Discuss the various aspects of heat pressed vinyl transfers. Popular and new types of vinyl media, suppliers, vinyl cutters /plotters, press times, quality, how to instructions and more can be found in this heat press sub forum.
Well John showed up today to do our set up and training on the machine.......and what a good time we had......he went over ever necessary detail to make sure we are on the right track...took the time to show the wife some short cuts in X3 and stayed til 9pm to make sure we were on line and solid.....we printed and cut...3 decent sized decals for a race car.....4 pictures for a in memory of shirt for a funeral tom.....and pressed them on the shirts......and printed a huge decal for our front door...all came out awesome!!!!....so thanks to Josh Ellsworth for gettin John out there.....he had a 5 hour plus drive!...one way !....and still made sure we got it all done!
Imprintables warehouse is now tops on our list.....
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The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Well I installed our logo on the front door this morning...applied wet...UGH....never again....too many bubbles....oh well good practice...I'll get a pic soon and post....it was printed at 300 dpi...came out great!
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The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Ronnie.. I learned on my first attemp of applying digital prints to not do them wet.. .. I remember the frustration of that day well.. and it was a 3 foot by 5 foot print.. .. But This is how we learn..
I have a method i now use for applying printed that is usually bubble free.. If you would like some pointers let me know..
I would be happy to help.. (as someone who was in tears the day i did that big print, with frustration)..
Ronnie.. I learned on my first attemp of applying digital prints to not do them wet.. .. I remember the frustration of that day well.. and it was a 3 foot by 5 foot print.. .. But This is how we learn..
I have a method i now use for applying printed that is usually bubble free.. If you would like some pointers let me know..
I would be happy to help.. (as someone who was in tears the day i did that big print, with frustration)..
hugs and have fun
sue
Pointers....oh yes....throw me a ton of pointers....Eric(JPD) has thrown me a toon of websites to visit....but first hand experience is priceless!....I feel guilty cause we didnt even use it today.....for the lease it costs 24.88 a day to sit there....so I need to do at least one shirt or decal a day....LOL
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The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Ronnie.. If you dont have outside jobs.. use the time to practice with printing things for yourself.. Design some banners and hang them in your shop.. do some stickers and practice getting the cutting lines down pat.. make a design board of differant stickers..
One idea we have done is we have some we have made for electricans and plumbers where they can write the date and put it on the equipment they work on.. we actually have sold a ton of them to differant companies.. So do like a fake mock up of something like that..
We have alot of stickers on a sheet of styrene that sits on our counter where people can see examples of things..
Posters are great to do.. we have even done some where we print them on vinyl and just hang them like posters.. It really pays to show customers the quality that the machine will print at..
As for laying the digital prints.... two things that I have at my shop that i couldnt do without are.. felt squeegies and these things called Big squeegee;s Big Squeegee Laminating Tools
To lay a digital print with a felt squeegie.. this is what I do..
I take the print and on one edge of it I put a 2 inch wide piece of clear application tape (this just helps to make that edge a bit firmer)
I turn the print over and peel back like 2 inches of the backing paper from that edge. I then position that edge on what ever im gonna lay the print onto (glass, vehicle, signboard what ever) . I stick that edge down in position and make sure its straignt and flat with no bubbles.. I then use the felt squeegee to press the print onto the surface going back and forth on the print as the backing paper unrolls from the back ( I hope this makes sence) Sometimes you have to put your hand under the print and help the backing start up peeling. The point is to be pressing it down smoothly as the backing paper comes off..
If that donest make any sence let me know and ill take pictures lol.. Its kinda hard to explain i guess..
as to the big squeegee from that site if you look around the site there are alot of videos of prints and laminates being applied..
hope this helps.. and again let me know if you want pictures of this process..
all this wonderful talk of the versacamm has really made an impact on my decision to purchase one. unfortunately my budget will only allow me to get the SP-300, but it's a start!!!
As for laying the digital prints.... two things that I have at my shop that i couldnt do without are.. felt squeegies and these things called Big squeegee;s Big Squeegee Laminating Tools
To lay a digital print with a felt squeegie.. this is what I do..
I take the print and on one edge of it I put a 2 inch wide piece of clear application tape (this just helps to make that edge a bit firmer)
I turn the print over and peel back like 2 inches of the backing paper from that edge. I then position that edge on what ever im gonna lay the print onto (glass, vehicle, signboard what ever) . I stick that edge down in position and make sure its straignt and flat with no bubbles.. I then use the felt squeegee to press the print onto the surface going back and forth on the print as the backing paper unrolls from the back ( I hope this makes sence) Sometimes you have to put your hand under the print and help the backing start up peeling. The point is to be pressing it down smoothly as the backing paper comes off..
If that donest make any sence let me know and ill take pictures lol.. Its kinda hard to explain i guess..
as to the big squeegee from that site if you look around the site there are alot of videos of prints and laminates being applied..
hope this helps.. and again let me know if you want pictures of this process..
I kind of get the descrition.....one question...is this lamed or just straight from the machine...thus the felt squeege......????
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The beatings will continue until morale improves!
If you look at the some of the video clips on the big sqeegee site you can get a better idea of what i mean by letting the backing roll off as you lay the print..
Our Salesman and Tech from Ordway is facinated by watching me apply digi prints with the big squeegee.. I can lay a say 3' x 5' print in less than 2 mins without bubbles with that thing.. It has to be one of the best investments we have made at our shop.
As for why a felt squeegee.. I never use a hard squeegee on digi prints if they are lamed or not.. I just find its much easier to lay them without bubbles and nice with a felt one..
the hard squeegies are jsut a whole differant feel and dont lay the prints as nice.. If the print isnt lammed there is no way you could do it nice with a hard squeegee without scratching up the print.. unless you were to tape it..
I never use transfer tape when i lay digi prints.. dont need to when i do it my way and saves both time and material.
If you look at the some of the video clips on the big sqeegee site you can get a better idea of what i mean by letting the backing roll off as you lay the print..
Our Salesman and Tech from Ordway is facinated by watching me apply digi prints with the big squeegee.. I can lay a say 3' x 5' print in less than 2 mins without bubbles with that thing.. It has to be one of the best investments we have made at our shop.
As for why a felt squeegee.. I never use a hard squeegee on digi prints if they are lamed or not.. I just find its much easier to lay them without bubbles and nice with a felt one..
the hard squeegies are jsut a whole differant feel and dont lay the prints as nice.. If the print isnt lammed there is no way you could do it nice with a hard squeegee without scratching up the print.. unless you were to tape it..
I never use transfer tape when i lay digi prints.. dont need to when i do it my way and saves both time and material.
Ya....it's gonna be a learning curve....the wfie wants me to wrap my F350 crew cab dually....my 44ft enclosed race car trailer...and my drag car...all before our big race March 8-10th un Bakersfield to get the word out....don't see that happening....LOL.......dream big to make it big right?...LOL.....thanks for the info!
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The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Roland VP540 up and running !!!!!! 
