font does not cut correctly

[speleopower 46]

I have been trying to cut some letters for a friend of mine using Arial MT Rounded Bold and Arial Unicode MS. The problem is the letters are not cutting correctly.

For example the letter I in Arial Unicode should basicly be a long skinny rectangle. But when it cuts the bottom is kinda pointed. The letter "O" should be two circles but it cuts like it has a wobble. Another issue that occurs and is most noticeable in the "O"'s is it does not get cut complete. I seems like the cutter veers of course right at the end of the cut and does not completely close the loop. The smaller the letters are the more noticable this issue is.

Does anyone have any idea what maybe happening? Take a look at the attached picture and note the bottom of the "I" as the worst part. I was thinking this might be an "offset" issue but I changed the offset a bunch of times to different settings and cut the same letters over and over. The issue remained in the same place in the same letters. I have a feeling the font I am using just doesn't want to cut correctly.

My equpment is a 34" USCutter SC machine with a USB connection.

Thanks-Scott

[AbsoluteAirbrush 33]

USB is most likely your issue, I used to have those types of issues until I went serial, and no more worries. Another possible is if your vectorizing text, you should just recreate it.

Hope this helps and GL, Alan

[Jay2703 704]

It's your offset settings or your carriage is loose.

[speleopower 46]

Oopss I have the 34" SC machine.

Within Signblazer what is the best cutter to choose from the drop down list?

I was trying lots of different offsets and it was hit or miss. Not vectorizing the font just using the font that came with my computer.

Carriage maybe loose. I noted in a couple of my cuts last night with the blade just barely peeking out of the blade holder on occasion there would be a dent all the way through the vinyl backing paper from where the blade holder was dropped back down to start another letter.

When I did a "test" where the cutter makes a square with 2 diagonal lines I noted the corners where the cutter turned were not perfectly square and the stopping point at the end of the path was slightly off from the starting location.

How do I check the carriage?

I've had the machine for about 3-4 months and so far no issues until recently.

-Scott

[Jay2703 704]

I would guess more offset than carriage. Start at .25 for the offset setting. Adjust it by +/- .05 to start.

]See the image below for where to go from there.

[speleopower 46]

I've been getting what looks like a mix of "too high" and "too low" within a single cut per your posted diagrams. Also the starting and ending points are very slightly different on occasion.

When I get home I will double check my offset and do some software tweaking.

-Scott

[Jay2703 704]

From your picture that you posted, I would think they are/were too low.

[speleopower 46]

I deleted all of my SignBlazer software and folders etc from my computer. After reinstalling the software and configuring it for my cutter I found it worked a bit better.

For example last night I had the downforce set at maybe 3g on the cutter but the cutter was slamming the cutting arm down so hard I could hear it knocking. I could also see small dents on the back of the backing paper even with the blade sticking out 1/2-3/4 the width of a credit card.

Now I can't hear the cutting arm drop and with only 2-4g of pressure it cuts clean and barely dents the backing paper.

Attached is an exaggerated drawing of what some letters look like after cutting (the cut letters are not as bad as the drawing-I can not take a picture of the cut letters). It seems the smaller the letter the worse the effect is.

I checked the carriage and it seems to have zero slop side to side and front to back. I'm at a loss as to what is going on. When I first got the cutter it was spot on right from the get go and it seems to have lost a little of its accuracy for cutting smaller objects due to it leaving little hair sized attachments from the piece cut and the piece that is getting weeded.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

Thank you Jay2703 for posting the picture of the offset effects.

-I did a whole series of letter i's with zero offset up to .6mm. The best offset I found was around 0.5 - 0.55mm.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

I'm still having issues with cutting letters. Is there anyway to node edit letters?

I have to cutter setup so a regular vector drawing will cut quite nicely. But small letters are still an issue. From about 1/2" down is where the problem begins.

-Scott

[slice&dice 2,450]

I'm still having issues with cutting letters. Is there anyway to node edit letters?

-Scott

Of course, SELECT your text and then look along the icons in the extended toolbar (scroll) for Text-grap.

Once you choose that, double click inside the text itself and you'll have nodes appear for your letters.

[speleopower 46]

Awesome! Thanks for the trick. I knew it had to be in the program somewhere. I have read through the SignBlazer manual but there is so much in it that I can not remember it all.

I just edited some text and found some odd things with the nodes. For example the little "pip" at the top of a lower case i had a corner node over lapped on top of a curve node. Also found multiple locations where there was no node shown on the screen but there is actually a number of corner nodes on top of each other. I'm going to try cutting the editied text and see what happens.

Does anyone know what the cutter does when there is multiple nodes stacked on top of each other?

-Scott

[mb20music 760]

Of course, SELECT your text and then look along the icons in the extended toolbar (scroll) for Text-grap.

Once you choose that, double click inside the text itself and you'll have nodes appear for your letters.

OR you can select the text then weld them

[speleopower 46]

Just did a cut using different blade offsets and I'm getting a very similar result.

Here is a drawing of what is happening with the Arial MT Bold font I am trying to cut at a touch under 1/2 tall. You can see on the lower case "n" letter either the starting or ending point is off. You can see on the letter "d" there is a similar issue. Some letters cut perfect and some do not. It also seems the issue happens in the same spot on the letters when I cut again with a different blade offset.

