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Printing and cutting magnetic material

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altereddezignz

New Member
I am looking at possibly printing and cutting magnetic material. I would be using a vj-1324 and a ve-q54. I know they make a stamp to round the corners of the sign but what about all the straight cuts. Just use a type of rzr blade and straight edge?

Also any advice on what magnetic material to use and if anyone has printed it on the printer i have.

Thanks
 
jtinker

jtinker

Owner
We use MagX magnetics and we load it in the machine and print directly on the surface after adjusting head height a little. Unless you have some sort of cnc machine then X-acto is probably your best bet. At least thats what I would use to cut out a design, maybe not rounded edges there are machines for that but any contoured design i would just cut out by hand if you dont have a cnc handy. Maybe you can load it into a plotter and change the number of passes to like 10 or something lol. I never tried it but it may work.
 
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GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
I remember reading on their website somewhere Mutoh specifically noting that you should not run magnetic material through their printers. Of course, that's not what you asked, so... I second hand cutting. It's a pain (and, fortunately, we don't do a lot of magnets).
Running magnetic material in a friction-fed plotter is possible (as long as nothing on the plotter is steel), but it's a very slow process. Running more that one pass isn't a necessity- all you have to do is score the material enough to "break" it.
Now, if you have a flatbed plotter (lucky you), you shouldn't have any trouble at all.
 
A

altereddezignz

New Member
GaSouthpaw said:
I remember reading on their website somewhere Mutoh specifically noting that you should not run magnetic material through their printers. Of course, that's not what you asked, so... I second hand cutting. It's a pain (and, fortunately, we don't do a lot of magnets).
Running magnetic material in a friction-fed plotter is possible (as long as nothing on the plotter is steel), but it's a very slow process. Running more that one pass isn't a necessity- all you have to do is score the material enough to "break" it.
Now, if you have a flatbed plotter (lucky you), you shouldn't have any trouble at all.
Click to expand...

I am trying to find this now but have yet to find it in any of the 1324 specs or documents but still looking.
Thanks
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
As a Mutoh certified tech I can confirm. These machines are not meant to print on magnetic even if the magnet manufacturer says you can. They are certainly capable o fit but Mutoh does not recommend it because the of the potential damage caused by head strikes. If you get a head strike on vinyl, you run a cleaning and keep on printing. If you get a head strike on magnet material, the chances of it frying the head are much higher. I actually had a customer go through this and wasn't able to get warranty work done because the machine was not being used as it was designed for. The magnet got caught for a few seconds and popped up only a few millimeters but it was enough for the head to strike. The bottom of the head de-laminated and the customer was out $2300 on a new print head for a machine that was less than a year old. It's not worth the risk in my opinion unless you are making $$$$ on magnets.
 
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altereddezignz

New Member
VanderJ said:
As a Mutoh certified tech I can confirm. These machines are not meant to print on magnetic even if the magnet manufacturer says you can. They are certainly capable o fit but Mutoh does not recommend it because the of the potential damage caused by head strikes. If you get a head strike on vinyl, you run a cleaning and keep on printing. If you get a head strike on magnet material, the chances of it frying the head are much higher. I actually had a customer go through this and wasn't able to get warranty work done because the machine was not being used as it was designed for. The magnet got caught for a few seconds and popped up only a few millimeters but it was enough for the head to strike. The bottom of the head de-laminated and the customer was out $2300 on a new print head for a machine that was less than a year old. It's not worth the risk in my opinion unless you are making $$$$ on magnets.
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Thank you very much for chiming in. Its not that i do not believe you GaSouthpaw but just curious. Thanks again for the info. Ill outsource or stick with spot vinyl on the magnetic small signs.
Thanks
 
L

lgroth

New Member
I've print/ cut magnetic on our Roland printer and have also cut it on our plotter... Unless you're doing a very complex shape you're better off cutting by hand. The good news is if you do it on a plotter it doesn't really take much more pressure than cutting vinyl, just enough to score it and it tears out clean and easy, a couple tests with different pressures and you're ready. The bad news is it's a one time shot and your blade will need replacing, dulls them immediately. We don't do a lot of complex cut magnets, but I keep some old dull blades on hand for the rare occasion we do.
 
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player

New Member
VanderJ said:
As a Mutoh certified tech I can confirm. These machines are not meant to print on magnetic even if the magnet manufacturer says you can. They are certainly capable o fit but Mutoh does not recommend it because the of the potential damage caused by head strikes. If you get a head strike on vinyl, you run a cleaning and keep on printing. If you get a head strike on magnet material, the chances of it frying the head are much higher. I actually had a customer go through this and wasn't able to get warranty work done because the machine was not being used as it was designed for. The magnet got caught for a few seconds and popped up only a few millimeters but it was enough for the head to strike. The bottom of the head de-laminated and the customer was out $2300 on a new print head for a machine that was less than a year old. It's not worth the risk in my opinion unless you are making $$$$ on magnets.
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Did the head catch the edge? Or did it touch the flat material and the magnet fried the print-head?

I wonder if I could tape the magnet to some cheap rolled vinyl that is wider.The chart wheels would not be on the magnet, and the edges of the magnet would be completely taped to the sled...
 
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