Newbie With A Question for a New MH1351

[knight]

 I just recently ordered a new 50" MH1351, and new to operating plotters. I will be mainly using it for car and truck vinyl graphics, and maybe some personalized home items for friends and or customers. My question is where can I find some inexpensive vinyl just to practice with so I can get more familiar with it, and any tips or tricks or things to watch out for,
I really dont want to damage this unit. What is the main tools should you have on hand like exacto knives, scissors, etc...
 By the way the people and support look really great on here, that was one reason why I went with USCutter.

thanks for helping us newbs
-Mark

[Tater]

inexpensive vinyl is all dependant your your geographical location... You best bet is to find a local supplier so that you dont have to pay for shipping.  with a 50 inch plotter, you may have a little trouble finding a supplier that keeps much of that width in stock, at least that is the way in Toledo.  You should be able to find a fair amount of 24 inch vinyl at most distributors.

Some of the basic tools that you will need are an xacto knife or razor knife, a pick or tweezers (i just use a push pin) to weed (peel away) the unwanted vinyl, application tape, so that you can transfer your designs to a substrate (banner, walls, windows, etc.)

If you are beginer, some things that I would look out for is the blade depth and force on your machine.  The blade depth is pretty tricky to get right. You want very little of the blade exposed just so that it will cut thru the vinyl and not the backing paper... A good way to adjust your blade is to take a piece of vinyl and place it on a table and hold the blade holder in your hand. use gentle force and pull the blade down the vinyl... If it cuts thru the vinyl good, check to see if it is going thru the backing paper, if it is, set the blade further into the holder more, and if not cutting thru the vinyl, set the blade out more.

I normally run anywhere from 40-60 grams of force on standard vinyl.  Trial and error is the best way to figure out the blade depth and force.  I say this because the easiest thing probalby to mess up is the cutting strip.  If your blade cuts into this strip too much, then it will produce very uneven cuts on the vinyl... you want to keep the strip in the best shape to eliminate headaches from weeding future jobs.

[knight]

 I also work with r/c model airplanes and with covering them with monokote we always use a fresh blade to prevent tearing or bad edges on the film, how often aprox do you change blades if any on these plotters?

[Tater]

Its really hard to say how ofter we change the blade... Sometimes a couple of weeks, sometimes a few months in between changes... normally i would say averageing about 1 blade per month running the plotter probably about 4 hours straight 5 days per week...

It also gets dull way faster if you are cutting metalic film, They really tear up your blade.

[knight]

 Appreciate the info, thanks.
Looking forward to messing with this machine when it comes in.

- Mark