toddlamp

So regardless of blade exposure and pressure I am still having the problem where the actual glue on the back of the vinyl "heals" itself and reconnects after the cut is done. Seems as though if I weed immediately after cutting the design weeds without much issue but if I let it sit overnight the same sheet with designs cut at the same time will have weeding issues and I can clearly see the clear adhesive binding the cut vinyl pieces together.

The problem that I originally posted about definitely seems to be blade depth related. I noticed that as I went through the various stages of setting blade length the strange, offset, cut I posted a picture of above is was less or more noticeable. As the blade length is shortened the cut is cleaner. But as I backed off on the blade the weeding became much more difficult. I do not seem to be able to fine the proper balance. This is really getting frustrating.

From what I can tell yes, it does. It just did it with the silver 7125 and pink 651 I was doing test cuts on. The only way I have found to combat the issue was to extend the blade. I currently store my vinyl in my home away from direct sunlight and away from heat. Typical ambient temp is 70 degrees F.

Thanks. I will set up the blade this way and see what happens. On a side note, it seems like I can get it to cut designs fine but when I go to weed it's as if the glue on the back of the vinyl reconnects after being cut. This causes the bits of vinyl to stick together and lift together making weeding a huge chore. Any idea what could be causing that?

Yes, blade offset is 0 and always has been except for two or three cuts when I changed it to try to fix the above issue. I always give enough slack for each job. So I just tried setting the blade depth as you suggested. I took the blade holder in hand and struck some scrap vinyl manually. With the blade at the length it was it nearly cut through the backing! So I decreased the blade and kept trying until I could get just barely a mark. Inserted the blade holder back into the machine and set cutting force to 10. The cut I did next made no mark on the backing. I upped the force to 13 and tried again; same thing. You stated that for 751 your force is 11-12. The material I am cutting now is 3M 7125 (2 mil cast same as the 651). So where do I go from here? Is it the blade length or do I keep upping the force? You seemed to think 15 was really high but seeing that I sent the blade length as you instructed I have no choice but to up the force.

Acceleration = Quality

I will back the force and try again. As for setting the blade depth I have done as you posted before (when setting up my FC4100 and the new CE6000) and the problem I ran into was when I was weeding the adhesive/glue seemed to reconnect after cutting. This caused lifting while weeding. Only setting the blade depth father out helped to fix that problem. At the same time I ran into corners lifting while cutting which I knew meant the blade was out too far.

The film being cut in the above example is Oracal 751. Speed is set at 10cm/s and force is 15. Acceleration is 1. I am pretty sure that my blade is set properly but is there a procedure to follow to make sure? Yes, I always pre-feed enough vinyl for the job. Also Step Pass is 1, Offset Force is 4, and Offset Angle is 30. I use the Cutting Master 3 plug-in within Illustrator.

I just setup my new CE6000-60 and have been cutting various designs and came across an issue I can't seem to figure out on my own. The picture attached shows a strange cutting error that I would normally blame on incorrect offset. At least on my FC4100-75 I was told that for Graphtecs the offset is always zero and even if that is still the case with the CE6000 I tried different offsets and it did not make much of a change. I double checked the design and did not see any rogue nodes that would cause the cuts to be off like they are in the picture. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I just re-installed FlexiStarter (twice actually) and did several test cuts. Unfortunately I am still having the same problem. When I loaded up Flexi for the first time after install the only thing I changed was to enable the knife offset and set it to .002 (yes .002). I actually cut it with an offset of .02 (the default value) because apparently hitting OK is not enough to save values in the production manager; you have to hit Apply and then OK for the value to stick. It was obvious that .02 was WAY to large because I have tiny semi-circle at the end of every corner. I will continue to play with it but it is obvious that this program does not like my .002 (or .003) offset value and I would really like to know why because although the cutts are jagged the cuts end spot on where they started. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

When trying to dial in the cutter with Flexi I tried several offset values slowly decreasing to get the exact value needed to get clean, closed letters. Once I went to .001" that was the first time that I my cutter head started acting strange and causing movement that was not fluid and causing jagged lines like the thread starter was complaining about. I ended up adjusting the blade more and needed to go back to the .002" setting. But this time at the .002" the same strange movement of the cutter continued (before it was fine at the .002" offset). Leaving everything exactly the same on the cutter and only disabling the offset option within Flexi the cutter once again had smooth, fluid movement with smooth lines. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy I re-enabled the offset feature and cut again and like before the cutter moved erratically and vibrated and cause jagged cuts. So in short the cutter cuts smoothly when offset is at 0 for both cutter and Flexi but the letters do not close. Whenever setting the offset in Flexi is set to anything over 0 the cutter cuts very slow and causes jagged cuts. I have tried leaving the offset off on Flexi but increasing it on the cutter but the letters still do not close regardless of the setting I use. To me it seems like there is either something wrong with Flexi or there is some kind of communication conflict between software and cutter and the cutter isn't quite sure what to do. This is definitely not something mechanical because the output of the cutter is directly related to whether the offset feature is on or off.

Any update on this? I am having the same issues. I need to set an offset of .002 (or is it .02?) but when I enable the offset my cutter slows down and starts to shake. When disabling the knife offset feature in Flexi, and changing nothing else, the cutter cuts smooth and is noticeably quicker but cuts do not close. While shaky and jagged with the offset enable the cuts close. It seems to me like there may be two settings that are conflicting with one another causing the cutter to go a bit nuts. It is obvious to me that this is being caused by Flexi since toggling the offset option on/off directly impacts how the cutter behaves. I am using a legal version of FlexiStarter 8.5 for Mac with a Graphtec FC4100-75.

I was having the same issue. There would be strings sticking out from the letters as if the blade went off course and did not close the letters. One thing I noticed was that the cuts would be better the closer they were to the edges. I am using an MH871 with 24" material. I was only using 2 of the three pinch rollers both right at the edge. Because of the symptoms I was having that the letters cut completely closer to the pinch rollers I ended up putting the 3rd pinch roller in the middle of the material. I know that this causes damage and makes cuts in that area unusable but the output was perfect cuts everywhere else. I had always noticed that the material would bubble up in the middle as it was being cut but I could not figure out how to fix it using only two pinch rollers. Using all 3 seems to have solved the issue (so far at least). If you only have 2 pinch rollers I would suggest using a smaller roll (assuming you have been using a 24" roll).