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I don't have a LP11, but doesn't your cutter have a TEST option on it? Most all cutters do. As far as the flock.. have you tried to cut 2 or 3 passes , instead of 1 very deep one? ... I have read several times, that people do that with flock and other thick materials.

Hello, Sorry for the long post. Just trying to give as much info as possible up front to minimize any followup questions. Summary: I'm new to the forum and this is my first experience with a vinyl cutter. I'm having issues cutting small circles consistently and would love some help and suggestions for tuning the equipment and settings to get the best possible cuts. Background: I purchased a new Graphtec CE6000-40 and I'm cutting using Adobe Illustrator and Cutting Master 3 software/plugin. I'm cutting Oracal 951 vinyl. Attempting to cut small circles, 5mm in diameter. The circles are set up in groups of 3, spaced about .5" apart. The issue I'm having is that the third circle in each set is showing what I would call a blade mark, or what others have described as a "hangnail" or in complete circle. For whatever reason, this is ONLY happening on the third circle in the set. The first one is fine, the second is slightly worse, and the third is unusable. What's also interesting is that the problem gets progressively worse on the right side of the sheet vs. the left. In other words, the third circle in each set is the worst, but the third circles on the right of the sheet are worse than the third circles on the left of the sheet. I watched the movement of the blade and the third circle is the last circle it cuts in the sequence before it moves to the next tile. It's almost as if the machine is "rushing at the end" to move to the next tile and that's why it's imperfect. (Although I know that's probably not really what's happening.) It may seem minor or that I'm being too picky, but the fact that the first circle is perfect leads me to believe that they can ALL be perfect. I'm viewing the circles under a loupe, and also under a 10X macro lens. That said, the issue is still visible to the naked eye upon close inspection. I've read a lot of info on the forums here and I think I have my blade height set correctly. I've also experimented with various speeds and levels of force. I checked the file - it's nice and clean. It's just a simple circle drawn in Adobe Illustrator. There are only 4 nodes on the circle. I've attached some macro shots to show the issue, along with the EPS file that I'm cutting from. Details: Here's are the details of my equipment and settings: Graphtec CE6000-40 Cutter Blade: Graphtec CB09U-K60 (60º, 0.9mm) Condition: Blade: Graphtec CB09U-K60 (60º, 0.9mm) Offset: 0 Speed: 1 cm/s Acceleration: 0 Cut Force: 10 Passes: 1 Tangential Mode: Off Tool Setting: Step Pass: 0 Offset Force: 2 Offset Angle: 0 Initial Blade Position: 2mm Below When Tool is Up: Speed: Auto Advanced: Move Step: 0.1mm Step Size: 0.010mm -------- Any help or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. small-circles.eps

I'm sure flexi will have multiple pass options somewhere. I use SignCut Pro and just set it at two passes. It took a few test cuts on scrap to figure out the sweet spot on pressure. The other little thing I would caution you on is the claimed down force is 750 but Chinese workmanship is notorious for being less accurate so I would wonder of that is actually up to par as compared to an FC machine. Even the True tangential Summa cutters only put out 600g force and they will chomp through some thick stuff. I am not knocking the Chinese but I tend to doubt the claim.

Two passes at a lighter setting is what I do when I find a situation like that.

I don't use that brand of plotter, but a good sharp 60* degree blade would be where I would start with, you'll have to experiment until you find that sweet spot. What brand of glitter vinyl are you using? Sometimes you may have to make 2 passes, let the machine do the work, not the blade, (as in to much exposed) I have cut thousands of yards of the stuff with very little troubles, other than dull or bad blades.

Hello, I am having extreme problems registering a contour cut on Printable Glitter Heat Transfer Material on out Titan3 ARMS Plotter. It seems that the plotter will not recognize the printed registration marks possibly because of the reflective qualities of the material. It passes the registration marks up and starts looking along the edge of the material or refuses look go find them at all. Has anyone had this problem? I have found a work around but it involves a lengthy process of adhering white calendar vinyl onto the glitter material and then printing, then cutting. Too much time. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. Charlie

For cutting the Mylar on your machine you could try using multiple passes on the cuts.

