Having Problems Cutting on 15" Vinyl GRRRRR

[Outline Graphics]

Preschooler here I was given this site the other day by someone who helped me out. He said the folks here are pretty helpful, so here it goes...

I'm playing who's on first with my PC-60. I am a bit of a greenhorn here, but I'd like to think I'm somewhat intelligent...maybe not


I have some 15'' vinyl I'm trying to load into it. I load it fine. I go to cut something like 12'' or 13'' and cut horizontally...and it ALWAYS stops cutting at some point. I moved the vinyl over to compensate for where it stopped cutting, and same issue, but at a different spot.

I'm beginning to think that maybe it's some kind of setting in FlexiSign Pro?

Has anyone else had similar issues with this or any other machine to where you could give me some pointers either with the machine or settings?

I'm getting ready to run a whole bunch of stuff and I REALLY need this to cut like it's supposed to...all the way across the machine. I've not tried putting 24" vinyl in there yet. I've got to order some...

The manual gives instruction for loading different sized material, and tells you where it needs to go, and where the rollers should be, but the 15" isn't in there. It says something about adjusting the right most roller over the long (3'') rollergrit for 'other sized vinyl' but I've gone through about 5 yards trying to get this strait, and no luck.

The OTHER issue I'm having which is probably a setting looking right at me... When it goes to cut, sometimes it will draw alot of material in. So much that it crosses the sensor and throws an error, or the opposite... it will spit out a bunch of vinyl THEN start cutting... which wastes alot.

AHHHHHH I'm loosing my mind.... and alot of vinyl. Any help would be appreciated!!

 

[bob]

Cutters cut from roller to roller, regardless of the actual width of the media. They don't sense the media width, they sense where the rollers are. If you load 30" media with the rollers only 5" apart, then you can cut 5".

With a couple of really obscure exceptions, if you have 15" media the most you can cut out of it is 13"-14". Some plotters have a 10mm or so overcut capabilty you can invoke with the right control panel settings but cutting on the outside of the feed rollers generally is Not A Good Idea.

 

[Outline Graphics]

Thanks for a fast response! I appreciate it!

AHHHH... I was just tinkering around with it. I noticed that if you move them around a bit on the roller grits you're absolutely right... When you close the machine it scans side to side. I'm assuming setting itself up. From there you can move the cutter side to side and it looks like it shows you it's cut area. Seems to always hug the right side of the vinyl more than the left. It must be about 1/8" from the right side, and maybe 3/4 - 1" from the left side. I guess it's 6 in one, half a dozen in the other if one's side a little closer to the edge than the other, you're probably still getting the same cutting path...it's just not evenly distributed between the 2 edges.

Nice... thanks

Any ideas on the 5 or 7 inches of vinyl it wastes each time I send something to the cutter? I noticed...if it doesn't push extra out before it cuts...then sometimes it sucks too much in and when it goes to push some extra out, the vinyl gets caught on the 'lip' coming out of the machine. The edge of the vinyl obviously curls downwards from being in a roll. When this happens it gets bunched up.

Seems like there should be a middle ground here. Not pulling in too much, and not pushing too much out...

 

[iSign]

look for how to "reset orgin"
when you are ready to cut after loading vinyl, slew enough vinyl back behind the cutting area to leave just enough to not snag when it is sent back out again. You will learn how much this is, & it may be 3-4", so you may have to deal with that. Once you have that much out front, "reset the orgin" That is telling the plotter "start here" If you don't do that, it may be set to start somewhere else, hence the pulling in or pushing out material that you speak of.

 

[Outline Graphics]

I'll give it a whirl. I'm assuming that's what the basepoint button on the cutter does.

 

[Cadmn]

outline not trying to be SA or ugly but did you get the manual ? the rollers are your right & left side markers the cutter should cut just inside the rollers & in some cases on the roller line front to back the eyes set the length on the material & will move bot directions to srt itsself, then move all material to the back leaving the front tip I've got my origion set to that point tf page is 24" wide I set my page in my in the settings to 23.99" hope this helps

 

[Outline Graphics]

Cadmn,

Yeah, I got the manual. It's pretty vague and tells you what label on the button says, and what they do, but not how to used them effectively. The manual also gives specific directions on how to load 12'', 18'' and 24'' vinyl, but gives no help on loaading different sizes. Trust me... if the directions were somewhat helpful, I'd be cutting viny...no posting questions

 

[Cadmn]

outline on mine the left side has long grit roller& others ar short figure whick rollers line up on your vinyl width on mine the right side of 15" will hit about the third or fourth grit roller from left. your grit rollers also help set your width hopefully I have helped I have run material as narrorow as 2" & as wide as 24"
in various widths.