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Cutting a roll of vinyl

artiep

New Member
Has anyone cut a vinyl roll to make it shorter. I can sometimes get a great deal on vinyl on ebay but it would be to long for my machine. I would like to say cut a 60 inch roll into two 30 inch rolls. Can this be done without special equipment?
 

artiep

New Member
Thanks gentlemen that really helps out. Hey shovelhead do you ride one.Show me yours and I'll show you mine.
 

artiep

New Member
Shovel

1976 FLH This is a pic from last year.Sissy bar is gone, and just switched to a wrap around oil tank.
 

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Craig Sjoquist

New Member
I ended up with a bunch of 4 ft rolls paying some one to cut when broke did not match so

I used a hack saw worked fine yup not perfect but the extra vinyl on each end did not matter... band saw be better ... slitter be best
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Sawing rolls of vinyl will always produce somewhat less than satisfactory results. This is because toothed saws, all toothed saws, cut by chipping away at the material not by slicing through it.

What if one were to mount a meat slicer blade on a conventional power miter? The blade would have to be the same size or smaller than the saw's capacity and have a 5/8" round bore. Maybe like this one...

http://www.onesharpstore.com/catalog/item/3229417/6448508.htm

This would allow the saw to actually cut rather than chip away at the work as does any toothed blade. This should provide a much smoother cut.

Or, chuck the roll of media up in a lathe and set up to use a meat cleaver or some other large sharp blade as a parting tool?
 

Bill43mx

New Member
Just wondering if anyone has tried using their laminator to slit vinyl? Ours has a powered takeup for the backing paper and friction clutch for the laminate supply roll. If we ran the vinyl directly from the supply to the takeup it would be a simple matter of mounting (or holding by hand for down & dirty) a cutting blade in the appropriate place between the 2 rolls and turning on the laminator. Never tried it but it seems like it should work.

Bob, you are usually so precise with your wording I was actually disappointed in this statement "Sawing rolls of vinyl will always produce somewhat less than satisfactory results.". We've used this method many times with "satisfactory" results. Less than perfect? Yes! Less than satisfactory? Well I guess that depends on what you would be satisfied with but for our purposes (cutting 54" lam down to fit 30" vinyl) it has been quite satisfactory.
 

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
Or, chuck the roll of media up in a lathe and set up to use a meat cleaver or some other large sharp blade as a parting tool?

I've been down this road a time or two when cutting rolls of mylar backed hot stamping foil.

Analyze the mechanical workings of the slitter. The roll of material is turning, and so is the cutting blade (freewheeling against the vinyl much like an Olfa rotary cutter).

This is why slitters work so well. There is no friction being generated between the vinyl and the blade.

No friction means no gummy adhesive, and no melted vinyl. That alone is worth the price of admission.


JB
 

Sign Eagle

New Member
My first printer was a 48" Mutoh about 7 or 8 years ago. We used a 10" chop saw which didn't go all the way thru the roll, so after cutting as deep as we could, rotated the roll to cut the balance. Just make sure to bounce the cut end on the floor a few time to knock the chips out of the core. We needed to cut 54" material which was readily available to 48". Always kept the cut end of the vinyl on the left side and never have a problem.
 

scole999

New Member
Cutting or Slitting rolls of vinyl

I have a table top pull through slitter that Ronan Tools used to make that can convert 30" or smaller rolls into narrower rolls. You can make one like it with some pvc pipe and exacto knives if you are creative enough.

I also have two large commercial slitters that do the entire roll at one time. Both create nice clean edges which is important for certain applications. If you are going to vector cut the roll then a clean edge is not really needed and you can use a band saw. I have a picture of my big slitter at http://rollslitting.com . Comes in handy for making small rolls from big ones.

Steve
 
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