US Cutter MH871 - MK2 malfunctioning, printing from Illustrator

[iamcarpetpython 0]

I just purchased The US Cutter MH871 - MK2 and  when I send jobs over from Adobe Illustrator (or Corel Draw), the machine occasionally is going crazy and cutting random lines all over the vinyl sheet and sometimes to the point of shredding it. There is nothing wrong with the artwork, it is doing it even on test runs when sending simple jobs over with one vector object. My pressure is only 70g and my speed is 10mm/s (as slow as it will go). I don't know if there is something wrong with the print driver, or the machine itself. I didn't even know where to ask for help. or where to begin, so I posted here.

 

Here is an image showing it's last work. I peal up some of the vinyl exposing what is did. The machine tore it up like this though.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

have you tried sending it from a cutting program like scalp,signblazer or something made to send artwork to the cutter directly?  value cutters generally don't cut directly from ai or corel . .  .and I have never seen one print

[iamcarpetpython 0]

Thank you for your quick response and help. It has already done some successful cuts from Illustrator, it just messes up sometimes, and is now only doing bad cuts. It is also not using the pressure I programmed it to apply. It is cutting straight through the paper. It keeps cutting random straight and random jagged lines all over the vinyl, even past the page cutting on the machines bare strip. i will try cutting from Corel draw though, and see if it continues to have problems.

- Thank you

[Jburns 239]

I have a feeling the MH cutter doesn't know what to do with the data sent straight from illustrator. It is looking for DM-PL, or HPGL. I think thats why it went crazy...

from the website:

"The USCutter MH-Series are the best value vinyl cutters available anywhere! Works with Sure Cuts Alot and other popular software (like Flexi, SignBlaser and SignCut Productivity Pro) through standard vinyl cutter PNC1000"

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Cutting through is too much blade exposed. The rest I can't help with but I'd recommend trying signblazer to rule out your process before you blame the cutter although it may very well be the cutter at least that way you can be more certain. Either way raise that blade some and from the looks of whats left of your vinyl I'd guess your cutting strip is screwed now too.

[KYSIGN 233]

wow. Your cutting strip and blade will almost certainly need replaced. I tried cutting from Corel draw with my first cutter (MH721) and it worked Ok but the home location was on the left side instead of the right. It wasn't worth the trouble so I switched to Signblazer and then to Flexi. I now design in Corel and then export to eps and cut with flexi.

[signyouup 178]

Thank you for your quick response and help. It has already done some successful cuts from Illustrator, it just messes up sometimes, and is now only doing bad cuts. It is also not using the pressure I programmed it to apply. It is cutting straight through the paper. It keeps cutting random straight and random jagged lines all over the vinyl, even past the page cutting on the machines bare strip. i will try cutting from Corel draw though, and see if it continues to have problems.

- Thank you

By the statement in bold above, it sounds like you are trying to set the  pressure in the software. On a MH cutter you can only set the pressure on the machine itself.

[iamcarpetpython 0]

Sorry for my late response. have been swamped. I contacted customer service at USCutter, and a tech support rep. helped me resolve it. Despite the fact that I had produced successful jobs through Adobe Illustrator and Corel before, my inconsistencies were still due to software problems (all settings otherwise were correct in the machine and software). Through logmein remote support, he downloaded Craft Edge plugins (http://www.craftedge.com/download/download_extras.html) which made my jobs spool over properly. Another issue was the machine malfunctioning caused the blade to mess up, which made itself increasingly worse adding to the issue. It is working properly now. I am impressed with the customer service and support for tech support for a machine that is cheaper than any other on the market. Hopefully others with this same user error will find this thread.

- Thank you

[signyouup 178]

Glad you got it taken care of!

[Wildgoose 4,200]

OK so to clarify for some other newbie some day the cutting was going TO SCALP from Illustrator (or Corel) via a plug-in that was installed in Illustrator.