Graphtec FC7000 cutter BED gouged, NOT strip

[os101king]

The plastic cutting bed on my graphtec FC7000-130MK2 is gouged. It's breaking blades at this point and they tend to rip right through the teflon topper strip because of the gouges in the plastic below. There's a channel there that it mounts in, but I CANNOT find this part anywhere. Jack at GRS in NJ is looking for me, but I haven't heard back yet and the bed is gouged so badly it's starting to affect the cut along that section of any vinyl I run. It's right in the center of the machine too left to right, so I cannot avoid it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, but a supplier for the part is really the help I'm looking for!!! I cannot continue to function effectively with the gouged bed.

Again, NOT THE CUTTER STRIP. Don't want to be inundated with replies about something it's not. It's the BED BELOW THE STRIP.

Thanks again!

 

[Lea Marc]

We had a similar issue with our FC8000. We did some testing on some heavy materials and gouged the bed in several places (this was before I'd ever heard of the teflon strip). You can get a replacement part from Graphtec but it is a lot of money. What we did was install a new blade, put on a teflon strip, but what helped the most was reduce the amount of blade exposed. We took it down to almost nothing and instead adjust the cutting force on jobs. So far it's been much better, hope this is of some help to you.

Steve

 

[os101king]

Steve, what do you mean by really expensive? I run lots of different types of materials and have to vary the pressure often.

 

[Snydo]

The replacement strip is sixty something dollars plus shipping. I'd plan on about 3 hours to remove the glue from the old one, must be thoroughly removed and cleaned. After that it is essentially like putting a new cutter strip on.

 

[os101king]

A buddy of mine local saw my plight and suggested this fix which I'm going to implement tomorrow. The bean-counters at Graphtec are asking for me to agree to waive any rights of warranty or anything else if I'm going to replace a plastic strip on my cutter.

Duh.

So I'm going to try the home-brew fix.

.020 HIPS cut into a strip, d/s taped in place.

I'll report as to how that works.

 

[Lea Marc]

I think it would have been in the $1000s to replace that bed as you need to take the plotter apart to get it in. We had one show up but when we saw the cost and work involved decided to go the cutting strip route which has worked so far. If if helps I can hook you up with our Graphtec rep here in Canada that helped us get the part in..