Got stuck making a pile of small decals for a good customer.He's a large account so I will have to put up with making these.Lots of small letters.I was using oracal but weeding was a nightmare,so out of frustration I grabbed some 3M 220 series.Worked great but cost prohibitve.Anybody know of a good cheap vinyl with better weeding qualities?
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Would your client accept printed decals? I hate weeding such tiny stuff no matter what vinyl I use.
For me, the solution is to print them with my Edge onto clear vinyl and then either square-cut them or do an offset contour cut. It comes out cheaper for the customer, I have less of a headache, and I actually make more profit.
Just a thought.
Posted by Steven Defibaugh (Member # 2814) on :
Printed?I wish he would but he is stuck on cut decals.He's in the classic automotive retail business and won't change his mind.These are small window decals that advertise his business.I just finished making 300 sets for a big show this weekend.I saw below about rounded corners and I'm going to try and clean up the sharp points on all the letters and see if this will help.Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.Steve
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Well, if you are doing 300 of them at a time, I'd farm them out to somebody like Stouse. That way you can mark them up 30 or 40% and make good money without the headache.
Posted by Corey Wine (Member # 1640) on :
You can try Avery A5 vinyl. I also use a vinyl called PMF.
Why not cut your image with a ox around it, apply the whole image to your window or such and then weed out the undesirables.
Just my .02 cents.
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
I'm with Glenn. Farm it out to Stouse or there is another place called C.O.B. Decals, I think!
Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
I can't see how any vinyl could be too expensive for small decals, seems to me most of your cost will be the labour. You'll get over 120 2x3 decals out of a yard of 24" vinyl, if the vinyl costs 2.50/ yd that works out to .02 cents per decal, if it costs $10.00 /yd it's still costs only .08 per decal. If the 3m vinyl does the job best, then use that.
Posted by Mark Matyjakowski (Member # 294) on :
In general I like the way the Oracal weeds ... the small stuffsucks any way you look at it (especialy with the intermediates) try this (a colection of tips I've picked up here)... 1-the round corners is good idea 2-weed out just the insides of letters 3-heat the vinyl a bit with a hair dryer just to shrink it a little 4-mask with a high tack masking (not weeded yet) 5-flip over and tape masking tight to table 6-remove backing paper and set aside (save) 7-weed away ... the high tac masking will hold the letters in place better than the backing paper 8- replace backing paper
if you have trouble weeding full sheets, cut lines between copy lines somewhere around step 2
works well for me
Posted by LEE ATTEWELL (Member # 2407) on :
I'm with Mark here...Definately the best way for me to weed small annoying bloody letters.
