thredz

The only kind of sharpie to use is the one with the sharpie brand on them.All of the others I tried were either too transparent,or they would smudge when you rubbed your fingers across them.And the high gloss vinyl doesn't hold the color as well either.If you print on high gloss vinyl,you're really printing over the gloss coat and not into the vinyl.If you are going to do stickers,buy a matte vinyl.That way you will actually be printing into the vinyl and it will hold color better and more smudge resistant.If you can work your design to an outline design lettering included,then you can run the job as a cut job and not a plot.It will go a lot quicker that way.When I first ran the guitar parts usa,I ran it as a plot,which took almost five minutes @ 24 i. p. s. .When I ran it as a cut job,it took two minutes at the same speed.And when you are running 500 stickers less time is a factor.I look forward to seeing your pics.I hope you get as much enjoyment out of your cutter as I do mine! Bill

I'm not positive,but I think you can use the roland pnc1000 driver.I think it's more or less the universal driver for these cutters. Bill

I have around 35 hewlet packard plotter pens I bought off of ebay.They are .7 mm and .3 mm in size,but I have had to cut the rib edge to get it to fit in my cutter.The .3mm's are the ones I did the 500 ovals with.Most of the other large plots are done with the .7mm's.You can also use just about any pen style permanent marker.I took an old sharpie and cut the bottom one third off of the bottom of the pen cap and then I sliced the side to make a rough type of collette for the pens to sit in so you could tighten them in the blade holder.I have marks on my collette so I can set all of the pens to almost the same depth.I try to keep them high enough so they don't leave drags lines when they cross the designs,and if it's higher,you can set the downforce at 10 to 20g's where it's barley touching the paper.The more downforce the more you dull the tips of the pens.I've got four to six motorcycles I ran yesterday that I will probably put up on my plotter art page tonight that were done mainly with an ultra fine black sharpie.By running those 500 ovals with the pens,I was able to offer my customer 500 designs done in ten different colors.And I even ran 125 of them in two colors,which was only a little more time for the extra pen change.I wouldn't buy too many of the old plotter pens though.The ones I got were made in 85 and 88 and some of them had dried out even though they were in sealed packages.So,if you see hp plotter pens for sale real cheap,it's because hp quit making pens in the late 80's to early 90's,so buy them at you own risk.Hope that helps you out.It's definetly worth the time involved in setting up a way to run the pens!

I printed two sample t-shirts on hot mark 40 from sign warehouse.Cutting was easy,but the smaller weeding was a long drawn out process.I did find out that when you cut the transfer,it is best to weed the small items before pullling the large outer area.The adhesive carrier is low tack,but your hands,and all of those little areas you weed out will stick to the carrier as well!I have a couple of pics on my plotter art page. It's at: http://thredz.org/plotter-art.html .I thought about buying a rland engraving attachment to see if my cutter could engrave,but I have been doing other things with the cutter,and I'm in no real hurry.

When you are setting it up before the run.If you will make two squares and place them at the outer corners of your design,then duplicate the squares and change the color of the next two,then place them over the top of the first two squares,you should have a good registration.If it's a large design,place another set of registration marks at one of the top corners.I finished the 500 one colors today,but I ended up running 175 of them in two color.I try to set every design up with the logo as one color,then i'll put the lettering as another,then if I am putting squares for lining the cut up on my paper cutter,I make them another color,then I run my blade oval cut last as another color.That way,you can run a one color as two,and it gives you a stopping point to either change the pen or blade if you need.Hope that helps a little. Bill

I'm running 500 -4 inch ovals right now.I found that you can't full cut ovals because once you cut one out,it breaks the sterngth of the vinyl and the rollers grab it and wad the vinyl up.I ran the ovals with a regular cut and square lines around the ovals.I'm using a large paper cutter to cut the squares.I stripped mine at 25 up.It seems to work better as far as using pens go.I ran eight runs last night and i'm on run 15 right now.It took six hours to run the eight @32 to 48 I.P.S..The only break the machine got was when I had to change from the pen to the blade for the oval cut.The only problems I have had have been of my own ignorance.I can't tell you about pricing.I don't use anyone else to compare to.I just bid the jobs at the lowest reasonable rate I can give them.I could probably charge higher,but I found that I would rather make a little bit of money from one customer all through the years,as opposed to making a lot of money from a customer that will not return because of prices.On the blades,I have been using the same blade,set at 20g's and it's cutting great.The vinyl I'm cutting is fdc 3.2 mil.I usually change my blades when I start a new job.But I also add that in to the material on the bid.Same with the pens.I try to start with new pens.It keeps you from using a dull piont and getting wider lines than you started with.

If you are trying to do a design that is small,and you enlarge it,you lose a lot of line quality.The greater the enlargement,the lines become really jagged.I've seen it the most on jpg files.And the resolution of a design is another factor in the cut quality.On my cutter,I take a small piece of vinyl and set the blade to where there is just enough of the tip to cut through the vinyl with just a little pressure with my hand.Then I usually set the down force at 20 to 30 g's and it cuts great.I have been using mostly 3.2 mil calendered vinyl lately,and those settings work for me.As far as a manual,I could not say. Bill You can go here for the online version of the manual.But it's pretty much the same as the instructions you recieve with your cutter. http://uscutter.com/index.php?option=com_openwiki&Itemid=3

I'm not sure on winpc,but withflexisign you can add cutters and printers,but they have to be set up on different ports eg: redsail on lpt and refine on com1.Then you just choose the cutter you want to use.The blades you can buy from http://uscutterdirect.com.They come in the same three pack as the ones that came with your cutter and cost I think $12.00 + s/h.I'm not sure if the blades will be the same on both machines.I have seen a lot of vector clipart cd's on ebay.I have not purchased any,but they range from cheap to an arm and a leg!You could do a search and try to win some with a cheap bid.But I would be carefull on buying "swap meet software".I also do embroidery,and I have a little brother that does embroidery as well.He bought some swap meet style embroidery patterns off of ebay about a year ago,and the embroidery software coalition sent him a notice to pay a fine for buying licensed patterns that the guy was selling illegally,or face a lawsuit.There are a lot of things to watch out for when you are buying clipart cd's.the clipart I have purchased was rom companies that were licensed to do so.

