excited with the quality it puts out. I'm printing to Sihl 3988. Only thing that has held me back is I've been using the free 3m overlam and I ruin 1-2 stickers per sheet (11x17) with wrinkles. Stressful. I ordered my Oracal 210 this morning, hopefully that stuff is easier to work with. I'm using a BS to put the lam down. My offset on my LP24 is wonky right now, it cuts like a champ on normal vinyl jobs. I've done 30 or so real jobs on it and have a real good feel for the in's and out's of the process. Where I'm up a creek is on the contour cuts. It seems as if my X cal is off. I searched this forum and read all the threads but that didn't really fix my issue. I found a pdf on signcut's website this morning.... so i'll try that out tonight and cross my fingers. I did an easyweed shirt the other day, first shirt! interesting name,,, doesn't seem that dang easy to weed to me. quality once applied was very nice. very happy with the final product. After my easyweed test, I ran an 3G Jet Opaque test sheet through the printer and applied it. I was slightly disappointed with the color. It just didn't have as "much" pop as I had hoped for. I'll just keep testing my printer settings. (normal paper bright white, photo quality, epson vivid). I did do a test print in max photo quality mode or whatever that is called... but that is the one that is stuck to the top of my press.... so that is where I am right now. The 16x20 sunie seems very nice. no complaints so far. I bought 8.5x11 sheets of jpss and 3g jet for doing T's with. Every time I try to contour cut them I have to either only print 2/3rds of the page so it don't advance too far, or put it on a carriage sheet (which was a forum recommendation). Putting it on a carriage sheet annoys me. I don't know why, but it just pisses me off. So there is more to figure out there. I don't like only getting 2/3rds of a sheet to be usefull. If I can return my unopened jpss, I'd rather get the 11x17 size (coastal). How much vinyl has to be sticking out of the back of the cutter so it doesn't get out from under the rollers and ruin your cut?? 2", 4"? I've been splitting my orders 50/50 with USC and Fellars. Fellars was great to deal with in the beginning because of price matching and local pickup... but they've made a few changes over the last 3 weeks and have really rubbed me the wrong way. Looks like I'll forego (for the mostpart) the local pickup and give the majority of my business to USC. I have 2 t-shirt designs ready to press and will have them knocked out by Saturday at 6'oclock. The first shirt design is named... the "6 oclock" shirt. These are going to be retail shirts for my MX brand (motocross) casual wear. I did a website for a photographer a few weeks back as professional trade. He's bringing an entire studio out to my house this saturday.... at 6 oclock, and is going to do a photo shoot of us riding and whatnot. I'm going to use the photo's as my business adverts. Pretty stoked. For those of you into photography, He plans on shooting us in the style of Joel Grimes. It should be awesome.

Just got my WF1100 and ran a couple test prints on 8.5x11" sihl 3988. Tried to contour cut them, read paco's 'how to' to get 3 point cal setup. My problem is that my printed image (trying to be as economical as possible on paper consumption) is say 85% of the total paper size. So I can align the first two registrations, but when it advances to the third spot (other end of sheet).... the dang thing falls on the floor - meaning it advances past the end of the paper. I only have an inch of space of unprinted paper on that end. How much unprinted space do I need to have back there for the thing to stay on the rollers? 2"? 4"? thanks, noob

makes sense. thanks!

So I could take a piece of scrap vinyl and scotch tape an extender on the end of the sheet, eh? I'll give that a try and see what happens.

Glad they are being offered, mildly annoyed at the price.

651 and RTa60 for tape.

Got my Sunie 20x16 press from the fedex man bright and early this morning. all equipment bought and delivered... now to go make some money.

I have a client that wants (2000) 4.25" oval printed stickers. I have a WF1100 with pig ink and planned to print to Sihl 3988 and overlam with oragaurd 210, and contour cut them with my LP24". I told them $2 per sticker. Is that fair? I figure I can get a min of 6 stickers on a square foot of material and both the sihl + overlam runs about $1.10 per sq foot. Am I overpriced? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. Good points. I will get up with J and stets and see what we can do.

yes, it is 10%.

I can do $15 plus the ride in about a week.

scam. run, hide.

Love it! and LOVE the company slogan.

lookin good! what diamond plate did you use?

nice work!

Got my LE WF1100 today! WOW. (that's all i got... just wow) Time to buy a bigger desk.

Looking for some leads on a reputable source for dog tag blanks. I'd like to do some tags with my WF1100.

I can get 2120 for $1 a sq foot and it is much thinner than Sihl 3988. Anyone use this stuff?

my wf1100 is pigment. Since I just purchased it a few days ago... I'm still a little confused by the term sublimation. Do you think I would be ok using pigment with an overlam for this type of application? Or is this a solvent / eco-sol type application?

I like to stay with Oracal 651... but I'm looking for a lime green that is as close to the color on "monster" drinks. I have a Teryx with the monster package on it that I'm trying to make some custom stuff for. Does anyone know if the 651 lime tree green is a close match? I saw that the 751 lime tree green looks even closer. ugggh. And of course the 951 lime green looks reallllly close. super uggggh. Edit, I just went and held up my oracal color chart to the stickers / paint and the 951 is the closest match. grrrrrr. I don't really want to pay the extra $ just to get a better color match.

Bought an Avery Lime from Fellers and it is very, very, very close to what I was wanting.

Make sure you look through all 14 pages of downloadables on that site, you might have everything there you need.