Need Help Cutting Laminated PVC on Summa F1612

[imonBouch19]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this with their F1612. We are trying to cut shapes out of a sheet of 1/8” PVC with laminated vinyl applied to it. The 2 problems we are having:

1. All the knife tools we’ve tried cut through the PVC fine but leave a “serrated” edge on the laminated vinyl. I know it looks like that was done with the EOT or something but the heavy duty blade and double-edge blade did the same thing.
   
2. We also tried routing (HF Router) and that left little pieces of laminate/adhesive on all the edges.

See attached photos – any ideas?

Thanks,
Marc

 

[CanuckSigns]

I use the HD knife for 1/8" pvc and it does a beautiful job, is your HD knife new and sharp? try slowing it down, or do multiple passes.

what bit are you using in the router for this? All the bits summa sells are upcut bits, but I have a theory that downcut would be better for cutting through substrates with vinyl applied as it should eliminate this issue completely as the but would be sheering the vinyl off when it's cutting down.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

One suggestion might be to try kiss cutting the laminated vinyl on the surface first with something like the kiss cutting tool and then send a second cut path with the heavy duty tool slightly offset from the kiss cut to reduce the knife drag as the tool cuts through the vinyl(which is generally the cause of the serrated edge).

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I have had good luck with both the hd knife and the router. Any little fuzzy edges left by the router wiped right off.