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I have no idea what a vinyl cutter does and why everyone either wants one or already uses one. All I have is old silk screen equipment. What is this new technology?
Vinyl cutters - what's the big deal?
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New technology? vinyl cutters have been around for a lot of years, but I guess the advent of smaller cutters is fairly resent, but to answer your question a vinyl cutter will allow you to do a lot of different types of work from basic signage to vehicle graphics, teamed with a heat press you can do heat applied vinyl to decorate garments, totes, hats, etc.
Hope this helps.
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Sounds like I am way behind the times. Does anyone use wood frame silk screens anymore? That's all I have to work with. (30 year old company equipment and screens "fell" into my lap.) I know how to use all equipment, but have no $$ or customers to justify investing in anything new. I would love to sell all the stuff I have left. Lots of inks, screens, etc.
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I would love to do that! However, the web master has designated a minimum of 15 posts before I am allowed to advertise in the classifieds.
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3,420 Posts
Yep and welcoming newbies doesn't count.....LOL!
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Yes, I have used it. My experience in "shooting" a screen is very limited. Only done it once. Coating the screen with emulsion is a challenge. Had to do several screens just to get one decent enough to use. We still use a dark room, and a screen dryer to prep our screens. Get a load of this: after a screen is exposed on the light table we bag it into a doubled (black) 38 gallon trash bag, carry it outside and use the garden hose (with sprayer head) to rinse the screen!! No kidding.
We had a rinse out tank, but when we had to sell our building (hard times after 9/11/2001) and move into our detached garage - there was no way to hook up water to the tank.
We had a rinse out tank, but when we had to sell our building (hard times after 9/11/2001) and move into our detached garage - there was no way to hook up water to the tank.
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Yes, I realize "welcoming newbies" doesn't apply.
I don't do that.
I don't do that.
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3,420 Posts
Well your at 8 posts a few more replies to this thread and you'll be there....so what type of press do you have? how many station? auto or manual?
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IYF Graphics - I saw a post two days ago that you had changed your avatar. Joined the Family?!
Glad to hear it. Anyway - my husband wants to keep the little 1 station, 4 color floor stand t-shirt press (30 year old thing, my guess) to keep printing his work shirts. (He has a small construction crew - fixing old houses and building new ones.) We have a couple of customers who keep coming back for us to print their company tees, as well.
We still have the old and sturdy (steel frame) vinyl press and UV ink dryer, which we used for printing bumper stickers. I quit printing the novelty stickers when our customer base (truck stops) dropped to 3. I gave away our last custom print job last fall because I was back in graduate school - just didn't have the time to mess with it. We no longer need the 16' tunnel dryer - can use the flash cure unit for the small jobs we do. A few other pieces are related to our original packaging for the novelty tees (L-sealer machine and shrink wrap tunnel).
Glad to hear it. Anyway - my husband wants to keep the little 1 station, 4 color floor stand t-shirt press (30 year old thing, my guess) to keep printing his work shirts. (He has a small construction crew - fixing old houses and building new ones.) We have a couple of customers who keep coming back for us to print their company tees, as well.
We still have the old and sturdy (steel frame) vinyl press and UV ink dryer, which we used for printing bumper stickers. I quit printing the novelty stickers when our customer base (truck stops) dropped to 3. I gave away our last custom print job last fall because I was back in graduate school - just didn't have the time to mess with it. We no longer need the 16' tunnel dryer - can use the flash cure unit for the small jobs we do. A few other pieces are related to our original packaging for the novelty tees (L-sealer machine and shrink wrap tunnel).
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LOL! yeah, I recently acquired the black shirt for 1000 posts and my old avatar had a white background, just didn't look right on the black shirt.
Good idea, not only save a little money on his work shirts but a little extra on the small jobs.
Yeah with the advent of solvent ink vinyl printer/cutters I would guess the vinyl press would be out-dated?
Should be a market for the tunnel dryer, natural gas fired I'd suppose?
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Actually, the tunnel dryer is electric. Runs on 330, but can be adjusted to operate on 220. It is huge and heavy, and we don't want to have to move it when we sell the house we are currently living in. As for the vinyl press - may have to give it away to someone willing to come move it. Weighs a ton! (Well, maybe only half a ton).
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