Laminating

[Ben.Dexter]

ok I know the steps in laminating now so thats all sorted,anotherthing I am confused on is,

the printer I will be using says it will ‘Contour Cutt’,where as other machines say ‘cut&print’ could somebody explain the difference please?

[Peter Normington]

Hello ben welcome to the boards,
first thing you need to do is decide on a suitable material to print on, for motor cross bikes there is only a couple of suitable materials, owing to the polyprop panels and rough treatment these machines take.

Print and cut and contour cut are the same,

Have you any experience in making decals, you sound like you are just jumping in feet first?

If so you are in for a long learning curve, and motorcross decals are one of the more complex starting points.

good luck

Peter

[Ben.Dexter]

Hi,

I most certainly am new to this business,I am a graphic designer,and have been riding motocross since I can remember,I have designed various sets of graphics and had them printed elsewhere where I take no part other than the design,however I have since sourced a print machine and am looking into offering a complete custom graphic service.

I have a good idea of which laminates to use,but I am not sure on what vinyl to print on,do you have any recommendations for this?

Thanks

[Matt Boyd]

convex seems to be one of the more popular choices for mx decals mate. they also do some nice thickness of laminates. just be carefull what you use though as some material is better suited to this than others!! and be carefull when applying to plastic gas tanks, see the other post about this.
matt

[Ben.Dexter]

Hi,

Thanks guys,yeah I was just reading,I didn’t realize CONVEX made the vinyl to print on also,I thought they just made the thick clear.

I am struggling to source a laminator,is it possible to laminate by hand and get good results?

thanks for you help,

[Mathew Gibson]

Hi mate,
Im looking to do the same aswell just struggling to find the material.
I also ride mx and want to promote my business and doing decals through decaling up my own bike. Any Ideas where to get the material?

[Shane Drew]

quote Custom-Pixels:

I am struggling to source a laminator,is it possible to laminate by hand and get good results?

,

Ezy taper is a simple laminator, but in small sizes, by hand is probably the best thing. Use a felt squeegee tho, as plastic ones will sctach the laminate, and will not slide so easy. It takes some practicese, but with a little trial and error, its not hard to achieveve good results.

[Peter Normington]

Print one now do the convex

Peter

[Ben.Dexter]

Thanks guys,Appreciate it!

I will buy some form of hand laminator,the areas I will be laminating or not big so,all should be fine.

I am wondering what file format I should export my work as,I use Corel DRAW12 to design,and my computer has a very hard time exporting to some file formats,I have tried exporting as a windows meta file and CMX file,but they seem to get messed up and look jumbled when opening in FLEXISIGN,

what would be a good compatible file to export to?

[Martin Pearson]

Ben can you not print and cut straight from corel draw? I would speak to your printer supplier as this may be the best option for you, lots of people on here use corel so there must be an easy way to do it. It might also depend on what rip you are using.

As for a laminator, if you are only doing small graphics keep a look out for an old clothes mangle as I have heard of people being able to pick these up fairly cheaply and they seem to work OK

[Shane Drew]

quote Custom-Pixels:

what would be a good compatible file to export to?

convert your file to curves, then export as pdf or eps. Two extensions that seem to have the least amount of ‘issues’ in my experience

[Ben.Dexter]

Hi,

Thanks,exporting to EPS seems to work just fine.

I am about to buy some Vinyl and laminate,I will go with the CONVEX laminate but,I cant help but feel there must be a simlar vinyl cheaper in the UK? at around 8 pound a square meter it seems rediculas.

Does anybody know of some that will do just as good of a job?

Thanks

[Martin Pearson]

Ben, this question has been asked a few times over the last couple of years and the answer always seems to be the same. There is not another vinyl that will do the same job. Try doing a search on the boards and reading through the older posts. You will have to decide what works best for you, use a cheaper vinyl which won’t last so you will have to replace them on a regular basis or use the convex and they will last a lot longer making them more cost effective in the long run.
The vinyl is probably eight pound a metre because it is manufactured differently to other vinyls which is why it is better suited to this application, eight pound a metre is not particularly expensive for vinyl, look at the price for some specialist vinyls and you will see that this is actually at the cheaper end of the market for specialist vinyls.

[Gordon Forbes]

Look back the boards you can get convex from Ireland and they didn’t charge £8 for it but did charge a fortune for delivery.

Goop

[Ben.Dexter]

Hi,

Thanks Martin I will bare that in mind,

I spoke to Print ONE in the UK and they quoted me a price of

150 micron Convex Matte Inkjet Hibond 760mm x 50yd £299.00

175 micron Convex Proshield Laminate 710mm x 50yd £289.00

300 micron Convex Proshield Laminate 710mm x 50yd £399.00

so it would work out far cheaper buying directly from the states even If we get charged VAT plus Import duty.

I have tried contacting Sign+Digital in Ireland but the number doesnt work for me,I have also emailed and not had a reply.

does anybody have another contanct number for Sign+Digital?

Thanks all for your help,

Ben

[Ben.Dexter]

Hi,

Thanks Martin I will bare that in mind,

I spoke to Print ONE in the UK and they quoted me a price of

150 micron Convex Matte Inkjet Hibond 760mm x 50yd £299.00

175 micron Convex Proshield Laminate 710mm x 50yd £289.00

300 micron Convex Proshield Laminate 710mm x 50yd £399.00

so it would work out far cheaper buying directly from the states even If we get charged VAT plus Import duty.

I have tried contacting Sign+Digital in Ireland but the number doesn’t work for me,I have also emailed and not had a reply.

does anybody have another contact number for Sign+Digital?

Thanks all for your help,

Ben

[wee chris]

quote Custom-Pixels:

Thanks guys,Appreciate it!

I will buy some form of hand laminator,the areas I will be laminating or not big so,all should be fine.

I am wondering what file format I should export my work as,I use Corel DRAW12 to design,and my computer has a very hard time exporting to some file formats,I have tried exporting as a windows meta file and CMX file,but they seem to get messed up and look jumbled when opening in FLEXISIGN,

what would be a good compatible file to export to?

I use corel 12 for setting out some of my artwork, but being a signlab user i don’t have much experience using flexisign. if you convert all your text to curves that is found within the (arrange) tab then save the file as a ai 7 remembering to tick the curve and pc setting within the save window. Alternatively it as an EPS within the file (export) tab.. remember that thick lines can be interpreted strangely saving the files as an early version of ai helps in the compatibility.. good luck