Any ideas....................

[Gino]

We have a 540-SP, which has served us well over the years....... and still is. We've maintained it and performed all kindsa fixes for it ourselves, with the help of a tech when it was over our heads.

Recently, it is doing something strange. Monday, i printed a few jobs that went back and cut immediately and it worked perfect. Later, cut out 2 very large words in cast red vinyl, then printed another small job, without a contourcut.... just a bounding box cut. All went swimmingly. Near the end of the day, I had to cut out some lettering on metallic gold cast vinyl. I forget the brand, but it butchered the entire cut.... rounds, straights, insides of letters and out. Checked to make sure the knife didn't get messed up and tried the job over. Same thing, so I stopped it. Saved the job again with a new file name, sent it to versa works once again, told it, print only, weight and speed and slowed it down a little more. Same results as it ripped everything to shreds. Yesterday, I had someone else send it from Flexible and it did exactly the same thing, so sent it to the Gerber 15" plotter and it cut fine. So, sent an entirely new job to the Roland again, and it went through fine. Today, I'm gonna try another job using the same vinyl, that didn't cut properly before.

Anyone experience anything similar ?? Or have any ideas ??

Oh, and no heat was being called for during the cut only job, so it wasn't being softened up, to my knowledge.

 

[Gino]

We have a 540-SP, which has served us well over the years....... and still is. We've maintained it and performed all kindsa fixes for it ourselves, with the help of a tech when it was over our heads.

Recently, it is doing something strange. Monday, i printed a few jobs that went back and cut immediately and it worked perfect. Later, cut out 2 very large words in cast red vinyl, then printed another small job, without a contourcut.... just a bounding box cut. All went swimmingly. Near the end of the day, I had to cut out some lettering on metallic gold cast vinyl. I forget the brand, but it butchered the entire cut.... rounds, straights, insides of letters and out. Checked to make sure the knife didn't get messed up and tried the job over. Same thing, so I stopped it. Saved the job again with a new file name, sent it to versa works once again, told it, CUT only, weight and speed and slowed it down a little more. Same results as it ripped everything to shreds. Yesterday, I had someone else send it from Flexible and it did exactly the same thing, so sent it to the Gerber 15" plotter and it cut fine. So, sent an entirely new job to the Roland again, and it went through fine. Today, I'm gonna try another job using the same vinyl, that didn't cut properly before.

Anyone experience anything similar ?? Or have any ideas ??

Oh, and no heat was being called for during the cut only job, so it wasn't being softened up, to my knowledge.

Bump......

in case that typo confused anyone. I had printed, but meant cut only. :Oops:
​

 

[rjssigns]

Only time our SP540V mutilated vinyl was from a bad batch of blades. They would cut OK for a few inches or feet then the tips would fall off.(Roland blades) I emailed Roland and they sent me replacements. Haven't had it happen since.

Not sure if that will help, but it's all I got.

 

[lgroth]

If the blade isn't swiveling in the holder it will do that... Will only cut good in the direction the blade is stuck at, if it can't turn it ends up dragging sideways and backwards and just rips everything apart instead of cutting it. Probably time for a new blade holder, they do wear out. Sometimes you can bring them back temporarily with a drop of oil in it

 

[Gino]

The thing is on both posts responses here, the machine worked perfect before this bad one and afterwards, on all following jobs. This particular job worked only when we went to a different plotter. Haven't really had the time to just send another job altogether to the same vinyl on the same machine, yet. I'm thinking either the vinyl or the cutter is the culprit. Not the software. How's that for brilliant deductions ?????

 

[rjssigns]

I hope you get it figured out. I may run into the same thing down the road.

 

[Gino]

Sooooo.............. I put a job in with all the same parameters, other than the color vinyl I was cutting out, from a job we did a few days ago. It's still in the queue. Did not work. Lightened the weight. Got a little better, but not near enough. Also, took all the heat away. The blade is relatively still new. Gonna try a much lighter weight. Looks almost perfect, but it won't weed. Gonna make it a little heavier. Got a sweet spot, but it is sure a small spot. It weeds and isn't too jaggedy. It's acceptable for customers, but I don't like it.

I believe it's the vinyl is too thin and too soft for the Roland, as it cut absolutely fine on the Gerber without any hesitation.

Then again, maybe a brand new blade, but it has cut everything else just fine, so I'm not gonna go there.

I'll post up a picture if I get one, later.

​

 

[Sign Works]

Heaters turned off? Heve you tried Zecu style blades? They cut much more accurately than the standard blades.

 

[Gino]

The first time, they [heaters] were on. Later I overrode them and turned them off.

Where can you get those blades ?? Never heard of them.

 

[Gene@mpls]

http://www.specialty-graphics.com/clean-cut-roland-blade-zecu-45.html

Sounds like just a glitch- the onboard cutters are lame. I am surprised you still have an SP- good printer but dead slow.
Our RF640 is a beast and only about 15K (no onboard cutter).

 

[Sign Works]

Roland sells them, Clean Cut Blades sells them. At the blade end they are narrower than the standard blades, they look and perform just like my Graphtec blades.

The first time, they [heaters] were on. Later I overrode them and turned them off.

Where can you get those blades ?? Never heard of them.

 

[Vinyldog]

push the blade out like you're going to replace it but just spin it between your fingers to loosen up the bearing if you want to save that one, or replace the plastic head with the aluminum version.