Tintguy1980

First sign of a water streak left, either under the film or on it's surface.

My vote goes to too much soap.
 
Trial and error will lead one to a good mix ratio. Slip solution should be mixed to allow positioning as well as allow for position lock down with the first squeegee stroke. Any slipperier, the risk for movement during lock down squeegee pass, sudsing streaks under the film, and potential contaminants from the pattern bumping into edges. 

Try Fellers They are worldwide if not mistaken, sign warehouse, uscutter 

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

Technical Explanation: It's about Physics. The rigid nature of the film being unable to bend in tight spaces, combined with the height of each dot, does not allow long term adhesion to the glass between each dot. Rather you get a suspension of the film over the glass spaces, causing it to have this silvery appearance. This can be demonstrated at your peel board by removing liner from a small film sample and hold it in close proximity to the glass surface to show how it has a similar silvery appearance (almost like looking at dual pane or triple pane glass from the outside of a home's window). Now, dry stick the film to the glass and show what the film looks like when adhering to the glass surface.
 
 
 

You wheel err will need one of these contraptions. https://www.amazon.com/Preame-Mechanical-Length-Counter-Rolling/dp/B01ISL8LDA/ref=sr_1_8/140-4376012-1159527?ie=UTF8&qid=1520976648&sr=8-8&keywords=distance+counter
 
That is, if you're a handy man and can build a system of two horizontal bars; one to hold the feed roll and the other with the ability to crank the receiving core. Each horizontal bar need have end caps to mount the full core and the other an empty core. One end cap would always be stationary, the other adjusts along your horizontal bar for loading and unloading. Adjustable end cap needs a set screw to lock in place for the winding process. The counter would be mounted in such a fashion that you would lower it onto the feed roll.
 
Or you can mount the counter in such a way on your table top that you are able to put in place and pull film under it.
 
Good luck.
 
Edit: Don't use a plotter since the pinch wheel pressure imprints the film, making those area unusable for install.

Technical Explanation: It's about Physics. The rigid nature of the film being unable to bend in tight spaces, combined with the height of each dot, does not allow long term adhesion to the glass between each dot. Rather you get a suspension of the film over the glass spaces, causing it to have this silvery appearance. This can be demonstrated at your peel board by removing liner from a small film sample and hold it in close proximity to the glass surface to show how it has a similar silvery appearance (almost like looking at dual pane or triple pane glass from the outside of a home's window). Now, dry stick the film to the glass and show what the film looks like when adhering to the glass surface.
 
 
 

Technical Explanation: It's about Physics. The rigid nature of the film being unable to bend in tight spaces, combined with the height of each dot, does not allow long term adhesion to the glass between each dot. Rather you get a suspension of the film over the glass spaces, causing it to have this silvery appearance. This can be demonstrated at your peel board by removing liner from a small film sample and hold it in close proximity to the glass surface to show how it has a similar silvery appearance (almost like looking at dual pane or triple pane glass from the outside of a home's window). Now, dry stick the film to the glass and show what the film looks like when adhering to the glass surface.
 
 
 

Technical Explanation: It's about Physics. The rigid nature of the film being unable to bend in tight spaces, combined with the height of each dot, does not allow long term adhesion to the glass between each dot. Rather you get a suspension of the film over the glass spaces, causing it to have this silvery appearance. This can be demonstrated at your peel board by removing liner from a small film sample and hold it in close proximity to the glass surface to show how it has a similar silvery appearance (almost like looking at dual pane or triple pane glass from the outside of a home's window). Now, dry stick the film to the glass and show what the film looks like when adhering to the glass surface.
 
 
 

I explain it to my customer before hand so there's no questions at the end.

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

All else fails order a new sign ... "We Fix the Neighbor's Tint Job''.

Found a couple more pics from my film art days. Me, Lee and Donna went to a Insulfilm gathering in Orlando around 1985 and took away first place in automotive custom art and flat glass art (the butter flies) with the Blazer BG. The other is entry doors I did at a rock radio station in Estero FL in the early 90's. All hand cut. Found them buried on my FB photo collection.
 
 

This issue is the same as what has been found on GM's auto glass for years. The older the car, the more obvious or notable it is. My theory is it comes from the type rub rail they use. High in hydrocarbons and rubbing the glass as it's rolled up and down for years transfers an invisible coat of hydrocarbon to the glass surface.
 
Best way to clear this type thing up is to get some Zaino Brothers Z-12 glass polish (zainostore.come) or a like product and polish the glass a couple times over before taking on the cleaning procedure.
 
There are also anti-fog coatings auto glass makers have been putting out for a few years now on higher end cars that produce a similar effect; water beading and less slip of the film material. I've seen this coating on Lexus cars and Toyota Land Cruiser. It is a coating that creates a high energy flux when (humidity) moisture in the air is high enough to trigger the repel action it is design to produce. If you succeed in getting film to stick to this type coating, the coating will reject the bond. Sometimes this repel process will destroy the coating itself. Making way for the second install to stick like it's suppose to. You can remove these anti-fog coatings using Z-12 as well.

This issue is the same as what has been found on GM's auto glass for years. The older the car, the more obvious or notable it is. My theory is it comes from the type rub rail they use. High in hydrocarbons and rubbing the glass as it's rolled up and down for years transfers an invisible coat of hydrocarbon to the glass surface.
 
Best way to clear this type thing up is to get some Zaino Brothers Z-12 glass polish (zainostore.come) or a like product and polish the glass a couple times over before taking on the cleaning procedure.
 
