[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

are we having a ground hog day?

Or my memory’s getting shorter. 😀

[John Childs]

That’s the one. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

I am not sure of the terminology, I thought monochrome meant one colour

Yes, you’re right, monochrome does mean one colour, usually, but not always, black.

But it can give the illusion of tints in between by varying the balance between the colour and white pixels/dots. Just like halftone photo in a newspaper, which is just black and white dots but, when viewed from far enough away, blend to form the image.

i once had a piece of software that would convert an image into something that could be cut in a single colour vinyl. It did this by cutting lines, but varying the thickness of them to produce a monochrome image. It was actually very useful in the days before printers.

[John Childs]

quote Peter Mindham:

Would’ve looked better in old english script Jill

Ahem.

Let’s not forget whose customer it is Peter. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Karl Williams:

Have you ever seen Mike Hunt?

Yes.

I have a relative of that name.

What were his parents thinking? or smoking

[John Childs]

Different manufacturers use different waxes.

Most these days are the newer hard waxes, and the best thing is to call the manufacturer or importer and ask what is recommended. Don’t rely on a dealer because they probably won’t know.

Old type soft wax is becoming increasingly rare although, last time I looked, Volkswagen were still using it. Paraffin and a steam cleaner gets rid of that. I did hundreds of cars like this for a Saturday job in my youth.

Best thing, and what I do, like Alan, is to make sure the dealer does it (like he’s paid to do!"

I once had ten vans delivered in wax, so I just rang the dealer with a quote for us to remove it. He nearly exploded and said that my price was fours times what it should be. I calmly explained that he would be doing the job with minimum wage labour whilst all I had was highly trained and expensive graphic fitters. I would happily get them to do the job, but he would have to pay their going rate. The vans were very quickly collected. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Paul Seamer:

I have one slight problem tho I can’t find the pathfinder palette?. I am using Corel 12.

That would do it.

I’m using Illustrator, and assumed that you were as you put up a .ai file. I should’ve checked.

You need a Corel user from here on in. 😛

[John Childs]

I’ve been advised to watch it. Apparently Tony Robinson was brilliant, doing it without notes etc.

As a routine measure, I’m not sure about assisted death. There seems to be too many opportunites for abuse.

I’m prepared to be reassured/convinced though.

[John Childs]

I’ll go with Kestrel too.

Maybe they both buy in their extrusions from the same supplier. 😀

[John Childs]

Seek – and ye shall find. 😀

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 3&start=10

[John Childs]

OK Paul.

Open the WINDOW drop down menu and select PATHFINDER to display the palette.

The tool you want is the top left one, the one that shows "Add to shape area" when you hover the pointer over it.

Try this file as well. I’ve backtracked this to Illustrator 3, so it should open up on anything. Even Corel on a PC. :vomit:

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

---

Attachments:

Oxford3.ai

[John Childs]

quote James Martin:

New word. Nice one!

I can’t claim credit for that James, it comes straight out of the dictionary.

tr.v. a·brad·ed, a·brad·ing, a·brades
1. To wear down or rub away by friction; erode.
2. To make weary through constant irritation; wear down spiritually.

And sometimes the second definition can be more useful, especially when dealing with a certain type of customer.

Mind you, I have been known to make up words, or find new uses for old ones. One of my favourites is the word for a flat battery. Flattery – because it gets you nowhere.

[John Childs]

Perpetua Titling Light.

[John Childs]

quote Harry Cleary:

Do you find that setup with the 3 narrow benches efficient or is it because of space?

Hiya Harry.

Sure, it’s a bit tight in our cutting room, but we’d use the same benches if we had more space. The thing is that the majority of our work is done on 610 vinyl, so anything wider than 2′-6" would be pointless. Not every bench needs to be a monster, and in fact can be a disadvantage for smaller people who may not be able to reach right over a wider one.

Of the two benches you see in the foreground, the left hand one has the Sheeter taping machine (visible in the photo) screwed to one end. The right hand bench has a Weeder machine fixed to the end out of shot.

The bench in the background was spare and is just used for storing stuff on and some shelves or a rack would be just as useful.

The cutter just peeking into the right hand side of the shot is a 760mm. To the right of that is it’s 1370mm twin, and directly in front of that (to the right of the camera position) is an 8′ x 4′ bench positioned so that the vinyl will come out of the cutter and straight onto the bench for weeding.

