contour cut static cling

[bigben]

Hi folks!

I have a customer who want printed images in is store window. But I need to install them from the inside (printed face on the window). I've installed printed static cling from the inside in the past without any problems, but I was wondering if I can contour cut this material with my summa cutter? I don't have the material in hand right now to try it, so this is why I'm asking the question here.

Thanks.

Ben

 

[jayhawksigns]

I have contour cut static cling in the past, but I have always reverse printed the graphics. The material we have doesn't stick to well with the front side of the media.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yes, but usually you need to babysit it as it's cutting. With longer sheets of static as they run through the plotter they'll bunch up on the front and backside just like regular vinyl. But since it's static the material easily sticks to itself as it bunches up and can cause the plotter to jam.

Slow it down and don't walk away from it while it's cutting, you'll almost definitely have to "help" it feed the material through as it's cutting to avoid jams.

Other than that works well. We do it all the time.

 

[signage]

Yes, but usually you need to babysit it as it's cutting. With longer sheets of static as they run through the plotter they'll bunch up on the front and backside just like regular vinyl. But since it's static the material easily sticks to itself as it bunches up and can cause the plotter to jam.

Slow it down and don't walk away from it while it's cutting, you'll almost definitely have to "help" it feed the material through as it's cutting to avoid jams.

Other than that works well. We do it all the time.

+1

 

[parrott]

Yes, but usually you need to babysit it as it's cutting. With longer sheets of static as they run through the plotter they'll bunch up on the front and backside just like regular vinyl. But since it's static the material easily sticks to itself as it bunches up and can cause the plotter to jam.

Slow it down and don't walk away from it while it's cutting, you'll almost definitely have to "help" it feed the material through as it's cutting to avoid jams.

Other than that works well. We do it all the time.

Learned this the hard way. Took a job that called for 10 rolls of static cling to be reverse printed, screen white backup and then contour cut. Everything was fine until the contour cut came into play. We had somebody babysitting and cussing our plotter for an entire week. You can definitely do it, but it does require babysitting. From now on when we hear the words static cling and contour cut in the same sentence, we charge double.

Want to add that a lot of our problem was running a Graphtec. These plotters are an absolute nightmare trying to read registration marks on gloss material and especially static cling. Running a Summa will definitely help.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Want to add that a lot of our problem was running a Graphtec. These plotters are an absolute nightmare trying to read registration marks on gloss material and especially static cling. Running a Summa will definitely help.

Haha we went through 3 Graphtec plotters before we figured this out!

Yeah, with static, you're best off keeping you sheet size fairly short to minimize bunching. With regular vinyl we usually run decals in sheets as long as 10-12' or more, but we keep static to sheets 4' or under. This significantly increases time/labor in the job and adds material as well for the gripper on the front and backs of the sheets, so charge accordingly.

 

[Signed Out]

+1 slow down and baby sit.... are you reverse pinting on clear then laying white vinyl with clear adhesive on top? If so put a little masking tape over your crop marks to make it easier to cut away the vinyl that goes over them.

 

[Signed Out]

if they don't have to be clear and you lay white vinyl over top you shouldn't have any static problems and be able to cut 10' sheets

 

[parrott]

Haha we went through 3 Graphtec plotters before we figured this out!

Yeah, with static, you're best off keeping you sheet size fairly short to minimize bunching. With regular vinyl we usually run decals in sheets as long as 10-12' or more, but we keep static to sheets 4' or under. This significantly increases time/labor in the job and adds material as well for the gripper on the front and backs of the sheets, so charge accordingly.

Ha! Thats what we ended up doing. We ran the cling through in roughly 54"x36" sheets which took FOOOOOOREEEEEVVVVEEEER, but it got the job done.