Need Help Easier way of Weeding vinyl(machine or toll) ?

[MadSilence]

Hi guys!


I've been working with my hobby vinyl shop for some years now. And I keep thinking there must be an easier way to remove excess vinyl from the backing paper.

I've seen products like the weeder sheeter: Welcome to WEEDER SHEETER.com! and the super expensive automated machine (forgot its name)


You guys. When you work with vinyl. is there any good tool you would recommend? I am willing to pay for a good tool. some thousand bucks but not in the 100k line i see these machines go for:S


Also! What vinyl is best (for home, vehicles etc) Currently using Oracal 651 because of the OK price we get here.

any advice would be of great help!

 

[TammieH]

Are you laboring to remove excess vinyl? You said this is a hobby, I wouldn't think you would have a lot of weeding...we weed everything by hand and we do a lot of weeding at this 2 person shop. My guess if you are having problems, you do not have your plotter set up well.

 

[bannertime]

Orcal 651 will work fine, for flat surfaces, on vehicles, but 751 would be better.

We've been primarily a vinyl shop for over 20 years, and have always weeded by hand. Doesn't matter if it's 48in letters or a wall of half inch text. All by hand. The only one we've even remotely considered was the Weeder Sheeter thing, but I'm sure one could be made for about half the price.

We've saved our self some frustration by using weed boxes and cut lines to split up large groups of text or break a complex graphic in half.

 

[Snydo]

Orcal 651 will work fine, for flat surfaces, on vehicles, but 751 would be better.

We've been primarily a vinyl shop for over 20 years, and have always weeded by hand. Doesn't matter if it's 48in letters or a wall of half inch text. All by hand. The only one we've even remotely considered was the Weeder Sheeter thing, but I'm sure one could be made for about half the price.

We've saved our self some frustration by using weed boxes and cut lines to split up large groups of text or break a complex graphic in half.

751 is considerably more expensive but it weeds much better when dealing with intricate designs and it will hold up much longer.

 

[James Burke]

Ditto on the weed borders.

And when it's cut correctly, vinyl weeds like a dream. It's dang near the cheapest therapy you can find.


JB

 

[bob]

Weeding could conceivably be done by algorithm. Perhaps a machine using the odd/even inside/outside spiral method. Which, by the way, is often the same way you do it with small and complex objects. Still it's far more a judgement job than not. Once someone gets the hang of it the task it becomes quite easy and very fast. That you feel you need a machine is prima facie evidence that you haven't put in sufficient time to master the art.

 

[rjssigns]

3M Electrocut with the poly backer works a treat for complex cuts/weeding. It also works great with the "manic weeding" method. Grab a corner, pull it back over itself and RIP! You may lose a few pieces, but I always make extras anyway.

For weeding out the insides of letters or shapes a pin tool or super fine tweezers are the ticket. I prefer tweezers for most jobs.

 

[bannertime]

751 is considerably more expensive but it weeds much better when dealing with intricate designs and it will hold up much longer.

It is, but it's almost always available in 10yd rolls. I've even got a supplier that will give me material by the yard. If you sell/price it correctly, it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

[gabagoo]

3M Electrocut with the poly backer works a treat for complex cuts/weeding. It also works great with the "manic weeding" method. Grab a corner, pull it back over itself and RIP! You may lose a few pieces, but I always make extras anyway.

For weeding out the insides of letters or shapes a pin tool or super fine tweezers are the ticket. I prefer tweezers for most jobs.

I use this quite a lot for certain jobs...but beware that you should be using high tac pre mask and also don't allow customers to order more than they need as over time the vinyl will not come off the backing synthetic liner at all. trust me I have learned the hard way...had 50 complex logos returned and not one of them would release...now mind you the stuff was sitting on the customers shelf for almost a year. I actually removed all the premask and reapplied high tac and it still would not release...in the end I tossed them all and recut everything, but i warn customers that they can't sit for more than a month, although I am not really sure just how long they can sit.

 

[Msrae]

751 is considerably more expensive but it weeds much better when dealing with intricate designs and it will hold up much longer.

I actually find 651 weeds easier than the cast with smaller/intricate designs.

As far as weeding, I started with a low budged plotter and moved up to the Graphtec several years ago - The weeding became 100x easier with a good plotter.

There are numerous weeding tools out there for hand weeding. 90% of the time I turn to the weeding tool from Siser - it has a soft/rubber red handle and a curved pointed tip. It works great for getting the smaller inside areas.

 

[TGL]

I've been cutting vinyl graphics for 30 years, starting off and sticking with 3M Scotchcal HP due to it being literally the only HP adhesive that hasn't failed somewhere over the years. Most of my work for just as long has been to a sign shop customer, so there are 2 reputations involved should problems arise. Granted, Oracal HP is one (in case of best color match) I have yet to try, but still, at this stage of the game 3M is my vinyl & I'm stickin' to it. (No, I don't own stock, or have friends/relatives who work for 3M.)

My first plotter was a Signmaker IVB, which came with a classy weeding tool. One day the thing literally flew apart & after an hour of frustration trying to find the dang spring, I went to a ceramics store and bought a few of those (wood & metal in those days, not plastic) pointed and curved scraper/cleaning tools. Work perfectly - still using them.

 

[equippaint]

Weed it by hand? Its the monkey work part of the job unless youre doing 100s of the same exact thing at a time every day. I take the centers of the O and 0s and use it to pick the other inside stuff off the As etc. Its fast and was doing it when I was 7 yrs old. i weed left to right on numbers and right to left on letter dunno what everyone else does. With all due respect, you do have to work a little and theres no easy solution to everything. You can buy the 100k weeding machine and youll spend 40 hours setting it up to weed each job just to avoid menial work. Noone likes it but it is what it is and if it was any easier thered be no more sign companies.

 

[decalman]

My problem isn't weeding, it's trimming the excess paper along the edges of a masked graphic with a sicsors, I guess you need a table plotter for that. $$ kaching

 

[bob]

My problem isn't weeding, it's trimming the excess paper along the edges of a masked graphic with a sicsors, I guess you need a table plotter for that. $$ kaching

First, always cut a bounding rectangle around whatever else you're cutting. It gives you a line to cut around the image. Then use a knife, not scissors. If you've never painted signs then you'll need to teach yourself how to pull a line. Just put the knife onto the the masked image with your arm stuck out in front of you and and pull it towards you, walking back as needs be. It's a trivial skill and once you get the hang of it, you can trim a masked image just as fast as you can pull a knife.

 

[bigblocktrader]

Just use a 10 year old

 

[Snydo]

My problem isn't weeding, it's trimming the excess paper along the edges of a masked graphic with a sicsors, I guess you need a table plotter for that. $$ kaching

A good slide cutter works great for trimming down pieces, makes it easy to keep everything nice and square.

 

[chartle]

My problem isn't weeding, it's trimming the excess paper along the edges of a masked graphic with a sicsors, I guess you need a table plotter for that. $$ kaching

I bought the cheep long scissors from Harbor Freight, about $4.00 as sort of a joke. They are my best scissors. The long length makes them very easy to "steer".

 

[chartle]

As for weeding I find all the colors of 651 easy to weed except white. I like to use a #11 xxcto blade with the tip worn down or broken off a bit.

 

[bigblocktrader]

A good slide cutter works great for trimming down pieces, makes it easy to keep everything nice and square.

this ebay $280 36'' rotatrim master cut mine should be here 12/22

 

[Msrae]

I bought the cheep long scissors from Harbor Freight, about $4.00 as sort of a joke. They are my best scissors. The long length makes them very easy to "steer".

This^^ I love the Harbor Freight extra long scissors. I use them all the time.