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HOW DO YOU WEED??
Just thought I would ask the question of how different people weed their graphics. Having seen many different sign makers at work it seems we all have our own little quirks!!
Personally i tend to use a scalpal with a 10A blade. I find the 11 a little too long.
When I weed Text I tend to go from right to left but with numbers left to right…
I also weed all the letters before going back and removing the inners.
Just wondered if others have different ideas.
(mind you given half the chance I do as little weeding as possible!!!!)
Cheers Ian
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33 Replies
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I can’t remember…………….. 😕
Since buying the Versacamm 90% of my business is now printed stuff and when l do need to weed l get lasy and print some of it. 😳
Is that allowed? -
Hi Ian
I tend to get my wife to do most of the weeding.
She is not interested in the cutting side and she finds it relaxing.We use grafitac weeding knives from grafityp and they are very good.
When my avitar gets put up you will see what happens when i’m allowed
to weedPaul R (Mackerelbus Design)
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Usually standing up and behind a tree when out in the country. Failing that – I use a phone box or lift. 😀
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quote rightsigns:Usually standing up and behind a tree when out in the country. Failing that – I use a phone box or lift. 😀Great answer Phill 😉
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I use a “weeder” from traget transfers.
Pen like body, with a “bent pin” on the end. (not quite, but you get the idea)
Just hook the sharp end in the waste and lift, fantastic tool, cost about a tenner.
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right to left always for some reason.. and would you beleive i use a stanley knife? steel run of the mill stanley and it works best for me.. 😀
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Right to left for me too, and always from the bottom of the letters, around all of ’em the when at the top at the left ( 1st letter) back left to right
with my left hand full of waste vinyl (that gets caught up pulling all the letters with it that I need to leave) bad habit, but I find it quick (when its not slowing me down 😉 )
Oh, and I’m a tweezer man 😳 -
quote billywifta:I can’t remember…………….. 😕
Since buying the Versacamm 90% of my business is now printed stuff and when l do need to weed l get lasy and print some of it. 😳
Is that allowed?No, that’s just cheating
But it will be when I get one 😀 -
Varies with me sometimes left to right but mostly right to left. Use a 10a scalpel, and ‘weave’ the vinyl off the backing paper.
Cheers
Dave
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Me – Carrie – Don’t like too much weeding ……. well I start off ok, but after a few meters I start to get really fed up and a bit bored to be honest! I vary from left to right – right to left, weaving and I am a tweezers girly 😉 with the scalpel and scissors at the ready and I like to remove all inners last!!! 😀
Stephens way is much more simpler – right to left with tweezers & scalpel at the ready – done! 😀
Its a bit like the shower thingy though isn’t it 😆 Men whizz in & out … women take the longer route 😀 😉
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Right to left, mostly with tweezers and all the little tidgy bits get stuck all over the place 😉 I have a nasty habit of sticking things to my jumper, my face, my arms and my hands… not good when a customer walks into the shop and I walk out looking like a cross between Freddie Kruger and a Mars bar wrapper 😀
Cheers, Dewi
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Oh weeding… sorry I thought you said something else 😳
I’m left handed and work left to right using a scalpel, this works well for me.
If I was right handed I guess I would work right to left – but I think I would turn the vinyl upside down so that I was pulling against the solid edges of the lettering instead of against the serifs which are inclined to lift easily and slow down the weeding process.
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For the saftey concious i use a bare stanley blade find it quickest and cut when I want while lifting and always worktowards the point of any curves etc.
goop
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For me, it depends on the image, material and size. If I’m weeding large reflective letters I cut vertically every 4 letters or so. If that stuff touches other letters, it’s there forever, and delaminates when you try to remove it. Other than that, left to right, right to left, don’t make much difference. For connected script text a small cut and then weed around the perimeter, sort of.
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quote Forbie:For the saftey concious i use a bare stanley blade find it quickest and cut when I want while lifting and always worktowards the point of any curves etc.
goop
good old stanley knife does the trick mate, eh? 😉
nothing can beat it.. not like these tweesers, pins and delicate scalpel blades.. nah.. not me! im a tuff old boot.. now wheres did i sit my pineapple bacardi breezer? 😉 😳 -
😆 😆 😆
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In Arabic I weed from right to left but if its the Sunday papers then its normally left to right
John
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we use a lot of Hotmark garment vinyl from victory which comes on
a sticky carrier.So if you are weeding small letters it is important to take the inners of the
letters out first or they end up sticking to the carrier and you don’t
notice them until you print onto the t-shirt. Very anoying 👿Paul R (Mackerelbus Design)
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That must be really annoying 👿
If we forget the little blighters with vinyl we can pick um out after with a scalpel
John
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Bet you take ice in tnat as well Rob!!
