Mark Jahn
Forum Replies Created
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What you cutting Craig?
We cut 651 at 12. Flex T Shirt vinyl at 20 and sparkle/chrome T Shirt stuff at 22.
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Whatever you use you’re going to have big problems with image fading even with a laminate. I’ve had dye sub prints outside for 3 months and they’ve almost disappeared.
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I must be the only one on the boards to have a George Knight! Solid workhorse though. Got it directly from R A Smart. Not a single problem in 3 years with almost daily use.
Craig – no offence to you and your equipment but I’ve read plenty of complaints about lovecut. Think they used to trade under another name on ebay.
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Paul. Have a look at the new Craft Robo CC330-20. Google for best prices. I found a retailer doing them for £199 plus vat.
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There’s only one person on this thread mentioning £150, so you calling me a liar or what Matty?
I’ve seen with my own eyes what was quoted and this was backed up by two of the self employed drivers who are personal friends of mine and who were forced to accept the quotes by their contracted depot. And one of the quotations was provided by a very local competitor who shall remain nameless.
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No Peter. It wasn’t just labour. The vans are supplied plain yellow and the green livery is with 751. We were asked to quote for the fleet and were shown quotes from other local sign firms beforehand.
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Walk away Jon. They’ve been doing them up here for £150
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I thought that link looked familiar. Google "Joys Sewing Machines".
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Graphtec CE 5000 all the way for us.
Beats the Roland hands down any day 😉
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quote Dave Rowland:quote John Cooper:Graphtec’s Cutting Master 2 isn’t compatible with Coreldraw X5
and screws up in Corel X3!
Not on our system. How so dave?
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Leave it alone for a day Stephen. Too much head cleaning is counter productive. Epson recommends two or three head cleans at once. Alternative methods to clear the blockage include printing nozzle check prints (a few straight after each other) and printing few sheets of A5 /A4 in the colour which is blocked (black in your case). I’ve usually got the blockage cleared by doing a head clean followed by a few nozzle check prints followed by a colour print.
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No question on price John – cut them yourself. You’ll get 1 – 22 out of 2 metres of vinyl with some creating placing in your software before cutting them.
We cut 9 inches high and use Collegiate Black but there’s a good range here:
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I haven’t used the canvas from BMS yet but some 330gsm from another retailer and I found that pressing for any less than 90 seconds gave a very faded image. Heavy pressure was needed as well.
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Never had that myself Paul. Chatting to a customer over the weekend who I did some FOTL navy blue polos for last summer with a design front and back and the vinyl is as white as the day I pressed them. He’s worn them almost every day and they get chucked in the tumble dryer regularly.
Have you changed your vinyl supplier recently or did the supplier send a bad batch maybe?
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If you have a cutter there is a cut option using colour laser. We use Robo Master Pro (have never mastered this in Corel) to import the file. Get the outline then print with reg marks. Put the sheet into your cutter ensuring the "search for reg marks" is ticked and set it away. A very quick way of producing colour stickers if that’s what your after.
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He’d have plenty to say to me if I made a joke about his daughter. Now some might say there’s no comparison but as far as I’m concerned me and my wife’s dogs are our life and others here will no doubt agree.
Dave. You have my complete sympathy mate. I’ve been there and know how much it hurts.
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I do enjoy your posts Phill but that is a cock comment.
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Never bothered with it Rich. Mistakes are rare (honestly). Save your cash mate.
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Rich, try pressing it again with the carrier sheet over the top and hot peel the bits you want rid of. Some makes of vinyl will lift when hot (particularly when they’re cold peel). Chances are you’ll still get some ghosting from the original adhesive though but I found this faded well after a couple of hot washes.
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No purchase required Andrew
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Looks great Paul. Very best of luck with it mate.
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Or this one even. Sorry…previous link was for the US
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Try this link Neil. It’s the basic service which you get for free to receive faxes.
http://home.efax.com/s/r/efaxprint
When someone sends you a fax it’s converted into a jpg and emailed to your registered email address as an attachment.
