darcshadow

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Posts posted by darcshadow


  1. A 60 degree blade will help with fine detail. How detailed is the design. You could simply be near the limits of what's possible with the machine or vinyl. Good and fresh vinyl makes a big difference. The advertised shelf life of vinyl is shorter than you'd think. Although it's still usable long after the shelf life time. Just not guaranteed to same performance.


  2. I don't think you're going to find a vinyl cutting machine that can do upholstery leather. at least not easily. A high end cutter, with multiple passes, and blade adjustments might cut it, but I'm not sure how well or if it'd be worth the hassle.

    Sandblasting mask can be cut with most cutters, and standard vinyl can be used as a mask for most hobbyist projects.

    Forget DXF, it is technically a vector file, but in reality it is just a bunch of short line segments and does not play well with vinyl cutters. You'll want to use EPS, .AI, or SVG. EPS is more or less the industry standard, although SVG is slowly working it's way in. 


  3. And even the cheapest reflective is 3 or 4 times more expensive than normal vinyl. I have used Oralite Engineering grade, and some 3M stuff all though I don't remember the specific type. They were not bad to work with, but not the easiest either. They have a metallic layer so they dull a blade very quickly and require a bit more force to cut through. They vinyl also tends to tear easier while weeding so you have to go a bit slower and take your time. Also, reflective should NOT be put on using a wet method. 

    What ever you charged per car for the first town, double or even triple it if using reflective.


  4. You only need a driver if you're using the USB connection. That is nothing more than a cheap USB-2-serial chip in the cutter and often times doesn't work well. You're best best is to get a Tripp-Lite Keyspan USB-2-Serial adapter and a null modem cable. Connect the adapter to the USB on the computer and the null modem cable to the adapter and cutter.

    The MH uses the HP-GL protocol, if you set your cutting software to use that you should be able to get it to work. If  you can't get something newer to work, the old SignBlazer Elements should work. You can also use Inkscape to cut with, it's not ideal, but it does work.


  5. To me, the odd thing here is that fact that the second iMac works correctly with both cutters. That would indicate the problem is not the cutter or any of the cutter settings but something on the iMac 1, or possibly the cables being used if they are not the same cables as used with iMac 2. It's also weird that it works at first then stops.

    Jeremy, are the two iMacs identical in terms of hardware? If so, can you reformat the non working one and clone the working one onto it?


  6. well actually has said the file shows "on downloads" so that raises the question, what does that mean? It's also possible to have multiple "download" locations so the first step is to determine what location the file is actually being downloaded to, and then what location Vinyl Master is looking at. Unfortunately, the way windows works now, and the way everything is going, the casual computer user, has no understanding of folder structures and file locations.

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  7. If the design is exactly 24" wide, and you are using 24" wide vinyl, your design is probably bigger than the cutter will allow. When you load the vinyl does the cutter detect the edges of the vinyl? If so, it should also report to the software, or maybe on the cutter screen what the width is. My guess the width being detected by the cutter is closer to 23.5.

    Are you allowed to install any software on the computer? There are other Window emulators that could be used to run different cutting software. There is also no reason the computer connected to the cutter needs to be on the university network so there's nothing stopping you from buying a cheap laptop and using it to control the cutter. Or just tell the department that the hardware is not compatible with apple and you are required to run windows to operate the cutter.