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I am looking for opinions and ideas to present to my boss.
I teach custom paint & graphics at an automotive technical college. I just started here last fall as an instructor, then the director of the program up and quit after I was only there for three weeks. So now I am acting director. One of the reasons that they hired me was that I could teach everything from pinstriping to digital graphics. That takes me to the point of the topic, the school needs to purchase a vinyl printer and cutter. After talking to a few reps and watching posts on this forum for a while, I thought something like a Roland Versacam would be a good way to break into the field. Right now the whole program is only twelve weeks and includes custom painting (candies, pearls, marbleizers, etc.), several weeks of airbrush, pinstriping, lettering/layout, gold leaf, pictorials, etc. Since we don't have much time to devote to this I cannot justify spending thirty grand on equipment that will be used somewhat sparingly at first.
The school will be using this for in-house work such as wrapping several of our own vehicles, banners, posters, even making our own labels and such.
Thanks in advance.
-------------------- Rick Heller Ohio Technical College 1374 E. 51st Street Cleveland, OH 44103 IOAFS Posts: 210 | From: Cleveland, OH | Registered: Nov 2001
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The school in our town has purchased a Versacam for the same purpose. We hired one of their students to work with ours. It's a great machine. You will need to consider what to do as far as a laminate. For most applications you won't need one, but if you do vehicle graphics you have to laminate.
Call some of your local sign shops to see what they prefer your students be trained on as far as software. We use Illustrator, Corel X4, and Photoshop.
Tony
-------------------- Tony Baggett A Plus Sign & Digital Graphics Ozark/Branson/Springfield, Mo Posts: 7 | From: Ozark, Missouri | Registered: Jun 2006
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I know what you're dealing with Richard, as far as justifying spending a lot of money for a piece of equipment that won't be used much. Unfortunately, that's what's going to be required at this point in time.
You have alternatives. You can search for other brands which will be less expensive;there are quite a few. Remember, although most any will do a decent job, you get what you pay for. Or, you can look for a used unit. Or you could explore working with a local sign operation that has a printer.....taking students there for training, paying the shop for time spent.....help them and save the school money until budget allows. Good luck.
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