It probably wouldn’t be ideal for everyone but, for our purposes, it is efficient, and has the benefit of flexibility.

I can’t get back far enough to take a photo that shows everything, but I could email you more piccies from different angles.

[John Childs]

OK Liam.

Why not just pm me your address anyway, and I’ll get a sample in the post tomorrow.

That way you will have something to show the designer for their decision.

[John Childs]

Liam,

There is no vinyl anything like RAL 5007.

However, it might be your lucky day!!

I get some specially made in Avery 800 for a particular client, and have quite a bit of 1220 in stock.

If it might be of help, I would suggest that the best thing would be for me to send you a sample.

[John Childs]

Be careful Malcolm, sometimes you can T-Cut until you are blue in the face, but you can still see a ghost image. On one occasion I even saw a van that had had a re-spray and I could still see where the old graphics went. Obviously it depends on the age of the van, and how long the graphics have been on, but the warning is not to let your customer have too great an expectation, which you can’t live up too. Disapoinment lies down that road.

Jill, T-Cut is really the domestic version of the Farecla cutting compounds used in body shops. It is an abrasive liquid which is intended to cheer up old paintwork. It does that by abrading away the surface of the paint, thereby revealing pristine stuff below.

For us, as we know, ghost images are where the van paintwork has been abraded by daily wear and tear and, when we remove old graphics, the exposed paint is like new. So, the idea is go over the whole thing with T-Cut, and hopefully you will bring everything back to the same condition.

added on edit: Beat me too it Martin. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Fabrice Menard:

sorry, my pour english makes me misunderstand the “gassing” word. What does this mean?

Could curling happen when not waiting enough before cutting the outlines?

Hi Fabrice.

"Gassing", or "out-gassing", basically means the same as drying. The difference, and the reason we have a different word, is that it is not quite the same.

Drying is what happens, for example, when you take your shirts out of a washing machine and hang them up.

With prints it’s a little more complex. The ink doesn’t just dry by evaporation, like your shirts, but there is an element of chemical action there too. That action produces a gas which, if not allowed to go completely can have bad effects. The gas bubbles may appear under the laminate, giving a silvering effect which won’t go away. Alternatively, the gas may migrate the other way, through the vinyl, and affect the adhesive.

I hope that helps.

Curling can happen when not waiting long enough before cutting.

The print should be allowed to settle, and all reactions cease, before anything is done to it. Laminating or cutting. I don’t think that people here are allowing enough time. We wouldn’t consider doing anything with a print for at least 24 hours and, if dense ink coverage, a lot longer. Some of our stuff is left for four days before lamination.

[John Childs]

Unless you are in a very specialist area, I’m not sure that business needs or intended use are that important.

My opinion is that if I am in the general signmaking business then I want equipment that will cope with any job that walks in the door.

I still say Mimaki.

[John Childs]

Mimaki.

[John Childs]

That’s the exact same type of bench that we use Warren, so I don’t understand why you are having a problem.

Fair enough, ours are only 2′-6" wide, but we store vinyl rolls on the bottom shelves, and don’t get bowing, even with all that weight on. All have glass tops

In the print room we have two of them bolted together, giving us 8′-0" by 5′-0", covered by one big sheet of glass. Again, no bowing.

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Attachments:

[John Childs]

quote MichaelThomas:

Cheers for the help guys.

One more question then – Can it easily be cut into shape with a stanley blade or such?

I’m not talking about anything fancy, probably just rounded corners or an oval shape or something to make it a little more interesting, without making it easier for the customer to damage?

Yes, although we use a corner rounder on all our magnetics.

Rounded corners or ovals are fine. Just try to avoid sharp internal corners where splits might (will) start.

[John Childs]

Cheers Warren. 😀

[John Childs]

Producing the cut line is easy.

Just select the whole thing and make a copy. I usually put that on a different layer.
Select the copy, click on "add to shape" (top left button in the Pathfinder menu)
You are then left with your cut line.

File attached.

Your biggest problem is, if you want to cut to the edge of the colour, whether to put a bleed on the two colours or not. It’s preferable not to, but it might be necessary depending on the accuracy of your cutter.

It’s much easier, if acceptable, to leave a thin white outline around everything (invisible from more than a couple of paces on a white van or board) as you won’t need to bother with bleeds at all.

---

Attachments:

Oxford2.ai

[John Childs]

The search facility is your friend. Take a look here.