Lets just say today I cut a series of words from 0 blade off set to .7 offset. Then again from .25-.40 in .01 increments. the issue is nearly identical with each blade offset.

I'm at a loss now. Maybe I have hit a hard limit with the SC machine.

Blade offset seems to be best between .25 and .35.

Speed of the cutter is 100 or 200

pressure is 1

blade length is just barely barely sticking out. You can barely perceive it is even sticking out.

Any ideas?

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

I have been trying to do some cuts with Sign Cut and I am having the same issue with cutting fonts.

I know it's been covered before but can someone post up the starting offset for a 60 degree blade and a 45 degree blade.

Thanks for all the helps.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

Anyone have any ideas? I have been working with Sign Cut and I'm still having this same issue.

[speleopower 46]

a little help here?

[mars 45]

Here are some other things to check

1. Is the blade holder fouled with a small bit of vinyl - sometimes a tiny piece will get lodged in the opening and cause the blade to not swivel freely with wonky results in the cut path?

2. Is the blade chipped or dull?

3. Is there any roughness/cuts in the cutting strip - usually caused by cutting completely through the vinyl and backing paper and damaging the strip.

4. Is it just a crappy font? Have you done other fonts with good results?

5. Is the blade set correctly? Should JUST cut through the vinyl and maybe leave a slight mark in the backing.

Looks like you have checked for play in the moving parts and played with values for offset - so these things are the next I would be checking if I had trouble.

-Mike

[speleopower 46]

1. Is the blade holder fouled with a small bit of vinyl - sometimes a tiny piece will get lodged in the opening and cause the blade to not swivel freely with wonky results in the cut path? No there is nothing fouled in the blade holder that I can tell. I have even used a magnifying glass and a flashlight to look in the blade holder.

2. Is the blade chipped or dull? No, in fact I have changed the blade out multiple times to check different blades.

3. Is there any roughness/cuts in the cutting strip - usually caused by cutting completely through the vinyl and backing paper and damaging the strip. Yes, there is a few spots on the cutting strip that I accidently ran off of the vinyl. But I try and avoid that spot on the cutting strip with less than 24" wide vinyl.

4. Is it just a crappy font? Have you done other fonts with good results? I have node edited different fonts to check for issues. Regardless of the font or drawing there is a tiny scallop.

5. Is the blade set correctly? Should JUST cut through the vinyl and maybe leave a slight mark in the backing? Yes, blade cutting depth is set to just barely cut through the vinyl and it barely leaves a mark on the backing.

Looks like you have checked for play in the moving parts and played with values for offset - Yes I have checked as many of the moving parts as I can for end play. Nothing was detected by me. I have also played with the belt tension as well.

so these things are the next I would be checking if I had trouble. Thank you for the input. I did order a keyspan adaptor from USCutter today. Maybe it is the USB port playing a very very slight trick on my machine.

[mopar691 281]

how big are these letters you are trying to cut?

Are you 100% sure all your carriage wheels are on track? These can be knocked off pretty easily on these machines.

Also check your blade holder and its mounting hardware. If this is a larger cut and you are getting these problems I would look for slop in the system as this is what it looks like to me.

[speleopower 46]

It happens on all letters and drawings from little tiny to really big. It seems like it is only at the beginning of a cut that is cuts a tiny curve (scallop) then it goes perfect for the rest of path and then stops just before it gets to the slight scallop. If in Sign Cut Pro I increase the "overcut" setting I can get it to many times close the gap between the starting point scallop and the end of the cut path.

Yes 100% sure all of the carriage wheels are on track. I can detect no slop in the mounting hardware. All of the cuts after the first 1-2mm or so scallop are perfectly on track with nice square corners, round curves and good diagonals.

It's almost like the blade holder drops down a split second before it is supposed to while the carriage and the feed rollers are still moving to the absolute starting point.

I have changed the blade off set all the way up to 5mm just to see what happens. It is the same result even with blade offset a 5mm. At 5mm offset the starting point again has a tiny scallop curve before the cut.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

Today I found a few of the first things I cut with my cutter. The little scallop was not on any of the first things I cut.

Now I"m stuck and need to get this figured out.

Looks like I'm going to have to get in touch with US Cutter support.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

I received a keyspan adapter today in the mail. It was ordered this past Friday and got here on Tuesday. Super quick shipping. I will report this evening whether or not the little scallop goes away. If it doesn't I will have to put in a support ticket with USCutter.

I found more of the first things I cut with my cutter and there is no little scallop or tiny miscuts on any of the first pieces.

-Scott

[speleopower 46]

I loaded the Keyspan adapter and the cutter still cuts the same little scallop. I tried multiple blade offsets and still the same thing. The starting point is always a small 1-2mm long curve and the end of the cut always comes up short.

-Scott

[mopar691 281]

cut a square, take a pic with a ruler next to it. I want to see actual problem.

Also a screen shot of your cutter setup within signblazer like the one i have included and post the file you are cutting from.

If everything correct something is either off track, blade holder loose, bearing out, roller out, etc, etc.

These are very simple machines and I have rebuilt the master and seiki i had numerous times. At the end even ended up combining the two so I could make one machine.