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Yes Neil.
We’ve used efax for years and it works a treat. Incoming faxes converted to jpg attachments via email. No cost at all to us – the sender just uses an 0871 number (national rate I believe) but no one has ever complained about that.
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Very nice Andy. The black gloss dibond is stunning.
Our lass will be pleased to see some animal charity stuff being shown on UKSB!
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Hi John.
SVG’s of Lion Rampant (and others) available on Wikipedia under Creative Commons Sharealike Licence.
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I know the ones you mean Paul. There’s a Saxo drives around Durham with them along the sides. Distorted kind of effect and the squares get thinner and thinner towards the back to give the fade effect.
Sorry I haven’t got exactly that but I do have the distorted chequered strip if that’s any help.
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The Advanced Artist plug in has resulted in numerous compliments from customers when I show them the designs.
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I’ll hold you to that Jill 😉
That looks a fantastic place to visit.
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Stephen – Martin has hit the nail on the head with the fish image. As someone who was carp fishing for a number of years I would have turned the car around if I’d seen the trout on the sign. If the customers lake is coarse/carp etc I would tailor your vector or bitmap to that.
Jill…I always love the way you work magic with those fonts.
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Roll 1 will measure the width then find the beginning of the vinyl and cut from there. Roll 2 will measure the width and cut from the point at which you set the vinyl in the machine.
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Not sure if it would be the same issue as you have Liam but we initially had a 5 metre usb extension cable from our CE500 – 60 into a hub – which had a half metre cable going into the back of the pc and we were getting crap cuts like you have described. We relocated the cutter and plugged it directly into the pc with a 2 metre cable and everything was resolved.
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Maybe try dropping the temp or baking time a fraction as an alternative Chris.
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I’ll try and get the link from Personal Computer World magazine Dave. Great article recently on A4 budget colour lasers. It got my interest because I’m looking at trying TTC 7.1. Amazingly the £99 Dell came out second best.
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Chris – the only times I’ve cut – rather than buy them – I’ve used Collegiate Black or Varsity.
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Hi Jill.
The manual for our CE5000 60 says 55.1 lb including the stand.
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Does the cutter show up within your printers in Control Panel Neil? And if so, when it’s turned on does it show as online?
Sounds like a possible connection problem with the usb cable – can you cut using any other software – even the basic stuff that came with your Graphtec?
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We do loads of polyester tracksuits for football clubs no problem but use pads to raise the printed area only. Unwanted parts of the garment can crease and don’t tend to disappear even after washing.
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Steve – you’ll get the Illustrator and Corel plugins on the disc with the Graphtec cutter. Once installed you use the Application Launcher icon in Corel to launch Cutting Master which sends the job directly to the Graphtec.
I installed the Roland Corel plugin for a friend on his machine last week to use with his GX24. Not entirely the same process though. Once the design is complete in Corel you click an icon on the toolbar which drops the job into Roland Cut Studio then cut from there. Works ok though.
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We run a CE5000-60 with Corel X3. Works a treat. I know some here feel Corel isn’t a dedicated sign software package but it does a fantastic job as far as I’m concerned.
If you shop around you should get plenty change out of your budget but try to avoid the academic/student etc version of Corel which doesn’t have the VB plugin.
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Carpet Right etc. They can’t get rid of their cores quick enough.
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Would you be inclined to do away with the felt then Chris. But maybe something else to protect the cutting strip?
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Nice walkthrough Kevin. Are you using peeled vinyl to act as the grip for your printed paper? I remember using the A4 carrier sheet when I had a Craft Robo many moons ago which worked well. One of the Robo forums suggested saving money and buying ordinary card and applying a low tack spray to use as the carrier sheet. I don’t see why this couldn’t be used with larger sheets in principle.
