Cutting vinyl in cold temps

[gjdive]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I cut vinyl decals for a customer and I'm finding that the vinyl is very difficult to weed lately. The only thing that has changed since the last order has been the weather, I'm wondering if that could cause the vinyl to be difficult to weed. This is an order that I fill on a weekly basis, so I know the design is good.

I'm using a Graphtec FC7000 and Oracal 751 cast vinyl.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Warm up the room?

Any chance it's old stock?

 

[Ken]

Hi. Welcome to Signs 101 from BC.
Ken

 

[letterman7]

Difficult to weed how? Sticking to the backer? Incomplete cuts? Cut edges sticking together (i.e. you can't pick the center of a lower case 'e' without the entire letter coming up)?

 

[gjdive]

Thank you for the responses. I am trying to warm up the room, but it's an outside work area. I have put a heater out there to see if that will make a difference, so far no luck. I don't think the material is old, I know I go through quite a bit of it from the same supplier, so I know there is a lot of turn over.

What is actually happening is the design is cutting all the way around the edge. When I try to weed the outer box it is pulling up all the interior letters. I know the letters are cut because I can use a tweezer to hold each one down, but it seems like the adhesive is spreading within the cut lines. I would have associated that with heat, not cold. Also, if I stop the machine after each logo I can easily weed each of them, but when I wait for the run to end is when I have the issue.

 

[gjdive]

Thank you

Hi. Welcome to Signs 101 from BC.
Ken

 

[MikePro]

umm, yeah... dial-in your plotter better. dull blade, blade not properly inserted into adaptor, or too little pressure can lead to shallow cuts.

i cut/weed/mask/apply in a 50degree shop when it gets really cold here in wisconsin, no issues.

 

[S'N'S]

If your cutting alot....adjust your downforce as the blade bluntens a little or check the blade for bluntness and replace if necessary. (I use a jewelers eye glass to check blades.) If it is still doing it with a new blade I would check blade depth. The blade should cut thru the vinyl and leave an indentation in the backing without actually cutting the backing. Check backing for a ghost outline of something you cut.
If the cuts are not completely thru the vinyl in spots but are in other parts, check the cutting strip.

 

[letterman7]

Yeah, check your downforce. You shouldn't have that much adhesive return in that short amount of time. Get rid of your weeding box, too. You'll have more vinyl to actually work on and reduce the time it takes to cut... since it won't have to go back and actually cut the bounding box.

 

[signcrafters london]

Yes, this is a temperature issue. I think the only two solutions are:

1. Keep your vinyl warm.
2. If you can't warm the vinyl, increase downforce.

If you are outside, maybe you can make some sort of box to store your vinyl that will keep it warm. I've seen plans that use light bulbs that stay on all the time to give off enough heat to warm the vinyl.

 

[gjdive]

Thanks for the help

Thanks to all of you the problem is resolved. I think it was a little bit of everything mentioned here. I bought a heater, replaced the blade and adjusted the downforce, and now it seems to be cutting like before.

Thank you for all of your help.

Gary

 

[Bootlegsigns]

Its the tempurture! Once cut, it still needs to be weeded, warm your room
Vinyl gets brittle under 60 degrees here