OldFatBald

Hello all from sunny Northern California, I am very new to vinyl cutting as I have never done it. I basically got tired of ordering stencils for automotive paints online and waiting for them. I have purchased directly from USCutter a refurbished 34” SC2 that I plan on running off of my Windows 10 PC. I will be using it to cut out vinyl stencils for painting automotive graphics using typical automotive solvent based paints. This is just my weekend hobby and not my profession. I have loaded and activated the VinylMaster CUT software. And I am currently going through the different video tutorials. The software communicates with the SC2 and I only have the pen loaded up for now as my stand is coming in a separate box (hopefully tomorrow as UPS didn’t ship it with the cutter???) I have also purchased; 12” & 24” wide rolls of Oramask 813 12” & 24” MT80P Transfer Tape 36”x48” Cutting Mat Since I am just digging into this, I have a lot of questions; Are there any limitations to using the USB cable vs the old style Serial cable I have a lot of AutoCAD experience and would like to design in AutoCAD if possible, then transfer the files to the SC2. From AutoCAD, I can plot to a PDF, save as a .DXF or export to an .EPS Which file type is the easiest to convert to a cut file starting with AutoCAD? For cutting stencils out of the Oramask 813 material What “Speed” should I start with? 400? What “Pressure” should I start with? 100? Thank you for any help!

Sorry! but I guess that I just quoted you! Anyways I was going to try the blade offset calibration next (tomorrow night). That text is relatively small, the capital "M" is about 1 3/4" high. I will try slowing the speed down even further on the next test Thank you for the suggestions.

Sorry that I somehow offended you here on my second night. I have been reading forum posts, the manual and watching the videos. And these are my current questions that I have. I did not realize this forum has different rules than other hobby forums that I frequent.

Thank you, that is what I was concerned with, the help manual says that the Media width is just set to the machine's maximum which in my case would be 34" but when I did change it to 12" it did restrict the maximum available material which seems like it would be a little safer.

Uh, gee thanks. I have been reading it and watching videos. This is new to me as far as vinyl cutting goes. Day 2.2 I made my first test cut at speed = 100, Press = 99 My SC2 seems to make a LOT of grinding noises, not like the high pitched examples that I have seen in videos and experienced with plotters – Is this normal? I know, that is a very subjective thing to ask. I got what looks to be some edge lifting of the vinyl around the letters Is this due to some setting or a function of the material? I have circled some of these areas in yellow The font was Ariel and is has pretty squared off edges on the computer, but the cuts ended up with some extra curves (?) – see my examples in the red circles

Day 2; Thank you for the responses! I will try a couple different methods of file transfer once I actually get the cutting down! I now have my stand and it has been assembled with the SC2 mounted and loaded with the 12” wide Oramask 813. I have set my cutter blade depth – hopefully correct – it cuts the vinyl by hand and just leaves a mark in the backing. Still going through the videos and have made my first test cut. I set my origin manually to just inside the right edge of the vinyl. Will the cutter now use that new origin and cut from there to the left and up only? I don’t want the knife going off of the vinyl!! That is what it seems to be doing Should I set the “Media Width” under: Vinyl Spooler/Cut Options from 34” to 12” (for my 12" roll)? And then would I change that value to 24” when loading up the 24” wide roll of vinyl? Are the horizontal indents on the SC2 meant as a guide for cutting off the vinyl in a straight line? My Plotter has that feature and it looks like that’s what the SC2 indents are for. I made my first test cut with some fonts and an arrow! (Yeah!) But I had unchecked the “Advance After Plot” box and of course it did not “Advance After Plot” – Is there a way to advance the vinyl at the SC2’s control screen or from VM Cut? What is and what is the difference of the: Under the “General Options” Auto Speed-Weed? Auto Weed-Box? Under the “Text Options” Speed-Weed Text Only” does this override the “General Options/Auto Speed-Weed”? I am assuming that the program assumes that I am cutting out and wanting to keep the objects whether it be the letters or the arrow. This may not be the case since I am using it for stencils and I may want to remove the text vinyl and leave the surrounding vinyl as the stencil – hope this makes sense. If that is the case, would I just leave all of those “Auto Weed” settings off?