There are also anti-fog coatings auto glass makers have been putting out for a few years now on higher end cars that produce a similar effect; water beading and less slip of the film material. I've seen this coating on Lexus cars and Toyota Land Cruiser. It is a coating that creates a high energy flux when (humidity) moisture in the air is high enough to trigger the repel action it is design to produce. If you succeed in getting film to stick to this type coating, the coating will reject the bond. Sometimes this repel process will destroy the coating itself. Making way for the second install to stick like it's suppose to. You can remove these anti-fog coatings using Z-12 as well.

My system kept me from having to hire another a tinter. There are two of us and we get along. Every tinter that comes in does 10 cars a day, perfect, and never misses a day of work. The reality is they cry after 3, all of them come back, and they miss more days than they work. Dealing with tinters gets old, and even as a 1 man show like this week with my help out with pneumonia, it’s been a godsend as I am able to keep up with our appointments being in 2 places at once with the cutter. I’ve been using precision cut pretty consistently since 2010-2011 and I can say it’s pretty rare that something is completely awful with patterns. We’ve adjusted our installs to the patterns though, so maybe that helps versus those who think the patterns should adjust to their style, no matter how ridiculous it is. 
 
I’ll leave it at this. If precision cut costs you the equivalent of 1-2 tint jobs a month, the flip side at least for me is that it’s allowed the two of us to do 2-3 more jobs a day with greater consistency, less waste and less frustration. I will never complain about a couple hundred a month if it means an extra $10,000 a month. 

If you have peanuts try the Rike way to form. I have watched @Ryker several times and when you finish the film looks like it is just out of the box with absolutely no distortion. Improper shrinking can cause them for sure

From time to time we make custom meters for customers.(Each original iPhone 1 display cover glass was tested on our equipment, and still to this day) The "White LED" meters were a custom application for a single client in Japan. They had a car manufacturer trying a new glass with custom additives which create a spectral response unlike any glass previously made. The manufacturer decided that the added cost was not justified so they cancelled the project. All meters shipped worldwide use the same green Led. Hope this helps.
 
If anyone wishes to discuss this more, email me at Ed@laser-Labs.com
(Can't believe iI've been designing Tint Meters for almost 30 years! Getting old!)
 
Ed Marcin
CEO
Laser Labs

No one will get in trouble! 
The difference in reading between green and white LED's is very small, within the margin of error. Thats why meters are spec'ed at +_2%.  Remember also that White LED's are made using blue and yellow orange led chips(depends on LED. Think of the LED bulbs for your house, warm white, cool white etc. with all sorts of varying spectral outputs. The green color of the LED, when chosen properly, is 550nm and is a physical constant of the material used to make the LED)The reason for green goes why back to the 80's when it was in some states laws. It allows you to contest the meter reading in court and use any readily available spectrophotometer to take a comparison measurement(labs, university etc all have lots of them.) Years ago early meters used an incandescent bulb(actually a tail light bulb) as the source. Trouble with bulbs is they produce light by heating a filament to glow white and produce tremendous amounts of infrared light(which you can't see) and a small amount of UV.   Even with filters there still is significant IR and some UV(which is invisible) which then would be blocked by the car window/tint film giving a lower reading. Wouldn't be fair to ticket someone for light you can't even see. 550 is the middle of the human eye sensitivity and is the measurement that the optics industry has used for years. The heat absorbers used in car windows do give it a slight green cast but again it just cause a slight high reading compared to white, once again within the +_2%.  The bigger issue we have found is the spot to spot variability in both auto glass and even worse some tint film. Glass makers goal is to keep spot to spot variation under 3%(the threshold of human perception) for the most part they do a very good job, sadly that can't be said for some film manufacturers. I have seen film with greater than 8% spot to spot variation within 12" on the same piece of film. Doesn't make your job any easier when you buy poor quality film.
As for using the one piece Enforcer II to measure film, thats tough to do. if you look at the this GIF    you can see the on/off switch at the bottom of the slot. You need to hold the film tightly between your two hands and with your third hand slide the film in to depress the switch and keep it depressed till you break the beam. Doable but tough. Other wise it will calibrate with the film inplace and read 100 or if the film is dark the meter will know something is screwed up and throw an E1 error reading.
Sorry for the long kind of technical post. Hope I helped some.
 
PS CEO sounds great but there are only 12 of us, but, we have made half a million of these things in 29 years, so theres that!
Ed
 

The art contained in the thread thus far appears to be plotter cut, weeded and transferred to glass using transfer tape. There is talent in achieving the end result similar to what it takes to lay vinyl.
 
Back in the early to mid-80's the shop I owned in Cocoa FL began doing graphic art in window film on cars. We eventually graduated to doing window film pictures on flat glass to hang in a frame, which eventually led to store front work. Solar Graphics in St Pete area was doing this type work, too. Unlike Richard, our team mainly remained relatively unknown and did not pursue larger deals such as those done by Solar Graphics since that time.
 
We bought surplus overhead projectors to enlarge line drawings via liner material, sharpie marker and tracing the right sized projected image onto a large piece of liner hung to a white wall. These final 'templates' were then taped to the glass opposite the surface film would be applied to. A sampling of a liner/sharpie trace is below (I still have a book full of liner images). The trick is cutting the applied film in the right way to leave behind the image from the trace template. You can layer over and over to get darker coloring or shading effects.
 
The other picture attached depicts a large glass that would eventually be placed in the building opening above my head. But first, a seal layer of silver film would be installed over the entire surface sealing in the image and to accentuate the image. This large example was all hand cut because plotters cutting window film was unheard of in those days. The year was 1990 when I first arrived in Naples FL. When in Cocoa the team I had was myself, Louise, Donna and Lee. All of us have artist in our blood.