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Weeding reflective

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
I just experienced weeding hell putting together a set of reflective graphics for an excavator. Printed on Oralite 5600, ordered from S365. There was quite a bit of lettering, nothing less than one inch tall, and weeding it all was very slow going. This material is so sticky there were strings of glue pulling up as I was weeding, I had to go back with a Q-tip dipped in remover to clean up all the vinyl before masking. Is this typical of all reflective vinyls or did I get an off batch?

Does anyone charge extra for weeding reflective material? This was "intricate weeding" as far as I'm concerned and will have a surcharge in the future. And absolutely no delicate or serif fonts, or letters smaller than one inch.
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
I will say, never seen glue strings come off 3m reflective. We definitely charge extra to weed it, probably adding between 25 and 50% as it's at least that much slower.
PS, never try to plot and weed the road sign reflective. It can be done, though you'll never fix any mistake if you mess up laying it. Plot and weed the opposite out of the background color and cover the reflective.
 
Black Star

Black Star

Not A New Member
gnubler said:
I just experienced weeding hell putting together a set of reflective graphics for an excavator. Printed on Oralite 5600, ordered from S365. There was quite a bit of lettering, nothing less than one inch tall, and weeding it all was very slow going. This material is so sticky there were strings of glue pulling up as I was weeding, I had to go back with a Q-tip dipped in remover to clean up all the vinyl before masking. Is this typical of all reflective vinyls or did I get an off batch?

Does anyone charge extra for weeding reflective material? This was "intricate weeding" as far as I'm concerned and will have a surcharge in the future. And absolutely no delicate or serif fonts, or letters smaller than one inch.
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I use Oralite 5600 and it does take extra time to weed but I don't remember ever seeing strings of glue.

If my customers are asking for reflective lettering, I try to deter them saying that reflective lettering on its own isn't worth the extra cost, especially when it is smaller lettering. If the background isn't reflective, the smaller reflective lettering won't be too noticeable.
 
Boudica

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
oh, I missed the part about the strings.... I've never had that, with any brand of reflective.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Boudica said:
Weeding reflective is just a bitch. Say no to the intricate stuff. Even nice big letters are a pain, as it tends to rip (even laminated) - so you have to go slow no matter what it is.
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It does rip easily, though maybe it depends on the brand. Looks like S365 does not laminate their reflective prints. I didn't have problems with tearing on this order, but the tack level of the adhesive was insane...dried out my skin and stripped off nail polish. Probably sticky enough to rip hair out too. New business model? The Sign Salon...We Rip & Strip. lol

The thought of removing reflective vinyl from vehicles sounds like a nightmare job. I quoted a removal & reinstall for a fleet of five trucks last year, all of their logos were reflective cut vinyl. For the removal I told them I couldn't provide a firm quote, just an hourly rate and however long it would take. Never heard from them again and I see their trucks around town still with the old graphics. Probably no one else wanted to touch that job either.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
JBurton said:
No problems? As in zero difference between reflective and plain ole vinyl? You can weed it just as quickly as 3m 7725 or 3630?
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I didn’t say it was the same as cast, but it weeds great for reflective. Just a little caution in the corners were it could tear.
We use a lot of reflective for fire trucks
 
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S

signheremd

New Member
You are supposed to weed reflective immediately after cutting as the adhesive tends to bond back with itself (on the other side of the cut). I have used Oralite 5600 and really like it. A few tips: make sure your cut weight is heavy enough to scar the wax paper, but not so heavy it cuts through the wax layer; be careful that the adhesive doesn't touch the unweeded part or weeded letters - a pain to separate again; Tape the reflective down before weeding so it doesn't move; make cuts between lines of text and weed one line at a time.

We do a fair number of firetrucks and I can say the 3M 680CR removable is awesome when you have to remove it. Costs a lot more, but great stuff. Nikkalite is the absolute worst to remove, even if it sticks to your table - 1/4" chips everywhere
 
M

MNT_Printhead

Working among the Corporate Lizard People
I use the 3m 680 for award plaques, most of the time if I apply it crooked I am able to remove it and reuse the plaque. I find it is a little harder to weed corners and when weeding a script font I have to slow down and take my time or it will tear.
 
D

DChorbowski

Pixel Pusher
signheremd said:
You are supposed to weed reflective immediately after cutting as the adhesive tends to bond back with itself (on the other side of the cut). I have used Oralite 5600 and really like it. A few tips: make sure your cut weight is heavy enough to scar the wax paper, but not so heavy it cuts through the wax layer; be careful that the adhesive doesn't touch the unweeded part or weeded letters - a pain to separate again; Tape the reflective down before weeding so it doesn't move; make cuts between lines of text and weed one line at a time.

We do a fair number of firetrucks and I can say the 3M 680CR removable is awesome when you have to remove it. Costs a lot more, but great stuff. Nikkalite is the absolute worst to remove, even if it sticks to your table - 1/4" chips everywhere
Click to expand...
We use 3M 680CR as well and do the same process of almost cutting through the backing paper. We do mainly program work for banks and go though rolls and rolls of this stuff. We add weed lines in when possible and try to weed as immediately after cutting as possible. Even with small stroked text, this works great for us.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
Like in post #12 I set my plotter to cut deeper than cast but not through carrier paper and set it up to cut lines around copy. Never had it take my nail polish off or the strands of glue either.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I hate weeding reflective. I like the Oralite better than Avery.

To remove, an eraser wheel is the way to go.
 
J

jimbug72

New Member
I'd guess a bad batch. We use 5600 and print/laminate it sometimes and I have never seen anything like what you describe with the adhesive. Sure, it can be difficult to week like others have described with the tearing issues but I've never seen strands of glue, or had to actually clean up adhesive afterwards.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Unless you have super heavy ink coverage or perhaps what they used to print on the reflective, you shouldn't have problems unless they used a very inferior grade of reflective and a very hot solvent which might've somewhat melted the adhesive.
 
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