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Need Help Cutting DiBond after flatbed printing

JackRabbitNC

New Member
We bought a flatbed over a year ago, and love it. We cannot afford a Colex table to follow right now. Our main issue is the scratching of the DiBond on the cut edge. We have a shear that we have rigged with velcro, magnet, etc. Have tried cutting pieces first - not practical at all & time consuming. Has anyone else found a solution other than a cutter table?
 

Mosh

New Member
Cutting with a saw is our last resort. If you have a shear just put some application tape on the printed panels to protect them while cutting the down. We do this everyday. Also we put some velcro (fuzzy side) on the bottom of the shear hold-down. Hope this helps.
 

RabidOne

New Member
I worked in a shop that had a multi material wall cutter. Not ridiculously expensive and did a decent job cutting Alupanel.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
We used to cut it by hand, with a 9mm utility knife and a straight edge. Just takes a sharp blade(s) and a lot of passes. Then we got a fletcher wall cutter and it's awesome. For UV prints on the flatbed, we precut the ACM before printing - found that cutting after printing can cause the ink to flake and chip on the edges.

Get one of these:
1671043499891.png
 

RabidOne

New Member
We used to cut it by hand, with a 9mm utility knife and a straight edge. Just takes a sharp blade(s) and a lot of passes. Then we got a fletcher wall cutter and it's awesome. For UV prints on the flatbed, we precut the ACM before printing - found that cutting after printing can cause the ink to flake and chip on the edges.

Get one of these:
View attachment 163025
Exactly what I was talking about.
 

netsol

Active Member
I worked in a shop that had a multi material wall cutter. Not ridiculously expensive and did a decent job cutting Alupanel.
we got an incredible deal on a used fletcher 3100
what we paid should have made me feel guilty, if i was a better person
(i sent the money before i asked any questions)
 

Humble PM

Mostly tolerates architects
We print aqueous (Canon 8400) and mount onto DiBond. Mostly, work flow is cut DiBond 2-3mm smaller than the print, then mount on laminator and trim down. Many of the (art) papers are very fragile, and it is the sharp scalpel cut from the back, on a cutting mat. On occasions, we've had to trim down the mounted work on our SteelTrak. Cutting with the print face out is not a pretty result, but cutting with the print facing away works very cleanly. Slow cuts, not a freezing cold shop also help.

Assuming the FSC is also a pair of pizza wheels, might be worth a shot. Some of the Baryta papers we use will shatter as soon as you look at them, or cut too quickly, blade is a touch dull, type of monsters. On the SteelTrak, we have production stops, and the ruler properly dialed in, so setting a 3mm bleed is doable, but not fun.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
We print aqueous (Canon 8400) and mount onto DiBond. Mostly, work flow is cut DiBond 2-3mm smaller than the print, then mount on laminator and trim down. Many of the (art) papers are very fragile, and it is the sharp scalpel cut from the back, on a cutting mat. On occasions, we've had to trim down the mounted work on our SteelTrak. Cutting with the print face out is not a pretty result, but cutting with the print facing away works very cleanly. Slow cuts, not a freezing cold shop also help.

Assuming the FSC is also a pair of pizza wheels, might be worth a shot. Some of the Baryta papers we use will shatter as soon as you look at them, or cut too quickly, blade is a touch dull, type of monsters. On the SteelTrak, we have production stops, and the ruler properly dialed in, so setting a 3mm bleed is doable, but not fun.
It comes with different blade types for different substrates. The ACM cutter is a wheel.
 

netsol

Active Member
We print aqueous (Canon 8400) and mount onto DiBond. Mostly, work flow is cut DiBond 2-3mm smaller than the print, then mount on laminator and trim down. Many of the (art) papers are very fragile, and it is the sharp scalpel cut from the back, on a cutting mat. On occasions, we've had to trim down the mounted work on our SteelTrak. Cutting with the print face out is not a pretty result, but cutting with the print facing away works very cleanly. Slow cuts, not a freezing cold shop also help.

Assuming the FSC is also a pair of pizza wheels, might be worth a shot. Some of the Baryta papers we use will shatter as soon as you look at them, or cut too quickly, blade is a touch dull, type of monsters. On the SteelTrak, we have production stops, and the ruler properly dialed in, so setting a 3mm bleed is doable, but not fun.
you should call fletcher. they have quite a list of different cutting heads for these
 

guillermo

New Member
I do this quite often, what I do is that I precut the dibond, then if all the same size, print a template on the flat bed (on the flat bed, no material, print just the corners) for the panel size, spaced about 1/2 inch then apply the famous "magic tape" at the edges of the template on the flat bed, to avoid printing on the machine, then place the dibond and print 1/8" bigger, that is 1/16" for each size, job done and easy, when complete, I just remove the tape and the marks of the template from the machine.
 
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Print1

Tech for your cutter, printer & logistics needs
We bought a flatbed over a year ago, and love it. We cannot afford a Colex table to follow right now. Our main issue is the scratching of the DiBond on the cut edge. We have a shear that we have rigged with velcro, magnet, etc. Have tried cutting pieces first - not practical at all & time consuming. Has anyone else found a solution other than a cutter table?
Sent you a Dm if you have a moment to check it out
 
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