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 05&start=0

We put a copy in with every magnetic that leaves here.

[John Childs]

How do you want to cut it Paul?

To the edge of the colour, or with a narrow white border around the letters?

[John Childs]

Not my words gentlemen, they were mercilessly stolen from somewhere whose source lies deep in the mists of time. 😀

quote Phill:

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

It’s no joke Phill. As you know, I’m a great believer in giving exemplary service because I believe that that’s what makes us stand out amongst a sea of competitors, but there’s always a few clients who will take advantage.

Recently we had a shopfitting firm in Corby who were always ridiculously short notice, usually give us an order over the phone and wanting to leave their factory fifteen minutes away as soon as they put the phone down to come and collect.

We took it for a while, and they got used to being able to get away with that behaviour. We could see the problem coming, so Peter and myself looked at how much business they gave us, about £1,200 per year with a lot of grief, and decided that they were somewhere near the bottom of our priority list and that it would be better to lose their work than to let a better customer down.

Inevitably the day came when we were in the middle of a job for an important customer which couldn’t be interrupted. The baddie got most upset when I wouldn’t interrupt a £10k job to slip her £15 line of text in and a row ensued. I’m not sure which of us slammed the phone down first but, needless to say, we don’t work for them any more.

The point of that screed is that we had allowed a not very good customer to expect a service level better than they deserved and it cost us their business. If we had trained them better in the first place we might still be doing their work, but on our terms.

Life’s just one long learning curve, innit? 😀

[John Childs]

Happens to us all the time Harry.

The good customers we try to help out, and the bad ones we point to the notice on the wall that says, "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on ours".

Nah, that sort of thing has been part and parcel of my daily life for as long as I’ve been in this business. In fact longer – it used to happen in my previous occupations too. 😀

The major problem from my point of view is that once you’ve bent over backwards to help that customer out of a hole they will think that that sort of service is the norm and never give you any notice. So even the good ones that make a habit of it need letting down every now and again, just to keep them on their toes. 🙁

[John Childs]

quote Martin Parker:

my question is can the mag signs be put over original signage on vans and what is the best way for the customer to store them when he isnt using them

Yes they can. Some of our customers do it all the time.

Obviously the magnetic attraction is reduced because you’ve increased the distance, but I’ve never known it to go so far as to become a problem.

Magnetics should always be stored flat and kept clean. If they are wanted on a vehicle for any period of time they should be regularly removed, cleaned, and replaced.

[John Childs]

Have a good time Graeme.

And don’t worry about us. 😛

[John Childs]

So Jill………..

I didn’t have the time to watch the whole thing, so could Phil see his shadow, or not. 😀

[John Childs]

Richard,

I understand where you are coming from, and agree to a certain extent. But the Sheeter cost us about £250, so hardly a major capital expenditure that has to be written down over a few of years. We also have a laminator, but wouldn’t use it for applying app tape because the Sheeter is much quicker and easier.

We certainly don’t want to devalue our product either and, just because we can make something cheaper, doesn’t mean that we always do.

Quite the reverse in fact because production costs are only a part of the equation. Another, probably the most important, aspect is service level. Obviously it has to be kept within reason, but we can often be a bit more expensive than our competitors and still retain the work because our customers know that they can rely on us and they would prefer to use us than change to an unknown supplier.

It has been discussed before, so I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but it costs our customers a lot of money in engineer down time to change their vans over. Sometimes they can be out of action for three days, so you can understand my customers reluctance to take a leap in the dark rather than stick with the known quantity.

Sorry for going off-topic Peter.

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

John, what timings would you put on this job?

I haven’t worked anything out Peter. Like I said, just gut feeling, but I’ll have a look in the morning.

You are absolutely right about production times being an important consideration though, and although it doesn’t help much in this instance, that’s where the Weeder and Sheeter come into their own for our normal work

I watched my boys make up ten van kits this afternoon and, although I’ve seen it before, the speed with which they did it I found amazing. I defy anybody to do something like that quicker, and therefore cheaper, than them.

And for me, that’s the crux of the matter. If our methods and techniques allow us to make stuff quicker than our competitors then we can be cheaper than them whilst still making the same profit. A competitive advantage the business gurus would probably call it.

The Weeder is good, but anybody without a Sheeter is putting themselves at a disadvantage before they even start.

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

plan is to have ten of these trailers over the next six months.

