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gatecitycleaners

Cutting outside of mat size used on computer.

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Hi everyone, I am using Sure Cuts A Lot 3 Pro and have customized my mat size but the cutter keeps cutting off the edges of the vinyl when I send it to the cutter. I have tried changing the orientation of the mat (horizontal and vertical). On the computer it shows as everything fitting inside the mat, but cuts off parts of my words. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Not cutting design, just cutting words for our store to direct people to a change machine, vending, etc. Letters cut clean, just off edges sometimes.

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Are you putting the cutting head far enough to the right before cutting and pushing the ORIGIN button before sending cut?  I don't use Scalp,  Just general info for any software.

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Are you putting the cutting head far enough to the right before cutting and pushing the ORIGIN button before sending cut?

No, I have not adjusted anything on the machine other than the blade depth. I did notice that the vinyl was not lining up flush against the edge of the cutter though. There is like a stopper where the roll sits that won't allow me to push it any further to the left or right so the when I pull the vinyl through the cutting area, it sits an inch away from the edge of the front (where the control panel is) and 3 inches from the back of the cutter. The cutting head seems to always start at the farthest right, pushing up against that small red button on the inside. I can post pictures if that would be any help.

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  You do not state what cutter you are using...Your vinyl should be wide enough to do the order, You don't put your vinyl up next to the edge of machine. You must keep the cutter head away from the reset button on the machine.  Your cutter cuts right to left.  You must push the ORIGIN button on your machine before you send the design,  That tells the cutter where to measure from..  Yes, photos would help.

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  You do not state what cutter you are using...Your vinyl should be wide enough to do the order, You don't push your vinyl up next to the machine. You must keep the cutter head away from the reset button on the machine.  Your cutter cuts right to left.  You must push the ORIGIN button on your machine before you send the design,  That tells the cutter where to measure from..  Yes, photos would help.

Apologies. I am using a US Cutter MH 721-MK2. I have attached photos of where the vinyl sits on the machine. So if I push the Origin button on the machine prior to cutting that should keep everything inside the mat size that I select on the computer program first? Thank you for your patience, I am still new to this, obviously.  :blink:

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move the whole vinyl over to the left more.  You can start cutting  close to the right edge of the vinyl..  Push the ORIGIN button before you send the design..   As I stated, I don't use Sure Cuts A Lot.

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move the whole vinyl over to the left more.  You can start cutting  close to the right edge of the vinyl..  Push the ORIGIN button before you send the design..   As I stated I don't use Scalp.

Okay so do I need to move the cutting head at all or just keep it all the way to the right, push Origin and then send the design to the cutter? 

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Put the cutting head to the right side of the vinyl, where you want it to start cutting..Where it has plenty of room to do your design. Use the correct direction in your cutting software for the design that you are using. ....Push ORIGIN. send the design to your cutter.

 

 

Also, If you make that mat size a lot larger in Sure Cuts A Lot, than your design, It can't cut off the design.

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Put the cutting head to the right side of the vinyl, where you want it to start cutting..Where it has plenty of room to do your design. Use the correct direction in your cutting software for the design that you are using. ....Push ORIGIN. send the design to your cutter.

What do you mean by use the correct direction in cutting software? I attached another photo, a screen shot of something I am trying to cut. This particular mat size is set at 14" W x 30" H. I thought that should be enough space since my vinyl roll sits 24" wide on the cutter and length of the roll is long enough. Should I change the dimensions of the mat size?

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What direction does it look like in your cutting screen? The 30" side must be going the length of your vinyl.  Not the width.

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I recommend that you set your mat size to the width of your available vinyl. Most people cut inside the pinch rollers but some use the material out past where they roll. 

 

Typically the left roller position will be determined by vinyl width but I'm not sure how your cutter is configured and it may have a lot of available knurled drive shaft space. Just make sure that BOTH rollers are on the knurled part of the drive shaft at the end of the day so it pushes and pulls the vinyl evenly. I set my pinch rollers out to the edges as close as I am comfortable with (my current cutter tracks very accurate so I leave about 1/4" but my previous budget cutter I had to leave at least 1/2" outside the roller so it wouldn't track off the vinyl by the end of the cut. It's a good idea to pre-feed the vinyl in and out once to be sure you're tracking straight. 

