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Do you use a Falcon Jr and VE Q100? Flexi? Can you help me please?

J

John L

New Member
Hello,

I have a new Mutoh Falcon Jr., and a VE Q100.. and I use Flexi8 Pro for the software. All bought from Sign Warehouse. I have everything connected correctly as best I can tell. I can print and I can cut with Flexi.

My problem is with contour cutting my decal prints. I understand how to place the contour with Flexi, I have it set up to print the ARMS registration marks. I followed the instructions posted on the SW website.

My problem is that the cutter has a lot of trouble finding the registration marks. It usually stalls on one, either a forward or rearward one... or sometimes it starts cutting but the cut isnt alighned right and it just ruins my print.

I'd be thrilled to have this thing work properly. Maybe I am printing the registration marks too close to material edge? or??

I'd really be much more comfortable if there was a way to manually set the registration marks and not ever use the ARM sensor thing (ie. manually move cutter precisely over mark one, then mark two, etc.) Is there anyone here who could post or maybe refer me to a clear tutorial on setting this up to work (contour cut), and maybe all the tips on what to always watch out for (reg marks too close to graphic?, to edge?, how far they need to be?, etc?).

Thaks in advance for any help!

John L
 
creative

creative

New Member
You can set it up manually,

print reg marks normally, on the cutter the bring the cutter blade to the reg. mark and accept the new origin, (well that's how we do it).

Send to cut.
 
Flame

Flame

New Member
Make sure your material is straight, and your registration marks are set at .5", not at .2" .

If you have trouble doing this, go online to SW online chat help, and a tech can give you a hand. They've been pretty quick at getting to people lately, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
J

John L

New Member
I did contact SW tech support and they referred me to http://www.signwarehouse.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=315&nav=0,16[/URL]

I got it to work for a couple prints following the instructions on that link but then back to it's old self again.

To me, their tutorial reads very vague in places... like item 8; "Go to the Panel tab. Click on the handles (little boxes around the graphic) & pull them out slightly to create more of a margin on the sides of the graphic. This helps to make sure the actual registration marks are not to close to the graphic which would cause the cutter to miss the registration marks when scanning for them." Do I have to do this everytime I want to contour cut a print? Move the handles how much?

and also item 7; "Go back to the General tab in the Rip & Print window. You can now see 4 registration marks around the image. Notice that by default flexi sets the image position 4 inches from the left and 1.0 inches up.This is to give room for the pinch rollers on the vinyl cutter. The rollers must be outside the registration marks." outside the marks by how far?

Sorry to post all of this but I am really confused as to the best way to make her work.

Thanks!
 
J

John L

New Member
Wow, you guys are quick..

Creative.. you're starting towards exactly the way I'd like it to work. I don't see how the cutter will get enough information from just one registration mark to know if the vinyl is ever so slightly skewed though. I picture it as being a way to set the first mark, then second, maybe third, fourth, all manually to ensure the contour cuts are correct and not off in some way. Please elaborate.

Flame, I don't see a way to chage the mark sizes. My reg marks type is set at Graphtec Type 1 Automatic. Also please elaborate if you will.

Thanks again.
 
PMG

PMG

New Member
Contact Ron at SW tech,he is the tech guy i talk to and request every time i need to call tech ,he will walk you threw it in a with in a few min. what you need to do is get to know the guys in tech,build a business relationship with that Tech.
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
I do this all the time, it's not a big deal. It's one of those things that's far more difficult to explain than it is to do.

The first thing to wrap your head around is that when you're doing it manually you must create and position your own registration marks. You must not use a path known to Flexi as a contour. The registration marks and the contour line you're going to use are not known as such to Flexi.

You create them by creating a rectangle .5"x.013" [I think, I'd have to check to be absolutely sure of that last dimension] no outline, black filled. Duplicate that rectangle and rotate the copy 90 degrees. Align the bottom left corners of the two rectangles and weld them. Now you have a lower left mark. Duplicate and rotate 3 copies so not you have a mark for each corner.

Create a path representing the contour cut, fill it with white and place it behind the image.

Create a rectangle that bounds the contour cut. Make the rectangle a known size in inches. Fill it with white and place it behind everything else.

Align each your four registration marks with the corresponding corner of the bounding rectangle.

Print everything including your registration marks.

Set the registration mark size on the plotter to something >3/8" and < 1/2". You do a bunch of control panel jockeying to do this. While you're there, make sure you're set to use 4 type 2 marks. I assume the marks you made were type 2.

Load the print into the plotter in exactly the same orientation it was printed. You want the right pressure roller to run 1/4" to 1/2" plu or minus from the right marks. You don't want more than a couple of inches of leader on the print either.

When you have the print loaded properly as square as you can get it, form the plotter control panel do Auto Reg->Auto.

The plotter will run the toll back and forth on a diagonal until it senses the first mark. Then it will, slower than hell, sense marks 2,3, and 4. When it senses the 4th mark the process will pause and display the X and Y distances it sensed between the marks. It will solicit input to adjust these readings to the actual distances between the marks. Remember that bounding rectangle? Enter its size. Thats why you kept it simple.

If the plotter has trouble auto sensing the marks, select Manual instead of Auto from the Auto Reg menu. You'll the be prompted to locate the blade in each of the 4 marks in turn. Just put it inside the 'L' for each mark just like you did when you used the fully automated registration. Only here you have to do it for each mark, not just the first one.

After the correction, the plotter will go to the home position and sit there waiting.

Back in Flexi, select the contour path and the bounding rectangle and send them to the Cut/Plot. You can select the registration marks if you want to but there's no need to do so.

In the Cut/plot make sure that the orientation matches the print and the cut's positioned lower right with no margin, no weed box, no nothing. Very important.

Send the job to the plotter. The plotter will cut both your contour path and the bounding rectangle.

The only downside to doing it this way is that if you're making multiple copies, you have to do it in Flexi. You can't use the number of copies feature in the Rip and Print. This can result in a somewhat less than optimum cutting sequence. Such is life.
 
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