Cutting Magnetic Circles

[AnthonyRalano]

I took a job for 30 6" circles. I came up with this. A circular glass cutter with an x-acto mounted to it. Works great. I have never used the plotter to cut magnet and don't want to damage the blade that I have. Just everyone's thoughts, how would you attempt this?

 

[mark-s]

Did a few 20 inchers free hand xacto knife.
Like your idea.

mark-s

 

[FireSprint.com]

That's a pretty good idea! If you ever want to sub these out, we can do them in qtys from 2 to 2000 or more.

 

[myront]

I've been trying for years to find a solution similar to the cutter mentioned above. Works great if you have no print mounted to the magnetic. Once you apply a printed sheet of 30 magnets that need to be individually cut you have no way of lining up the circle cutter on center. See my proposed circle cutter design below. Note that you have 4 alignment marks to easily get to center. I haven't found anyone interested in producing this.

 

[lgroth]

I cut magnetic on the plotter... Since magnetic is a blade killer I keep some old blades on hand just for it. You don't need much pressure, just enough to score it good and it tears out clean.

 

[ikarasu]

I just cut them on the grapghtec. You can buy cheap chinese blades for $1.50 each.... works great for stuff like this. I've used them on small letters / other stuff too, and they work great. Not sure how long they last... My graphtecs blade seems to last for years (Only use it a few times a day, might be why!). they're accurate, and now I dont need to worry about messing up a $100 blade on magnetics, or other random stuff I decide to try to cut

 

[TomK]

I just cut them on the grapghtec. You can buy cheap chinese blades for $1.50 each.... works great for stuff like this. I've used them on small letters / other stuff too, and they work great. Not sure how long they last... My graphtecs blade seems to last for years (Only use it a few times a day, might be why!). they're accurate, and now I dont need to worry about messing up a $100 blade on magnetics, or other random stuff I decide to try to cut

Anything special you do to stop it from sticking to the metal on the cutter? I tried using kraft paper, etc, but anything longer than a foot or so gets off track due to it sticking to the graphtec or summa cutter.

 

[ikarasu]

Anything special you do to stop it from sticking to the metal on the cutter? I tried using kraft paper, etc, but anything longer than a foot or so gets off track due to it sticking to the graphtec or summa cutter.

If your using the same magnetic as me (Magnet on the back, white top) Just flip it over. I don't do any print/cuts with magnetic... just shapes for screen printing, or cut to shape, then throw it in the flatbed to be printed on. Depends on what your doing, but if its just a basic shape like a circle, or oval, Or just a shape.. flip it so the white is on the bottom. Doing that, I havent had it stick to the metal at all. Granted I've only done it a few times... cutting ovals / circles for screen printing on, but I've cut 23" circles and they've come out perfect.


As for more complex designs / print and cuts... Can't help you there If I needed to print/cut, I'd probably throw it on my Multi-cam router, and do it on there.

 

[floater302]

Anything special you do to stop it from sticking to the metal on the cutter? I tried using kraft paper, etc, but anything longer than a foot or so gets off track due to it sticking to the graphtec or summa cutter.

stick a piece of phototex to the backside of the magnet

 

[AnthonyRalano]

Never thought of the white side down. Thanks. Can't wait to go to the shop today and see if this works.

 

[player]

If the cutter scores the back, then you would be tearing the vinyl when separating the piece? I always thought it best to cut the vinyl for a nice sharp edge. Plus with the vinyl down it could scratch or scuff the vinyl and print as it goes back and forth...

 

[floater302]

I print directly on my magnets then cut them on my summa, only tip I have is sometimes ill take a heat gun to the magnet are to warm it up and then it cuts a lot easier

 

[BillyBoy86]

i cut custom shapes on our laser.
but i can only cut up to 12" x 24"

 

[myront]

If the cutter scores the back, then you would be tearing the vinyl when separating the piece? I always thought it best to cut the vinyl for a nice sharp edge...

I agree on this one. Tearing them out will create enough of a jagged edge to catch in the wind.

 

[Gino]

Maybe it's just me, but this method would be alright, if you were doing like 1 or 2 or maybe even 5, but a quantity of 30 pieces, would only cost about $15 from my supplier. Unless you can cut them..... and accurately with no having to go back and trim or fix broken edges in 10 minutes or less for all 30..... I don't think there's a real question here.

 

[ikarasu]

If the cutter scores the back, then you would be tearing the vinyl when separating the piece? I always thought it best to cut the vinyl for a nice sharp edge. Plus with the vinyl down it could scratch or scuff the vinyl and print as it goes back and forth...

I've never done it after it was printed, we'd normally cut it, then print on flatbed, or screen print..m so I can't say on whether it's scratch the image or not. But the, it'd be hard to align it up and cut facing the opposite direction anyways.

As for it tearing... I've done it to about 20 at a time. Maybe I had the exact right setting, but it cut perfectly, no jagged edges or nothing. I use a grapghtec that has the option of cut through also - so if it were cutting jagged
, I'd just switch the tool position to cut all the way through. More of a pain that way, but still would work.

We don't so much magnetics, so I don't have too much experience. We usually cut them on our multi cam CNC machine... But the setups a pain for when your cutting 10 or so ovals / circles, so when that happens I throw them on the grapghtec and it's always produced perfect cuts for me.

 

[Taylor Made Print]

I took a job for 30 6" circles. I came up with this. A circular glass cutter with an x-acto mounted to it. Works great. I have never used the plotter to cut magnet and don't want to damage the blade that I have. Just everyone's thoughts, how would you attempt this? View attachment 116750

could you send more pictures please on how you fixed the knife to the unit?

 

[Taylor Made Print]

when everyone here talks about cutting magnet on their machine, is this purely a plotting machine youre referencing r can this be cut on a print any cut machine.

I have a mimaki cjv30 for instance, could i cut these on this? i have read the magnet can interfere with the electronics.

 

[signheremd]

when everyone here talks about cutting magnet on their machine, is this purely a plotting machine youre referencing r can this be cut on a print any cut machine.

I have a mimaki cjv30 for instance, could i cut these on this? i have read the magnet can interfere with the electronics.

We use a Graphtec to cut out the magnet. We have to coat the magnetic side of the material with three layers of application tape to keep it from sticking. We also put a small table in front of the plotter and have one person on each side so the weight of the material is supported as it feeds into and out of the plotter. Don't make your runs too long... We print using our flatbed UV printer, but used to use our Roland roll-to-roll. Hope that helps