That makes a big difference. The tenth will take you a fraction of time that the first one does.

I often look at other people’s prices on here and think that they are mega expensive. The truth is that they are probably looking at a job as a one, or maybe two, off, whereas the nature of my clients means that I tend to look at things in larger volumes. Therefore, my gut feeling for a price is usually less than others.

The problem for us is that, for somebody that walks in off the street, we don’t charge enough. I am aware of this, and am trying to break the habit.

Nobody is right or wrong, it’s just that we are looking at the same job from different directions.

[John Childs]

Happy Birthday Gavin.

An itch? not the best present you could wish for! 😀

[John Childs]

quote Richard Urquhart:

Gosh I’m need to charge less me thinks. Rich

You’re in London (almost). I’m not.

That may well explain a lot of the difference. 😀

[John Childs]

I’ve still not worked it out because I’m too idle but, thinking about it some more, it’s really only the same as doing one side of a 7.5 tonner.

£500.00.

[John Childs]

quote Dave Rowland:

what about watch 4od on youtube?

Any chance of an English translation? 😀

[John Childs]

Morning Earl.

It’s an in-country question.

Our licensing regulations are that if you have any equipment capable of receiving TV programmes, then you need a licence for those premises. So, the question is, if my iPhone is in my pocket whilst at work, do I need a licence for my office?

Take a look at the tvcatchup site. It’s an internet thing, so you may be able to watch it where you are. 😀

[John Childs]

You can get it on an iPhone too.

http://www.tvcatchup.com/iphone

I wondered about licensing issue too. Not enough to call the TV Licensing Authority though. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Jillbeans:

took some pix to show John and Jenny that they did not miss much.

Nah, it’s had the opposite effect. I think it’s great.

I love small town America. Main Street still full of small locally owned businesses. You can still generally park right outside, Everybody you meet is so friendly – sit outside a coffee shop and everybody that walks in or out at least smiles and says Hi. Get into a conversation with them and they never seem to be too busy to talk to you, appear genuinely interested in who you are, and what you are doing in their town.

But maybe you’re right, perhaps, like most places in he world, it’s better to see it as a tourist rather than actually live there.

We’ve got Air Miles for a weekend in New York, and that’ll be great, but I prefer cruising rural US in a car or on a bike. Regrettably not this year though, with a wedding to pay for, but I can’t wait to get back.

Thanks for the pics, it’s given me the incentive and enthusiasm to get out there this morning and earn as much as I can to help pay for it all. Roll on. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Phill:

The crack is internal

Anybody been wiping the screen whilst wearing a diamond ring?

An old favourite from my days in the trade. 😀

[John Childs]

Pure gut feeling but, if done in our workshop, it looks like about £650 – £700 to me.

[John Childs]

Not got my fonts here, but is the bottom one Dax?

[John Childs]

quote Lynn:

Patrick, most suppliers do a paint mask vinyl

:yes1:

[John Childs]

quote Jillbeans:

I have to go thru Punxsutawney later today.

Say "Hi" to Phil for me.

I saw a sign saying Punxatawney 30 miles, but it was off-route and we hadn’t got the time to go. I regret it now.

There’s probably bugger all there, but it would have been cool to have a photo standing next to the sign.

Next time. 😀

[John Childs]

That’s interesting.

Perhaps we’ll give it a go when next we need to order reflective. 😀

[John Childs]

We’ve not tried the latest Oracal or 3M offerings, but our weapon of choice, for decent quality work, is the 5R series from Allprint Supplies.

Sticks well and, most importantly, is fairly conformable. Nice to work with.

[John Childs]

And there was me thinking I’d had a bad day.

Our heating boiler packed up last week and the plumber came around to replace it yesterday. It took him from 8.00am until 5.15pm, so there was me stuck in the office for most of that time freezing my bits off.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have got some work done, but it was too cold to operate a mouse. 🙁

Never mind. Toasty warm now. 😀

[John Childs]

quote matty goodwin:

Is John Childs the ‘Dad’ on shameles?

We might share some characteristics Matt.

Why you ask? 😀 😀 😀

[John Childs]

quote Robert Lambie:

You will go to the bad fire Mr Childs!

Moi? Surely not.

I help people not to make wrong phone decisions.

I am the saviour. (angel)

[John Childs]

Why settle for second best when you can have the real thing? 😛

[John Childs]

Hope you didn’t buy a lottery ticket. 😀

[John Childs]

Welcome dd. 😀

[John Childs]

quote John Childs:

Most good corporate image manuals that I get to see have a monochrome option.