Graphtec phoned me shortly after the Sign Show and also explained a good process of doing contour cuts but using a strip of "fuzzy felt" over the top of the cutting strip. No carrier sheet was needed in that situation as the blade goes straight through the printed paper and into the felt. The only difference being that they described a different cutting condition for the contour so it had a greater force to cut right through the paper and another condition to give a "kiss cut" contour around the contour.
Very interesting stuff.
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You’re welcome Chris.
Andrew – as long as it has 50% or more polyester content you can print directly onto it without any spray etc. White/pastel colours preferably.
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Seriously Andrew. 100% polyester, automatic opening, red and white, black and white etc.
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Poundland
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quote Dave Rowland:i think we are on our 4th blade within 5 years
Yes but you never cut nowt Dave 😀
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quote James Martin:I bought a Graphtec almost three yrs ago and ok it was new but i’ve never even changed the blade and it comes with an opus eye as standard so you can have a go at contour cutting as well.
Bloody hell James. We did a t shirt cutting job recently (supply vinyl only) involving chrome silver, purple and red and the Graphtec blade wore out by the end of the weekend!
Good advice as above by everyone else Paul. Buy cheap and buy twice…or three times…or more in this industry. Save your hard earned and get a reputable brand. If the Craft Robo is too small maybe think about saving a bit more and going for the Robo Pro 40cm. But I guarantee you in no time you’ll wish you’d got yourself a 24” cutter.
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An extremely useful tool. Thanks for posting the link Neil.
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Ah yes, the infamous blob of ink on the corner of the paper! There’s not much you can do to remove it now it’s permanently in the fibres. I added an image over the top when it happened once to me. Looked quite good as it happens! Or just dump the t shirt, do another and chalk it up to experience.
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This sounds like it’s getting more technical than it needs to be. A push on the lever with a little bit of force is enough to gauge your pressure. As long as the mug is snug inside the heat jacket that should be enough. If you’re getting blow out due to inadequate pressure you’ll see it on the design. If it’s not that it’ll be cheap mugs that aren’t straight but usually you’ll see creasing on the paper afterwards.
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Are you sure about your returns comparing screen print to WOW Steve? For that volume I wouldn’t think twice about farming it out. Your customer doesn’t need to know who you used and what price you negotiated per garment.
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Emily – is your dye sub paper singed at all after pressing? And if so is it singed in the area where you’re getting blurring? If so, there’s your answer. At least it was with my current press. Turns out the temp reading was way off and I dropped it 30 degrees. No more singing, no more blurring.
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There was a reasonable thread on sub paper on another forum many months ago comparing the likes of trupix, texprint etc. One seemed to be better than the other for garments, the other better for ceramics etc. I think the clue might have been in the name – texture maybe for texprint although the last batch of paper I’ve had from Subli Supplies was texprint and works lovely on mugs. It might cost more Emily but I’m inclined to stick to the branded stuff for best results.
Have a look on the toolbar for dye sub suppliers and compare their prices on paper but don’t forget to factor in the shipping which is usually courier and higher priced than a bedroom industry on ebay. As with most things you do get what you pay for with dye sub supplies.
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Check the heat jacket inside your press Emily – does it have any signs of creasing? Our old one did exactly the same and I binned it but other people have got round the issue by using a silicon sheet in between the jacket and the mug. You’ll have to up your temp and dwelling time a bit to compensate though.
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I don’t bother with anything like that Neil. We just sell at £x for one side and £x for both sides. Price has been calculated with the cost of vinyl at 300 wide by 400 deep. Smaller graphics we obvioulsy benefit on but the bigger ones are already costed in using those dimensions to come to the price.
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There are a few different methods off the top of my head:
Screen Print – probably not economic for you for short runs.
Laser print
WOW Magic Touch
Kiss Cut (but really needs a dedicated printer and their own inks for best results)
Light inkjet transfer paperIf you’ve got a dye sub setup already could you not just supply your customer with sublimation bibs instead of cotton?
