Vinyl Cutter - trouble with small text

I use a pnc 950 and text under 1/4" is damn near impossible

 

Hit print, AAAHH. 1/4" is as small as I would ever go. Since we got our printes around 5 years ago I have not cut anything under 3/4". Can't pay me enough.

Here is a trick, duplicate your letters right on top of each other. Then when you cut use super light weight. That way the cutter will make two light passes over the letters. Make sure you have a new blade in. Done some super small detailed stuff this way back in "the day of vinyl"

 

I have only had my printer for 3 months, and man am I glad to never have to weed the small intricate stuff ever again!!

Make sure your speed is as slow as it can go too!

 

I refuse to do any work with letters smaller than 1 inch.
Every thing else gets printed.

 

some fonts are better than others

 

Never thought of that good call.

In the day we did all the La Salsa menu boards long story short we made the slats that go on the menu board out of non glare plex, painted the back and had to apply white vinyl texy on the face about the same size. We would build a square around the text(or if your familiar with the easy weed function) take all the inside part of the O's, A's etc. leave the rest alone transfer it and then apply the vinyl to the plex, then heat gun and peal sometimes spraying it with denatured alch seemed to work and peel the square back and the text will stay stuck to the plex where it was cut.
We started screening them after about doing easily over 10,000 slats, so we had a couple guys who would do that all day long.

 

Just did a bunch of baseball logos for the kids batting helmets. Very tiny details. I have a graphtec plotter. Used a 60 degree blade, force was at 12, speed at 6, quality at 1. The trick was adjusting the blade way down. Stuck out about 1/8" to 3/16", then adjusted the force by trial and error. BE CAREFUL! You have to sneak up on the blade depth and force so you don't cut into your cutting strip. It cut the smallest details without any problems. Did a couple dozen.

Also heard about putting vinyl in refrig before weeding, but I really didn't need to.

Once again, be careful, hope this helps.

 

I use the same plotter. Just did some decals for a used car dealer, very small text but doable. Couple of tricks - cut your vinyl, stick in fridge for a day or overnight or leave unweeded over the weekend.

If vinyl is going on a substrate tape the unweeded vinyl and apply to substrate, then weed out the small, intricate parts, much less stressful. I've done it that way for years.

 

When I have something to cut with small text I just switch to a 60 degree blade and for the most part there is no issue. I have also switched with much luck to Clean Cut blades and they have made smaller things much easier.

 

I have found that if you follow a few guidelines you can successfully cut small text. first select a font with rounded serifs ex. Arial Rounded MT Bold next set your cut speed down to 25 cm (or 1/4 speed) also must use high quality vinyl 2-3 mm. thickness the thiner the better. good luck... it works for my Roland Camm-1!
Signs: Jayemart