Looking for quick cheats for FC8600

[CL Visual]

Hoping for some quick help. I just had an FC8600-160 installed tonight. My roland plotter crapped out Friday so it was a move of desperation. Graphtec has a different force layout than roland. I'm hoping some of you can give me your best recommendations on force, speed, overcut, etc for a few different materials. I'll list a few of the basics I use a lot of below. I have tons of cutting to do tomorrow and not a lot of time to test and learn right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

Avery 700 or Oracal 651
Avery 2903 (3.2mil) w/ Avery 2060 lam (3.1mil)
Avery 1105 (2.0mil) with Avery 1360 lam (1.3mil)

 

[bob]

The Graphtec force setting can be a little off-putting if you're used to grams, ounces, or whatever. My FC-7000 [I assume it's the same on an FC-8000] the number means nothing. it's just an arbitrary number from 1 to 50. Worse, it's not linear. I.e. 20 is not twice as much as 10, it's a whole hell of a lot more. For those materials that you list I use 18 for most unlaminated sign vinyl as well as most heat press media and 24 for laminated and other stuff. I have no ides what the force might be in some unit of measure like grams or ounces but it's been working for me for many years.

Speed I set to a maximum of 20 but for small stuff as well as rubbery heat press media I'll drop it down to 10, or 6 for complex heat press images.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I go for around 14 for single layer vinyl, and 22-24 with laminate.

 

[amw]

Hoping for some quick help. I just had an FC8600-160 installed tonight. My roland plotter crapped out Friday so it was a move of desperation. Graphtec has a different force layout than roland. I'm hoping some of you can give me your best recommendations on force, speed, overcut, etc for a few different materials. I'll list a few of the basics I use a lot of below. I have tons of cutting to do tomorrow and not a lot of time to test and learn right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

Avery 700 or Oracal 651
Avery 2903 (3.2mil) w/ Avery 2060 lam (3.1mil)
Avery 1105 (2.0mil) with Avery 1360 lam (1.3mil)

I would take the 1-2 minutes it takes to test the settings for each material. They make it so easy to test the setting that there is no reason not to.
Everyone's going to have different settings. Ours oracal 651/751 our pressure is at 11. For print and laminated about 18.

 

[boxerbay]

these are my presets. they are starting points and we always do a cut test in case we need to bump it up or down a couple force.

 

[CL Visual]

I would take the 1-2 minutes it takes to test the settings for each material. They make it so easy to test the setting that there is no reason not to.
Everyone's going to have different settings. Ours oracal 651/751 our pressure is at 11. For print and laminated about 18.

I will absolutely test it as I'm going. Just looking for a good starting point. I'm so used to grams for pressure, I didn't even know where to start.

 

[CL Visual]

Thank you for all the replies. I have tons to cut today and this will help a lot.

 

[papabud]

i would set your blade depth and then start with force of 18 doing test cuts and adjusting it till you hit the sweet spot for your machine. i run my print laminated cuts slow but my plain vinyl fast.

 

[eahicks]

Your force settings will depend greatly on the blade type and how much of the blade you have sticking out. Try to keep just the smallest amount of the tip protruding.....with that, you should be able to start setting up for various materials.

 

[Case]

The Graphtec force setting can be a little off-putting if you're used to grams, ounces, or whatever. My FC-7000 [I assume it's the same on an FC-8000] the number means nothing. it's just an arbitrary number from 1 to 50. Worse, it's not linear. I.e. 20 is not twice as much as 10, it's a whole hell of a lot more. For those materials that you list I use 18 for most unlaminated sign vinyl as well as most heat press media and 24 for laminated and other stuff. I have no ides what the force might be in some unit of measure like grams or ounces but it's been working for me for many years.

Speed I set to a maximum of 20 but for small stuff as well as rubbery heat press media I'll drop it down to 10, or 6 for complex heat press images.

Bob, technically, it is not an arbitrary number.... The numbers 1-48, each represent 12.5 grams of force.... Gives the FC7000, FC8000, and FC8600 series up to 600 grams of force.... Not that I really care, just saying... :-D

Case

 

[CL Visual]

Bob, technically, it is not an arbitrary number.... The numbers 1-48, each represent 12.5 grams of force.... Gives the FC7000, FC8000, and FC8600 series up to 600 grams of force.... Not that I really care, just saying... :-D

Case

good to know! Thanks for that little tidbit.