ShaneGreen

3m reflective issues

Recommended Posts

I've got in three rolls of 3m Scotchlite 5100-85, the red and black seem to cut fine but I'm struggling with this white.

LaserPoint II with a new Cleancut-60 blade (blade height set to Ms Skeeterz standards, as always).  For reference, Oracal 651 cuts at 75-110 grams of force (depending on color) and 400mm/sec.

The reflective black and red are doing fine at 400grams of force and 100mm/sec.  Four times the force and slow, it's what I expected. But this white....500grams 100mm/sec and two passes and even then it's tough to weed.  The next step up in speed is 200mm/sec and it won't cut cleanly at any pressure with that speed .  The attached picture is what happens at 200mm/sec  OR with just one pass OR any pressure below 500grams. The left side of the picture shows the front of the decal. It's an oval with a bison in the middle.  The right hand side is the back of vinyl after it comes off the carrier sheet (the sticky side).

So anything below 500gm, 100mm/s, two passes and this is what I get:

- The front looks like it makes a nice clean cut.

- The rear looks like a nice clean cut.  If you take it off the backing, like in the picture, it separates right where it should.

- The carrier sheet shows a defined indentation every place you cut.

- Lots of trash builds up on the blade tip with just this little 2x3 decal.

- It's hard to get it to start weeding and then as you're pealing it off it will rip. Seriously, it's easier to rip the vinyl then it is to weed it on the cutline.

- Any thin sections won't stay stuck to the backing once it's weeded.  Something like a flame is completely impossible.  The other colors aren't doing this.

- I have a 0.050 weed box around it. About 80% of the box weeds fine and then short sections will either not  weed or the top layer comes off leaving the reflective bottom layer behind.

I thought about putting transfer tape on it, removing the carrier and weeding that way to see what would happen. It would sure make multi-layered images a pain.

Should the white be this much different from the red and black?   Am I stuck with multiple passes at turtle speed?  Any recommendations?

 

reflective test - bison.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It looks to be cutting the reflective part okay, but not really cutting the adhesive. Have you tried going over it 3x? I know that seems excessive, but at this point, it's worth trying the 3x versus tossing a bunch of reflective material out.

You might also try a new 45-degree blade if you have it - that reflective is kind of harsh on blades.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The vinyl just came in 2 weeks ago from Feller and the blade is brand new.

I'll give 3x a shot and see what happens.  Just ran some red at 400g 200mm and 2X and it was as bad as the white, it just got done twice as fast.  100mm may be the best speed I"m going to get.  Repeated that test at 3X and it was good.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

if you do a lot of reflective ross has a special blade for that - can't remember the designation but reflective and glitter eats most blades - the reason I have a second holder on both machines just for those materials - when I go back to regular vinyl I want the sharpest blade possible

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, I'll have to check into that Ross blade.  Yes, I bought an extra holder and CleanCut blade just for the reflective.  I'm expecting to do quite a bit of it. That's why I was hoping to figure out how to cut this at a little faster speed.  100mm/s @ 2X is basically 50mm/sec so it will take nearly a minute just to do the weedbox on a 24x24.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

personally I don't do as much reflective so when I take the blade out of my regular vinyl holder after about 10 months I put that blade into my reflectives holder to get more life out of it as I don't cut near the detailed work in reflective

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When you set the blade height, did you do it with the white or one of the other colors? Reason I ask, while rare, different colors can be slightly different thicknesses.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I originally used the same blade height as the red and black, but reset it later. It did seem to need another 1/4 turn of the nut to leave a reasonable impression on the carrier sheet.

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