KahneFan

I cut by color often for layering. But, is there a way to select multiple colors to cut at once? For example, my design is red and black, but I make my own registration marks which are green. So, I want to cut red/green, then the next cut will be black/green. How can I select the green and the other color to cut.

Thank you all so much for your help! After the adjustments you all suggested, the cutter works much better. I adjusted the pinch rollers much tighter and I think that helped A LOT! I cut that 6' run again and it came out very well. All my registration marks lined up perfectly over the 6' of cutting. Y'all are life savers!

I have attached pictures for an example. This is a test pattern I've setup so it will make a lot of cuts in a small pattern. You can see it gets out of alignment(?) and cuts over its own registration marks, or way away from its own marks. You can also see where the box it's supposed to cut doesn't even reconnect at the corner. I called USC and they suggested I adjust the pinch rollers, which I did a couple times with the same results. On smaller decals it hasn't been a terrible issue (still an issue though). But, I have someone needing a 6' decal and it's WAY out by the time it finishes.

You are correct. Sorry, I was referring to looking at the blade held up in front of me and dropping it lower in the holder. So, if it's mounted, I cannot go higher or it will not cut at all. Speed 040 mm/s Press 140g Up_Speed 100 mm/s Baud rate 19200

I used the post-its many months ago as a way to test before going to vinyl initially. Once I went to vinyl, I still adjusted from there. I have 2 blades. 1 blade I use for 651 (standard vinyl) and 1 blade I use for 5600 (reflective), and I change the blades depending upon what I'm cutting. I understand blade depth is important. Honestly asking, have I done or said something that leads you to believe I don't care about my blade depth or have my blade depth set incorrectly? My blades cut through the vinyl, but not the backing. Most of the time they cut shallow enough I don't even get a shadow line/indention on the backing below. With all that said, I completely agree that I (still) might not have the blade set correctly, but if I set the blades any lower than they are they simply will not cut through the vinyl - I've tried. I absolutely know I'm novice still, I've never had formal training, I 100% appreciate all your advice, and am taking your advice and am doing everything you all are asking of me. I posed the question of the Teflon strip as to understand the effects of a bad Teflon strip, I even mentioned I wasn't trying to be argumentative, but honestly trying to learn and understand. MZ SKEETER, I could understand your frustrations if I hadn't been doing (everything) you've suggest... but I have, which is why my machine is now dialed in better than when we began. Honestly, if there was someone near the Austin, TX area I could pay to come dial this thing in and give me a lesson, I'd do it in a heartbeat, because I know I'm a rookie.

If I add overcut, would it then overcut the areas which are currently not having issues?

Not to disagree, more of a discussion; wouldn't a problem with the Teflon strip be something that would be uniform down the design? These look like it's simply stopping short - or out of alignment. For example, I forgot to lock my middle roller on a larger design once and there was a very uniform line down that area of the entire design where the blade didn't cut through the vinyl. I'm guessing a divot in the Teflon would show as an issue every time it went across that spot. Again, not saying it's not the issue, just checking. Blade holder is clean. I'll check out adding oil! Side note on pressure, I have tested it on a stack of post-its where it doesn't cut when gliding, but when I give pressure it cuts only the top post-it, but not the post-it below.

I do not see any cracks on the arm. I feel like I'm a lot closer now after doing the calibrations. The default registration marks are all within the box now (this was my crazy test pattern page). The machine's test star still has a slight opening on the bottom left though.

Offset would be this test?

Thank you for all your help so far by the way.

Many many times on the reflective. As mentioned, this has been an issue for a while, but on smaller designs, it wasn't enough for me to "worry" over. Now that I'm trying to cut this larger pattern, it exaggerates the issue enough to be a problem. I did the "Cutter Scale" option you showed and that was eye opening, thank you. My machine was slightly out of scale, which is now corrected. But, it still doesn't connect in the corner of this 10" x 4" test box (from the Cutter Scale pattern).

I have not cut the larger design again yet. I'll be cutting it in reflective and don't want to waste the cost of that vinyl until I can get the alignment fixed. That's why I'm using this simple test pattern first before I attempt something larger. If I can't get this smaller design to cut straight, no reason to go to the bigger design yet. This was the test design I used in my first pictures. The flag will have multiple colors, which is why I have the registration marks. The axe will be a different color. Yeah, I could probably lay it by hand without the marks, but the marks definitely highlighted the alignment issue. I am working on the fixes above.

Honestly, I don't care much about the weed box since I cut the vinyl close around the design before weeding anyway. I could turn the box off. But, the registration marks show how far off the design gets. This is one of the registration marks I made in the design above (the arrows). It shows how far off it got before it got back to cut the middle of the arrow. This is going on the tailgate of a truck and if the image curves this much, it'll be noticeable.

I have not. I googled calibration, but most of the results I found were about contour cutting, which I'm not doing.

Understood! Back to my current model though, USC originally sent me a new board along with the head when it wasn't lifting the blade at first. Replacing the head fixed the lifting issue, but do you think it would be worth it to try replacing the board in case that might be causing this current issue somehow?

I'll check it out, thanks! I've been thinking I need to go wider, so now might be the time to do that as well!

Good to know about having slack. I was letting the machine pull it. But, even in the image above (which was only 6 inches deep), it still got off. I do run the vinyl back and forth before cutting to make sure it's not drifting. If it does drift, it's usually because I don't have it fed in square, so I'll reset and then test run until it feeds straight. I have the blade dialed in. It's doesn't cut deep enough to cut the back, but it cuts deep enough to cut the vinyl. Any lighter and it will not cut the vinyl. Budget - I'm still small time and trying to grow, that's why $x,xxx is possibly doable, but $xx,xxx+ is out of my range just yet. I'm new to cutters, so I'm honestly not even sure what an "entry level (good)" cutter would start at. Yeah, this machine is entry level.... but the good is still questionable - although it could be operator error.

The last picture is what I cut to end up with the results in the actual photos. Just showing that even with a 28 x 6 cut, it got off as much as it did. I have the machine moving very slowly and it still cuts that far off. In regards to slack - If I'm cutting a 6' run, I should pull 6' out of the roll? I've had the machine almost a year now, but I'll check the head wheels. The first head they sent me last year was not picking up at all, so they had to send me a replacement. For most of my cuts over the last year, this difference has not been enough to worry about or even enough to notice on most cuts, but I've had requests for larger decals lately and so it has become an issue. I do have the rollers pretty much even. I have the outside rollers at the edge, so I'll try bringing those in an inch or so. Couldn't agree more on the blade depth. It definitely takes tweaking to make sure it's correct. The CC method is a good (starting) point, but really needs adjustments from there. I'm thinking about stepping up to a better cutter. Any suggestions? I'm probably OK with a $x,xxx machine, but I'm not to the $xx,xxx level yet.