haumana

The machine will pre-feed, but where you direct your material to go when it's doing so is up to you. Most of us are vinyl people, so we don't have the same challenge as trying to pre-feed a really long magnetic sheet. Just know that when the pre-feed is done, it should have the same amount of slack when the machine pull is back to it's starting point.

I think it looks awesome. Thank you for sharing your process!

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=OZkKXZ_IJ4WH0gL6r4G4Ag&q=vehicle+templates+for+wraps&oq=vehicle+templates+for+wraps&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.2232.9721..10327...0.0..0.539.4009.0j26j1j5-1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0i22i30.Bxd25nY6j3M

I'd be located in the middle of the Pacific (Hawaii).

I'd run it through my laser, but i highly doubt it's worth you sending it to me. maybe someone who is closer, with a laser, will chime in.

Thank you. I'm learning something new everyday! .... and yah, Clean Cut blades are definitely the way to go - in whatever machine you have or may end up with. I had my blades order the minute I ordered my Graphtec, in fact the blade got to me faster than the machine.

Umm, yah - my laser has a exhaust, but the exhaust doesn't pull out 100% of particles that become airborne when it's engraving and cutting. If it did, I would not need to clean the lens and mirror on my machine on a regular basis, or wipe down some of the soot residue that left in the box. That being said, pvc will cling to the box and then lens with is a huge no-no, not to mention, that the fumes are being exhausted outside, isn't exactly great for anything or anyone outside either. I try to avoid putting things in my box that will emit toxic fumes - whether it's exhausted or not. Thanks for schooling me on the magnets not having pvc. With everything made up of some kind of plastic now days, it's hard to tell what the chemical composition of things are - so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm game to try with the laser, but stupid question ... does any part of the material have pvc in it? because a definitely no-no in the box.

I think this is still your best bet for now. I understand that you'd like to be able to do custom shapes, but if all you need right now is rounded corners - then at least this method will get the job done.

Ah! My LP is like that. I put a piece of blue painters tape on the "Only bad things will happen if you put the pinch roller there" area.

Good point, i was just trying to offer up, in case all they really needed was just 12" peel and stick. I'm not creative enough to figure out the applications for 12" rectangles. Hahaha.

Are you needing the backing to be cut along with the vinyl too, or just 12" widths that you can peal off while the backing stays in roll form? If it's the latter, then just open up any design/cut software and draw a 12" block, with whatever the other dimension needs to be. Just make sure you keep the blade on the material, because once it goes off the material and on the cutting strip, no good will come from that, and the blade will get caught and you machine will not react very well to that. If it's the former, then I suggest you get a self-healing cutting mat, a good ruler (preferable one that will protect your fingers too), and a rotary cutter. <- I don't make 12" strips, but every once in a while I do cut sample blocks for the colors that I do have in-stock to show customers; and that's how I do it.

When there's a heavy drag, tracking gets to be more tricky. If i have to do layers - like reflective on vinyl because I want to be able to peel it the reflective off easily, I always do multiple passes - the force is lighter so there's less drag on the material when it's moving, less chance for the tracking to go askew. And do you have rollers on the part that's being cut, as well as the 'outside material' because once there is definitive cut through your material, only the part that being pinched by roller will want to jog back and forth, there by adding to drag. If you were trying to do with paper, the paper would bunch. That's why machines like the Cricut need to have 'carrier' sheets that have a light adhesive - it keeps everything moving as a single piece, even though it's cut so stuff doesn't bunch or get caught. You're basically cutting something that's 12x thicker than 651 vinyl, which is done in a single pass. I wouldn't even attempt to do a 30mil anything in a single pass.

It would be remiss, but I suspect Graphtec used a different software designer for the GS vs GPS (which is a re-branded Flexi, as Skeeter stated). Firing up both software and you can tell right off the bat that GS is super basic compared to GPS, so I'm not at all surprised that it doesn't have the bells or whistles to make life easier for users. I would definitely put that on a wishlist.

Yup, what he said.