Goop
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I once found a 5mm high letter H stuck to my eyelid once, when I got home from work. I’d spoken to a few people on the way home as well, but none of the buggers told me! It must have pinged up in the air, I remember looking all over the place for it and it was right before my eye(s) all the time.
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quote :I hate to weed. With a passion.
But I usually take an X-Acto & cut between the lines of copy,
so I’m doing a strip at a time. Seems if I turn the sheet of vinyl upside-down (NOT face down) and apply a bit of tension with my left hand as I pull the vinyl with my right, it works better. And I start from the top of the sheet so I’m not dragging my ( oh i swore ) & elbows through weeded vinyl & lifting up serifs.
I stick the centers of letters onto my hand as I go, so I must be like Dewi.
But I’d rather be painting.
Love…JillQuoting myself from Sally’s post the other day! How lazy is that?
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Sticking letters / weeded vinyl onto body parts, intentional or by will of the weeding Gods, seems to becoming a bit of a fashion 😀 Better patent the idea or FCUK will grab it!! 😉
Attempted a variety of the methods described in this thread today as I had a few different weeding jobs that were quick cuts, ie I could recut them very fast when i messed the whole job up, but I found using a stanley knife a bit vicious, bare blade was asking for trouble (I have the cuts to prove it! 😳 ) and hooking it with pins, I just couldn’t do 🙁 I guess I’m stuck with the tweezers for now, or until I can learn a method that doesn’t draw blood! 😮 🙄
Interesting though, seeing how everyone approaches a task that most of us have to do on a daily basis.
Cheers, Dewi
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😆 😆 😆 😆 Oh Big G ……… bless!!! Just had a good giggle at that 😛
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I use good quality angled modelling tweezers (Tamiya) and find them much quicker and easier than a scalpel.
They are 6 inches long, therefore comfortable to hold, though I have added a sticky-plaster for extra comfort. I sharpen the points with a file. Reduces weeding time over the other methods I’ve tried over the years by half. The tweezers must be top quality as cheap ones are too soft.
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We had to weed 100 small logo’s using holographic vinyl and our dog Indy has a habit of lying under the desk.
Later that day my wife-Jules- was out walking with said dog who now had a bad case of Saturday night fever. 😆
It took an age to pick the bits out of his fur.
Paul R (Mackerelbus Design)
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Big G
Imagine if you had been plucking out 666 and it sprang onto your forehead without you knowing 👿 👿 👿
Who would dare tell you 👿
John
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John, I’ve already got that underneath my hair. Do you think it might just be a birthmark? I have had the urge to draw a big pentagram on all my signs lately…..
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Pentagram? You’re a star Big G 😀
Its no use pulling that hair down over your forehead cos I can just see the birthmark grinning through
John 😀
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I use a scalpel mainly or a craft Knife (Snap off blade type) if the text is fairly large, I weed left to right, if the text or logo is very small eg.
10mm Times New Roman i sometimes cut aroud the lines of text back it up and apply it to the panel and then weed it, Its tricky but keeps the letter shapes for moving or distorting. -
Easiest way i have found to weed small text is to work it like it has been routed….
ie:
Take out all the centres first, if you dont then there is very little letter left once you have removed all around it to hold the letter in place when you try removing the centre…
Also like the idea of back weeding.. although not sure if this keeps the vinyl clean enough if there is loads of text.
Main advice is to make sure your cutter is set up A1, then you should eliminate most of your problems…
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Scalpel, right to left. Still quite slow as I’m fairly new to it.
I do find it therapeutic listening to the radio and quietly weeding.When I’m removing inners I leave the first one stuck to my left pointy finger pick up a corner and sweep my finger over, nothing sticks to vinyl better than vinyl!
I’ve also noticed since doing this weeding lark when I see a number `3` I now only see Mickey Mouse ears.
But then I am slightly odd.
Splatt
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to be honest i have found that the best ‘weeding’ device has been an old rusty compass that i have had since maths at school.
i have numerous ‘modern’ scalpels, stanley knifes and a VERY good knife called the ‘Knack’ (15 blades in a magazine – the bees knees) which help for general purposes but the compass is perfect for ‘lifting’ away vinyl without cutting into the finished vinyl, which i found to be a problem when using a blade.
first things first, before you even cut, if it is not inverted add a rectangle around the graphic to give it a border, then take out the middles (it helps with seeing whats before you) , then pull away the vinyl in the direction with the most verticals (i.e. from the left of a capital R).
hope this helps
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