The substrate has a clear backing layer. I've cut it in one pass with ease, but I do notice a very slight dimpling in the material where the cut line is. I didn't know if this was normal, and decided to ask for some advice. How do I set up the CE-6000 for two passes with lower pressure. I'm using VM PRO. Thank you for your assistance.

You are just going to have to work into it with test cuts. If you end up way up in pressure you might find that 2 passes at a lower pressure will get better results than one high. When I cut stencil material I use clear backing from regular performance vinyl most of the time and I keep a small piece after the job and leave my cutting force and speed written on it with a sharpie so I don't have to go through that every time. 6 mil is pretty thin so I would think one pass will work. Does your product have a carrier sheet?

It's the 3m hi intensity prismatic 3931. I have tried all different blade depths and pressure along with multiple passes. it will cut throw the material but will not cut throw the sticky layer. I really hope I don't have to manually cut it.

So, It is still not working. I'm using a US Cutter laserpoint2 with iMac El Capitan 10.11.3, A USB serial adapter FTDI chip based. Nothing came with a manual, It's not connected via bluetooth. I have tried everything that the people at signcut have said and US Cutter is impossible for me to get in contact with... Every time I open a ticket with them they just close it (GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE...NOT) If I tell it to make one pass it leaves out alot of pieces, If i tell it to make 2 passes it seems to do a little bit better, but will still randomly decides to not cut out random pieces. the weeding frame hasn't worked one time since I've started trying... I know that I have the depth of the blade setup correctly. I'm thinking about just returning the whole thing. This has been more of a headache than anything and it won't cut anything consistantly. I've worked at sign shops for quite some time and know how to make those cutters work, but this is just not working... If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know because I would really like for this to work properly. If I don't get this resolved in the next couple days I am definitely sending this back and never dealing with US cutter again. I don't know if it's the cutter, the connection between the plotter and computer, or the software and the lack of information anywhere online hasn't helped at all.

When I turn ON the "Use weeding frame" it does NOT cut the weeding frame correctly. If I turn OFF "use weeding frame" and draw a box in illy it finishes the cut around everything. If I tell it to only make one pass it leaves spaces in the design randomly EVERY time. If I tell it to make 2 passes it cuts everything out. Someone from Us cutter told me this: "What profile are you using within signcut? I would recommend trying the manufacturer of "liyu" and the model of "SC 631" and then try another design on some scrap material." Which didn't make a difference. I shouldn't be having this many problems with something so simple. I only drew the red box around my file (jpeg) to show you exactly how it is cutting the "Weeding frame" every time. I'm saving as illustrator 8 (Even though I'm not so sure if it has made any difference at all.) I'm pretty disappointed in the US Cutter support, the fact that I received no instructions at all, not enough screws, the fact that it's pretty impossible to find any consistent instructions online, etc.. I really wasn't wanting to spend DAYS trying to do something so simple. So if anyone could please help me with this issue I would really appreciate it. I've attached everything I can think of so hopefully that will help. I also really appreciate every one's help. I really don't want to give up on this, but also don't want to spend another week wasting vinyl and having to do "work-arounds" for EVERYTHING. mind-gears.ai

After trying another cut, it left out spaces again. So i guess that I have to make it make 2 passes... which doesn't seem like it should be necessary....

Ok, so I am getting it to cut simple shapes correctly now. I'm not sure if it was saving as an .AI 8 file or because I told it to make 2 passes instead of one. BUT it is still not completing the weed box around my shapes. It does it EXACTLY the same cut every time I cut something and looks like in the photo attached. The red line always starts on the bottom right, goes counter clockwise and stops a little passed the bottom left corner. Does anyone have any suggestions?

