Graphtec FC8600 cutting inaccurately

[sleepyeyed]

As the title states, my Graphtec FC8600 does not want to cut material accurately. In the photos you can see how badly it cuts. This happens regardless of what blade or material I use. Things I've tried are adjusting the offset of the blade in the condition menu under the tool setting, adjusting the offset in the menu->tool->tool offset adj., adjusting the offset force, adjusting the distance adjust in the condition menu, adjusting the cut speed, adjusting the cut force, adjusting the pinch roller pressure, and yelling at it forcefully. Nothing has made any discernible difference ....except for using tangential mode which cuts the corners correctly, but still doesn't cut curves accurately. If you look at the number 5 in the picture you can see that even with tangential mode on it still won't cut the curve accurately. Also tangential mode tends to not complete the cuts on the corners of letters and will sometimes cause problems when weeding where it leaves little tags. Just to compare I cut the same number on the same material on my Gerber Odyssey and it is nearly flawless. The Odyssey is being scrapped soon due to it's age (20!) and the Graphtec is to be our replacement machine, so we really will need to rely on the Graphtec.

My theory is that the pinch rollers are advancing the material prior to it finishing its horizontal cut. You can see on the inside of the "E" in the second picture. I'm not sure where I'd make such an adjustment, but if anyone can help me out here I'd appreciate it.

 

[iam808]

Had a similar problem and it turned out the carriage was loose. Take the cover off the machine and if there seems to be excessive play, tighten the wheels. It's been years so I don't remember exactly what I did but it wasn't complicated. If your ove tighten, the plotter with throw a E01019 error code. Simply loosen up the screws until that stops.

 

[Joe House]

Also, make sure that the pressure levers on the back of each pinch wheel is set to the same settings. Loose carriage is a possibility too. I would also reset to factory defaults if you've been playing with settings a lot. The factory defaults on condition 1 will normally cut regular vinyl right out of the box.

Good Luck

 

[sleepyeyed]

Had a similar problem and it turned out the carriage was loose. Take the cover off the machine and if there seems to be excessive play, tighten the wheels. It's been years so I don't remember exactly what I did but it wasn't complicated. If your ove tighten, the plotter with throw a E01019 error code. Simply loosen up the screws until that stops.

This is what the problem is. The carriage is loose, but I'm not sure of where to tighten it. I'm going to continue my google-fu to see if I can get this thing working correctly. Thanks for the insight.