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slice&dice

Red & Black -- LPII forms the visual centerpiece of my sign shop

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Well kiddies, it finally happened.

The MH cutter went into SHOCK mode (yep, static) and the bladeholder will not rise up anymore!

Of course, it's symptomatic of the dreaded fried Z-chip.

So, along with a Z-chip, I've ordered a new LPII unit to enter service as my primary cutter  (the MH, if it comes back to life, will be relegated to a corner).

 

Ahhhh, the LPII, a colorful red & black casing, and as such, deserving of a prominent position in the sign shop, where its going to be viewed as a centerpiece of the space.

 

Now, I know that many here would suggest leaving the cutter in the BACK, out of the customer's sight.

 

However, I'm set up inside a shop the size of a shoebox, and there's no "back" !!

 

 

Photos to come, as I unpack and set up this new addition to my little SignFactory.

(delivery of the unit expected later today)

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First impressions of LPII --- 

 

Substantially quieter than both the SC and MH units I've had.

 

The keypad is the same basically as the SC, and there's the same awkward key combination in order to set the origin.

 

It's running fine with RedSail driver.

 

I very much want to migrate into VinylMaster, but I'm still knocking around with SignBlazer, it's like an old comfortable shoe.

 

Best feature so far ---  the spacious upper tray which holds tools very well.

 

Oh, by the way, I went with the LPII and not the Titan 2 servo, because there's no 34" size Titan 2.

If there had been, I would have gotten it.

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*bump*

 

A few comments about the operation of the LPII.

To begin with, I'm getting used to the pinch-roller limitations ---  there are SPECIFIC positions which allow the pinch rollers to come into contact with the grit rollers underneath. This is because there isn't one long grit roller across the entire width, but rather, six individual small grit rollers at intervals. That means you have to locate the upper pinch rollers precisely at those set marks.

 

I have found that with 24" vinyl, these positions are wrong. I cannot load the vinyl at the far right (where the HOME location is for the blade point) and am thus forced to move the vinyl over slightly and that requires an adjustment to the origin of the carriage, every time.

 

Not the smartest engineering I've ever seen.

 

 

Another strange thing is the pressure ---  I am using 250 g. force to obtain good cut results on standard Intermediate vinyl. On the MH and SC units the downforce was only around 40g.

 

And the biggest surprise I've been faced with is the SIZE of the cut output. It's not 1:1 dimensions to the design.

Now, that may be due to a number of factors unrelated to the cutter itself, namely, a software or driver issue.

I've been trying to dial it in, using the SignBlazer "Cutting Size Correction" feature, and using different machine drivers (RedSail, Li-Yu and now I'm attempting the Copam) and I tried lowering the baud rate from the default 9600.

 

So far, no luck on getting cuts 1:1

 

 

Anyway, that's where I'm at today, FWIW.

The LPII is a nice piece of equipment, and it's making me $$$ ---    all of the above aren't critical for continued slicing & dicing !!!

Just a few minor annoyances, which are easily overcome by operator skill.

 

 

=======================================

Oh, I should add, the MH replacement Z-chip was a piece of cake to swap out --- the Z-chip is located under the fan on the motherboard and you just gently pry the fried one out of the socket and insert the new chip. Just make sure the prongs/legs are straight).

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Glad to see that you are back up & running,

Cal

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Hey slice, I too have a LP2 and match you almost exactly on the 250g force to get a good cut. I also had the same issue with the 1:1 sizing the cutter was cutting smaller then what I had it set at in SCALP but found in the settings (but it escape me right now what setting it was I will look when I'm at home) but with some test cuts of squares I ended up setting it to +1.025 for the x and the y and now they are spot on

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Interesting. I'm running into that issue with the LP2 where my weeding on designs is just a huge pain.....but was at 100g pressure. You suggest large increases from 100g? greenstar vinyl.

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Hey slice I checked that setting and it was called "resolution" that I adjusted to get the size the same. I do use sure cuts alot pro version 3 and 4, both are the same.

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Had my cutter for a few months now, and tons of issues weeding.  I'm gonna bump up my pressure on my next job and see what happens there.  

I have a serial keyspan I'm running now too.  If you don't have one, invest in one.  Only thing I have to do now is properly ground it, as mine is cutting 

all crazy like now.  It's usually with larger runs.  Other than this little issue now, it's been a great machine, and I like it a lot.

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