jjdennon

And here is another, comparing different feed rates, 20x magnification.

Ok, so I turned down my cutter all the way to 10mm/s. The cuts at this speed don't look too bad now. The carraige vibrates like crazy while the steppers are moving and this will only get amplified at the higher feed rates but what do you really expect for a few hundred bucks? You can see a marked difference between the three different feed rates.

Doug, Sounds to me like a belt or roller problem. Maybe there is some grime in the V-Groove, on the rollers, or maybe the belt needs to be tightened. I wouldn't go tinerking around with the belt unless you know what you're doing though!

Thanks for posting. huys, how big are those things? Agg, your first print is huge. See below. This is roughly 2" wide. I guess that's sort of what I am trying to do. See if you guys are getting similar resutls as I am. The problem is that my cuts do not pass the 6" rule: look at them about 6" away, and you can visibily see some of th artifacts. They're dfinitely amplified when you "zoom in" lik ethis though. Problems: bottom of T is out of alignment. Roughness on straight parts of latters. Wavy lines.

I am still not completely satisfied with the cuts on my MH series. It's better than it was before, but still not great. I want to compare my cuts with that of other users to see if what I am getting is the norm. Does anyone have a high-resolution photo of a cut made with the MH? Many Thanks, JJ

Jay/Skeeter, I increased the depth of the blade slightly and decreased blade pressure, this seemed to make some difference. Maybe it's my imagination though FWIW, I've been trying this on the test cut pattern to completely remove software from the question. Maybe this is just the nature of the machine. I took a look at some professional cuts that were done for me and some were definitely better than others. I have two other thoughts. 1. When I move the tip of the blade outside the holder, there is some lateral play in the blade, does this happen with your Graphtec holders too? 2. The mechanism that the blade holder clips into is made of plastic Thanks, JJ

Yes, I am using the USB. Poor communication is an instruinging thought, but it was my understanding that the plotter itself was evaluating the HPGL. My assumption is that the driver sends a bunch of data over to the plotter until it's memory buffer is full, and then asks for more data. now I could be wrong here. In short, if the software sends a command like PD X100 I would expect the plotter to try to draw a striahgt line w/out intteruption until recieving the next command. I'll do some testing a bit later.

Skeeter, Just cutting regular 2 or 3 mil vinyl. Can't remember the thickness. I don't know that the blade is vibrating, it's just a guess. I get jagged lines on the straights too, which makes me think it's a hardware problem and not a software problem. This may well be the nature of the machine I got. Below I've attached an image of a horizontal cut plotted on the Y axis I did lubricate the blade with graphite so everything is smooth as butter as far as the mechanism itself goes. JJ ~1" wide

Skeeter, Thanks for the tips, I did end up ajdusting the offsets and now the cuts I am getting now are pretty square. I also talked to Kevin as US Cutter who was very helpful. He suggested the same thing with the offsets and explained where to modify them in software. The lines are still a little jagged, but it may be good enough for my purposes. Any way to clean up the jaggies? Is it because the blade itself is vibrating?

Ok, so I've fiddled around with the blade and tried it a bunch of different ways Blade barely visible - blade will cut through vinyl but not backing material when pressed firmly against material Result: I can cut out a shape w/out going through the vinyl. I've tried running the machine between 100g and 250g and it will not cut through the vinyl. More blade showing - blade will cut through entire first layer of vinyl, but not scratch second layer Result: Shapes fully cut, no marks on wax paper, poor quality cut though.

I'll take a look at that.

Jay, how do I check the offset? I can jog the machine round, and there are feed rate and cutting for params that I can change, but that's the size of it, so it seems.

Skeeter, Thanks for the help. I am not convinced there is too much blade. I did try your test, and it makes light marks on the wax paper, but the lines do not show through on the back. By your description, it sounds like it's already perfect.

Hey everyone. I am trying to figure out why I am gettng such crappy cuts. The plotting is OK, but the cutting is less than awful. I am pretty sure I am doing something wrong, so I appreciate the help. Here's what I've done: I've set the blade depth so there is just a smidge sticking out. Less than a credit card. Feed rate is 50cm/s and pressure is 110g. For what it's worh, the test print of a star is coming out OK. The points are sharp. Images, see matt for scale: