Contour Cutting Magnets

[JLD984]

Hi all, Does anyone have advice on printing to and contour cutting magnetic rubber? I've heard of people printing directly to it and have also heard of people contour cutting it with just enough force to score it and be able to break them apart by hand. Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

A Circut cutter won't work

 

[Jillbeans]

I use the neanderthal method...scissors or an X-Acto knife.
Love....Jill

 

[J Hill Designs]

I've cut mag in my cutter, but was just testing and didnt have to worry about print to cut registration.

It worked with a double cut 60deg blade speed set to snails pace

for p2c reg you would have to calibrate feed since its alot thicker than vinyl

 

[MikeD]

flat bed (any,) or a sprocket fed (Gerber Edge)

 

[MikeD]

lots of people print on vinyl and then lam to mag in order to achieve p2c reg

 

[MikeD]

you are correct that it should be scored and broken as well

 

[gnemmas]

We use laser.

 

[JLD984]

My apologies, I'm using a Roland SP540V printer/cutter. Yes I've been printing on vinyl then applying it to the rubber but they were for straight cut magnets, just wondering whether to try it this way to do more interesting shapes.

 

[CanuckSigns]

My apologies, I'm using a Roland SP540V printer/cutter. Yes I've been printing on vinyl then applying it to the rubber but they were for straight cut magnets, just wondering whether to try it this way to do more interesting shapes.

Try it out and see, what have you got to loose?

 

[SightLine]

We do it once in a while with the thinner .015 magnetic material, not for vehicle magnets.... printing direct to it on our Mimaki JV33 and contour cutting (scoring) it on our Summa S-160T cutter.

It's a fiddly pain in the butt process though. Pretty much have to put both infeed and outfeed tables to support the magnetic on each side of the Mimaki so it does not grab on the steel machine panels, the print platen itself is aluminum so it glides fine on that. Also have to print with pretty much little to no heat and let it air dry for quite a while before cutting. Using tables it does not run across the pre and post heaters and too much heat on the print platen can cause rippling.

On the Summa cutter, all of the panels it goes over are aluminum so no worries with it grabbing on that but still need to put in and outfeed tables for it to really run through decently. The weight and stiffness of the magnetic will cause it to bow up on the platen if it is not supported semi flat in the front and back. Takes pretty high blade pressure and very slow speed. All that being said once you get the hang of it, figure out what settings work best for your machines, and use tables to support the material it actually works very well.

If we were doing a lot of it or doing it often I'd just get a cheapo Chinese cutter off eBay just for cutting it since it is pretty hard on your cutter.

 

[Richard G]

I use my Graphtec cutter and apply the backing paper from a print job to the magnetic slick side down this help allow the magnetic to move over the steel case. I then use my CB15U-K30 blade ( used for cutting sandblast material) and the blade is set to cut about 3/4 of the way through the magnetic. Works fairly well on small jobs. By the way the material is not all rubber it has iron in it to make it magnetic so don't expect you blade to last very long.

 

[GVP]

We use laser.

Intrigued - assuming regular mag with a vinyl face, I always understood cutting vinyl on a laser was a no-no?

 

[CanuckSigns]

Intrigued - assuming regular mag with a vinyl face, I always understood cutting vinyl on a laser was a no-no?

We have used our laser in the past, i'ts a very messy process. Vinyl is a no no in the laser, but we cut through sign vinyl on occasion with no issues so far (9 years)

 

[fixtureman]

I use a drag knife on my CNC to cut them I can cut special designs that the customer wants.

 

[petepaz]

we use .030 mag so we didn't have luck on our rolands but you should be able to use .010 mag. i believe it just scores it and you have to break them out. we usually die cut our magnets with steel rule dies