blauri68110

Ive done electrical work for 10 years, and fixing the lights is probably easier than getting that acrylic in place. You could make some extra good money doing that work yourself. If you called me to do it, I'd charge 200 minimum for labor if I could finish within 2 hours. If the florescent fixture has power running to with a new bulb installed,but isn't working, then the ballast 99% of the time is no good. Turn off the power, take the bulb out, take off the metal cover under the bulb, cut the wires to the ballast close to the ballast. Install new ballast, and connect all wires color to color with orange wire nuts. Test new bulb. If it the bulb doesnt come on, the wires may have come out of the socket on the end, just take the aocket out and push the wire back in. If you want to do it check youtube for a video how to change fluorescent ballast, I'm sure they got it on there.

Hi. Ive been doing stained glass for a few years now, and I recently developed a method to eliminate about 90% of the time spent in the pattern stage of the process which allows me to produce finished works in about a 1/2 to a 1/3 of the time normally spent whike achieving a much higher level of accuracy. Ive had a lot of success in almost everythin related to the design process of vector patterns to cutting them in vinyl and then plotting them. The problem is the oracal 631. I figured that most of the vinyl is the same and just bought pretty much the first 30" roll I saw without really knowing much about it. I start by taking my pattern piece and sticking it on my colored glass, I cut the piece. The problem arises when I go to grind the glass, which uses a spinning grinder wheel and water. I grind one side but as soon as I touch the the vinyl which is where I stop grinding, water will creep under the edge. On a large piece it stays put since the middle is still attached but on smaller pieces the vinyl will lift up and start to move which doesn't do me any good. What I need is a vinyl that doesn't release easily when water is being pushed into the edge. I am thinking I need a vinyl adhesive that isn't water based, but I also want it to be able to peel off, preferably without tons of residue to clean off. would the oracal 651 be a better choice maybe? I assume the longer you leave it on, the harder it is to remove, but these would only be stuck to the glaas for about 20minutes to an hour at the most. Thanks

I also found a few patters that were made with hair thin lines, tracing that, resizing it, adding stroke, path to stroke, then merging them with union works almost flawlessly. Its the patterns that have thick lines that are the major source of the problem. Those I may trace in a small scale and then blow them up if I have to. Thanks to everybody, much has been learned today!

yes, i did notice those few spots but a few minutes of touching it up isnt a problem, just dont want to spend hours tracing the image unless I really have to. I have a feeling this is going to work well and really allow me to spend more time with the glass than messing with patterns, and I might even make a sticker or two along the way

well even though i was planning on taking a break, i decided to give it one more try. I finally figured out how to do what you were saying I was forgetting to make a duplicate to fill in the holes that were being made after i convert path to stroke. The first time I did it, the image has tons of nodes like 24k I copied in in bitmap and then retraced it and that cut the nodes down to 10.5k, is that too many? here is the peacock i managed to get to 24inches and I think it may work as a pattern, do you see any issues with the cutting it on vinyl? tiffanypeacock 24inwide.svg

Ok thanks! I will try again tomorrow, my brain needs a break.

I dont really want to trace the image. That would probably take just as long as cutting it by hand. Is there a way to add a stroke and then move the cut line to the edge of that added stroke? I thought thats what you were getting at, but I cant figure it out.. What I really need is a hairthin line traced down the center of the pattern image lines, that line could then be thickened/thinned as the image is resized because a 12" panel has the same line thickness as a 48" panel. Everytime I resize that peacock image above to 24" wide my lines are always over 1/8" thats too big of a gap between glass pieces

Where did i lose you!? lol!

I am only tracing pre-made patterns at the moment, and dont know how to do that yet either lol! The textured glass wont be a problem because all sheet glass has a smooth side so it can be scored and cut. Im not quite following what you are saying since I have only used inkscape a few days now, but i have discovered the stroke option and realized that is not where the cut will go. What I think you are saying is I might be able to add the stroke and then retrace the center of that line, leaving one line that the thickness can be manipulated? That would be perfect if it works right. Do you know where I can find more detailed information on this subject? or maybe spell it out in simple people language, I am still learning with this software stuff but making good progress I saw the dynamic offset button but had no idea how to use it, I clicked it and seemingly nothing happened so I just hit ctrl Z lol!

This is the next panel I want to do with my new vinyl pattern technique I will develop. I need to be able to get the lines to the thickness I need when it is blown up to 24" wide. tiffanypeacock.svg

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THIS is what I want cut out of vinyl. I need the lines this thick but when the image is blown up I need the lines this same thickness, thats the problem I am having inkscape.