Learned my lesson, Which cast digital vinyl?

[HulkSmash]

apparently it's the same stuff, but just labeled differently. I switched to Avery for about 6 months.. LOVED how it installs.. the stuff is just inconsistent...It never failed.. but i got so many contaminated rolls... and their lam was muddy alot of the time.. i couldn't deal with the inconsistency so i switched back to 3m. The new oracle that came out last month is really appealing. I used some on Friday for a test again.. the stuff is amazing. Not to mention that the shelf life is 2 years, and it says 7 years without lam... now that's impressive. Apparently the ink will fail before the vinyl .

 

[john1]

I really am not sure what i should get now.

Looks like if i go with any oracals the thin backing to the laminate will be a pain with my big squeegee, the others since they are cast will weed like crap on print/cut jobs.

Isn't there a vinyl i can get that is overal great for everything and is cast? I can't justify stocking a vinyl for this and a vinyl for that right now which is why i thought a cast vinyl would be the answer to something that's workable for pretty much any jobs that comes along (rivets, flat signs, print/cut graphics)

 

[Custom_Grafx]

John,

If you want to weed small things... you just need a cast that doesn't have air release/easy apply.

I'm pretty sure Jason above already mentioned an Avery that is like that.

I know it's expensive and not appealing to stock polymeric and cast, but having both is the best way to go.

You're going to waste a lot of money using cast on flat panel jobs that really don't need cast.

I use avery for my polymerics (I don't mind 3M but my suppliers here are always in/out of stock and I can't do business if I suddenly can't get a roll which happened a few times). Other times, they sent me bad stock coz it's all they had. Avery supply here is abundant and fresh for whatever reason, so I use it for polymeric. MPI2000 and DOL 2000. Good products honestly, always print and lam great and customers always say how good it looks.

For the cast stuff though, mainly due to customer demand, I have only ever used 3M 180 and 380, and they are both incredibly good materials which even without trying Avery, I can imagine are very hard to beat in terms of quality and consistency. The gloss on the cast lam I use with the 180, I'm sure others will agree, is bloody beautiful, and the adhesive is a pleasure to work with, and man can it conform!!! (esp the 380cv3!!!).

Just my opinion, but I would stock polymeric and cast if I were you.

Edit: there is an avery cast that doesn't have easy apply which I think Jason was referring to. My supplier lists it as Avery "MPI1005 Supercast Gloss Opaque LTR" (note the absence of the term "Easy Apply" in its name).