Question Weeding vinyl quickly : text

[CKCUSTOMKC]

Need some advice. What is a method to speed up the weeding of vinyl from large runs of text. Will relief lines help?

I have a guy in my shop who spent longer than desired weeding about 10 lines of text. I used oracal which is a cheaper vinyl but shouldn't have had any difficulty weeding the lettering.

My question for you all is. Does anyone have a method for weeding vinyl lettering quicker? I'm open to any options that will allow me to speed things up on the front end of things and free my shop guy up from spending his whole day weeding the vinyl

 

[James Burke]

Does anyone have a method for weeding vinyl lettering quicker?

Yes. It's called practice....say about a few thousand hours or so. Believe me, it really works that way.

I like to use a finger knife because it eliminates much of the pressure of having to grip a tool. I turn the blade backward so it doesn't cut when I weed. Works amazingly well.

JB

 

[CKCUSTOMKC]

Yes. It's called practice....say about a few thousand hours or so. Believe me, it really works that way.

I like to use a finger knife because it eliminates much of the pressure of having to grip a tool. I turn the blade backward so it doesn't cut when I weed. Works amazingly well.

JB
View attachment 158853

Couldn't agree more. I went out there and helped him finish up and granted peeling letting is a tedious process regardless.

 

[James Burke]

Couldn't agree more. I went out there and helped him finish up and granted peeling letting is a tedious process regardless.

It can be fun and therapeutic. I do engraved bricks and I'm working towards finishing brick number 11,395. It's been an ongoing project for nearly 12 years.

It seems like I've weeded a gazillion 3/4" letters from the stencils, but I just brew up a dark cup of coffee, turn on a podcast and then get lost in the busyness.


JB

 

[Scotchbrite]

If it's a lot of text, I like to add cut lines to make the sections smaller. Sometimes I set it up on the file, but usually I just put them in by hand. You just have to figure out enough pressure to cut the vinyl and not the backing.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Yes. It's called practice....say about a few thousand hours or so. Believe me, it really works that way.

I like to use a finger knife because it eliminates much of the pressure of having to grip a tool. I turn the blade backward so it doesn't cut when I weed. Works amazingly well.

JB
View attachment 158853

I tap the tip onto metal to blunt the tip.
For middles, get one out and use it to pick up the rest, it's sometimes faster than picking at them with a blade

 

[Billct2]

With serif fonts sometimes it helps to add a littler bit of outline with rounded corners.

 

[myront]

 

[signheremd]

Normal weed, cut between lines of text, let sit overnight (shrinks), tape down both left and right ends tightly, little bit of a snap/flick as you weed, and/or quick yank like pulling a table cloth out from under plates. Experience.... practice, failures, motivation (we can't go home till this job is completed)...

 

[GettysburgSigns]

Ckapex,
You didn't mention the size of the letters.
One thing to consider... maybe you didn't cut the vinyl quite deep enough?

 

[2B]

create weed lines
pull "into" the face of the letter or number. For example, for an "E" you pull <---, for a "3" you pull --->

always try to pull at a min of 135*, or greater is better

One of the guys in the shop like the jerk method, when you jerk up the vinyl in quick short pulls

I like to use a straight shaft for picking

 

[GAC05]

If the text is small and lifting off the backer you can add split lines to each line of text so that you weed only one half at a time. It allows you to hold down the letters to keep them in place.
Flexi will do it for you in the plot menu. It is also pretty simple to set up in Corel or Illustrator if you don't use Flexi.

 

[Stacey K]

Practice. I like a tweezers for most things. Maybe I'll try that finger thing James showed! Tell him it has to get done before he leaves, maybe that will speed up the process.

 

[GB2]

If the text is small and lifting off the backer you can add split lines to each line of text so that you weed only one half at a time. It allows you to hold down the letters to keep them in place.
Flexi will do it for you in the plot menu. It is also pretty simple to set up in Corel or Illustrator if you don't use Flexi.

View attachment 158874

I'll do that manually when weeding tiny text that's giving me grief but it would be nice to program that before plotting, do you know of an easy way to do it in Illustrator?

 

[GAC05]

What plotter and software are you using to cut with? Graphtec has a setting to not cut intersecting lines. So in theory you could just draw lines through your text and the plotter will only cut the segments in between.
I tried this a few times and it was inconsistent but it might have been something I was doing. Not sure how I would do it in AI. Seems like weld or trim should be able to subtract the intersecting lines but it does not look like it works with a single open path. Also shape builder would be an option but it just locked up AI twice

 

[CKCUSTOMKC]

If it's a lot of text, I like to add cut lines to make the sections smaller. Sometimes I set it up on the file, but usually I just put them in by hand. You just have to figure out enough pressure to cut the vinyl and not the backing.

that being said is there an easy weed option when sending through the printer? I have an HP315 and am using flexi but there is an easy weed option for the cutter but not when sending through the printer first?

 

[Geneva Olson]

We score the vinyl in sections when it comes off the plotter.
I think I'm going to have to figure out how to make the weed boxes. anyone have a tutorial?

 

[CKCUSTOMKC]

If the text is small and lifting off the backer you can add split lines to each line of text so that you weed only one half at a time. It allows you to hold down the letters to keep them in place.
Flexi will do it for you in the plot menu. It is also pretty simple to set up in Corel or Illustrator if you don't use Flexi.

View attachment 158874

so I do have flexi and can add those lines very quickly using flexi, however that only works with the cut function side of flexi, if I send it through the printer first, I have found that flexi does not have the option to add split lines to something being sent through the rip and print function. any suggestion for adding the split lines quickly in illustrator? my method for doing the split lines in illustrator right now is time consuming and slow

 

[CKCUSTOMKC]

We score the vinyl in sections when it comes off the plotter.
I think I'm going to have to figure out how to make the weed boxes. anyone have a tutorial?

if you use flexi there are options for ussing the split lines under the send to cutter, however if you send through the rip and print function, there is no option to add the split lines,

 

[CKCUSTOMKC]

I'll do that manually when weeding tiny text that's giving me grief but it would be nice to program that before plotting, do you know of an easy way to do it in Illustrator?

I second that, its the smaller text giving me issues as well, I typically have no problem with anything over an 1" tall but under that I start having fits