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sharperimage

Creation P-Cut not closing text cuts

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I'm having trouble with text cuts. First of all , I want you to know that I have read all the posts in this forum that I can find on this subject and it seams that only a few of the people actually got a satisfactory sollution to this problem. (Or else they never posted to let us know that they did.) I have tried everything I could find to try to resolve this and still no help. I'm cutting Avery A7 and the text is very small....About 1/4 inch tall . I have tried the following: lubed blade in holder , adjusted pressure from 100 to 50 in increments of 10 , adjusted speed from 60 to 30 in increments of 10 , adjusted blade offset from 0 to .50 in increments of .1 all with no solution.The blade seams to leave an "entrance trail" as it enters the vinyl that sticks out to the side of the desired cut path. Then when the cutter comes around to close the shape it stops just short of closing. If the letter cut would close all the way , this "entrance trail" wouldn't be a problem on the OUTSIDE cut of a letter , but is a problem on the INSIDE cuts like the hole in a P or an O because the "entrance trail" is in the body of the letter , which will not be weeded out. This leaves a letter with a slice in it. I have attached a picture as an example. Note the B , the o ,and even the tops of the l and e. I have also tried different styles of text and slightly larger sizes , but still have the problem. I am using Signblazer elements. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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How far out is the blade sticking from the tip of the holder, and do you have the holder in the back position? Does it cut like this on both the left and right side of the cutter? I would also check the carriage and carriage arm to make sure there is no "play" from something being lose or cracked. You can also remove the case of the carriage easily and investigate. It looks like a hardware issue to me, cuts that poor might not be resolved by the offset, or pressure and speeds. Keep me posted.

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The blade is only sticking out about 1/32 of an inch. I have the black knob on the blade holder backed out so that it just touches the o-ring (so that it won't back all the way off). I am cutting on 15" vinyl and my vinyl is located toward the right side of my 36" P-cut , so that the first and second "black textured drive rollers" each contact an edge of the vinyl. The cutter cuts the same all the way across the 15" vinyl but I have not tried to cut on the left side of the cutter.I have checked the cariage for looseness and checked to make sure that it is on track and cannot see any damage. My blade holder is in the back position. One more thing of interest.....I tried to plot with the pen holder in the same position as I had the blade in and...... ...BINGO!!!  It plotted perfectly!!! No hangers or unclosed letters at all with a variety of texts!!! One more thing... with nothing in the machine except the blade holder and blade , I put the cariage all the way to the right , dropped the blade and adjusted it so that it ALMOST touched the cutting strip. Then with the blade still down I moved the cariage toward the left of the machine and watched the blade height. The gap between the blade and the cutting strip became wider as I neered the center of the machine , and closed up again as I neered the left side. The left and right sides both were equal , but in the middle of the machine I have about 1/16 of an inch of gap. Is this normal or will it matter? Should I adjust my blade to just touch in the middle and let the cutting pressure determine the depth of my cut through the vinyl? If I have time I will try to move vinyl to the left and try a cut.

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I am going to ask for a second opinion on this. It might have something to do with it being out of allignment, but even if that were the case, I would think you would get uneven depth issues, and not the poor quality cuts you show in the pic. I still think something must be loose on the carriage or carriage arm.

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OK , I am now VERY frustrated with this cutter!!!! I have tried all different locations for the vinyl , I have tried all blade offset settings , (the best seems to be about .25) , I even tried to set the blade offset as a negative number .....the cutter seemed confused and didn't fully cut all shapes and dropped and raised the blade very often to make some of the cuts. This is the discription of the problem: Each time the cutter ENTERS the vinyl , it enters just a bit too soon. So it leaves an "entrance tail" on each shape. With the blade offset setting I can get almost all the shapes to CLOSE , but each shape has this "entrance tail" cut off to one side. Depending on the angle that the cutter enters the vinyl , on some shapes this tail is barely visible , but on most , it is a very anoying deformity. This cutter needs to be more accurate than this to be usefull. Can anyone post a picture of some text that you have cut out that is approx. 1/4 inch tall so I can see what kind of accuracy you are getting? I have been wasting vinyl for about a week now and I'm about to give up on this thing. PLEASE HELP!!!

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PS: Note the tails on the picture I posted earlier , especially the last E and the dot for the i......also note that the centers for the O and B both cut in a COUNTERCLOCKWISE direction and the rest of the letters cut CLOCKWISE.

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We could try replacing the carriage, or worst case scenario, have you send the unit back....

