Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Jason .... please do not follow LV's advice .... he's yanking your chain. :signs101:
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NEWBIE... just bought Corel Draw 12
- Thread starter jasondrummer98
- Start date
Scott Reynolds
New Member
Chain? It was his leg...... but really, plug it in and dunk it in water, that will fix it.....
jasondrummer98
New Member
I actually did buy the cutter new... but EVERYONE in their support team is japaneses or chinese and speaks broken english... plus the are from Canada... which makes it worse....
I honestly wouldn't have bought this thing if there were decent graphics guys around here... there are mainly sign guys who think they know what looks good on a race car... which is mainly a very bland 2 color lettering job... then charge you $500... I'd pay that if I felt it was a $500 job.. i've seen alot of the work people have posted on this site and it makes the stuff around here look like a kid with a magic marker did it...
I was pointing out that I didn't buy it to go into business to show I wasn't trying to go into competition with anyone. It's only for personal use.
I honestly wouldn't have bought this thing if there were decent graphics guys around here... there are mainly sign guys who think they know what looks good on a race car... which is mainly a very bland 2 color lettering job... then charge you $500... I'd pay that if I felt it was a $500 job.. i've seen alot of the work people have posted on this site and it makes the stuff around here look like a kid with a magic marker did it...
I was pointing out that I didn't buy it to go into business to show I wasn't trying to go into competition with anyone. It's only for personal use.
Scott Reynolds
New Member
Everyone here knows what your doing wrong........ but if I called chevy and said give me the codes to unlock my computer in my 2004 truck, over the phone, for free, they would tell me to go pound sand.
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Jason, there are two issues at play here.
1. You weren't happy with what you felt you would get from a job planned by any of the locals you know about. This is called creative control. You could have resolved that as an issue by just purchasing CorelDraw and creating your own layouts, select a sign company and have them produce and install the graphics.
2. You weren't happy with what the price was for the installed job. You could have cut out the installation portion of the cost of the job by ordering RTA vinyls (Ready-to-Apply) from most local sign companies and any number of jobbers and out of town sign companies.
Had you done both these things, you would have no problem finding jobbers for a cost of around $4 a square foot for your designs and you doing the install. Pretty good coverage with overlays and such would probably come out to 50 square feet or so ... which translates to $200 in RTA from your designs and with you doing the installs.
No plotter to buy and get working, no vinyl and transfer tape to inventory, no mistakes to eat or time wasted. Just a $350 purchase of CorelDraw.
1. You weren't happy with what you felt you would get from a job planned by any of the locals you know about. This is called creative control. You could have resolved that as an issue by just purchasing CorelDraw and creating your own layouts, select a sign company and have them produce and install the graphics.
2. You weren't happy with what the price was for the installed job. You could have cut out the installation portion of the cost of the job by ordering RTA vinyls (Ready-to-Apply) from most local sign companies and any number of jobbers and out of town sign companies.
Had you done both these things, you would have no problem finding jobbers for a cost of around $4 a square foot for your designs and you doing the install. Pretty good coverage with overlays and such would probably come out to 50 square feet or so ... which translates to $200 in RTA from your designs and with you doing the installs.
No plotter to buy and get working, no vinyl and transfer tape to inventory, no mistakes to eat or time wasted. Just a $350 purchase of CorelDraw.
OldPaint
New Member
the lowest price plotter is just like buying the lowest priced motor parts for your race engine.....(i got 15 yrs workin for NAPA, i know good motor parts, the store i worked at had the biggest machine shop in the area and built many race motors and the guy i worked for used to build race motors for paul newman)so if you can return this plotter.....get you $1795.00 back, return corel draw $200.
now you got $2000. ive done many race cars...with a brush and vinyl(paint is my favorite)call me and i will cut your numbers for $4 sq. per color. meaing you want a 20" tall number x 24" wide will cost you $16 each....now you want a shadow for the number it will be another $16 and if you want a single line seperation color it will add a another $16 so a 3 coloered number will cost you $48 each!!!
