Learn me vinyl printing cutting

Long story short I bought a vinyl cutter printer on craigslist not working for 50.00. Guy said he got home from Arizona and it didn't turn on. Well apparently while he was gone someone took apart his cutter to clean it and forgot to plug the power supply back in pinch in the fuses. Its a pnc 5000 color camm. So I took it apart to take a look and fixed it. well now I have a vinyl cutter printer/plotter and no idea how to use it. I would like to learn all I can and where to get software to make this thing work. Are there any sign guys in here that can help. Also the last one of these went on eBay for 700. Should I just sell it before I get too involved?

You definitely should use before you sell it. Not only can you use it to make vinyl stickers, you can also use it to make paint stencils, so if you want to paint a logo / text on a car, you cut out a reverse of it and spray over it. Some interesting possibilities there.

I don't know anything about the program / drivers, but to make best use out of it you will likely want a program similar to Adobe Illustrator to create artwork for it. I am guessing you define the artwork and also define a cutting path, both of which can probably be taken in as an EPS file (which Illustrator exports).

Oh, I will most likely use it for challenge car art.

I hate this thread.... now i'm trolling Craigslist for a vinyl cutter.

well looks like torrent time. Unless anyone else knows where to get a really old version of corel draw.

I used to use SignCut, now I just use the Roland software that came with my plotter and an illustrator plug-in.

I get most of my supplies from Sign Warehouse, what they don't have I get off Ebay from a few Ebay stores. Be aware that the quality of vinyl from Ebay is usually really poor, its chinese stuff. Fine for indoor use, temp use, small stuff, or freebies, but not great outdoors.

The hardest part to learn is the proper setup and technique. I am self-taught and I am sure I do some things wrong, but overall, its pretty easy.

xd wrote: well looks like torrent time. Unless anyone else knows where to get a really old version of corel draw.

How old?

I bought an old Graphtec and love being able to do this stuff myself. Just think of the plotter as a printer. It just cuts outlines instead of printing. Software is vital. Basically there is no cheap shortcut. You're either going to get lucky and find an obsolete program with the dongle or whatever security, or you'll pirate something that's been hacked and cracked. The software and the machine may be old, so get comfortable interfacing parallel to usb and getting a program made for Win95 to work in Win7. Fun stuff like that. Then plan to spend some time learning how to set up the plotter. Things like depth of cut, force on the knife, number of repeat cuts (to get a clean cut), speed of cutting. It's a lot of trial and error.

You'll need vinyl. Vinyl is a two layer construction of a cast vinyl with adhesive on the back on a backing release liner. I am a huge fan of Fellers. Easy to set up an account and look legit. Lots of warehouses where you can pick up vinyl to save on shipping. Shinerite is the Fellers house economy brand. I use it but I prefer Oracal 651. When you feel both you'll understand. Go to Fellers.com, click on the searchable catalog, then pg 40 and 41.

Your machine will dictate the width and if you need punched paper or not. If you have a friction drive, you can use either punched or unpunched, no matter. A 10yd roll is beyond plenty. I think the last time I bought, it was $17 for a 15" wide by 10 yard roll.

After you cut the numbers (or whatever) you'll need application tape. This goes over the top of the graphic. This allows the release liner to be peeled away and keep the registration of the lettering. You'll then place the graphic against the car and peel the application tape off. There are a number of app tapes. I prefer TransferRite (pg 105) as a good middle of the road tape.

That should get you started. Have fun!

Thanks guys. its a friction feed and I found the manual in the bottom of the box. I would order from that fellers place but I am in such an all fired hurry to use it I'm going to midwest sign and supply tomorrow morning at 8 am. I also found an old copy of coral draw for sale. I cant freaking wait so pumped. I love having summers off.

Thanks guys. its a friction feed and I found the manual in the bottom of the box. I would order from that fellers place but I am in such an all fired hurry to use it I'm going to midwest sign and supply tomorrow morning at 8 am. I also found an old copy of coral draw for sale. I cant freaking wait so pumped. I love having summers off.

Thanks guys. its a friction feed and I found the manual in the bottom of the box. I would order from that fellers place but I am in such an all fired hurry to use it I'm going to midwest sign and supply tomorrow morning at 8 am. I also found an old copy of coral draw for sale. I cant freaking wait so pumped. I love having summers off.

You really are excited.

If you want a project to test it out I have some decals I want printed.

I would like some number "3" white reflective door numbers if anyone wants the job?

So I got the vinyl and corel draw version 6. this is complicated as all hell is there a tutorial on using this stuff or is it a figure it out as you go situation?

Well I got it to work I just need to work on depth. I am using ink something and sign cut. I know its out dated but hell its cool to me. here is the first one I did. I just need to work on depth.

I will just add this to my back log of useless skills.

xd wrote: Well I got it to work I just need to work on depth. I am using ink something and sign cut. I know its out dated but hell its cool to me. here is the first one I did. I just need to work on depth. I will just add this to my back log of useless skills.

"That's Hedley!"

Sooo... How much you want for it?

Those cutouts are because I'm an idiot and was reprinting on E36 M3 I already cut but I will look for a weld function. "not for sale" this thing is gonna come in handy as hell. The neighbor wants me to make him a banner for the flea market. I told him if he buys all the stuff I could try and figure it out. Hedi is my dogs name.

I need to find a cheap source of transfer tape since the vinyl shop only sells it in 50 feet rolls for 60.00 and I don't think I will need that much is that stuff any good off eBay?

Wow, another topical canoe. go away.

back again?