Thanks.But this cutter is a new toy to me.I was a screen printer for 18 years,which helps with understanding layout and seperation.And I have been an embroidery digitizer for the last 5 years,which helps me understand the points placement and editing with the software.But I'm still learning this cutter.I have a deal working for around 500 t-shirts with heat transfer vinyl.And sometime in the near future,I plan on cutting a couple of designs to put on silk screen to see how that works.I've heard it drops about three steps out of the screen printing process.So I have to check that out!Thanks again.

I have not tried that,But I think it would be two different commands.The com port is used for serial mice and modem commands,and the lpt port is printer scanner commands.You could try it though.I can't tell you how to set it with artcut.i use flexi.If you are running a printer or scanner on your lpt port,that could be causing a conflict of the drivers.Have you set artcut with the roland pc1000 driver when you run the printer port?That's the driver I use on mine through flexi.

I tried the usb and lpt ports,and had problems with both.On mine,it works great on com1.You might also check your software settings and make sure it's not set on arc commands.When I checked mine to run arc commands it did the same thing.Except I was lucky enough to be running a pen plot and not using my blade.Hope that helps.

On the fiber tips,the're sharpies.I just took one of the worn out sharpies,and cut about half an inch of the end of the cap and then sliced it down the side so it would fit tight in the clamp.The ball point black on the crab was ran with the ball point pen and holder that came with my cutter.I really enjoy playing with my cutter!I also sold my first 3x4 banner sign today for a flea market booth.I've been working on the layout tonight and I have ran two small plots to take to the guys to proof tomorrow.GREAT MACHINE!!Thanks again. Bill

Here is a test link.I did this one this evening.I set it up as a seven color,but reduced it to four.I did it in blue because I do not have any grays as of yet.Bill http://thredz.org/plotter-art.html

When I set mine up in flexi,I used the roland pnc1000 driver.My cutter came with singcut and not artcut,but I was allready using flexi.My signcut cd showed an error when I put it in my cd,so I can't tell you the drivers,or the folder they are in.But I think it would be a refine driver.If it shows you have a refine mh721 driver on the cd,that would be the one to use.Hope this helps. Bill

I might as well test this out.Here is a pic of a couple of hearses I plotted last night.The one with the silver looks good,but that silver does not blend well with other colors.Black doesn't even cover this color.That's why I plotted the second one in purple,with no silver. [attachment deleted by admin]

I am the same way.I'm an old country ass boy,and I don't do metrics very well.I know flexi is a bit pricey,but it reads millimeters or inches and that was a big plus for me.It also has a lot of commands that make it easier to run than a lot of other sign software I have seen.One of the main things I like is that I can work up a design,load the cutter with 20# paper and set it to plot to check the design before I cut it which saves wear and tear on the blades.Then,after I plot the design and make sure it's what I want,all I have to do is load the vinyl drop in the blade holder and un check the plot box to run the cut.But the cheapest way to go keeping your artcut software would be to go to a site with a mm to inches conversion page and print it out to hang on your wall for reference.

Thank you for the cutter!It's really a great machine.I worked up an oval design for a customer that orders embroidered caps from me,and plotted a couple of them on white and clear vinyl.He ordered 500 stickers.Thanks again.

When I got mine,I tried the lpt port and the usb connection.I ended up putting it on com1 serial port.I think lpt doesn't interface as well as the serial port.If the blade is moving as if it's cutting,make sure you have enough of the bladecomming out of the end of the blade holder.I don't know about artcut,but in flexi,you can have a 12 x 12 design you want to cut and if the panel size on the program is set for a larger area it will trace the panel size and not the design size.The way I have been setting the blade is to take the blade ,and a piece of scrap vinyl and lower the blade to the depth of the cut I want on the vinyl.And I always start out with 10 or 20g's and go with more downforce if I need it.

When I first started working with my mh721 I was running a plot ,and it was jumping all over the place.It ran a two foot jagged line a couple of times before I could hit the pause button.I use flexi,and I had been playing with the settings.I changed the JOB DEFAULTS to "send arc commands".After I set the defaults back to the original settings,I have never had the problem reoccur.I don't know what program you are using,but you might check and see if it's set to send arc commands,and if it is,uncheck it.Hope that helps. Bill

I have a 24",and I run flexi.I had the same problem when I first started using mine.I found that most of my problem was alignment of the vinyl .When I put a roll of vinyl on the cutter,I set the vinyl,and then take the roll and roll the slack back to the roll to make sure the vinyl is even.Then I run the trial run in the program to show me the border on the vinyl,and if the vinyl is tracking straight.Hope that helps.

I have had a small embroidery business for a couple of years.I bought an mh721 about a month ago because the embroidery business has slowed down almost to a complete stop,and I wanted another way to make a living.Less than a week after I started using my cutter I got my first sign job on coroplast.I've went down to the next block to install matching vinyl decals on the window and doors of a couple with two cars.I sold bumper stickers to go with a t-shirt order I had done for a private party.And I am working on a design for magnetic signage for a tree trimming company.To someone thinking of buying one of these cutters I would say jump on it.When people see you are doing vinyl,they will come to your door wanting you to do something for them.A great investment!