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SP300 Problem cutting stickers

Morph1

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Hi all,

I recently printed laminated and score cut stickers that I've done in the past,
I used to cut them full speed with the same blade weight as I usually do, and they used to turn out perfect...
Recently I redesigned the stickers but the overall size and shape is pretty much the same but I bought some cheap laminate
non brand , I believe it's chinese import..., I noticed the stickers cut very poorly , the blade almost jumps and skips around details and I can not weed the background out..., what I tried to do is,
I put a new blade in, it did not help,
I turned the heaters off so the vinyl got cool and that what helped a bit but still the blade jumps on me around sharp corner details, the size of the stickers is around 4" x 4" and I did cut them before without a problem...
I use dpf 4500 GT print media and that non brand laminate...,
My question is could that be due to that cheap laminate ? because that is the only thing that had changed since I had those stickers cut last time...
Is there something wrong with the cutter carriage ?, I checked the blade holder area and it's all tight as it should be...
maybe the teflon strip at the bottom needs replacing ? I examined the strip and it seams in good shape..
I will try today to cut those without the laminate and see what happens.
I am a bit worried that maybe there is something wrong with the cutter carriage...
can anyone relate to this ?
any help would be appreciated.

thanks !
 

Ragnabrok

New Member
Cutter protection strip can do this, so can a blade holder that isn't rotating nicely, and drags sideways when it changes direction. If it's mostly on the corners it leans more towards the blade holder. I've heard people getting them happy again by a drop of 3-in-1 on the blade holder bearing.

If it's more than just the corners, watch the blade as it's cutting, and listen as well, is the blade bobbing on straight lines, or can you hear it clicking or thumping when moving? the SP-300's love to fatigue the cut carriage cable, and that causes connection breaks. Usually you'll see it not cutting around the same area of the platen.
 

Brink

New Member
Look at the blade with a loop. The tip can be broke off and still look great when viewing it un-aided with just your eyes.
 

Morph1

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Why deviate from a working formula? To save a few pennies? Was it worth it?

Sorry but it wasn't intentional , I went to pick up specific materials from another location and I decided to just get the laminate there and this is how I ended up with that roll of laminate...
I wll be running more tests today...
 

Morph1

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Problem solved...,

The reason behind that was incorrect weight on the blade, I am not sure how that happened but I tried to adjust the pressure up and down and had the same bad result till I finally dropped it down to 180 g and lowered the speed to 10 and it started to cut well again..., what was happening before was when it was cutting straight line it would cut fine till it got in the corners then it would drop the blade into the liner and that what was causing the blade to jump and skip resulting in either torn vinyl or torn / lifted vinyl...
Lesson learned..., what I did was I laminated just plane vinyl and test cut that over and over till I found a sweet spot...
 
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