3 numbers will be $144 dollars.... you apply them. now hows that sound? for the $2000 i can cut weed, tape, and send you enough vinyl to do about 10 cars......you got that many?
the trailer now might take a lot more ....all i need is how high how wide...you deal with rivits, screws, pop rivits, creases and all other sheet etal irregularities.
if you dont want to do this ....still return that chineseplotter....find a ROLAND CM-24 $1500 BRAND NEW has printer port and com port connection.....keep your corel and cut right from it after you learn it. your choice....look here on ebay.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46741&item=3876591761&rd=1 notice the "interface" serial or com......this will do anything you chinese cutter will do....plus cut from corel.
now you got $2000. ive done many race cars...with a brush and vinyl(paint is my favorite)call me and i will cut your numbers for $4 sq. per color. meaing you want a 20" tall number x 24" wide will cost you $16 each....now you want a shadow for the number it will be another $16 and if you want a single line seperation color it will add a another $16 so a 3 coloered number will cost you $48 each!!!
3 numbers will be $144 dollars.... you apply them. now hows that sound? for the $2000 i can cut weed, tape, and send you enough vinyl to do about 10 cars......you got that many?
the trailer now might take a lot more ....all i need is how high how wide...you deal with rivits, screws, pop rivits, creases and all other sheet etal irregularities.
if you dont want to do this ....still return that chineseplotter....find a ROLAND CM-24 $1500 BRAND NEW has printer port and com port connection.....keep your corel and cut right from it after you learn it. your choice....look here on ebay.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46741&item=3876591761&rd=1 notice the "interface" serial or com......this will do anything you chinese cutter will do....plus cut from corel.
TerryStolmeier
New Member
I'm sorry if this is off topic... but I about fell out of my chair with the advice LV gave. The second one was a great kicker!
LV - If you really do have a 2004 Chev with trouble codes, get ahold of me and I'll get you the information. I have access to pretty much any GM service documentation.
Jason - If you really want to still do this, I'd suggest returning the plotter and picking up one that supports USB. May I suggest Summa?
LV - If you really do have a 2004 Chev with trouble codes, get ahold of me and I'll get you the information. I have access to pretty much any GM service documentation.
Jason - If you really want to still do this, I'd suggest returning the plotter and picking up one that supports USB. May I suggest Summa?
jasondrummer98
New Member
Thanks for everyones advice.... I actually finally got my cutter working by the ole theory of if something doesn't work right... press a bunch of buttons till it does... and what do you know... it works fine now... believe it or not after a bit of adjusting it cuts very nicely... I also cussed at it and its Chinese/Canadian makers... it might not have helped make it work.. but made me feel better... although i'm still not sure what i clicked on or off to make it work.. ha ha
Graphic Language
New Member
Hey Jason... don't let 'em get you down... We actually have one of these cutters. We take it with us when we go mobile (I don't want to risk screwing up an expensive cutter at a dusty MX track) and it's works fine with a USB to serial adapter (although we don't use the one that they sell with it). We use a USB-to-Serial with a Toshiba Laptop and WinXP Home SP2.
Believe me, I know how it is to deal with the people that sell it... we had a cutter go bad on us (it would quit picking up the blade between cuts) and the hoops we had to jump through to get it replaced were insane... I won't be dealing with them anymore.
Dunno if this is what you tried, but the USB to serial adapter will make a comx port (not sure what your adapter will be com3 com4 com5 etc). You then need to configure your software to send it's output to that com port. If your software won't support the serial port it picks (some don't like serial ports above com4) you will have to go into the Hardware Device Manager and play with the adapter settings and get it to take a lower com port number.
As for cutting from Corel.. I've done it, but it's not the best solution... IIRC, we used a Windows Graphtec CE1000 driver for it (I may be wrong as it's been a while)... not the problem here is that that cutter defaults to starting on teh right side.. but this Corel/Graphtec driver cuts from the left... you can set it to home the cutting head to the left, but I can't find a way to make it remember that (if you reset it, turn it off or unplug it, it'll return back to homing on the right). We do our design work in Corel, export to eps and then import into the software that came with it.
Ya, it's kind of a cheap cutter and others are much better with beter features, but ours has paid foritself a few times over now and keeps our other cutter back in the shop.
Bryce
Believe me, I know how it is to deal with the people that sell it... we had a cutter go bad on us (it would quit picking up the blade between cuts) and the hoops we had to jump through to get it replaced were insane... I won't be dealing with them anymore.