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Sounds like it might be similar to "Pony Coat" Louise – sublimation coating for cotton clothing. We got a bottle of the stuff to trial months ago. You brush it onto the garment, leave to dry then press your dye sub design over the top. Crap would be an understatement in my opinion. The coating left a permanent stain on the material and the image faded after 1 wash. Plus it only works on light colour clothing I’d stick with dye sub or look at better alternatives for cotton apparel.
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Tracey – if you’ve got a dye sub setup there’s plenty of 100% polyester blank men’s boxer shorts and ladies thongs available to print onto.
I’m sure I’d feel more comfortable in those rather than vinyl round me crown jewels 😳
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Lovely job Warren. Something I would love to aspire to one day.
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Why would you be remotely interested in Visual Basic Script Peter? Yet I’m sure with your background you know fine well what OEM means.
The amount of times I have referred to VBS in previous Corel posts, yet tonight you decide to pick my at my post about acronyms. Is it my turn to be belittled?
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I don’t think you need to concern yourself with VBS Peter.
OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer.
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Beware of the absence of VBS in academic/OEM. For me it would make the software worthless.
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My Cutting Master boots straight up as soon as it’s launched. Never had any problems with it being sluggish. Only got 2gb memory on the main PC but I do find Corel can hog resources a bit if I’ve had it running all day.
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I had this after buying my 5000 but over the months I’ve pretty much eliminated it. After setting the rollers etc I run off the length of vinyl I need plus an extra 500mm or so then feed it back through and "force" the vinyl down the gap between the back of the cutter and the roll. Also keep the vinyl nice and tidy as its being cut.
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Paul – we design almost everything in Corel and send to the Graphtec using the Cutting Master plug in. From previous posts some time back I know there are members who like and dislike Cutting Master but for me I find it a breeze. Allows me to do things like flip/reverse image, cut by colour, locate the artwork precisely so I can maximise cutting area on the vinyl etc.
Just watch which version of Corel you buy. OEM (and I think academic possibly) doesn’t have VBS support so won’t run the plug in.
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Trend Trophies. Killingworth, Tyne and Wear. 0191 268 2000
D & P Trophies. Washington, Tyne and Wear. 0191 417 9192
Glenway Trophies. Leicestershire. 0116 244 8131
The Glass Scribe (crystal glass supplier). 01349 867088
Also try Trophy and Engraving News monthly magazine.
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I’ve always found Pencarrie to be excellent. Not sure if things have changed with other wholesalers but carriage used to be per order rather than per carton if below £250.
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Graeme – I had a problem whereby the images were scorching. Turns out the temperature settings on my press were way out. After advice from Martin I dropped the idle temp to 90 and the cooking temp to 150. The mug goes in at 90 and the 3 minutes baking time doesn’t start until it hits 150. Perfect results following this tweak.
Maybe give that a try and see what happens.
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I originally looked at a combi press but after weeks of research was put off by the risk of a fault taking all functions down plus the lack of doing more than one thing at once.
If you’re looking at volume stuff my personal opinion would be to look at separate presses for each function. And buy the biggest platten you can within your budget otherwise you’ll be kicking yourself for not being able to heat press A3+ size.
If you’re going into the likes of volume mugs it might also be worth buying two mug presses. That way you can be taping one up whilst two are baking!
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Have you tried a head clean Lorraine? Any of your inks low? Using the correct profile?
Are you using Epson paper as in inkjet paper rather than texprint, truepix dye sub paper?
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Little ones for the likes of cd clocks etc? AA Plastics.
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quote Brian Hays:j/k about the German bit if any German’s are reading. 😉
Nice save.
No offence taken.
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We do adults and kids T Shirts at 195 for 55 seconds. Baby grows the same temp for 45 seconds.
I must admit I don’t bother putting anything between the garment. I’ve never experienced pass through with clothing. All I use is some silicon baking paper over the top of the print to protect the heat platten. Thing I found with teflon sheets is that once an image is ghosted onto them it carries the risk of transferring onto a subsequent item being pressed. Silicon baking paper by the 50m roll from the local wholesaler is about £10 and lasts a long time.
