Questions about Roland Camm-1 Pro and Vinyl problems

[inkmachine]

Hi,

We are totally new to the world of vinyl cutting. We just purchased a Roland Camm-1 Pro cutter and some ThermoFlex Plus vinyl in Royal and Red. We are planning on using the cutter mostly for doing names and/or numbers on the back of t-shirts.

The red (PLS-9301) and royal (PLS-9522) vinyl we have is from specialtymaterials.com. We also have a roll of White CC Film from Stahls which is a nicer and thicker vinyl.

I was wondering if anyone here could recommend a good cutting force to use for this vinyl?

Also, we seem to be having a problem with both of these vinyls shifting to the left or right during the cutting process and it will either make the vinyl bunch up or it will get off track and stop the machine. We don't seem to be having this problem with the thicker white vinyl from Stahls at all. Is there some adjustment on the machine that I am not aware of that would help with the problems we are having with the red and blue thinner vinyls from specialtymaterials.com?

One other problem we are seeing is that some times, a corner of a font will not be a clean crisp corner...it will end up being slightly rounded or on a few items, it has been severely rounded. Is this a problem related to speed of cutting, pressure / force or all of the above?

Thanks for all of your help and I apologize if any of this should be discussed in a different forum on these boards.

 

[Air Art Girl]

You might have a sport film from Stahl's which Specialty has as well. It's way over kill for tshirt or hoodies. I only use Sport film on mesh garments.

Always make sure your material is tracking straight before sending to cut. Feed a run out and make sure it's tracking straight then feed it back to a start position. I will then push the "origin" button to make sure it starts cutting in that position.

Not sure what model Roland you have. I use more force for sport film then I do regular thermoflex. I cut regular thermoflex at about 80.
Not sure why the corners would be rounded other then the font might be bad.

 

[inkmachine]

Hi,

I should have stated that we are definitely only using the Stahls for the mesh garments. I was meaning to use the Stahls as a comparison to the ThermoFlex for a possible reason as to why were are having issues with the thinner TheromoFlex shifting during cutting and Stahls not shifting.

So, if I run out the vinyl first and it is not tracking straight...what is the process to correct that? Do I adjust the position of the roll of vinyl thats in the rollers on the back?

Again, sorry for what is probably very basic questions, but I am completely new to this and wasn't provided much of any training at all.

Thanks very much!

 

[Air Art Girl]

if you run out a length of thermoflex and it's not tracking correctly, you release the rollers, straighten the film, tighten the rollers and check that it's tracking straight.

 

[Bill43mx]

We're close to AAG on pressure, we run Thermoflex at 90 grams on our GX24. The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is cutting speed. We typically slow the plotter down to 5 cm per sec. for thermoflex. That should help with your corner issues.

 

[BobM]

I always pre-feed the length of vinyl I'm cutting. If it's wandering left or right, I straighten it out, feed it back and forth and re-check it. Always hit the "orgin" button before you start the cut. I don't do a lot of t-shirt vinyl, but use a 60 degree blade when I do.

 

[FatCat]

Cutting Force/Pressure;
Best bet would be to use the manual (should be able to download from Roland) to setup the cutting pressure. Also, there should be a test cut button on your machine that you can use to eyeball how your machine is cutting a specific material. Based on the results of the test cut you will adjust your settings until it comes out perfect. *Make sure your blade is sharp with no worn edges or nicks.

Material Tracking/Straightness;
Usually the Rolands track pretty well. Mine has no problem with long runs of 20+ feet but that is only if you load it straight to begin with. If you're running say a 6 ft. piece, pull out 3 feet and then center your material. Run it backwards after loading and watch your line gauge to see if it is tracking straight. If not, re-adjust. *Also, understand that if your pinch rollers are worn straight tracking may be next to impossible.

 

[inkmachine]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm going to put some of these suggestions to the test and see how it turns out. I will update when we do.

Thanks again for the help!