posted
OK you guys might have known of these for years, but here they are: I was at the sign supply place, telling the guy there how I needed to finish these 10 signs, each one with a 3/4" border. So he suggested buying a 5 yd roll of the same color as the letters, then having him slit it on their slitter machine into 3/4" rolls. It cost 15 bucks for the labor, but saved me time. In his book "How to Swim with Sharks, and not be eaten alive" Harvey McKay says:"If you have a problem that you can buy your way out of, you don't have a problem, you have an expense."
As I was applying the vinyl "tape", I noticed sometimes I had more difficulty getting the vinyl started off the liner. So as I was cutting the "tape" to length, I started tilting the scissors at an angle, so that the vinyl hung off the edge of the liner (in a microscopic sense). Made it consistantly easier.
BTW, the slitter left a cleaner cut on one edge of the vinyl than the other.
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
You paid him $15 rather than running it on your own plotter?
P
-------------------- Pierre St.Marie Stmariegraphics Kalispell,Mt www.stmariegraphics.com ------------------ Plan on knowing everything before I die and time's running out! Posts: 4223 | From: Kalispell,Mt 59903 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
It's been my experience that using cut rolls to size for borders or what have you is much easier to handle than cutting the strips via plotter. Especially if you use them alot and the stripes have to be very long and premasked to boot.
I find it more price efficient to order ready cut rolls from 3M (scotchcal) or Prostripe, both usually available from an automotive parts place. As most of you know, Prostripe has the same colors as Avery vinyl, not hard to match up if need be.
To also make the precut stripes smaller yet, if you look in the back of a Sparcal color chart , there's a range of small slitters you can purchase. They work fantastic as long as you keep the blade flawlessly sharp. I'd offer part numbers etc if I could, however I no longer have the 'outdated in Canada' charts.
Here's a small tip that I've come across in the past couple days..
I do alot of striping on firetrucks, and commonly have to somehow join a lower stripe and a higher one with an angle stripe. I apply one side, then to capture that same 'angle', I hold a piece of paper along the top of the horizontal stripe, then fold the edge up to follow the angle of the angled stripe. Easy to translate that same angle on the other side without alot of measuring.
posted
I also use custom slit rolls for boarders and strips. Tip: when I'm having trouble separating the vinyl from the backing, I just put a small bit of masking tape on the vinyl and some on the back of the baking and pull apart, works great.
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