I can’t lay my hands on the Virgin Media manual this morning, but here’s one example……..

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Attachments:

[John Childs]

Most good corporate image manuals that I get to see have a monochrome option.

If only to engrave on the brass plate outside their registered office. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Otto Peltonen:

But the bright side is that the money you get from these jobs is just as valid as the money that comes from posh jobs, right?

Absolutely correct Otto.

And in some ways it’s better money because it’s easier to earn. There’s no messing about, and no customer walking around it afterwards trying to pick fault, with comments like, "that’s not quite how I’d pictured it". or, "that colour isn’t quite right".

Bonus for us, how many of you can say that your graphics doubled the value of the vehicle? 😀

Bonus for the customer, come scrapping time, he’ll get more for the number plate than the truck cost him to buy, kit out, and run for three years. 😀

Without checking, this must be about the fifteenth vehicle we’ve done for this customer in the last twelve months and, although we wouldn’t put our sticker on any of them, we consider him a good customer. In fact, we could do with more like him. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Jason Davies:

Hi John, I’m starting to learn that it’s probably best not to run everything past my wife.

Take a tip from the Master……..

It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.

That philosophy has stood me in good stead for many years. 😀

[John Childs]

18mm minimum MDF with a glass top. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Dave Rowland:

mobile networks running at broadband speed

Not around here. Not by a long chalk. I try not to use the mobile network because it is just too painful an experience.

I know of at least two pubs around here where there is no phone signal at all, much less a useable data connection. 🙁

[John Childs]

My experience is that RasterLink is better than Shiraz on gradients.

Although Shiraz may be the cleverer RIP, we never used a fraction of it’s functions.

RasterLink is a lot more user friendly and, for that reason, we will continue to use it.

[John Childs]

quote OwenTaylor:

Is that a small man or a really big iphone?

One pundit did comment that it looked like an iPhone for people with impaired vision. 😀

[John Childs]

I’m not sure about it.

It seems to be aimed at the consumer market by being focussed heavily on music, books, video etc.

Sure, some will consider the larger screen to be handy for video, but if I’m going to watch a film I want it on at least 42 inches. Music, well it won’t do anything that an iPhone won’t do at a fraction of the size.

I was disappointed that it doesn’t have the proper Mac OS because that will limit it’s usefulness.

It may have a use if the iWork app files are one hundred percent, feature for feature, compatible with Office. Otherwise what’s the point in producing documents if the people you email them to can’t read them properly.

As for a drawing package, I think you can forget it. I reckon that the target market for the iPad aren’t the sort of people who would want Illustrator and therefore there won’t be enough volume for Adobe to want to get involved. Let’s face it, Corel can’t even be @rsed to produce a Mac OS desktop version of Draw.

And even if they do, install copies of Microsoft Office and Illustrator, add your music, video and photo files, and how much disc space will you be left with for work files? Not much. Sure, you can keep files on an internet server, but that’s only of any use if you are in range of wi-fi, as the geezer who tried to give us a presentation at the bike club last night found out, to the amusement of his audience. Internet servers are brilliant if you live in Cupertino, but out here in the rest of the world, not so good.

Obviously there’s lots more to find out, and I hope to be proved wrong, but it looks to me that, for work purposes, the iPad is not a substitute for a laptop.

Over to you Jason. Let’s see you get that one past the wife. 😀

[John Childs]

I recognise a couple too.

All good work Warren, and a credit to you.

[John Childs]

Thanks for the call George.

What you told me, plus what I’d read, has convinced me that I want bugger all to do with it. The potential liability in getting it wrong is not something I care to think about.

I’ll follow customer instructions, but they’re gonna have to tell me what they want.

[John Childs]

This one?

We haven’t done all their vans by a long chalk, so if you are doing a repair you will probably have to match the existing colour, but if it’s one of ours it’ll be Avery747 Marine Blue .

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Attachments:

OsborneLogo.ai

[John Childs]

Yeah, but Shameless was on last night. 😀

[John Childs]

Thanks lads.

Unfortunately for me Graeme the enquiry came from a leasing company who specifically forbids their subcontractors from contacting their customers.

I’ve been through loads of websites, and it’s a minefield. Worse than Chapter 8.

