quick question about reflective vinyl

[Phill Fenton]

Yes It’s more difficult to cut and weed as well as being more expensive than ordinary vinyl. Also some brands are a nightmare to remove again.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Congratulations on the new baby!
😀
To answer your questions, Reflective is costlier than regular vinyl.
I buy 3M Scotchlite, because I have found that it is easiest for me to work with although it’s expensive.
Use a 60° blade when cutting it.
And I always try to put cast vinyl underneath it to aid in removal later on (worth the extra effort) Say for example an outline of cast black on a yellow reflective letter.
It has absolutely no forgiveness, if you accidentally lift back a corner with your squeegee it makes a line in the under layer. There’s a layer of transparent color over a reflective layer, it’s thickerer than regular cast or even calendered film.
Love….Jill

[Jan Storgaard]

quote Angelique Muller:

Hi all,

sorry I have not been around for a while (busy having another baby…, but after 9 days I am ready for a little bit of work again)

I am meeting a customer this afternoon who was thinking about using reflective lettering on his mobile chipper. I have not used reflective foil before and was wondering if it is different than ‘standard’. Is it harder to cut, do I need a different blade? Also is there a huge price difference?
I thought I’d better know these things before I make any promises…..

Thanks

Huh! doing firetrucks at the moment with reflective oracal. It stin..!
What i have learned: summa doesn’t have 60“ knifes but a dull knife at 160 gram pressure does the job. Knife is ruined after ;o).

Weed immediately or seams will reconnect.
Weed carefully, this vinyl is fragile! (can i use fragile here?)

If you miss and the vinyl touch the surface it will stick and its almost impossible to take of (depending on vinyltype)(oracal 5 year is better to work with than oracal 7 years).

Cannot be heated with good result.

Only bend one way.

If the top-laminate (part of the vinyl) detach it will be kinda blackish, and must be renewed.

Best way to remove is with rubber wheel.

wet application seems to be best, no bubbles, but this is large surfaces ;o)

Well, thats my 25 cent.

Regards
Jan

Denmark

[Hugh Potter]

a lot of what Dan says is right,

weed it right away, contrary to earlier advice (Jills?) i wouldn’t use a 60° blade, no need, keep a separate blade for cutting reflective and try to stick to one brand, new blades… anything from 140g onwards, older blades higher, i’ve cut some films as high as 300g before! I will agree with Jill on the cast underlay though -budget allowing- it doesn’t have to be cast but, it’ll make it a lot easier to remove in the future.

avoid small letters, anything under about 20mm is gonna be a big pain, under 50mm is awkward, the bigger the better! avoid fonts with sticky out bits (serifs?), stick to plain fonts, helvetic etc, bolder the better. weed immediately,

reflective is brittle to work with so keep a close eye while weeding, it will easily tear. when fitting, always hinge and be accurate, you get no second chances,

it’s not as horrific as it sounds, just take your time!

Hugh

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Wet app with most reflective voids their warranty so try to apply dry.
If I have to do something real big I do use Rapid Tac 2.
I do have better luck with a 60° blade, and that’s what is recommended.
So I disagree with Hugh, (sorry Handsome) but he is 100% correct about using simple fonts if possible. Serifs are a pain.
I always factor in cost of a new blade as part of the job.
With my old 4E it would take a blade per job. The Graphtec seems a bit longer lasting but the blades are about 5X as expensive!
I would only layer with cast not calendared.
Jan you still messing with that Oracal?
(I love every other type of O-Cal but the reflective)

[Jan Storgaard]

quote Jillbeans:

Jan you still messing with that Oracal?
(I love every other type of O-Cal but the reflective)

Hey Jill, im buried in it. But i will say that the more you handle it, you kinda get a feel for it. Its going well, but all you guys in forum helped alot in the beginnig ;o)
So, im gonna be an expert when we are done with 10 trucks.
Ill say that the 5 year oracal is more like regular vinyl than 7 years. The 7.yrs is going to pieces.
Hope to upload images when done ;o)

[Peter Normington]

We are using oralite 5400 reflective, it it re positionable if you take care, and it will even conform to mild curves. I think it is a fairly new oracle product, but best I have used in the middle of the range price.
perhaps you guys across the pond donrt have it yet?

Peter

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Like I said on Jan’s topic, I tried the O-cal 5600 Engineering Grade reflective.
I actually sent it back to my supplier.
They tested it to see if it was as bad as I said (brittle, easy to tear, hard to weed) and when they heard I had only used 3M they said there was nothing wrong with the O-cal, it is just not as easy to work with as the 3M Scotchlite.
I did use Avery purple reflective once, and it cut/weeded OK, but that was about 3 years before they had the known failures.
And the firetruck was sold after a year, so I don’t know how it held up because the next owner peeled off the lettering.
A supplier sent me a roll of Avery striping two years ago, had I known which brand it was I would have ordered elsewhere. It failed in 10 days. Literally peeled back at the top and bottom edges.
I guess if I am paying top dollar for something, I want it to last and be easy to use. That’s why I swear by the 3M.
The oldest fire truck I have out there is going on 10 years, looks exactly as the day I did it, but it is garage-kept.

[Angelique Muller]

Thanks all for your advice. I had the meeting with the client and he was not too pushed about the reflective vinyl, so I think we will do it with normal vinyl . I might order a sample so I can get some idea of what it is like to work with for future projects…….

[David Rogers]

Few tips I’ve found over the years.

1. Don’t but a cheap ‘no-name’ reflective – you WILL regret it!
2. Keep a spare blade / your old blades especially for reflective – it WILL trash your current blade in minutes.
3. Weed it as soon as it’s cut and take text a line at a time – don’t attempt to weed a paragraph or complex design in one go.
4.Do it dry if you can – wet if you have to, especially on hot days where it will transform into ‘insta-grab’ and tear.
5.Reduce the cutter speed and move the grip wheels further in than normal as it can wander a bit depending on the liner type.
6. Do a TEST CUT to ensure it will cut through the vinyl BEFORE committing £££ worth of film to the bin as it didn’t cut through properly!
7. If there is even the remotest chance you will be asked to remove from a van it in the future – put normal vinyl behind it!
8. Printing on reflective can look really good but the ink can sometimes pool on the surface / not penetrate – it’s probably easier to print on clear then apply that.

Dave