Problems with small lettering on my Graphtec Craft Robo Pro (CE-5000-40-crp)

[Gilligan]

Using FDC 4200 making stencils for sandblasting we are always having problems with the cutter just wrecking the text.

 This job in particular is 1/2" tall script type lettering.

 It just picks up on the vinyl and mashes it all together and then we have to try and sort it all out or recut it .

 Sometimes we are doing like a dozen of the EXACT same design on a roll going 2 x 6 down the roll. One half will be perfect and the other half will be completely trash.

 I just cleaned the blade up before this last pass because of the pull ups it will get gunk in there and that will obviously cause problems.

 Here are my settings for sticker vinyl... it's so slow because of the problems.

 Condition = 1
 Speed = 5cm/s
 Force = 18
 Quality = 3

 We are cutting with the illustrator plug-in and there are no double cuts or extra lines in any of the design.

[Homer]

what degree blade you using? my guess is a 45, try a 60

[Gilligan]

Yes, 45... I have a 60 and just assumed it was for flock type material.

I guess in a smaller more precise situation at "taller" blade would stay out of the way and make the turns better.

Should I set the blade depth about the same.... I hate tweaking with all of that stuff because one small adjustment here changes everything everywhere else.

[Homer]

ALWAYS MAKE ONE CHANGE AT A TIME, SO YOU KNOW WHAT WORKS. tRY THE 60, SLOW YOUR SPEED DOWN, YOU CAN ADJUST FORCE AS YOU GO. moth fkn caps lock. . been getting me all day. . .sorry

[Gilligan]

I need to be yelled at when it comes to this cutter.

I've considered buying a US cutter off ebay because of all the problems we have.  Then I started thinking more clearly that I should just fix the problem with my $1200 cutter before buying more problems with a $300 cutter.

[Homer]

don't buy a us cutter, what you have is fine. . FDC sucks, it's avery, FDC is just a converter I had a huge fall out with FDC, sent back 5k worth of material to them because of their crap products. We had about 50 54" rolls of poster paper cut down for a huge job we ran, they heat fused the ends of the rolls together while slitting it -we tore almost every roll. . .then got a full refund haha. . .douches. . . try 3M, or oracle.

[Gilligan]

I just need something UBER cheap... it's only on the glass for a day or two and then after we sandblast the glass we pull off the vinyl.


Just tried the 60 degree blade... it's still peeling up... we will lower the force some more... set it at 10.

[Gilligan]

Still having problems.

I lowered the blade hoping it may be able to avoid getting caught up in the holder but I don't think that is working... 8 isn't a clean cut and 9 still pulls up on it.

[Prosperi-Tees]

60 degree blade, slow down the cut and make sure the blade is not sticking out of the holder very much at all. As far as US Cutter? My suggestion at the very least would be the GCC Expert nothing less thank that. I have been thru 2 US Cutter machines and wont go back.

[Gilligan]

I just got off the phone with specialty-graphics where I bought the cutter... for 1200 bucks they can give me a little services.

They said that a lot of people assume 60 degree is needed for intricate work but they think we should stick with 45.  They suggested that the blade was dull (same as you Homer)... so I dug up a new 45 and put it in there... I lowered the cut depth from what the old 45 was (just like you said Homer, "one at a time" LOL) and now it is working better... we are cutting at less force (was 18 now 10)... so maybe the force was too much and causing the blade to dull?!

I really hate cutters.  This one is supposed to have the same components as it's bigger brother just in a "desktop" size... so I should have a VERY good cutter.  But the firmware is buggy and documentation is weak to say the least.  There are so many easy fixes that should be made software and documentation wise that would practically eliminate the steep learning curve on these things.

We have fought this thing every step of the way... be it Optical registration cad cutting transfers, wrecking vinyl, ruining cutting strips (I guess technically that is my fault but without a good understanding of what to set and why you are bound to mess things up) and then when we got it, it was set in the machine to auto rotate and set to the wrong blade type... that gave us so many headaches!  Graphtec tech support figured out the in machine auto rotate thing and digging around on TSF led me to see that the wrong "tool" was set in the machine.

[Sbrem]

Graphtec or Roland is my advice. Our Roland is about 17 years old, and still works like the day we got it.

Steve

[Gilligan]

Graphtec or Roland is my advice. Our Roland is about 17 years old, and still works like the day we got it.

Steve

I researched a great deal before making this decision.  I needed optically registering cad cutting for my bro-in-laws "merchandise" so the graphtec was the only one that made sense money wise.  I wanted the Roland but just couldn't pony up the cash to make it worth it for something that I could technically get for $300 (US Cutter LP24) just with a bit more work.

We did a lot of cad cut transfers at first but now I could get away with manually registering them with a laser if I had to... Hell, I'd probably ruin less expensive transfer paper... that graphtec just goes wonky sometimes.

[Sbrem]

Graphtec or Roland is my advice. Our Roland is about 17 years old, and still works like the day we got it.

Steve

I researched a great deal before making this decision.  I needed optically registering cad cutting for my bro-in-laws "merchandise" so the graphtec was the only one that made sense money wise.  I wanted the Roland but just couldn't pony up the cash to make it worth it for something that I could technically get for $300 (US Cutter LP24) just with a bit more work.

We did a lot of cad cut transfers at first but now I could get away with manually registering them with a laser if I had to... Hell, I'd probably ruin less expensive transfer paper... that graphtec just goes wonky sometimes.

I do have a want list, and the newer Roland GX24 is on the list, because it has the optical registration. But, ya gotta do whatcha gotta do of course.

Steve

[royster13]

Oracal 751 is thinner and cuts and weeds better.....