3m's quality...is it going downhill?

[gabagoo]

I like using 3M 2 ml vinyls very much, but lately it seems that when I purchase anything outside of white there is so much modeling on the vinyl it begs the question....what happened to quality? I have a 24" roll of Olympic blue that I am cutting up into stripes for a van and the top 4 or 5 inches looks matte!!! I know it will go away, but not before my customer sees it and I dont think it should be my problem when we pay premium prices for the stuff.

Having said that the efin piece just ran off the rollers and jammed up ^%$&^* now I be short. Shoulda stayed home today......its one of those days

 

[Jillbeans]

I have had that look before on vinyl.
I can't remember which brand but I only use Oracal, 3M, and Arlon.
Someone told me that if you hit it lightly with heat from a hair dryer after application that the mottling will go away.
I was really mad at some Oracal 851 Pure Orange last week, which was really hard to separate from the backing paper. I know it wasn't a blade depth problem because the other Oracal I cut at the same time was fine.
The job took easily 2X as long as it should have.
Love....Jill

 

[SignManiac]

Jill you might have gotten a really old roll of vinyl that is way past its prime?

 

[gabagoo]

Jill you are correct apply heat and it goes away..... but that is not the point. They charge me premium prices for their products and this is the way they ship them out from the factory. In any case I sent my girl back to replace it with 48" and low and behold more modeling on the 48" roll...and they gave it to me for free.

As far as your deep cuts...I have been having this issue for the last 2 months ever since I replaced a blade. I am not sure if it is the blade or the cutter because some areas weed great and others...well they weed ok but then when you are releasing the backing paper it rips and comes away with the graphics. It can be a major nuisance indeed. I think my problem is this blade and Iam waiting for one I ordered 2 weeks ago to arrive.

 

[Malkin]

I had that problem on the 3M/FDC 7125 series vinyl. They said something about plasticizers migrating to the surface or something like that. I've mostly switched back to the 220 series and it's better, though does happen some.

 

[Dave Drane]

It is annoying when you pay up for quality and get otherwise. 3M are probably using their good name to try to get by, but I do believe the quality is customer driven by vinyl jockies. I still can't find a application tape that used to be as thick as it once was, and the only way to get vinyl straight down without bubbles is to use a decent thickness app tape. Just try doubling up on the app tape and see the difference how the finish looks.

 

[vinylbarry]

I got a roll of oracal 751 black and it had the same problem and its cast vinyl paying the big bucks seems not always as good as it use to be.
I also got a roll of 851 that had same issue before.
Jill if the vinyl as stated above is older it will have that problem I use N-Glantz alot and they date there boxes of oracal with rec. date and I like that I can tell how old the vinyl is and ever roll I get from them is pretty new some has been date like 3 days before I get it.

 

[gabagoo]

so anyways I cut my striping out of this 48" roll and the modeling is on one end and I see while weeding away the stripes, at the top end there are these strange patterns in the vinyl. I look close and it looks like something was dripping on it as it was being processed and smearing from moving. I peeled it back and these strange globule shapes are shiny on the back and have no adhesive on them... That is a quality issue. This is 220 2ml.
I am going to have a long talk with my rep about this.