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VINYL FEEDING CROOKED

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I HAVE A MH871 CUTTER, i have tried everything my vinyl wont feed straight for anything. i am so frustrated. i have ruined so many designs with limited vinyl avail for the job...someone please help!!!!!

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Is the machine doing it every single time you cut or 'sometimes'?

 

Trying to eliminate a few variables...

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Double check that your cinch rollers are located above the traction rubber/grit roller on the drive shaft. I and several others did that without really paying attention when we were new at this. Pull the vinyl back out look at the cinch rollers and move things around to be able to be over those spots or you'll have a bad run for sure.

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Check that all the cinch rollers are tight enough on the grit roller. Also they should all be equal as far as how tight they are. If that doesn't do it, make sure the grit roller is tight on the drive shaft.

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hasn't been back on since posting . . . hard to get help when you don't watch for it.

 Last Active Nov 15 2013 10:36 AM

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I just got a MH871 and support said to leave middle roller up and just use 1st stationary one and the last one.  Is that a normal operation, if so, why did they include the 3rd one.  If I leave all 3 down, no matter how I feed it, how long the vinyl or short it is, I get kinks, or slack.  I've got video and submitted along with my trouble ticket, but the response was less than expected, wonder if I should return it and get a better quality one.  I wasted most of my sample vinyl on getting the off-set correct because my Ts, Es, and such are not straight when using ie. Arial Black.

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I just got a MH871 and support said to leave middle roller up and just use 1st stationary one and the last one.  Is that a normal operation, if so, why did they include the 3rd one.  If I leave all 3 down, no matter how I feed it, how long the vinyl or short it is, I get kinks, or slack.  I've got video and submitted along with my trouble ticket, but the response was less than expected, wonder if I should return it and get a better quality one.  I wasted most of my sample vinyl on getting the off-set correct because my Ts, Es, and such are not straight when using ie. Arial Black.

Actually the higher end vinyl cutters only have 2 pinch rollers and work perfect. Tracking is great.   I have a 30" Graphtec,  works great with 2 pinch rollers.  I would not want a 3rd pinch roller.  And that is what tech support is trying to tell you.

 

It takes a lot more time and experience to set up the value cutters, which has been mentioned here a zillion times. This is a good reason why people upgrade to the higher end cutters.  And you purchased the least expensive value cutter.  So, don't expect it to be a Graphtec or a Roland. for under $300.00 that you paid.

 

And if you are not doing this, you should always pre feed your vinyl enough for the order. Never be pulling directly from the roll while cutting. 

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the higher end cutters usually have a fan pulling the vinyl down is why some of the value cutters have 3 or more main thing is like mentioned above to make sure that center roller isn't over the stationary support in the middle - it has to be over a grit roller or will do what you described

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I have a USCutter SC and it has 3 rollers and I have yet to have a problem with it tracking. I was told by the previous owner to make sure the rollers were not on the ends of the grit roller but firmly on the body of the roller. So I never had an issue yet. I don't pull off vinyl off the roll either. the rollers for the stand have good bearings on the end and they feed well, also re-roll well.

 

Butch 

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Reitterating what everyone has said just make sure the rubber roller is over a gritty portion of the drive rollers.

 

But as far as pre-feeding your asking for trouble if you do not unroll at least the amount your going to cut from your roll. You may not have had a problem yet but you will. When your doing longer cuts, say 2+ feet and your cutter decides to move from one end to the other and open up to full speed to do so, and when it does it hits the end of the slack going full speed your gonna hear a tell tale "SLAP" and your design is going to be screwed. It will knock out your alignment for your feed vinyl and everything you have cut up to that point will not be aligned with everything cut after. Do it often enough and your going to break something in your drive train or electronics on your cutter. PWM motors do not like to stop suddenly with out command or be jolted very hard and the speed controllers in these cutters are not rated for the current that gets pulled when it happens most of the time.

 

So pre-feed and save yourself a crap load of money in the future.

 

Woody

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I had a new Graphtec owner contact me thru a PM,,  about a year ago,  stating he had purchased his 2nd new Graphtec, because the first new one sitting in the corner was not cutting correctly, ,He said 2nd new cutter did the same thing.  I went over a few things with him, and also told him that he needed to be pre feeding the vinyl for the order first.  Tech support had  helped him, but he still  had this problem. He had heard the Graphtecs were great machines, and he figured he had gotten a lemon..  The whole time he was never pre feeding the vinyl.  And he ended up buying 2 new Graphtecs, thinking it was the cutter. 

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I used to prefeed my P-Cut and that also let me know if it was actually straight or not as well as if I was at the end of a roll. The new Summa runs a prefeed of about 1.5 times the width and then cuts to that point and then does another automatically as it works through long designs so I am spoiled now.  

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make sure the rollers are not worn on one edge and they are clean,

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Pulling the roll tight doesnt work most of the time.

What I do is put the vinyl in and dry run about 3 foot out put the rolls near the end and you can see if the vinyl is moving from one side to the other. If it is i raise the rolls and slightly shift the vinyl and repeat until it runs throught straight. I rarely get it right the first go.

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The p cut i run the lenth of the cut to check the tracking. The omega om60 premeasures width and length so fast it is hard to see the tracking but it tracks quite well

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Very informative, I do keep the center roll off and I think when I print logos, and other designs, it is sufficient in quality and for a starter.  I already printed some stickers and eager to try out the Oracal 7xx series for the more quality stickers I want.  What about the knifes, I can upgrade the knifes to the better quality ones and want to find out if it really makes a difference.  I also wonder how you find out when it is time to replace it.  I think mine ran off the vinyl once or twice onto the white plastic a little bit will that suffice a replacement?  It cuts okay for now and got 2 backups.

I also want to note that I sure got a lot of cool stuff for 300$ bucks including shipping and all the extra vinyl.  But I think USCutter is thinking differently, like some of the smart cellular manuf. out there.  We give out the cutter at cost or marginal profit but we get them for life-long client as a client for vinyl and accessories.  I just received one order in and catalogs of vinyl and I'm already planning to order whole bunch more.

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running off with the stock blades probably won't affect it much - once you get it dialed in I suggest cleancut blades - premium tight grained carbide are sharper  - not as forgiving when you cut thru or go off the vinyl so get that out of your system first - the harder carbide is more brittle and will break a tip if you cut into the strip and the blade turns - but once you get that taken care of it is the only blades I have found to go about a year without replacing in regular vinyl - of course metallics will shorten any blade life and the reason I have a second blade holder just for that purpose

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metallics and reflectives actually have metal film in them - metal dulls a blade faster than vinyl

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Sometimes fighting the roll feeding isn't worth it on the cheaper machines - pull out what you need for the job and cut the needed length, then feed that instead of feeding from the roll. (sorry for bumping such an old thread but its a valuable thread)

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