Do graphtecs have a vacuum?

[Charlie J]

I have a fc-7000-75 I recently bought. It doesn't seem like this thing has much vacuum power at all. I'm getting quite a bit of blade drag across the vinyl and I've already adjusted the blade to where you can barely see it.

 

[Bigdawg]

No they don't, but I've never needed it. Not sure what you are describing... are you getting buckles in the vinyl?

 

[Charlie J]

Basicly between the pinch rollers in the center of the vinyl. The blade is scratching the vinyl/laminate when cutting.

 

[ProWraps™]

eh... im pretty sure mine has a vacuumm.

 

[signguy95]

your down force is probably set to high...try lowering the down force to about 17 then adjust the blade as need!

Jay

 

[Bigdawg]

Dang it. Now I actually have to check when I get in tomorrow... really didn't think it did though.

 

[Techman]

No they don't, but I've never needed it. Not sure what you are describing

Yes they do. Those fans running when the cuter is running is the vacuum system. Look along your cut area and you will see tiny holes. Those are where the vacuum system pulls.. It's just a slight tug no more...

 

[PMG]

I have it on mine ...its under background settings .......fan power/////Normal or Weak

 

[B Snyder]

your down force is probably set to high...try lowering the down force to about 17 then adjust the blade as need!

Jay

I have an FC-5100 75 too and I use 13 for cast and 14-15 for calendared.

 

[Bigdawg]

I guess I expected vacuum like the roland


But on that downforce, I'm contour cutting mostly printed 3651 and I have to cut at 18 for unlaminated and 21 for laminated... I didn't know anything about this machine when I started and the old guy had it on those settings so the numbers posted seem low to me. Does that mean the blade adjustment is screwed up?

 

[PMG]

I guess I expected vacuum like the roland


But on that downforce, I'm contour cutting mostly printed 3651 and I have to cut at 18 for unlaminated and 21 for laminated... I didn't know anything about this machine when I started and the old guy had it on those settings so the numbers posted seem low to me. Does that mean the blade adjustment is screwed up?

My blade seetings are just about the same bigdawg for 3651

 

[Bigdawg]

Thanks for letting me know... those numbers threw me a bit since I'd been cutting like this since January.

 

[ProWraps™]

the downforce and blade depth vary depending on each other. what is ones setting may be different for others. the condition of your blade also has to do with your settings. as the blade wears out, you may need more downforce.

 

[signguy95]

yeah for laminated prints, I cut at 20...for cast it's 15 and calendered 17. I just remember when an employee was cross cutting and hit condition 2 which is my reflective setting and it caused the blade to just barely scratch the vinyl. It worth a shot in my opinion.

Jay

 

[bob]

the downforce and blade depth vary depending on each other. what is ones setting may be different for others. the condition of your blade also has to do with your settings. as the blade wears out, you may need more downforce.

True. Ideally blade depth and down force should be independent, especially with Graphtec's soft landing technology. But they're not independent. On my FC7000 I generally set the force to 20 and then diddle the blade depth to get that ideal crease but not cut indentation in the backing. This setting gets used for pretty much everything but laminated stuff where I set the force to 28 and drop the blade one more notch.

I've never quite figured out exactly what Graphtec's force settings represent. I talked about this at length to the head technical weenie at their factory and he admitted that he really didn't know either. It's not grams or some constant multiple of grams and, more confusing, it doesn't seem to be linear. Linear meaning that each unit of force represents a constant number. Like 20 is twice 10, which it's not. Figure that vanilla Oracal 651 should be cut with 80-90 grams of force. OK, then consider that the Graphtec's force setting maxes out at, what, 40? 60?Which is supposed to be 600 grams. If the force setting were linear then you'd set the force to about 5 or 6 to cut 651. If you do, you won't even scratch it. So figure 20=100 grams and 40 or 60 or whatever=600 grams. That means that the force setting is probably some sort of exponential or maybe geometrical curve. No one really knows, but it's damn sure not linear.

 

[ProWraps™]

yeah what he said... its all about feel. we adjust our blade depth, force, and speed on every job we cut. because we cut so much different stuff. you just have to get a feel for your plotter. its just like anything else.. know your equipment. its part of the job.

 

[Bigdawg]

Thanks for the info guys - the graphtec is probably the machine I know the least about in the shop since it never gives me any problems and I've been able to establish pretty good condition set ups for the other materials we cut.

 

[Jackpine]

Yes they do. I use a down force for intermediate of 18, cast 16, with a laminate 23. 45degree blade. The blade is out enough to feel it. Do a "test" to adjust the blade depth.

 

[signman1]

force

on the 7000mk2's and the 8000's most vinyl is cut using 12-14 on the force. MOST people put the blade out way to far and then they knock the tip off and can not even see that they did that and need force to make up for it. The good news is that the cutter has an automatic way in the cutter to set the blade to the mil vinyl that you are using. It will soon be posted on the graphtec web site...about 2 weeks. but they have always had this fuction.