The only asbestos warning that I can find is the yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. What I don’t know is whether it needs the orange decals with the UN code for asbestos in, together with emergency contact number and other guff.

Any idea where I can find a picture of the ADR Category 9 symbol?

[John Childs]

Well, that’s the paint sorted, but where the hell do you buy a cuttlefish bone?

[John Childs]

It’s the government mate.

They can’t get anything right. 🙁

[John Childs]

That’s my understanding Peter. Impact eps files are full size, and ai one are 1:20 scale.

Anybody working in Illustrator needs a copy of CADtools. https://www.hotdoor.com One of it’s many tricks is one that does all the scaling stuff for you. You don’t know that you are working to scale.

[John Childs]

Best wishes Jill. 😀

[John Childs]

No problem John.

Just do it as you would a Transit.

[John Childs]

quote Andy Payne:

If UKSB have a particular day on which they attend could someone let us knowol1:

Usually the middle day – Wednesday.

There’ll be a post up sometime with hotel and evening entertainment suggestions. If Rob does it, it’ll be later. If Peter Normington, then sooner.

Wot? (spin)

Shane, I have no idea what you’re talking about. 😀 *drink*

You booked your flight yet? 😛

[John Childs]

Choice of product? I would beg to differ.

If I need to buy, say, a new jacket or pair of trousers, I go to Leicester and search the high street, but can’t find anything I like. What do I do then?

It’s no good going to Northampton or Peterborough because they have just the same shops selling the same stuff. And that’s due to the big clothing retailers enjoying the same sort of monopoly as enjoyed by the supermarkets.

How do the banks manage to rip us off at every turn? Because they also have been allowed to merge and take over their competitors, to the point that there are only four of them and can charge what they like.

No. Takeovers and mergers are always bad news, placing more and more power into fewer and fewer hands.

[John Childs]

The major benefit is that you get to meet all of us.

Seriously, I wouldn’t make a major purchase decision on the strength of a hurried, rushed and crowded demo at the NEC. Fair enough, have a quick glance around to see what’s available, but just use it to make a short list of stuff you are interested in, so that you can go to the dealers later for a more in-depth investigation of their products.

The best use of SignUK to me is to meet and spend time with my colleagues and friends. Exchange ideas and horror stories, have a "few" drinks in the evening after a good meal, and fall into bed in the early hours.

For me, SignUK is a social event with a sign show attached. And well worth attending. 😀

[John Childs]

That all goes to reinforce the opinion I had of you Shane, that you’re a really nice guy.

Me? I’d have batted the engineer for sure, and probably disposed of the body in the bottom of one of his post holes. 👿

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

the farmers that make most money sell to the biggest buyers.

True. But the farmers that sell to the biggest buyers are the biggest growers.

And they only make more money because they are dealing in bigger volumes. So yes, their profits are higher in absolute terms, but they will be considerably lower in percentage terms than their smaller brethren.

And comparing those is exactly the same as comparing Tesco with a corner shop.

[John Childs]

Hi Enatom.

Good luck. 😀

[John Childs]

OK.

Well, I don’t know whether you can adjust that speed in your particular plotter but, if not, try to lower the acceleration. Some plotters have a command for that in their set-up menus. If so, lower it as far as it will go.

If there’s no specific acceleration setting, look for a quality one and set that to max. That usually does exactly the same thing

[John Childs]

How does it stall the machine?

If it’s because it can’t unroll the vinyl fast enough, then just manually unroll enough before you start cutting.

[John Childs]

Nice work Mike.

Thanks for sharing.

[John Childs]

I’ve never cut lettering by hand, but did plenty of logos in the early days.

[John Childs]

Interesting site Peter. Thanks.

This "customer" is renovating an old plane and knows exactly what he doesn’t want. Unfortunately he doesn’t know what he DOES want. 🙁

I can see this job becoming far more aggravation than it is worth, so I’m going to sidestep it. 😀

[John Childs]

Many happy returns Nik. 😀

[John Childs]

quote Adam Triggs:

Should I go for the larger cutter 160 as well or should I stick with the 130. Other than the obvious warranty of the cutter, is there any major reason to have a cutter 1.6 wide.

Only you can answer that one Adam, based on the work you are likely to be asked to do, and bearing in mind the space you have available.

We only have the 130 printer and the 130 cutter and have only once had an instance where I would have liked a bit of extra. It wasn’t a problem because we were able to put the join in a very unobtrusive position on the van, so I would consider the 160s to be nice, but certainly not critical to my business.