Dunno if this is what you tried, but the USB to serial adapter will make a comx port (not sure what your adapter will be com3 com4 com5 etc). You then need to configure your software to send it's output to that com port. If your software won't support the serial port it picks (some don't like serial ports above com4) you will have to go into the Hardware Device Manager and play with the adapter settings and get it to take a lower com port number.
As for cutting from Corel.. I've done it, but it's not the best solution... IIRC, we used a Windows Graphtec CE1000 driver for it (I may be wrong as it's been a while)... not the problem here is that that cutter defaults to starting on teh right side.. but this Corel/Graphtec driver cuts from the left... you can set it to home the cutting head to the left, but I can't find a way to make it remember that (if you reset it, turn it off or unplug it, it'll return back to homing on the right). We do our design work in Corel, export to eps and then import into the software that came with it.
Ya, it's kind of a cheap cutter and others are much better with beter features, but ours has paid foritself a few times over now and keeps our other cutter back in the shop.
Bryce
I'm not sure where some of you are located but in a small community such as the one I live in The following quote is very true.
(I honestly wouldn't have bought this thing if there were decent graphics guys around here... there are mainly sign guys who think they know what looks good on a race car... which is mainly a very bland 2 color lettering job... then charge you $500... I'd pay that if I felt it was a $500 job.. i've seen alot of the work people have posted on this site and it makes the stuff around here look like a kid with a magic marker did it... )
There may be only 2 or 3 choices for vinyl graphics, and they are so covered up in signs that they are not interested in doing a race car or charge an arm and a leg for a very poor job. How about paying $130 for 3 number 9's, single color white, 20" x 22" each, cash and cary, done in oracle 651. This is the reason I decided to look into it. I do realize now that I will need at least a couple more years and some training before I even think about trying to do it professionaly.
I wonder why some sign makers get so defensive and disturbed about a guy wanting to do a couple of race cars a year when the guys around here don't want anything to do with them?
(I honestly wouldn't have bought this thing if there were decent graphics guys around here... there are mainly sign guys who think they know what looks good on a race car... which is mainly a very bland 2 color lettering job... then charge you $500... I'd pay that if I felt it was a $500 job.. i've seen alot of the work people have posted on this site and it makes the stuff around here look like a kid with a magic marker did it... )
There may be only 2 or 3 choices for vinyl graphics, and they are so covered up in signs that they are not interested in doing a race car or charge an arm and a leg for a very poor job. How about paying $130 for 3 number 9's, single color white, 20" x 22" each, cash and cary, done in oracle 651. This is the reason I decided to look into it. I do realize now that I will need at least a couple more years and some training before I even think about trying to do it professionaly.
I wonder why some sign makers get so defensive and disturbed about a guy wanting to do a couple of race cars a year when the guys around here don't want anything to do with them?
OldPaint
New Member
defensive? well you aint in florida....we got mothers, grandfathers, wifes, uncles, inlaws & outlaws....all doin VINLY GRAPHICS FOR RACE CARS.....and givin the work away just to get thier name on the race car!!! there is my gripe.
i had a shop on the main drag to our local 1/2 mile asphalt track.
i put a banner out on the road: STOCK CARS LETTERED HAND PAINTED $125.00!!!!!! and got no takers...so dont tell me how stock car guys want to spend money for lettering.....THEY DONT!!! and the excuse that no sign guys want to do your car OR CHARGE YOU A LOT OF MONEY... aint the reason either. i been at this for most of my life, ive seen the day when guys where happy to get their cars lettered in 2 weeks ....from the time they called me, till i did it. they were glad to pay me...now i will agree with you that most dont do good work on stock cars...BUT ITS YOUR WALLET that limits my ARTISTIC CAPABILITIES!!!!!! and you getting a plotter and cuttin your own letters....just adds more people with a plotter.....just to save themselfs some money and without some talent, your wont look any better then those you say do crappy work!.....and like i said before you cant letter a stock car in 3 numbers, 3 colors, and 2 sponsors BIG LETTERS in vinyl.....i dont care who you are.....and do it as fast as i do FOR $125.00 IN 3-4 HOURS tops with my little old brush.....and 30 years of painting experiance!!!!!!!!
