Received my 3rd cutter and still problems

[American And Proud 2]

Com Ed.

[MaderDesign 3]

Have you called to have them come check on your power? This cutter must not be shielded very well, or the machines faulty for both of us to have the same problems. I'm beginning to think since we're having the same problems its the machines and not us.

[American And Proud 2]

They have been out in the past, but I did not call them recently to check this.

I have had my home 19 years and it was built in the 50's, I had a licensed union electrical company here years ago and upgraded the service to my house and that was fully inspected and permits pulled (paid for) and fully passed.

Here all houses and commercial buildings have all electrical run through steel electrical conduit in the walls attics crawlspaces it does not matter.

So I shivver whenever I see other houses on tv or the web that just use flexible wire cable in the walls and other places.

Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

I was sitting back for the most part waiting to see if yours got an easy fix, but seems like I will be headed in about the same direction as you if they can't figure out whats not working quite right with my MH871.

I've got $660.00 worth of Oracal vinyl arriving tommorrow so I need to have a machine that won't be wasting it all by having to keep recutting things.

I knew these machines werent for small items cut with great details, but thought larger straight cuts would be, well, cut straight.

My plan was to use my 871 until my warranty was up then buy the Roland CAMM-1 GX-24" and the Graphtec FC8000 30" and pass the 871 to my kids to use.

If it can't be fixed it will end up on Craigs List. And I will be purchasing higher end units sooner than planned.

All my other electronics work fine in my home and area.

[MaderDesign 3]

Exactly the same here as well, all my computers, printers, stereos, tv's, etc work flawlessly. I have about $400 in vinyl just sitting here begging to be cut. But I do not want to waste it with jagged half ass cuts.

[midwaste 4]

I'd really like to see the results of using a LP at your place.

[lueman 19]

At this point I would rule out electrical problems, as you said you used a UPS with & without Battery. It would be almost impossible for a conditioned power supply to cause those problems and only in the diagonals.  It sees more like a mechanical problem maybe some wiggling in the holder mechanism and possibly in the actuator that drives the holder .  Yes I know everything is tight and the actuator is electrical, but you are not the only one experiencing the problem so it's something inherent in the machine not a user error.

[mikerob2334 2]

Mader & A&P, I've said this a couple times and looks like nobody has tried it. My MH721 will do the same thing as yours when I adjust the espeed setting. Not the speed, but the espeed under setup. Have either of you tried this??;D

[MaderDesign 3]

Yes I have tried this. What did you adjust yours to?

[mikerob2334 2]

I cut on espeed +5 with no problem (can see jagged edge on angles with a magnifying glass). The further away from +5 (up or down) it became more visible. This may just be something that all of the "cheap" refines do?? I tried the rockstar logo of yours 1st and it cut just like it. Cleaned up the nodes and it cut fine. Adjusted espeed and cut the cleaned up file again a few times and it got worse the further away from +5 I got.

[mikerob2334 2]

I've got a buddy with an 871. I'm going to try to get up with him this evening and play with cutter his to see what it does.

[MaderDesign 3]

Thing is, it's not just happening on the Rockstar Logo, it happens on just letters created in Sign Blazer as well.

[Booper 2]

After reading all of this and seeing how much of a Gentleman Mader has been thru all of this I propose we all paypal him 5 bucks each to offset the cost of the Copam unit, simply on the grounds that i've learnt alot off of his suffering and I think he definately deserves it. If USCutter wont take care of him we should. 

Ben

[Rodger 527]

I'll be buying my next cutter from USCutter . I was willing to take the chance of shipping costs to save what I did when I bought the Co-Pams over 2 years ago .  I'll take the same chance next purchase because of the savings , USCutters service & this forum . The flat rate repair after waranty expires is very fair  ( $99 ? ) . It does suck that Mader has had these problems , but he understands it & has been outstanding !  It's his money, but i would go for the Co-Pam as things are right now ... I'm sure Levi is doing as much as possible . 

I bought the Co-Pam because it was the 1rst full time type cutter ( as described by Ken at that time ) . Bigger chances buying less quality cutters . I don't expect my Co-Pam to do what a Graphtec or Roland to do . USCutters description of the value units vs the professional grade makes me feel that the lower end pro cutters are worth the few hundred more . I'll probably buy another Co-Pam whenever I need another cutter , the expense to the next level cutter is not worth it to me .

[MaderDesign 3]

Roger, i'm not saying I'll never buy a cutter from USC again. Plenty of people have the MH-871 and cut perfect with it. That's why I bought it as a start cutter and eventually become a backup cutter if business with it went well. But i have YET to make a freakin profit from it. This thing is costing me money not making me money.

I've been patient because I thought I would help everyone out and try to solve the problem that no one has seen before, and upon doing that, I've sprouted other little ones with me. American and Proud and I have the exact same problem with the exact same model machine.

