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Kronick Designs

Another newbie...!

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Hey everyone, got a LP3 for Christmas and a bit confused as how to set it up. Watching the tutorials but can't find how to set speed and pressure. Anyone have a link or can anyone give me some advice as to how to go about doing this? Am I just missing the tutorial on how to set all this up...? I tried a test print and it shredded the vinyl...Help is much appreciated...!

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Thanks, I think I have the blade depth right. Following the manual and the online tutorials, I'm not sure what the hell is going on now. I sent a test cut to the cutter and it only cuts a straight line now. I may just have to try and call tech support tomorrow and have them walk me through the setup from start to finish.

Thanks for the link though, I will read into it some more...

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if you are watching tutorials and not following the directions I provided I can gurantee you are using 10 times too much blade - we see this hundreds of times a month

on the straight line - are your pressure rollers positioned over the top of the grit rollers - if not that will happen.

Tech support is like a revolving door and day after Christmas you will get in line with thousands of other people that got a plotter for Christmas.

The people on this user forum help hundreds upon hundreds of people with actual user experience - 

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So I figured out that i wasn't setting the origin before I started the cut. I was also putting the vinyl all the way to the right side, flush against the machine. The vinyl would get bunched up, almost like a paper jam in a printer. I placed the vinyl in the middle of the cutter, placed the two pinch rollers on the outside down and left the center one in place but didn't lock it down, just resting on the vinyl. So I set my origin, and did a test cut from one of the signs that came with the software. My depth looks good, but the letters seem to be a bit wonky. So I will have to play with it some more.

20181225_160232.jpg

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38 minutes ago, Kronick Designs said:

So I figured out that i wasn't setting the origin before I started the cut. I was also putting the vinyl all the way to the right side, flush against the machine. The vinyl would get bunched up, almost like a paper jam in a printer. I placed the vinyl in the middle of the cutter, placed the two pinch rollers on the outside down and left the center one in place but didn't lock it down, just resting on the vinyl. So I set my origin, and did a test cut from one of the signs that came with the software. My depth looks good, but the letters seem to be a bit wonky. So I will have to play with it some more.

20181225_160232.jpg

Looks like your offset is off but that can also be an effect of too much blade exposure.   What did you set your offset at and what degree blade are you using? 

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Not sure, there were three blades and the manual said use the red one. There were two reds and a blue, so I guessed. Not sure about offset, I definitely need to tweak it some more. I'm just glad that I got this far, lol...! 

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sure I could be more help but pretty sick right now - wife and myself so we are just getting by and not doing much - sorry

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I know you said that you the text looks wonky, is the text you're cutting actual text font that you're typing into the design or cutting software, or it is text that happens to be in a clipart? because there are many, many times that will make a huge difference.

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The image that I used came with the software. I wanted to get it dialed in before I actually start cutting my designs and customer designs. When I open the image, the text is clean and sharp, but when it does the cut, the letters come out a bit wonky as you can see in the image above.

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Hey Kronick, good to see you. Hopefully you get this sorted out.

First of all, that LP3 has some markings along the front rail that indicate exactly where the pressure (spring) rollers are situated. Yes, lock all three rollers down in those positions.

Secondly, the red tip blade is 45* and the blue tip is 60* -- generally you'll be using the 45.

Thirdly, when operating a cutter, 'full steam ahead' is the way to go. Raise the speed to max.

Lastly, type in something, using whatever font you decide on (no image, just text, 2" height). Let us see what the result is.

 

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Ok, have a few chores to do around the house and then I will make a test cut with what you suggested. When I use all three pinch rollers, the vinyl crumbles up like a paper jam. I'm practicing on 12 inch vinyl that I got from a buddy.

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19 minutes ago, Kronick Designs said:

Ok, have a few chores to do around the house and then I will make a test cut with what you suggested. When I use all three pinch rollers, the vinyl crumbles up like a paper jam. I'm practicing on 12 inch vinyl that I got from a buddy.

betting when the vinyl bunches up the middle roller is NOT over a pinch roller in the areas indicated as slice suggested - -

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47 minutes ago, Kronick Designs said:

Ok, have a few chores to do around the house and then I will make a test cut with what you suggested. When I use all three pinch rollers, the vinyl crumbles up like a paper jam. I'm practicing on 12 inch vinyl that I got from a buddy.

there is no need to use 3 pinch rollers on 12 wide vinyl.   I have a 30" cutter and it only has 2 pinch rollers and works perfect with 2 pinch rollers on 30" wide vinyl. 

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That's what I noticed, the rollers on the outer edges held it fine while the middle one was just resting on the vinyl. If I locked down the middle one the vinyl bunched up in the middle.

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the pinch rollers should be movable...  Move the far left pinch roller over out of the way off of the vinyl.  And only use 2 pinch rollers. 

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Ok, so here is what I got after setting the offset, looks cleaner. I typed the words into the software directly. I am running 400 speed, 64 pressure, with the two pinch rollers as stated in the above post. What do you think?

20181226_120818.jpg

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what does the test cut look like?  You have a TEST right on your cutter.  The corners of the TEST should be sharp.  Look for the TEST on your cutter.   Similar test,

 

offset.JPG

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Ok, I ran the test cut design that is on the cutter software. The best offset that I could see is D2, if that means anything. What i am seeing now is some of the edges seem to be a bit jagged. I circled them so you can see. Looking at the vinyl though I think it may be just the pictures I took. Man, getting back on the vinyl bicycle after falling off is a little frustrating...! Lol...

testcut3a.jpg

testcut4a.jpg

testcut1a.jpg

testcut2a.jpg

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I used to be super duper critical of what I was cutting, especially on text. Then I realized, that unless it's really, really bad - most people never get that close to see the smallest imperfections in the cut. Kind of like how the pinch roller tracks used to make me crazy - but those come out when there isn't anymore pressure being applied.

I would say that the results you got are pretty darn good. You also need to consider that you don't have a top of the line machine, or a machine that has a servo motor, so the lines might not be as clean and crisp as you'd like. I learned that too, after having an original LP for over 10-years, then picking up my second machine (Graphtec) which was a huge step in upgrade.

*FYI - when you get text that comes in as part of a graphic, or is the graphic - there are often times that you are not going to get clean lines out of it. It's always better if you can type the text directly into the design in your vector/cutting software. If yo want to see how 'bad' some imported text are, get your software to show you the nodes of it, then you'd see all the unnecessary nodes, curves, and junk that are in there.

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I'd say that's about par for a budget cutter. There is a limit the machine can do and that looks clean enough to sell to someone. 

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7 hours ago, Kronick Designs said:

Ok, I am going to run with these settings then. Thanks everyone for the help, I really appreciate it...!

You will or should fine tune things as you get to know your cutter. If the corners seem rounded add a little offset. If you start seeing little tails then you went to far. When you change blades you should check the offset again. I have even noticed some minor tweaking on occasion as the blade wears down, your eye will become trained if you want it to. These things are what old-timers are talking about when they say "dialed in". 

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