Cutting circular printed vinyl graphics (basic)

[PrintItBig]

Hi,

We've just purchased our first vinyl cutter (Summa S160) and we're just trying to get our heads around how we should supply and produce simple "through cut" type graphics with as little manual labour as possible. I realise this is probably a very basic question for most people on here so apologies in advance.

Say we want to supply printed and laminated circular floor graphics as singles, do we...

1) Through cut the circle shape? (but this seems to cause issues with the cutter not being able to feed the media through properly, getting tangled etc.

2) Perf cut the circle shape and then pop them out afterwards?

3) Kiss cut the circle and then perf cut a box around that?

4) Kiss cut them and then trim them to singles by hand?

5) Something else?

Also, if using method 3 or 4 do we need to weed out the frame around the circles or just supply them as they are?

How do you guys do it?

Thanks.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We do option 2 on our graphtec all the time, the perf cut cuts the vinyl really well to the point it looks the same as a die cut.

Perf cutting is quite slow, so keep in mind it's about 5 times slower than die cutting.

 

[ikarasu]

Summa can only perf/through cut square shapes I thought - Maybe thats where the issue is?

I dont have one... just going by what summa recommends. Of course what they recommend, and real life is always different...so maybe its possible. but If not... I would kiss cut a circle, then through cut it into a square

 

[MikePro]

+1 perf cut.
tangle/feed issues aside, through-cutting will break-down the cutting strip on your plotter really really fast.

 

[Joseph44708]

I do your option #1, #2 and #3 on my graphtec 8600-130 and 8600-160 all day every day from sizes 2x3 oval to 12x24 rectangle and ocasionally some 24x36 ovals. Haven't used the perf cut in two years.
Once you know how to operate and set up your cutter you can Die Cut or Kiss Cut any shape.
My suggestion is that you watch every You Tube Video and read every piece of literature available for your equipment.

 

[signman315]

We do option 3 or 4, and sometimes we weed the excess while other times we do not. Sometimes we will not weed them and print a "business card" or other advertisement onto the excess area to make it look finished/professional plus get a little marketing value. While we have other scenarios that its more of a hurry and get it done situation and those we just weed and cut by hand, much faster than waiting for perf cut. Someday I would love to do the kiss cut on the roll fed plotter and then move to a flatbed plotter for the through cut....this is only worthwhile for really large volume. But don't have the budget or space for all that fancy equipment....

 

[karst41]

We do option 2 on our graphtec all the time, the perf cut cuts the vinyl really well to the point it looks the same as a die cut.

Perf cutting is quite slow, so keep in mind it's about 5 times slower than die cutting.

I have done this only a few times. I would venture to guess that on a 12" circle you would reduce the number of steps to 7 or 9 and that should speed things up. If my comment is off base please let me know.