first thing is make sure the dx2 print heads you are looking at are made for solvent- the ones that aren't won't last long before the solvent ink eats the manifold and possibly other parts. if it had sat for even a couple of months you would be replacing all the print heads - the solvent printers don't like to sit unused for even a few days. other replacement parts that will be a must at this point after sitting is cap tops and dampers for sure, wipers, wiper scraper and probably the ink tubes if it was not flushed. I would make sure you see it go thru the motions to print and budget about $1500-$2K to get it going - again with sitting that long the pump is probably going to have to be replaced too - the older style pumps are around but make sure you get the right one. Most of the used solvents you find for sale either have a problem or need the print heads replaced and the person doesn't have the experience or money to replace them - the reason they put them up for sale. if looking at any printer make sure you see a NOZZLE test print and it is near perfect - any deflection or missing nozzles will indicate a need to replace the heads as finer detail will not be crisp. Generally the cheapest you will find a decent used unit that still needs some stuff to bring it up to spec is more in the range of $4500-5000 and most of those need at least one head the first picture below shows one I would work with - it has a minor deflection in the black where the 2 passes meet - the second one shows a unit I would replace both print heads on that sat for a while according to the person. the problem with one that doesn't print at all is you don't know if the person tried to replaced the heads themselves and fried a $2K board by not doing it right (usually not removing main power thinking that turning the unit off is enough) as far as those machines that claim to clean solvent print heads - I have NEVER seen a print head recovered in any way that would be acceptable to me for my work output and are a waste of time - I personally believe there is no bringing back a head after nozzles are lost to an acceptable level unless you are printing billboards that are far from the observer. for someone that doesn't print every other day I would look at the latex printers (around $10K I believe) as they are very forgiving about sitting - but they will require a special electric service so plan a little extra for the electrician

any vehicle signage should be readable as it passes and intersection - which is a couple of seconds - too many new people try to get to fancy and lose the reason for the signage - to get a message across in a short amount of time

You're going to want to have some sort of backing on whatever you choose to use. Clear app tape will work as a carrier. I have a cricut cutting mat I bought at wallyworld that I sometimes use. It's stiff which can be good in some situations but it's a bit too tacky when new. Gets better after a few uses. For stencil material I have been using the backing off some of the clear backed vinyl like Gerber 225 or Oracal frosted glass vinyl. Obviously you have to have some of this on hand to make use of but next time you order some frosted glass save the backing and it works pretty good for stencils. I too concur it's usually better to make a couple passes rather than trying to hog though in one shot. I start by drawing a small square and test cutting it twice at a given pressure then move over and try again until it gets to the right pressure point. I usually get the to the point that they are mostly still hanging and then just pop them out like a store bought die cut.

You say it's getting off on a 5 inch cut? Did you mean 5 foot? When you say it's not meeting does it look like it would have but came up short or that it is out of alignment and missed the mark? Something you might try just for kicks is a couple lighter passes at 110g or something like that to see if it will change anything for you. If it does change then you are assured you are dealing with it getting pulled out of alignment. 12mil is reasonably thick vinyl and you may be at the limit of a standard 45 deg blade and fighting that too, a 60 deg might be a good idea. Don't know what blades you are using but you might try a Clean Cut blade. Much higher quality than most of the cheaper ones and will definitely decrease the cutting force.

oh ok.... wow good to know but even tho anyone can go to their site and get them we still cant share the site? but can we still have a "Share your vector file as long as it passes as legal to do so?

Tangential emulation may or may not help but that's where I'd start too. I have mixed emotions on emulation. The problem being that there is no clear direction on when and where the blade needs to be raised to help cut, how tight a corner gets a raised or not etc... Summa makes a true tangential that the computer actually controls the blade spin and I'd like to have one for such things but I don't hardly cut that thick so I have never pursued one. You might try slowing it down a little or like mentioned trying two passes (a PIA to set pressure on though)

I don't have that cutter, but how thick is that material? Maybe you need to make 2 passes when cutting, looks like the blade is extended out to far to me, maybe slow the machine down also

If you want the file to cut over the top of it self multiple times select the number of passes in Send to be Cut.

did you check to see if you have one image laying directly on top of another - think that is what skeeter was saying - not that the cutter is set for 2 passes - if there are 2 images it will cut both of them but to the naked eye it looks like one

Ok I'll check it out. It just sucked because I'm doing 18 decals in one print and have some registration marks because I'm doing two colors. So it will cut all 18 decals but before it cuts the registration marks it goes over all 18 again. I could stop it early if it didn't wait til the end to do the registration marks. But I'll look and see about the 2 passes thing.

It is usually double paths on the designs. Ai files will do that,, If the background is white, it thinks it is a color also. So it will cut 2 times.... See if you can delete part and there is another design under it.. And make use you don't have 2 passes checked in your software.