darcshadow

Probably not ideal I know, but I have some vinyl over the top of my cutting strip to hold it down/patch some cuts. Seems to work well for me.

The pin should be straight up and down so you certainly have a problem with the holder some where. I had one where the holes were not true so that as you tightened up the thumb screw it would cause the blade to tilt, much like in your photo.

Just a guess here, but have you somehow managed to change the width of the letters to something so small they appear as lines? Can you grab a single "line" and stretch it out to make it wider?

Signblazer has that preview feature as well. It's nice to use when your design is say 23.5" wide on your 24" wide vinyl. It is a sanity check to make sure the vinyl is straight and good to go.

I believe someone posted a question along these lines once before so a search might find a VM specific answer, but a general answer would be to use the Windows Character Map program/app to select the character you want then copy and paste into VM.

Is it always 6"? Or could it be time related? have a tried a complicated design that is the width of the vinyl but only a few inches tall? I can't think of any reason why length would play a factor but time could, if the power to the solenoid is drifting down over time that could cause the pressure to be reduced. Have you tried any different cutting software? Again, no idea why that would matter but can't hurt to rule it out.

And it'll only get worse. ha!

That was the first thing that came to mind as well when I looked at it. But yeah, as others have said, need more info. And I'd suggest the same as signyyouup, with the pen installed what do you get when you hit the test button on the cutter? Start with the easy stuff.

Probably an issue with how the CNC software is creating/saving the file. I know I've tried to save some things in formats common to CNC machines and the files never look quite right when reopened with normal vector software. If you could post one of your PDFs I and others can try and import them with various software to see if we can find a solution that will work for you. You might also try saving your files from the CNC software in a different format.

And depending on the design you may be able to break it other places to help hide the splits. A tree for example, you could split off individual branches so that the seams are then where the branch meets the trunk, or larger branch.

My guess here is you tried to cut a raster image. You can only cut vector images. Learning and understanding vectors is the first step in learning and understanding the world of vinyl cutting. And just because a file has a vector file extension, such as .svg, .eps, .ai, does not mean that file image is a vector. Vector files can have raster images embedded in them.

Since most of these are largely text, you'd be better off find the fonts and recreating them.

Corrupted or pirated copy of Corel perhaps? I'd suggest reinstalling it, but sounds like you don't have the disks?

In Inkscape, did you try the different command languages? Most plotters use HPGL, which i the default for Inkscape. Might try the DMPL and see if it behaves any differently.

Offset has nothing to do with bad cuts like that, offset only effects how sharp the corners come out. That being said, your corners don't look sharp, but I don't know if that font is suppose to be sharp or if they have more rounded corners. It looks to me like you have a blade exposure problem. You said you replaced the blade, did you then recheck the blade exposure/ cutting depth using Mz Skeeter's method?

Sorry, no. Outside of taking it apart and tracing wires or googling to see if someone else has done this.

Possibly, but typically when it's static once it goes wonky, it doesn't come back and finish.

Duh, ok, makes sense. My experience with solenoids have always been an on/off or extend/retract thing. Didn't think about varying the power to them.

Another topic talking where the posters cutting head is not working got me wondering about cutting pressure. My understanding is a solenoid moves the cutter up and down, in my case it pulls the cutter up and gravity pulls it down. Since solenoids are pretty much an on/off thing, how does the machine change the pressure of the cutting head on the vinyl? I mean, mechanically what is changing?

If you can move the cutting head by hand freely, the problem is not likely mechanical and you have a bad solenoid or solenoid control board/chip. While solenoids can go bad, they typically do not and you're problem is most likely the motherboard that controls the solenoid.

Do you have a true cutting program? I do not use Corel, and while I believe you can cut from it, it is not a cutting program. Did you get any software with the cutter?

Ok, that sounds a bit more like a software problem. What software are you using and do you have the correct drivers?

Random cuts through the design are not offset or overcut, that sounds more like a static issue.

I think he's referring to green at the top and white at the bottom. I'm guessing it's a combination of the camera and the way the glass reflects/refracts the light.

If you're getting a UPS to level out voltage levels be sure to check the spec. on the unit. Some units simply pass the power through till there is a power loss then they switch over to battery where as other units you are technically running off battery all the time which is what levels out your line voltage, and others have some caps to level the line voltage for both the battery backups outlets as well as non backup outlets. I believe most APC units do voltage leveling on all outlets. Also check the specs on how the AC voltage is being generated and if your equipment can handle it. Some use transformers and give you true AC voltage where others use step switches which simulates AC but some electronics don't like it and will burn out over time, or not work at all.