[Rodger 527]

Mader ,

I understood that & was not meainging it towards you .. just a general statement ( well maybe a little towards some of the other posts  )  You have been the most un-dramatic member ever & I admire your demeanor   

With other members having the same problem with the same cutter, at least we know it isn't something that is only specific to your house/neighborhood .

  I hope a good fair resolution is reached .

[American And Proud 2]

Mader & A&P, I've said this a couple times and looks like nobody has tried it. My MH721 will do the same thing as yours when I adjust the espeed setting. Not the speed, but the espeed under setup. Have either of you tried this??:)

E speed? I have set the speed on the cutter from slow to fast and in setup in SBE all I see is Speed-Inch/Sec. and mine has 33.43 in it that is grayed out. (can't change it) This is in the Vinyl Size portion of the setup pop up box.

I will bring it up with Levi, I only posted here because mine is doing the same thing as MD's to show it was not just his MH871 doing this. You can clearly see it in the several pics I have posted here.

I cut his files to help him determine if another 871 would cut it like his was cutting it, and mine had some jagged lines cut, on one side of the star and  the backs of the RR's.

I never expected the MH871 to perform like a Roland, I expected the 871 would not be able to cut the same small fine details that a Roland will cut, but I do expect it to be able to cut a 16"x12" skewed square with all 4 sides cut straight and clean, Not two sides straight and clean and two sides cut jagged.

I bought it to "test the waters" see IF doing a vinyl business was something I really wanted to pursue, no sence investing in a Pro model machine until I got my feet wet, plan was always to upgrade later on if things took off.

[American And Proud 2]

Now on the otherhand my MH871 cut this out fine, I made it in SBE just like my business sign I made and posted.

NO straight lines to cut, NO jagged cuts all smooth as a babys azz cut curves.

Both signs are 20"x30".

(Expand the pic to its largest size to see how smoothly it cut.Then Expand it again.)

You tell me?

[American And Proud 2]

Thing is, it's not just happening on the Rockstar Logo, it happens on just letters created in Sign Blazer as well.

Same here depending on the style font chosen. If they have straight lines in the numbers or letters they will end up with jagged cuts, all curves and they are good.

[YadirellT 0]

I've been kind of monitoring this.  But if it's not happening consistently, I don't really think it's the same problem.  From the impression that I'm getting from Mader, the problem appears to be consistent, and reproduceable.  I know this might have been asked in the past, but is your cutter on the stand?  Have you tried it both with and without the stand?  Is it on carpet or hardwood floor?  

[MaderDesign 3]

I have tested it both on the stand and off the stand on granite countertops, I have put it on carpet as well. Same thing each time.

[American And Proud 2]

Yes they are repeatable.

But when cutting things with Only Curves to them it cuts smoothly.

Small Marilyn Monroe and Audry Hepburn decals I got from this site cut fine and actually Impressed me that I got as much detail as they got and weeded nicely.

Thought COOL this cutter is gonna be great, Then I started making up Mock signs in SBE and certain straight cuts are cut jagged and some in other directions are not. And downloading other vector files here with straight lines to be cut and the same thing.

Then open a file in SBE with all curves and test cut it its all good, try fonts or designs with straight lines and back to jaggies. (seems to be certain straight cut that are angled) but nothing out of the everyday ordinary realm of sign making.

Yes its on the stand made for it and will stay on it.

Commercial carpet squares like in commercial office buildings.

The rest of my home is Oak hardwood flooring or ceramic tile.

[Guest fivestar]

Try extending the blade out a little farther and cutting back on the pressure.

[American And Proud 2]

Since I realized mine too had this problem (did not realize it right off as I was test cutting small decals with curves just to see how small and how much detail I could retain, and was Impressed.) then started cutting things with straight lines to them and noticed some of the lines were cut jagged.

Since I found out mine was doing that I have tried all speeds, and all pressures, put the blade in, put it out further back and forth testing, tried the 60 degree blades I bought. with weed lines without and so on.

Next will be to get with Levi and see what we can find, but I have been waiting to see how Maders case plays out here.

PC is pretty new and was top of the line, freshly wiped the hard drive and did a complete fresh reinstall of XP and added a 750 gig external drive, this PC is solely set up for the sign stuff. I am typing on my other PC at my desk, the two towers are about 5 feet from each other and both are off the floor under my desk.

[mikerob2334 2]

E speed? I have set the speed on the cutter from slow to fast and in setup in SBE all I see is Speed-Inch/Sec. and mine has 33.43 in it that is grayed out. (can't change it) This is in the Vinyl Size portion of the setup pop up box.

press the setup button on your cutter and you will see the espeed setting. and i also tried files other than the rockstar logo. i knew it was messed up to start with.

[prestonservco 26]

I tried adjusting this espeed on my machine too.  All the way up and down.  No changes.  Cuts fine in all settings.