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The tails are so predictable on each cut that it just seems like there would have to be an adjustment to tell the cutter electronicly not to drop so soon or something. If there was a looseness in the carriage there would be more wobble or unpredictable cuts I would think. I'm willing to try whatever you say to make it work. It's making me NO money this way!!

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Guest sciondrgn

Boy I had to strain the camera to get this lol

Im using Flexi on a PCcut CTN900E

.25 Offset / 40 Speed / 106 Pressure on Avery A4 Vinyl

post-0-12986513183552_thumb.jpg

post-0-12986513204719_thumb.jpg

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Hey scion , your word "test" is blurred , but on the word cut , do I see small entrance tail cuts on the U and T ? What happens if you cut a word with a B or an O in it ? And how tall are your letters on that picture ? Thanks for posting it , by the way!! I have the same cutter as you!

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I spoke with Marcus and he suggested it may be an issue with the blade holder. If the blade is not able to spin as freely as it should on its 360degree axis, then it may cause the entrance cut issue. Maybe try a dab of lube in the blade holder where the pointed end of the blade goes. We could also try sending you another blade holder.

;)

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Guest sciondrgn

Hey scion , your word "test" is blurred , but on the word cut , do I see small entrance tail cuts on the U and T ? What happens if you cut a word with a B or an O in it ? And how tall are your letters on that picture ? Thanks for posting it , by the way!! I have the same cutter as you!

Thats the best I could do with the camera on Macro mode, its a cheapy digital camera

That is 1/4 In tall.. It cut pretty clean.. I dont see any trailing that I can tell. the font has angles to it like on top of the top of the t

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Guest sciondrgn

Just to try it I cut another one.. Still 1/4 text same font but BOB instead.. Silver photographed better.. You can see the lift points from the blade but no real trailing that i can notice

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Yeah , thats pretty clean. I can see a little bit of what I'm talking about on the centers of the second B. Only my centers don't close totally. So I always have to get out the exacto knife before I try to weed. Are those Tiny teeny cuts across your second B pretty normal......what I should expect?

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Guest sciondrgn

Yeah I see what your saying now.. It trailed just a little bit.. I think thats pretty good given the size of the font. Ive cut larger banners text and images with no problems.. Im totally new to all this as well, Ive had the cutter since Mid Sept and Ive got a good number of stuff with no major issues..

I would definately hit Ken up and see what kind of options you have.. Something has to be up with it cutting like that.

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I am still concerned with the cut quality if you already lubed the blade holder......sorry I missed that. Also the fact that the case was cracked......I think we should replace it for you so you can get to making some $

Want me to send you a new blade holder to try at least before we swap units?

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I can try it but I kind of doubt that that's the problem. Everything is just so nice and tight and I see no suspicious movement while I cut. I'll do whatever you want me to try first. You can E-mail me. Thanks!!

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I have great news!!! Ken sent me a new blade Holder and it took care of my inaccurate cutting issues!! The holder is slightly different in appearance than the old one...don't know if they changed styles or what , but the old one I had DIDN't work!! I've posted a picture for comparisson. Note the blades stick out the end the same length , but the stem sticking out the top is different length and the black knob is threaded off so far that it almost doesn't touch the o-ring. The OLD one is on the RIGHT.

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I have one more question. With the press. set at 50 , sometimes the cutting head doesn't drop all the way down to the vinyl...only halfway...like it doesn't have enough power to push it down all the way at 50. If I set it at 55 , it drops down MOST of the time , but sometimes the cut isn't deep enough to cut all the way through the vinyl. At 60 , it almost cuts through the backing and some of the cuts "drag" the vinyl a little. At 58 I can get fairly accurate cuts most of the time. Is it normal for the press. setting to be that picky , or is the cutting head binding or something? Can it be lubed , too?

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Guest sciondrgn

Thats just odd I have the blade holder on the right and I dont really have any issues.

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Guest sciondrgn

It seems like press settings seem to vary by machine and material.

I cut at 105 using Avery Vinyl and get good cuts and your cutting around half that.

I dont understand why the machines could have such a varience

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I'm cutting on the left with 15" A6. If I cut over 60 or 62 it gouges all the way thru A6 vinyl!!!!Try setting your press. down by increments of 10 and after each time you lower the pressure , try hitting the DN and UP buttons on the cutter. See at what press. the cutting head stops dropping solidly down against the vinyl. Mine is around 52-55.

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