Alu sticker repro run

[gyruss]

Too bad you have to cut them manually, but they still look great. 

Off topic question: Do you think this company will be able to print the front art of my Pleiades cab on Vinyl?

[Etienne MacGyver]

Absolutely

they can even print it straight on the wood if you take the panel out..

that printer can handle materials untill 5 CM thick !

his motto, as long as it fits under the printer i can print on it 

[level42]

Very cool report Etienne !!!

Too bad about the cutting....that's a lot of extra work !!!

[Superully]

wow, etienne, what an effort! unfortunately, your effort will have to be even bigger now that you have decided to cut the stickers manually. is the material really so thick that a normal cutting knife can't cut through it?

as for the rounded edges, i always use a tool like this - works like a charm and produces perfectly round edges with the desired curve!

[Etienne MacGyver]

wow, etienne, what an effort! unfortunately, your effort will have to be even bigger now that you have decided to cut the stickers manually. is the material really so thick that a normal cutting knife can't cut through it?

as for the rounded edges, i always use a tool like this - works like a charm and produces perfectly round edges with the desired curve!

its not the thickness, because its very thin, its the metal to metal that dull's the knive.
we tried also with a utility knive, and if we hold the angle too high it gives jaggered cuts, i'd say the level needs to be like 15 degrees to have a straight cut with a utility knive... so yeah, i need to practice on my "extra" sheet..

as for the other tool, i never saw that before, is that like a punchpress or something ?

[Superully]

as for the other tool, i never saw that before, is that like a punchpress or something ?

basically, it's like a hole puncher for paper, only that it rounds the edges. there are cheap variations and more expensive ones, but if the material is not too thick the cheap one (probably CCC) will do. i've rounded a couple of edges so far (for example the williams sticker on my moon patrol) and it just works / looks great!

[Etienne MacGyver]

that sounds like i got a solution afterall  for my corner problem....

Thanks for the tip !
I will investigate that !

[level42]

Wow great tip...never seen those..

[Belike]

Great and interesting report, it was nice to see those beasts working.
Too bad about cutting, but I guess everything will be fine at the end.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Found a nice vid of the printer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh_6czj3m_Q

[Etienne MacGyver]

Absolutely
they can even print it straight on the wood if you take the panel out..
that printer can handle materials untill 5 CM thick !
his motto, as long as it fits under the printer i can print on it 

gives me an idea...  maybe print the sidearts of my CKong on that printer is better than a decal.... 

[gyruss]

Absolutely

they can even print it straight on the wood if you take the panel out..

that printer can handle materials untill 5 CM thick !

his motto, as long as it fits under the printer i can print on it 

Cool, but i'll leave the wood in place. 

[Etienne MacGyver]

Yesterday i took the sheets out of the package to experiment a bit with cutting.
I took the faulty sheet with me from the printers to practice, in that way i will not destroy this: 




I tried various techniques; a utility knive, a rolcutter and ordinary scissors..




While testing, i tried to salvage some stickers from the failed testsheet..
some of you may recognise the "Jamma Pinout Sticker".  




The rolcutter and the ordinary scissors give the best results.
The utility knive suffers from the same effect as the CNC cutting machine, so the theory of the printerguy was totally right!




So that will be the way to go from here, first cut them to the size that they can fit under the rolcutter,
and to get a good straight cut as a finish, im going to use the rolcutter.
The rounded corners where nessecary, i will probably do with the tool that Ully tipped us about.

There goes the rest of the restsheet...  bye bye testsheet  



Now i need some "quiet time" to cut the rest of the sheets, since the material is delecate, it needs my full concentration..  

Ow, and one more test, i shot a video while cutting with scissors, and a "smudge test"..
It does not smudge, its rock solid !, so thats a very good thing !  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gmZS7wNJjE

[Mickey_Moose]

There are also handheld rotary cutters that are used by seamtrists: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/category.jsp?_DARGS=/joann/catalog/productdetailleftnav.jsp.9_A&_DAV=&_dynSessConf=-5988426301512097489&narrowSelection=false&categoryURL=true&CATID=cat393855&supercatId=cat1760

But I found that it is also best to use the mat for it as well.

[asteroidsNut]

Awesome job on the printing. As for cutting, humn we have laser cutters here that would work. See if you can find a laser cutter. I'll see if I can get a name and a model number of the one here at a friends shop.