Then there’s the fact that most materials come in 1370mm widths. Stocking 760 and 1370 is enough of a space waster without adding another size into the mix.

Even with 1370 machines, I would guess that something like ninety percent of our work is still done on 760 material. Easier to stock, easier to handle, much less lamination cock-ups, and easier to process afterwards. We only print on 1370 when we have absolutely no option.

I would say that, unless you have a specific reason for a 160, a 130 will be fine.

[John Childs]

quote Phill:

Only problem is that the photographs often end up distorted

Take the photo from as far away as possible, using as long a lens as you can to reduce the distortion.

[John Childs]

Yeah, things like that happen regularly to us Gert.

And it’s always a pleasure when it comes back to bite them. 😀

[John Childs]

Most, if not all, of our head replacements on the JV3 were due to strikes. I’ll put my hands up and admit that maybe some of them were our fault, but certainly not all. I stood there and watched it do it one day, it had printed metres with no problem, the vinyl was running through nicely, then whack, a thousand pounds please!

We have never put a pump or a damper onto either machine.

I don’t know about alternative inks, but I haven’t been looking for them because I wouldn’t use them anyway.

[John Childs]

Like Dave says, a JV33 print head will be more expensive but, on the upside, there is only one of them rather than four. Also, if you do have to change it, then it is new for all colours, rather than just the one with the JV3.

I also think that you will replace heads less often on the JV33 because that’s certainly been our experience. On our old JV3 we put, for various reasons, about six heads in in two and a half years, whereas our eighteen month old JV33 is still on the original one.

Maybe a silly thing, but the front cartridge loading helps a lot too, and makes the printer easier to use. Also the cartridges are a lot less vulnerable to accidental damage.

[John Childs]

I’ve never found anything I couldn’t do with Illustrator, so why put yourself through the pain of learning something new?

Also, Illustrator will open most files that you are likely to be sent by clients.

[John Childs]

Two major benefits are:-

1. Different (single head) design runs a lot cleaner than the JV3 resulting in much less routine maintenance. It also makes cleaning a more pleasant job.

2. When used in four colour mode, it uses only one cartridge of any colour at a time, before switching automatically to the second when the first is empty.

You can still get banding, but that is largely a factor of how you have adjusted the printer settings. However, print quality of the JV33 is quite a bit better than the JV3.

I wouldn’t like to quantify the amount, but the ink savings will be quite substantial. Partly for reason 2 above, because no cartridge is changed until completely empty, thereby eliminating waste, and partly because the 33 doesn’t use ink to clean itself.

They’re the main points, but there are are other advantages too, and I would definitely recommend upgrading to the JV33.

[John Childs]

Illustrator to eps. 😀

[John Childs]

The back of a Transit looks harmless, but those little swages around the bottom of where the window glass would be, can be tricky little b@stards.

If it was for a customer I’d use at least a good cast, if not a proper wrap material.

In your case though, being your own vehicle, fixing any problems would not be a problem, so you can afford to experiment with a good calendared.

With regard to tiling, you can’t go vertically, and have the join between the doors, because each door is still wider than your printer, so horizontal it will have to be. Just take a look and see where you think a join would be least noticeable – inside a horizontal swage is a good place.

[John Childs]

I got one now. 😀

The customer is going to paint the numbers on, so just needs stencils from me, but does anyone know if there is a compulsory font for the registration letters?

[John Childs]

Not in my collection Liam. Sorry. 🙁

[John Childs]

quote Shane Drew:

no frill horse poop too.

Which reminds me of a story that a friend’s mother told me years ago.

At the time she worked in a the classified ads section of our local evening paper, and it was her job to proof-read and to ensure that whatever they printed was appropriate.

She swore that she had no idea how it got past her, but one night they printed an ad from a local farmer which advertised horse manure with the strap line "all sh1t – no straw".

😀

[John Childs]

I think that’s one of mine.

What’s wrong with it Neil? 😀

[John Childs]

quote Jillbeans:

You should have told the guy you are a certified PHD.
(post hole digger)

I like that Jill. 😀

I was told that PHD was what vets had after their names. It stood for Pussycats, Horses and Dogs.

My sympathy Shane. 🙁

[John Childs]

Our snow all disappeared yesterday.

Lashing it down with rain now. 🙁