Out of the blue, both my plotters have been cutting inconsistently. I cut a lot of text panels for museums and galleries. 1/2" -3/4" text that usually weeds with a few I dots missing and a couple letters. Recently across 2 plotters, I loose about 25% of my letters. sometimes 75%. The colors it has been like this are mainly Oracal 651 matte black and white. Has anyone come across this problem with Oracal? It just does not seem right that I am loosing so many letters across 2 plotters and multiple rolls of material. I have swapped out the holders, the cut strip and the knife, turned on tangential mode and messed with the offset, slowed the speed. Graphtec says its material.
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HELP! 2 Graphtec plotters not cutting right OR Oracal 651 material has defects?
- Thread starter depps74
- Start date
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
We get a lot of buckling with 651, could be from that. Even at 35% humidity it's a problem. We still use it but we FWIW we've never had this issue with 3M series 50 but the price went way up on it.
when you say buckling do you mean from it getting damp? Someone else suggested static could be causing this. we have a lot of shocking going on in our shop from static. maybe that?
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
The paper gets wavy like it was in real humid air. We don't notice any static issues and it's only oracal cut vinyl that does it.
I had the same problem a little while back with Oracal 651. I have a graphtec as well. I ended up buying a cutting strip, thinking it was time to replace because i never did since it was new.... Luckily the cutting strip took forever to arrive. i ended up using some avery i had laying around and it weeded perfectly. I could only assume it was a defect with the Oracal 651. Never replaced the cutting strip... "if it's not broken, don't fix it". Now i only buy Avery due to this problem.
logotogogo
New Member
We are having the exact same problem with our 3M Controltac with Comply! Yes IJ180 the real expensive stuff. #M says they changed the adhesive and it just isn't cutting through it. If you cut and let sit for a few days (like we have time for that) it helps. Maybe there were some changes to the adhesives due to a new regulation? I don't know but it is soo frustrating! Its been about 2 to 3 weeks since it started. Changed blades, cutting strip- everything on the Graphtec. I will be watching this post for more info- thanks for posting!
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
It did it to us this morning with 651 white on the Graphtec. You can't walk away from it while it cuts because sometimes it's so bad that it jambs up the cutter, bad on the graphtec but less on the summa and mimaki. I'm not a fan of the graphtec. at all Maybe vacuum is weaker which makes it worse? I dunno but the buckling isn't new on 651.
I contacted Oracal today they said there has not been any changes but to send the lot number as it could be I am just getting bad lots. I cut today with no issues so sometimes I do wonder if it's static that causes it?
Mimaki makes a cutter? I had a summa and it was a lemon, could not cut a straight line and I hated the software. Might be in the market for a new plotter soon though, today was ok, but we use out plotters so much I don't mind getting another 30" of another brand to try
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
They have a couple models of plotters that are decently priced and heard good reviews on them. We have a print/cut machine and used that to cut for a long time, it's slower on this vs a stand alone but it's really accurate. We recently got a summa s2t160 with opos cam which is a great plotter but still run a few things through the printer to cut.
When i had the issue with the oracal... its almost like the vinyl was cold. the feel and sound of weeding the vinyl just wasnt the same. Vinyl felt "stiffer" and the glue you could hear it separate as your weeding.
I've been in the industry over 20 years, the brands Oracal and Avery are my go too's... Oracal never was an issue for weeding till that one time. Tried oracal again and didnt go well. so i've stuck with avery since then.
I would tell them to come see this thread lol
VizualVoice
I just learned how to change my title status
Odd that this pops up today. Yesterday I ran to the local Michael's to snag some 651 in a pink color that I didn't have on hand for a quick one-off decal for a friend. Wasn't worth ordering it. Anyway, it seemed to cut fine by all appearances, but weeding SUCKED bigly. Similar to The Duke, with it feeling stiff and tough to get to separate, corners not tracking cleanly, etc. Felt like I was back to day 1 of figuring out WTF I was doing. 
I thought it was maybe just me or a shot blade, but I cut some other stuff later (a couple different cut vinyls and some laminated stickers) and it was absolutely fine so I just chalked it up to being old stock on the shelf or something, but now I'm wondering if there's a pattern emerging and we're all going to start having trouble with 651.
I thought it was maybe just me or a shot blade, but I cut some other stuff later (a couple different cut vinyls and some laminated stickers) and it was absolutely fine so I just chalked it up to being old stock on the shelf or something, but now I'm wondering if there's a pattern emerging and we're all going to start having trouble with 651.