 

Once you get the vinyl sitting right and the rollers out to the edges place your cutter head so the blade is where you want it (typically just inside the right pinch roller) and push whatever button zero's out your origin to that point. If all your cut settings are correct then it should work from that origin point toward the left side and if you have enough vinyl between the rollers you'll be good to go. 

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There should be some method to re-orient the way the vinyl feeds out the cutter. Not sure in SCALP how to do this but I am pretty sure you can. 

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What direction does it look like in your cutting screen? The 30" side must be going the length of your vinyl.  Not the width.

That is what I am having a hard time determining. I would think that the width would be how wide the vinyl is, not the length of how much vinyl is on the entire roll. I cannot tell if the mat on the computer is facing the correct way, but I do have the width set at only 14" and the width of the vinyl roll is actually 24" so I thought it should easily fit on there, but it still cuts off the edges of the vinyl. 

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I recommend that you set your mat size to the width of your available vinyl. Most people cut inside the pinch rollers but some use the material out past where they roll. 

 

Typically the left roller position will be determined by vinyl width but I'm not sure how your cutter is configured and it may have a lot of available knurled drive shaft space. Just make sure that BOTH rollers are on the knurled part of the drive shaft at the end of the day so it pushes and pulls the vinyl evenly. I set my pinch rollers out to the edges as close as I am comfortable with (my current cutter tracks very accurate so I leave about 1/4" but my previous budget cutter I had to leave at least 1/2" outside the roller so it wouldn't track off the vinyl by the end of the cut. It's a good idea to pre-feed the vinyl in and out once to be sure you're tracking straight. 

 

Once you get the vinyl sitting right and the rollers out to the edges place your cutter head so the blade is where you want it (typically just inside the right pinch roller) and push whatever button zero's out your origin to that point. If all your cut settings are correct then it should work from that origin point toward the left side and if you have enough vinyl between the rollers you'll be good to go. 

So if I push the vinyl roll all the way to the left edge and put the cutting head about an inch into the vinyl on the right side and use that as the origin point will it stay cutting on the vinyl? Will the cutter head not attempt to cut past the origin point that I set?

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i use to have that same issue with my mh cutter. If I remember right 30h is to long for the memory. I had all kinds of issues with that machine. I sold it asap. But click on wysiwyg and see it that helps and cut it in portrait and cut 1 line at a time.

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So if I push the vinyl roll all the way to the left edge and put the cutting head about an inch into the vinyl on the right side and use that as the origin point will it stay cutting on the vinyl? Will the cutter head not attempt to cut past the origin point that I set?

You probably have to zero the cutter out once you set it there. Every cutter is a little different so I don't know how to tell you to do that. My old one I took it off-line and then it let me zero out the x and y axis to zero then I would turn it back online and it was ready to cut. You need to define where the starting point is so the cutter starts there. as you move the vinyl in and out with the arrows on the machine the location on that axis changes. Most cutters is you don't zero back out then it will return to the original zero and start cutting from there regardless if it's on the vinyl or not. Budget cutters have no way of knowing if they are over any vinyl or not so you have to position it and make sure there is enough width too. 

 

When you cut and it goes off the vinyl is it looking orientated correctly so that the 14" width is correct? In other words if it starts cutting in the right place will it actually fit or is it cutting the other direction and the 30" just won't work? (if the later then you need to rotate your design to match the cutter output. If the former then you just have your origin off. 

 

I had a 48" machine and would sometimes move all the rollers and the cutting head way over to the far left side to make use of the best knurled drive rollers for the vinyl width. I don't think that your MH has that same layout of knurled drive rollers but the point is that you can move around and reset the zero and start cutting from other areas besides right next to the left side. You just need to get it placed right at the get-go and then you'll be fine. You're going to be doing this on about every job. 

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That is what I am having a hard time determining. I would think that the width would be how wide the vinyl is, not the length of how much vinyl is on the entire roll. I cannot tell if the mat on the computer is facing the correct way, but I do have the width set at only 14" and the width of the vinyl roll is actually 24" so I thought it should easily fit on there, but it still cuts off the edges of the vinyl. 

