dcbevins 340 Posted August 18, 2014 Hi guys. I have been poking around here a while, hopefully being helpful on occasion. My last "job," was working for a signage, screen printing, embroidery shop. They had 3 Roland vinyl cutters, 2-3 lamination devices, a few clamshell heat press's, a six station screen printing set up with a convection dryer, a 54' Roland print/cut Soljet, metal/plastic cutting machines to cut 4'x8' aluminium and coroplast blanks, a 12 head embroidery machine, (not sure the brand, but ancient as it took 3 1/4 floppies, a GelPrint sublimation printer, (the colors always were off.) They had two buildings, one with a a two port garage. They did many t-shirts via screen printing. In my opinion they undercharged as most were under $6.00 in orders over 50. They did the county and neighboring counties sports teams uniforms, (names & number,) and most of the booster organization's t-shirts. They did specialty "glitter" in cut vinyl and charged $15-30 a shirt for these. The teens gobbled them up. No rhinestones. There biggest gig was for a Fortune 500 coal mining company. The did all the warning/safety stickers for their equipment including reflective road signs, reflective warning and instructional decals, permit and inspection numbers, promotional material, ect. and so on. I mostly kept the Roland spitting out something. But that was then and this is now. Now I am trying solo from what was a car port but is now an enclosed office. Now I have a 50" uscutter vinyl cutter, (with what appears to be a completely dead laser pointer). A couple Epson WF 1100, one with just normal ink and one I am trying to get sublimation ink to flow through but it is being a stubborn bitch, and BITCH is the correct term. I have a 11.5" x 15" swing away heat press with mug and cap extensions. I have dreams of a roland 54' vsi. I have a small stock of Siserweed, Oracal 631, 651 and green star vinyl, blank rhinestone material with a small supply of stones and a few small samples of "glitter" vinly for heat transfer. Any advice about how to improve my range of services without a bank loan would be appreciated. BUT, my man question I was just wondering if you guys have tried fiverr, http://www.fiverr.com/ I am capable of doing artwork, but It is not my forte. I am good at taking existing art and hammering into something. I know my way around a node via CorelDRAW, (X7 paid subscription,) and sometimes Inkscape. I would like a pool of talent to tap into. Thus recently I tried fiverr. I picked two "artists" at random, though not exactly random as I was looking for cheap. Contrary to the cliche, fiverr can cost more than five dollars. I gave two different artists $10 each to make a vector version of the local high school's mascot and provide me with the vector files. One artist was from India, the other Serbia. Not sure that matters, it is interesting on some level. The first one sucked so bad I can't put it into words. The second one however made something I would be glad to place on a tshirt, a banner, or a bumper sticker. Have you guys tried this service? What is your experience? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knucklehead 530 Posted August 18, 2014 I've done a few things on there. Nothing great, but have been satisfied. It's like getting a sample of someones work, for five bucks. Or, ten. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dcbevins 340 Posted August 18, 2014 I've done a few things on there. Nothing great, but have been satisfied. It's like getting a sample of someones work, for five bucks. Or, ten. I guess it boils down to finding individuals, as it always does. I think i will offer the Serbian ten more bucks for a frontal view and see how he does as what he drew was a profile, and then maybe try a few more people. If I spend 100 bucks on 10 tries and I find two people that are worth working with it would be well worth it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OWJones 1,981 Posted August 18, 2014 A couple Epson WF 1100, one with just normal ink and one I am trying to get sublimation ink to flow through but it is being a stubborn bitch, and BITCH is the correct term. Not to change the subject, but have you tried Cobra Clog Buster and/or their Cleaning Solution? I went too long without printing on my Epson WF1100 and it got clogged and an overnight soak with the clog buster cleared it right up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knucklehead 530 Posted August 18, 2014 'Preciate that OW, I've got a 1100 that needs a good clog busting too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dcbevins 340 Posted August 22, 2014 Not to change the subject, but have you tried Cobra Clog Buster and/or their Cleaning Solution? I went too long without printing on my Epson WF1100 and it got clogged and an overnight soak with the clog buster cleared it right up! No I haven't. I got some generic "Cleaning Cartridges" off amazon. All the colors were clogged except magenta. Now just one black and one cyan are clogged. I'll have a look at the Cobra. I too let it set unused for too long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
