Cutting Engine Turn

[NickB]

So right now I'm cutting some Engine Turn vinyl for some Fire apparatus. Usually I have little issue with running it through a plotter, however, this time around its a rather small and tedious design. Sections are thin around an 1/8" to 1/16" wide, what type of settings do ya'll recommend. I can manipulate speed and pressure, I just don't know how each effects the cut. I'm a bit limited on material so I'd rather not play around. Attached below is the design in question. This is what the department currently has, so I'd prefer to keep the design intact.

 

[Gino]

Are you sure you have that right ?? Those little rungs, let alone the circles in the hydrant and all those other little stirpes won't have enough stickiness on the back to keep it down, especially in gold leaf vinyl. You can do it with real gold, but it doesn't sound like you wanna go that route. Look through google on other fire shields and you wont see one like that in vinyl gold.

 

[Billct2]

It's just that design cut in signgold and applied directly to the truck? How do you seal it?

 

[SightLine]

Agreed - typically that part is black (or full color) with the engine turn as the background. They are typically printed on an Edge machine but there are also other printable engine turn vinyl available. When printed - Edge machines can apply a clear coat as part of the printing or other machines take it off and laminate. We use Real Gold..... Here is one in the bay right now.
The part shown, if done in engine turn gold is so thin that the engine turn pattern would hardly even be noticeable.

 

[JBurton]

Yeah, a poor man's edge here would be reverse cut all the detail in a matching red, cut the background alone in engine turn, apply gold then lay red over it. I hate cutting this stuff, I almost always have to remove it from the back and lay it back down to take tunnels out of it due to how infrequently we use it.

 

[NickB]

Going to group a bit of responses here. This is the current design utilized throughout the fleet, I should have shown the actual look rather than what I plan to cut from engine turn. This is also the file sent to me.

Attached is what the full graphic will end up with. I plan to seal things under a layer of overlaminate to seal in. Unfortunately, I only have a printer plotter and no edge machine, so I'm limited to only cutting solid vinyl. My current printer struggles to properly cover the gold if I use that as the base layer.

What I'm hoping for is some settings to make it weed cleaner. I don't fully understand pressure and speed when it comes to cutting. Unfortunately, I don't have a great picture of their fleet but here is one of their trucks.

I have a back-up person I could go to, but I'd rather work something out on my end.

 

[SightLine]

The larger text is easy since you just cut the gold and apply on top of the black. The shield, yeah that is going to be a pain. Here - I'd get the solvent printable gold from Realgold and print the black on top, then laminate and cut the overall larger outer shape.

Either way - not sure of what cutter settings to suggest. Our Summa is a tangential head cutter so it does do very well on small detail but a drag knife cutter should also be able to do it. If I had to cut it, I'd make sure the blade pressure is right then maybe go a bit higher and probably slow the cutting speeds down some. Then have fun with some very tedious and careful weeding.

 

[Gino]

If you were using 23.5kt gold leaf, your file would work. I would never chance putting all kinds of stripes of 1/8" and definitely not 1/16" on there.

Your profile indicates you have a bn20, If you cannot print on it properly, then have someone else print & cut it out for you. You'll be sorry if you try to cut that small.

 

[Billct2]

Before I Signgold was Edge printable I would have cut the design reverse out of black and lay the gold down first

 

[JBurton]

Before I Signgold was Edge printable I would have cut the design reverse out of black and lay the gold down first

That's what I said!
Seeing the lettering now, even more so I'd recommend cutting the color and layering it onto the gold. Ideally go with 7725 with the clear backer to make it easier to align, but this can be done with any vinyl that can handle the fine details.

 

[Boudica]

For the op, slowing the speed down can help. Make sure your blade is sharp, and dial in that force so you can barely see the test cuts in the liner, but not cutting into the liner.