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To seam or not to seam

S

scarface

Guest
Well, I have 2 4x8' substrates to cover in a laminated print and i am thinking about printing it off in 2 sections per 4x8 area since my machine is only 30".

Another option would be to print the lettering, contour cut it and apply. Either way it doesn't matter but i have never seamed anything like this before.

The design is just lettering with a thick outline but it's covering about 80% of the 4x8' area so that's why i'm printing it since it would save the cost of buying the vinyl materials.

Any thoughts?
 
iSign

iSign

New Member
if the background color is easy to match & you can roll out a nice coat of paint, I would generally consider that a superior approach. Well, now that I think of it, you said substrate, but didn't specify... maybe paint wouldn't be a good idea for everything, but I would use pre-primed 1/2" MDO for around $60... scuff sand lightly, wipe off sanding dust with paint thinner on a rag, & use a tack cloth right before painting.

With $2 worth of 1-shot paint, (& a $2 foam roller cover) you can roll out a beautiful coat of paint in 10 or 15 minutes... I'd let that sit 2 or 3 days & meanwhile prep the lettering. For a sign that just has lettering with an outline, printing & cutting has a few advantages over seaming a full 4x8 couple of prints.

First, large background colors (except white) will often show a bit of banding, so I like to avoid that when I can by painting the MDO & cutting the lettering. Second, if one of the letter colors can be colored vinyl (preferably the letter itself) & only the other color (like maybe the outline) has to be printed, then you get longer lasting color.

Also, if you don't have a lot of colors of vinyl, buying rolls when a job is paying for it is a good way to expand your choices for the future, so registering 2 separate colors of cut vinyl is still a good skill to bust out even when you own a printer!
 
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