MrJoel 72 Posted December 13, 2018 Hey y’all, I’m running a used fc8000 and 90% of what I cut is 3m 5100 Reflective. I just bought some blades off eBay when I bought the machine but I’m not getting a lot of mileage from them. On my Titan I was trying several clean cut blades but the tips seemed to break fairly frequently when I was using reflective...and then I saw the actual graphtec blades and my wallet screamed! Does anyone know the actual material differences and experience with a couple or both in a fc unit? thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted December 13, 2018 the main reason tips break on the cleancut blades is too much exposure - they are made from a fine grained carbide - so more brittle if abused - if you have too much blade exposure and it goes thru the backing when the blade turns it breaks the tips (or if they strike a hard surface when removed from the plotter) I have used they for years and have blade holders specifically for my reflective blades (which are usually my old regular vinyl blades after 8-10 months) - the graphtec OEM blades are very good blades too. Chinese blades are made of a cheaper carbide - hence they cost less to produce. my reflective blade for the roland had cut a LOT of reflective material and still cuts great Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MZ SKEETER 4,708 Posted December 13, 2018 i think your problem is going to be the reflective material eating your blades. I use Seiki blades and have for over 12 years. I turned a couple others on to them also. They are very strong sharp blades and reasonable. I use them for sign vinyl and chrome and get an easy 9 months out of them. A member on here was having trouble with their blades bending thru thicker materials, and they like these. US seller FREE shipper. PM sent 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haumana 1,220 Posted December 13, 2018 I haven't cut reflective on my Graphtec yet, but when I was cutting reflective on my LaserPoint, the only way I was getting any success was to cut it twice. That way I didn't have to crank up the pressure to something ridiculous and risk breaking the blades. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MZ SKEETER 4,708 Posted December 13, 2018 The Graphtec FC series are made to cut reflective. They have that much higher force. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wildgoose 4,200 Posted December 13, 2018 Reflective is definitely hard on blades and I don't cut it often. That stuff should be about 8 mil roughly 0.20mm so you can cut that with a lower profile blade that will have a tougher tip. See if you can find something with a flatter profile. I run a Summa and the standard blade is 36 deg. Everyone always talks about using the 60 deg blades to cut fine details. I cut fine details with the 36 deg without issue so that theory is probably questionable. I do like the thought process of it and have tried a 60 deg clean cut but did not noticed any difference with fine detail or with flipping up edges of small parts so I couldn't prove any kind of advantage. The lower profile standard blades are more affordable and last a really long time so I stick with them. Also just for conversation sake I tried to do the two pass method on some reflective HTV and found that it actually sanded off my tip so I had better luck with a solid full depth cut. I bought a little magnifier that I could get a close up of the tip to see what was really happening. HTV vinyls typically have a much tougher liner that you can cut harder into without going through so the pressure is a little more forgiving than paper backed regular vinyl. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites