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FrznFire07

Plotter Experts?

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Ok so many of you know I've been doing the vinyl thing for some time now, so I don't need the usual run down on how to track vinyl on a friction fed plotter,

however for the last several years my Graphtec ce-3000 60 MK2 24" has been having some tracking issues.

 

I have two other plotters on which I can track 20' material withing a 1/4".

however this plotter, if I run anything over 8' to 10' i have to adjust to allow for up 1" in movement!

 

Any ideas?

Loose belt?

Pinch roller not tight enough?

Something else out of alignment?

 

One other thing, if it's a heavy roll like a 50yd roll, it tracks much better,

however if I'm trying to get the end of my roll to track, its a nightmere.

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Tell us what you are doing, when you are going to run an order.. say 10 ft long..on a 24" wide roll, on a 50 yd roll. 

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Ok, i just ran 136"of light red translucent,

although it wasn't a 50yd roll, only 10yd.

Feed vinyl through, make sure vinyl is tight to roll, lower pinch rollers, let machine roll vinyl back to edge,

use show me in plotter screen to make sure vinyl will track enough to complete cut.

 

Send.

 

If I am facing plotter vinyl will gradually track to the right ALWAYS, on this particular run, tracked 1/2"off.

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Hmmm I don't even pay attention to how it tracks, before cutting, cause it always cuts perfect.  Are your designs not cutting correctly?  Is that your problem?    I center my pinch rollers in the middle of the grit roller,  I only have 2 pinch rollers,  about an inch in, on each side of the vinyl.  I make sure my vinyl roll is tight.   I just prefeed the amount of the order, and let it do it's thing.  Send to cut..  Now If I am doing  stripes. I have Flexistarter as my cutting software and I use OPTIMIZE CUTTING ORDER,  and it starts the first panel, then advances to next panel all the way to the end.  Cuts perfect.  The wheel marks in the vinyl are supposed to help with the tracking...

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usually it cuts fine, occaisonaly i have an issue where i cut lets say a large border with graphics in side it, it will cut the border let's say 14' long then come back and cut letters and the letters will be running uphill

inside the border, or the center of an "o" will be way off.

i do line my rollers up with grit rollers and i know there's nothing with the files because i have a 72"plotter that cuts straight as an arrow.

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Make sure you have the rollers an equal distance from the vinyl edge?   Rollers and grit rollers clean?   I have never adjusted my pinch rollers.   And I don't have them locked in the lowest position. On my FC they are on the highest position, and I just lower the arm and it works fine. 

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honestly no they are not equal distance because it always tracks right, so put left roller right on the edge, right roller almost 1" in.

the compensation is enough for most jobs but occaisionally i have to cut some really long runs and I have to cut almost to the edge of the material.

for these it's a nightmere!!!!

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one thing that stands out to me is I pre feed and never have the plotter pull off the roll - it causes the vinyl to slip in the rollers usually but in your case it is weird it does it less with  less pulling force from a shorter roll

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I never use to pre-feed but because this tracks so far off, i have no choice, i have to make absolutely sure on some runs that i will be able to cut it, can't afford to waste that much material you know?

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