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Or remove the stitching process and use adhesive applique’s.
Better still, get hold of polyester baby grows. Cheap enough in bulk from Printer Owners. We’ve had some great feedback from customers about the softness of the material. Diversify with your designs and you should build a healthy market.
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After breaking apart in Corel could you not save as eps and import into Cut Studio?
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I can’t comment on Cut Studio Adele but in Corel create your contour (inside, outside or centre) to your required dimension – Window>Dockers>Contour (or Effects>Contour). Then Arrange>Break Contour Apart and cut from there.
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Nice design Aaron. What about adding contact numbers etc on the rear?
Also take on board previous advice. If you’re doing a run of these, screenprint has to be the way to go. We’ve just had an enquiry for 1000 T-Shirts this evening and told them the same thing. There’s no way I’m going to be weeding so much vinyl for the same margin a screenprint will give.
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As Harry says, when cutting really small letters we find a very sharp blade is needed.
Coincidentally we’ve just cut some small letters this morning for t shirts and the old blade was causing problems. New blade in it’s place and everything is now fine.
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Thanks everyone for your input.
Vinyl went on lovely after I’d layered both pieces before applying.
I’m convinced that the surface of the banana banner caused the problem with the second layer but it’s lesson learnt for the next time.
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Yes, I think you’ve got a point there Lynn. The more I think about it the more I believe it’s the banner surface that’s causing the problem.
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Thanks for that Paul.
I wonder if the 451 is a bit pickier about it’s application then…? Or maybe it’s the surface of the banana banner that’s contributing to the problem.
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what about pressing the reverse first Neil. Then flip over, apply your image and press again.
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I had exactly the same Colin. Norton picked it up on one machine and McAfee on the other. I removed them both from quarantine. Seem to recall this is a known issue on the Graphtec forums.
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I noticed some time ago that Home to Gifts sell them using ordinary desktop printers so it looks like they’d be ideal for short runs.
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Will do Dave. Should be online in the next hour.
And thanks for your input on that frame we discussed.
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Matthew.
Give Europoint a try (they’re on the toolbar). I didn’t want a credit account and Rob sorted this out with Isabel at their Glasgow branch for me. No problems at all.
Thanks for your help on that btw Rob.
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Isn’t Inkscape the vector program?
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Gimp.
Not you David…the program 😉
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Check your drop downs in Word to open files Paul. Towards or at the bottom there should be an option "Works 6 &7"
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quote John Wilson:You got the vinyl the right way round? i’m not saying your stupid but it is easily done 😎
Very easily 😳
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Owe you a pint Chris! Many thanks once again.
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Thank you very much John.
Could I be cheeky and ask for the word "Rallying" as well (without quotes)?
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You’re the man Chris!
Many thanks.
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I agree with John. Generally anything other than a solid colour and I’ll always cool/cold peel.
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If It’s just to remove the white background to begin with I would do what Warren suggests and use the magic wand tool but I’d drop the tolerance right down to select the white only then hit delete. Save as PSD or TIFF and open in Illustrator.
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Thanks for posting that Phill. Very useful indeed.
In these days of litigation etc is it worth taking it a step further and getting proof the customer received after care instructions? Perhaps signing a form and keeping a copy? Or am I being paranoid 😛
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Just an afterthought but check your pressure as well. Too little and the ink might be gassing possibly causing a ghosting effect. Are you using any type of protective sheet above and/or below the garment?
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Must admit I’ve never seen any ghosting on the ones we do. Would the quality of the garment have any influence?
We press ours at 195 for 50 seconds and as John says a gentle lift and swing away straight after. As the heat platten is swinging away I’m usually whipping the paper off with the other hand. Got the scars to prove it 😛
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Not so much dark material but there are pastel colours out there – green, blue etc which will make a welcome change from the standard white. We’ve done a few and they come out very nice – just need to select the artwork carefully if there’s a lot of white content in it.