So which way is the letters cutting?   If you can read your letters  left to right,across your vinyl. ,, then you are going the wrong direction....   The lettering should be cutting down the length of the vinyl.

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You probably have to zero the cutter out once you set it there. Every cutter is a little different so I don't know how to tell you to do that. My old one I took it off-line and then it let me zero out the x and y axis to zero then I would turn it back online and it was ready to cut. You need to define where the starting point is so the cutter starts there. as you move the vinyl in and out with the arrows on the machine the location on that axis changes. Most cutters is you don't zero back out then it will return to the original zero and start cutting from there regardless if it's on the vinyl or not. Budget cutters have no way of knowing if they are over any vinyl or not so you have to position it and make sure there is enough width too. 

 

When you cut and it goes off the vinyl is it looking orientated correctly so that the 14" width is correct? In other words if it starts cutting in the right place will it actually fit or is it cutting the other direction and the 30" just won't work? (if the later then you need to rotate your design to match the cutter output. If the former then you just have your origin off. 

 

I had a 48" machine and would sometimes move all the rollers and the cutting head way over to the far left side to make use of the best knurled drive rollers for the vinyl width. I don't think that your MH has that same layout of knurled drive rollers but the point is that you can move around and reset the zero and start cutting from other areas besides right next to the left side. You just need to get it placed right at the get-go and then you'll be fine. You're going to be doing this on about every job. 

Thank you for your help. I will just have to keep experimenting. I just tried cutting with the vinyl placed all the way to the left and used the Origin button and it seemed to work. I am going to try now with a smaller roll of vinyl and see what happens. Thank you again.

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So which way is the letters cutting?   If you can read your letters  left to right,across your vinyl. ,, then you are going the wrong direction....   The lettering should be cutting down the length of the vinyl.

I just did a cut and I think it worked using the Origin button. It is not coming out of the cutter so I can read left to right. I have to cut the vinyl off and then flip the orientation once it is cut to be able to read. In other words it comes off the vinyl like this:

 

X

X

X

X

 

Not like this

 

XXXXX

 

Hopefully that makes sense. I will continue to experiment. Thank you for all of your help.

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OK,  You always have to use the ORIGIN button before you send a cut.. That sets your starting point and your cutter measures from that point.

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I just did a cut and I think it worked using the Origin button. It is not coming out of the cutter so I can read left to right. I have to cut the vinyl off and then flip the orientation once it is cut to be able to read. In other words it comes off the vinyl like this:

 

X

X

X

X

 

Not like this

 

XXXXX

 

Hopefully that makes sense. I will continue to experiment. Thank you for all of your help.

According to your description it is feeding the way it would have to in order to cut a 30" design on 24" material. For work that will fit within the width you still should have a way to rotate the orientation without much effort and have it come out turned 90deg. 

 

I looked online and from what I can see the MH cutter has a lot of available space to place the pinch rollers with only a small spot in the middle that doesn't have knurling so you can put your vinyl about anywhere you want from one side to the other and move the cutterhead over to a good starting point on the vinyl. You might spend a little time on Youtube and watch some other people loading vinyl if you are still having a hard time grasping this concept. Most cutters are similar although the higher end have more features and measure the vinyl after it is loaded. 

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On the MH series 3" out is the "zero" point for material. Hit reset or power cycle the machine to obtain a "home" position and clear out the limited memory after each job. As noted, spread out your pinch rollers across the machine, but not over marked center. To custom position the start of a cut use the "offline/pause" button & then use arrows to move around cut head and material to desired start location. Then hit "origin" to place back in cut mode.

 

Material origin for "zero"

image.jpg3.jpg

 

 

After selecting the cut tab use the preview window to help with making sure you are laid out correctly. Look at the arrows and graphic of the cutter and it's control panel to determine if it will cut correctly. Sacrifice a .99 cent roll of mailing paper ( or back of vinyl carrier sheet) and use your pen ( or rig up a sharply) and start testing out different lay-outs to see what works best for you. I never could mentally get used to how horizontal/landscape mode cut and would make mistakes.

 

Vertical/Portrait preview

image.jpg1.jpg

 

 

Horizontal/Landscape preview

image.jpg2.jpg

 

Design in what ever mat size you need, but I always revert back to my material size before cutting to aid in not making these types of mistakes.

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