was i too defensive?????
i had a shop on the main drag to our local 1/2 mile asphalt track.
i put a banner out on the road: STOCK CARS LETTERED HAND PAINTED $125.00!!!!!! and got no takers...so dont tell me how stock car guys want to spend money for lettering.....THEY DONT!!! and the excuse that no sign guys want to do your car OR CHARGE YOU A LOT OF MONEY... aint the reason either. i been at this for most of my life, ive seen the day when guys where happy to get their cars lettered in 2 weeks ....from the time they called me, till i did it. they were glad to pay me...now i will agree with you that most dont do good work on stock cars...BUT ITS YOUR WALLET that limits my ARTISTIC CAPABILITIES!!!!!! and you getting a plotter and cuttin your own letters....just adds more people with a plotter.....just to save themselfs some money and without some talent, your wont look any better then those you say do crappy work!.....and like i said before you cant letter a stock car in 3 numbers, 3 colors, and 2 sponsors BIG LETTERS in vinyl.....i dont care who you are.....and do it as fast as i do FOR $125.00 IN 3-4 HOURS tops with my little old brush.....and 30 years of painting experiance!!!!!!!!
was i too defensive?????
If you were in my town, from now till May you could not get ten minuites to yourself if you offered that deal. I would have been first in line, and most people would be more than happy to wait two weeks I know I would.
(i had a shop on the main drag to our local 1/2 mile asphalt track.
i put a banner out on the road: STOCK CARS LETTERED HAND PAINTED $125.00!!!!!! and got no takers...so dont tell me how stock car guys want to spend money for lettering.....THEY DONT!!!)
This quote is 100% B.S. stock car guys are more than happy to spend money for lettering if someone will do the job and do it right. You a have your tire kickers and lowlifes as well as anything else but for a majority that spend all year and a ton of money on their cars this is a drop in the bucket. I agree that hand lettering is a real art, and one I hope to learn. I'm sure you do great work I was not questioning that.
Another thing to consider is alot of racers want more than one set of graphics to take with them. Kind of hard to take a set with you when they are painted.
I also have no intention of giving away lettering to (get my name on a car) anyone. If I was looking to save money by buying a plotter would I have spent $6000 so far and counting and signed up for spring classes at my local community college? I know I am not much good now but I am learning every day and hope to get to the point someday that some of you are. I will be in need of a career change soon and decided that I won't work for someone else again and need a job I enjoy ,I enjoy this very much and know I'll make it.
I guess you'd have to see the work the 2 or 3 local guys are putting out and the prices they are charging to understand. If you'd like I'll e mail some pictures of friends cars that look like crap and spent good money to look that way. You'd have a hard time arguing the fact that we don't need someone to do a better job for us lowlife racers after seeing the pictures.
What's the dig at Outlaw about? or is that some kind of inside joke.
(i had a shop on the main drag to our local 1/2 mile asphalt track.
i put a banner out on the road: STOCK CARS LETTERED HAND PAINTED $125.00!!!!!! and got no takers...so dont tell me how stock car guys want to spend money for lettering.....THEY DONT!!!)
This quote is 100% B.S. stock car guys are more than happy to spend money for lettering if someone will do the job and do it right. You a have your tire kickers and lowlifes as well as anything else but for a majority that spend all year and a ton of money on their cars this is a drop in the bucket. I agree that hand lettering is a real art, and one I hope to learn. I'm sure you do great work I was not questioning that.
Another thing to consider is alot of racers want more than one set of graphics to take with them. Kind of hard to take a set with you when they are painted.
I also have no intention of giving away lettering to (get my name on a car) anyone. If I was looking to save money by buying a plotter would I have spent $6000 so far and counting and signed up for spring classes at my local community college? I know I am not much good now but I am learning every day and hope to get to the point someday that some of you are. I will be in need of a career change soon and decided that I won't work for someone else again and need a job I enjoy ,I enjoy this very much and know I'll make it.
I guess you'd have to see the work the 2 or 3 local guys are putting out and the prices they are charging to understand. If you'd like I'll e mail some pictures of friends cars that look like crap and spent good money to look that way. You'd have a hard time arguing the fact that we don't need someone to do a better job for us lowlife racers after seeing the pictures.
