Cut queations

[Ashley348]

Hi all, I just got the Roland vg2-540 printer/cutter. I’m doing mostly moto graphics with 6 mil vinyl and 15 mil laminate to make 21mil total.. my question is what force should I be at? As well as what blade and how far out the blade should be.. also when I go to put the laminate back in to cut, it is like half an inch off, very big gap and not cutting perfect. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[signheremd]

We use a different Roland, but you may need to adjust the "Blade Offset" in the Cut Controls dialog box of VersaWorks for this job. If it is not cutting all the way through the material, you can check the Cut Passes box and increase it from one to two or so (causing it to cut the whole thing multiple times, so it can get through the material thickness). I would slow the speed down as well on thicker material - like to 15-20 instead of 30. On ours, 300 is the maximum cutting pressure in one pass. We used to cut vinyl coated in 10 mil polycarbonate lam at 250 or 275 with 2 cutting passes turned on (now we just cut it on the Graphtec in one pass). Lastly, you may need a 60 degree blade instead of 45 to get through your lam and material. Hope this gives you some ideas - experiment a bit and you will figure it out.

 

[Ashley348]

We use a different Roland, but you may need to adjust the "Blade Offset" in the Cut Controls dialog box of VersaWorks for this job. If it is not cutting all the way through the material, you can check the Cut Passes box and increase it from one to two or so (causing it to cut the whole thing multiple times, so it can get through the material thickness). I would slow the speed down as well on thicker material - like to 15-20 instead of 30. On ours, 300 is the maximum cutting pressure in one pass. We used to cut vinyl coated in 10 mil polycarbonate lam at 250 or 275 with 2 cutting passes turned on (now we just cut it on the Graphtec in one pass). Lastly, you may need a 60 degree blade instead of 45 to get through your lam and material. Hope this gives you some ideas - experiment a bit and you will figure it out.

Thank you, I did have the 60 degree blade and still nothing. Finally I got it to do exactly what I wanted in the test cut.. so I went and printed some graphics up, went to cut and it didn’t even make a dent in the lam‍♀️ I called the vinyl manufacturer and they said 300 gf with 60 degree blade and the blade sticking out just pass the material to cut all the way through. It test cuts perfect but doesn’t cut the real thing.

 

[Zoogee World]

I typically up my pressure from my test print / cut, as it changes for some reason. If you are finding it is shifting, then adjust the calibration in the cutting menu so that as it goes it goes off a little to compensate.

 

[signheremd]

Thank you, I did have the 60 degree blade and still nothing. Finally I got it to do exactly what I wanted in the test cut.. so I went and printed some graphics up, went to cut and it didn’t even make a dent in the lam‍♀️ I called the vinyl manufacturer and they said 300 gf with 60 degree blade and the blade sticking out just pass the material to cut all the way through. It test cuts perfect but doesn’t cut the real thing.

I would slow the cutting speed down.

 

[netsol]

just a guess, but do we have plotter control panel settings, software settings & the ability to choose which settings are active in a dialog box somewhere?

kind of like what the hp printers do: control panel controls settings/software controls settings

 

[signheremd]

just a guess, but do we have plotter control panel settings, software settings & the ability to choose which settings are active in a dialog box somewhere?

kind of like what the hp printers do: control panel controls settings/software controls settings

Yes, in Versa Works (software for the Rolands)

 

[weyandsign]

just a guess, but do we have plotter control panel settings, software settings & the ability to choose which settings are active in a dialog box somewhere?

kind of like what the hp printers do: control panel controls settings/software controls settings

Yes you can set them in Versaworks. If you don't check the boxes in versaworks to use the settings, it will use the settings in the printer menu.

 

[Ashley348]

Hi guys, sorry for all the late responses. I have adjusted the controls in both the printer and verse works. It will not cut not matter what I set it at, and I highly doubt the force needs to be at 500gf with 3 passes.. I’m not sure if this printer/ plotter is meant to cut 21mil.

 

[truckgraphics]

Hi guys, sorry for all the late responses. I have adjusted the controls in both the printer and verse works. It will not cut not matter what I set it at, and I highly doubt the force needs to be at 500gf with 3 passes.. I’m not sure if this printer/ plotter is meant to cut 21mil.

Have you tried printing, laminating then cutting thin material, say 4 mil total. Or just using a test piece of thin vinyl, say 3 mil, printing, taking it out of the machine, then putting it back in to cut?

What were your results with thinner material? If you haven't tried this, please give it a shot.

If the machine will do an accurate print and cut with thinner material, then you are probably correct in that the machine is limited in the thickness it can cut.

But, if you are having the same problem with thinner material, something isn't right in your set-up. At that point, it might be beneficial to send us a screen shot of your VersaWorks set up. (Do we say that here? Might be confusing this with my Jaguar forum where we always ask someone to scan the car then send us the results for our amateur analysis. Anyway, it helps us keep our old cars running.)

By the way, we use a VersaCamm VS-540 with an older version of VersaWorks. Haven't cut anything thicker than 10 mil, but that works fine.

 

[FCD]

I assume you're running the substance vinyl and substance 15 mil laminate. Substance 15 mil laminate is not your typical laminate. It's very tough and hard to cut on a roll to roll plotter/printer. You have to do 2 passes at minimum, but even then it just doesn't work well. Most of your cuts will be inconsistent in depth and accuracy. Only way to reliably cut that stuff is with a flatbed cutter.