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  • Best way to apply cut vinyl.

    Posted by Stuart Green on 12 June 2010 at 23:08

    I have applied an image of some cut vinyl work which i did recently. I was hoping if somebody could shed some light on the best way to register and apply the vinyl.

    I have seen some youtube videos of a lizard graphic where the seperate colours are simply weeded then application tape is applied, lifted and applied, to the next colour so it builds up. so thats straight forward.

    What if in the case the graphic width is 40 inches and you have a 30 inch machine?? other issue being you have things like green bullet points and a couple of lines here and there would you waste the rest of the vinyl for the sake of a few bullet points and lines on the green vinyl?? I have attached a picture of a star which is straight forward and the job which i completed recently but did it the hard way of measureing and applying areas seperateley or is that the best way to do it??

    feedback would be great.

    thanks a million 🙂

    OwenTaylor replied 15 years, 6 months ago 6 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Chris Wool

    Member
    13 June 2010 at 10:08

    what design software do you use.
    the star graphic needs only have been 2 one red one blue (never put red and blue together).
    the reg marks in that case are redundant use the weeding box instead.
    as far as the large graphic separate it in to smaller boxes and as long as the board is square, it will build up.
    your plotter may be out by 0-4 mm in 1000 in the feed ( if not calibrated), so cut all in the same direction on the plotter.
    vinyl is cheap when compared to time, sometimes its better to waist vinyl but quicker and better alignment. choice to be made when cutting.

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 June 2010 at 12:00

    I agree with Chris. Simple blue overlay over the red with the ‘star lettering’ welded with the ‘star’.

    As Cris says with the bigger logo too.

    Matt

  • Stuart Green

    Member
    13 June 2010 at 12:52

    I’m using illustrator so for the big one if i do it in horizontal 30 inch boxes to accomadate my machine and use the bondry box for registration should that do the trick??

    like below??

  • David Rogers

    Member
    13 June 2010 at 14:05

    Do whatever works for you.

    Some people register to squares they place in specially / other letters, others the edge of the panel, others just eyeball the whole lot.

    it doesn’t matter if it works.

    I play all three ways depending on what I’m doing and the amount of materials I’ll potentially waste v’s time taken.

  • Darron Boden

    Member
    13 June 2010 at 16:26

    Best to get stuck in & have a go. cut a few test pieces & learn which is the best for you personally.
    😀

  • OwenTaylor

    Member
    14 June 2010 at 08:01

    Everyone has their own way of registering vinyl but I would definitely cut all the blue text for the bullet points in one piece because any misalignment of these is going to be very visible.

    It looks like these will just about fit within the 30" width of your versacamm.If not then for arguments sake – if they are 30.5" I would just make them a touch smaller to fit your equipment. No point making life hard for yourself 🙂

    For the green bullet point I would get a measurement from illustrator and align these manually using a ruler.

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