MrJoel

Why is it recommended to prefeed your vinyl

Recommended Posts

Ummm...asking for a friend or something!  Why prefeed your vinyl before cutting?  I understand wanting to check tracking but a good 6” should tell you all you need for the majority of jobs and long jobs seem like having to pull 8 feet of vinyl from your catch basket would be more work for the feed system.  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

pulling the vinyl off the roll reduces accuracy as the vinyl can slip in the friction area between the pressure rollers and knurl rollers.  any slippage is not good for accuracy of cuts and making sure the ends line up

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also to check your vinyl.  Not all vinyl is perfect,  If your making large orders like myself, you want to see the entire 8 ft or so before you cut it. You will find over the years, there are imperfections in vinyl or big sections of mottle. (This happens when vinyl rolls are tight.)   Easier to see on dark colors. You have a chance to see those areas when pre feeding, and can cut those sections off of the vinyl roll and save them for smaller designs.  You wouldn't want to cut a 8 ft design then see about 4 ft into the design it has  a 1 inch section of mottle all the way across 24 or 30" wide roll. or a run in calendered vinyl. dimples,in vinyl.  I cut up to 16 ft..So i prefeed the whole 16 ft.  I do have a media basket. You could see if something is stuck on your grit roller, as it will make marks under your backing and show thru to the front when prefeeding.

With Graphtecs, the rollers make a nice little track in the vinyl to follow tracking, back and forth.  This is why there is an actual prefeeding feature on the Graphtecs.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now