What's the dig at Outlaw about? or is that some kind of inside joke.
OldPaint
New Member
no dig at outlaw....it just fits with inlaw/outlaws...jokingly..
i will say this when i was PAINTING STOCK CARS.. i never had one person stiff me or try to beat me down on price. now i will give most "serious" racers that. i also stated in one of my other posts..."ibought my 2nd plotter from a HOOTERS CUP race car owner/driver. as for having extra lettering, yea the vinyl is good for that but yiu touch vinyl with a tire....and its destroyed...paint, you just hit it with a little more paint...and you good to go.
i had one clent that ran 70's camero bodies....for 3 cars in 3 differant classes....and they where all lettered the same....and he would get replacement panels....and i would have em lettered so all they did was replace a panel.
i will say this when i was PAINTING STOCK CARS.. i never had one person stiff me or try to beat me down on price. now i will give most "serious" racers that. i also stated in one of my other posts..."ibought my 2nd plotter from a HOOTERS CUP race car owner/driver. as for having extra lettering, yea the vinyl is good for that but yiu touch vinyl with a tire....and its destroyed...paint, you just hit it with a little more paint...and you good to go.
i had one clent that ran 70's camero bodies....for 3 cars in 3 differant classes....and they where all lettered the same....and he would get replacement panels....and i would have em lettered so all they did was replace a panel.
Techman
New Member
RAcers come in classes. The Sprint, legacy, pro stockers and other higher end vehicles have money and will want a better job. All others are low ballers and will use finger paitns if it will save them money..
As far as a software solution.
Dont waste your money or time on signtools. This is one for amatures.
Get Cocut which is a plugin for corel. Cocut is NOT a bridge program. There wil be no import or export of any file to cut it. Just click on the icon and away you go. Get teh demo and see for yourself just how good it is. Corel and cocut ( about $400 bux) used will do anything you wil ever need for cutting vinyl. This wil have you up and runnign without all those gyrations of learning how to cut straight from corel.
tech.
As far as a software solution.
Dont waste your money or time on signtools. This is one for amatures.
Get Cocut which is a plugin for corel. Cocut is NOT a bridge program. There wil be no import or export of any file to cut it. Just click on the icon and away you go. Get teh demo and see for yourself just how good it is. Corel and cocut ( about $400 bux) used will do anything you wil ever need for cutting vinyl. This wil have you up and runnign without all those gyrations of learning how to cut straight from corel.
tech.
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
jimdes
New Member
CoCut is a decent plug-in if you can't figure out how to cut from corel but it wasn't for me. CoCut did nothing that I couldn't already do on my own except that it may have saved a little time. The time it saved was negligable for me so I chose not to use it any longer.
Set your plotter as your default printer.
Give evary object you wish to cut an outline with a "hairline" thickness.
Set the outline to black
"Print" - will open up print dialogue box
Set your plotter parameters, position vinyl
"Print" - will cut this time
Set your plotter as your default printer.
Give evary object you wish to cut an outline with a "hairline" thickness.
Set the outline to black
"Print" - will open up print dialogue box
Set your plotter parameters, position vinyl
"Print" - will cut this time
Cadmn
New Member
M8 first problem I never believe geeks on call or geek squad as they are mostly book trained & as you said they had not a clue at first they are taught how to sell parts . sorry if this offends any one but I have seen it tooo many times & laptops are laptops & I hate working on them you could probably pick up a cheap desktop at a pawn shop or goodwill has a computer store here in fw but then use the usb to network & use desktop only as printer server from lappy your cable was sold as being a usb to serial convertor ? or is it usb to parallel?
I would contact cable manufacturer because obviously its not workin for you I got old compaq armada 300 MHZ to run my embroidery machine My roland runs Parallel takes special cable says roland to run serial Maybe I helped Hope I didnt confuse you more just really be careful using the geek anything You'll be buying stuff you dont need hard drives are their speciality
I would contact cable manufacturer because obviously its not workin for you I got old compaq armada 300 MHZ to run my embroidery machine My roland runs Parallel takes special cable says roland to run serial Maybe I helped Hope I didnt confuse you more just really be careful using the geek anything You'll be buying stuff you dont need hard drives are their speciality