Kristof

Help!! Magnet cutting, machine hard to calibrate

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The Graphtec service manual for the FC8000 doesn't even show how to change out the push roller assemblies. :(

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Would it be a bad idea to cut the magnet with the 3M wax paper side facing the blade? I would get more traction with the grit rollers biting into the magnet material, but the swiveling blade may 'gum up' as it cuts through the 3M acrylic adhesive?

Just wondering. Thanks for your input!

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1 hour ago, MZ SKEETER said:

You have never stated, exactly what your doing, what condition, what force, ? But did you ever try the Tangential Emulation, which is for cutting thicker material? 

As many of us stated. We do not cut magnet material with a vinyl cutter.  This is entirely your experiment.  We cannot answer your questions, or tell you what to do,  because we don't do it.   We will not put our cutters thru that. Most here cut sign vinyl, or some reflective, which they cut in passes.  Graphtec is your tech support for your cutter.  Craftedge is your tech support for your software. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Graphtec+FC8600+tangential

 

The force is currently at 28 and speed set at 2cm/s with acceleration of 1. I've heard that people have problems with tangential emulation, so I didn't think to try using that since it's not a true tangential machine and I don't think I need it, as all of the DXFs have corner radii and never sharp transition corners.

I uninstalled Sure Cuts a Lot since it's not very good software and am using the Illustrator and Cutting Master 4 plugin, which allows me to use the plotter on the network and is awesome! DXFs seem to be importing fine into Illustrator for now.

Still curious on how the push roller assemblies are installed so I can keep that as a last resort. None of the service manuals mention it.

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Maybe this is why. Stated  on their ads. 

Please Note: Additional Push Rollers must be installed by Graphtec or Graphtec Certified Installers.

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5 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

Maybe this is why. Stated  on their ads. 

Please Note: Additional Push Rollers must be installed by Graphtec or Graphtec Certified Installers.

There's not a dealer close to me.

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This is a FC7000 service manual. (Basically the same)  But it looks like on the right side, there is a cover, 4-5 screws holding it. And 1 screw is screwed down on the square rod.   The Y-tension pulley adjustment screws sign is covering it. 

pinch roll assembly.JPG

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9 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

Where do you live?  Besides East coast. 

WV.

Do you think having more push rollers would stop the 'media too heavy' error from occurring when I do the pre feed? The error occurs even with the pre feed speed set to slow. It prefeeds fine at first and then as it accelerates it triggers the error; if there were a way to disable that acceleration/ramp up for pre feeding, that would solve my issue.

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4 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

Then don't use the prefeed. 

I wanted to utilize that feature. I think the media stocker rollers are mounted too low and the pulling angle creates drag that it has to fight against.

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more rollers I don't think will affect the weight of the material that causes the error ???           you could possibly set up a plastic table on the input and output side creating in effect a flatbed scenario - or just cutting you material in shorter lengths.  just a suggestion

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57 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

more rollers I don't think will affect the weight of the material that causes the error ???           you could possibly set up a plastic table on the input and output side creating in effect a flatbed scenario - or just cutting you material in shorter lengths.  just a suggestion

I was thinking that more rollers increases the amount of pulling weight and more traction, since the weight is spread out over four rollers. I already built a smooth melamine outfeed table that mounts to the stand and that turned out nice.

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I would think the error is caused by the strain on the feed servo motor - with more rollers the motor would be having the same force against it

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56 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

I would think the error is caused by the strain on the feed servo motor - with more rollers the motor would be having the same force against it

I would almost guarantee this is correct. The added pinch rollers would help keep the material aligned during a high pressure cut but the strength of pull and the weight of the material is surely pushing the servo motors to their limit. I am no electronics wizard but there are surely some load limits the the motors have. You definitely have a unique situation where you can't really let the magnet lay down into the material catch bins. 

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I wonder if taking the cutter off the stand and putting it on a table. and feeding the material in that way would help for this situation. Material flat behind the cutter.  Cut off an X amount length.  It's obvious the amount of 7 ft is too heavy for the machine. If you keep getting errors. 

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Out of curiosity - what are you cutting that requires a 7ft length of magnetic sheet?

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5 minutes ago, haumana said:

Out of curiosity - what are you cutting that requires a 7ft length of magnetic sheet?

According to his previous posts, nothing.   This is what he posted before. " Up to 560mm in length and width for the biggest pieces I'll be selling, or 560mm in diameter for circular shapes."

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9 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

According to his previous posts, nothing.   This is what he posted before. " Up to 560mm in length and width for the biggest pieces I'll be selling, or 560mm in diameter for circular shapes."

Thanks Skeeter.

Hmmm ... okay, so ... if it's up to 560mm in length, then why tax the machine with the heavy drag of 2133mm of sheeting? why not cut it to something more like ... 600mm and see how well that works? Sorry, I was totally onboard for hoping there's a solution for this, but if 560mm is the biggest/largest, then why spin wheels to get the machine to do something that would be considered overkill? I know that both my cutters can do crazy lengths of vinyl - but I'm not about to pre-feed it just to test it out :huh:

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10 minutes ago, haumana said:

Thanks Skeeter.

Hmmm ... okay, so ... if it's up to 560mm in length, then why tax the machine with the heavy drag of 2133mm of sheeting? why not cut it to something more like ... 600mm and see how well that works? Sorry, I was totally onboard for hoping there's a solution for this, but if 560mm is the biggest/largest, then why spin wheels to get the machine to do something that would be considered overkill? I know that both my cutters can do crazy lengths of vinyl - but I'm not about to pre-feed it just to test it out :huh:

I don't get it either, :wacko:,  If he is trying to save time with a bigger sheet, he is just costing himself time. 

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Cutting the material would be a waste of material for subsequent jobs where the cut line would've fell onto the next sheet, which potentially means a loss of 280mm of material. The roll should be kept continuous to not waste the material.

The geometry of the stock rollers is what causes unnecessary drag, they should be mounted up higher so that the material feeds in a planar manner and not angular (the departure angle of the roll).

Most jobs would be 560x560 but I may occasionally get odd ball jobs from customers that need to be 560mm in width by whatever length they specify.

Hopefully you understand..

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12 minutes ago, klcjr said:

Cutting the material would be a waste of material for subsequent jobs where the cut line would've fell onto the next sheet, which potentially means a loss of 280mm of material. The roll should be kept continuous to not waste the material.

The geometry of the stock rollers is what causes unnecessary drag, they should be mounted up higher so that the material feeds in a planar manner and not angular (the departure angle of the roll).

Most jobs would be 560x560 but I may occasionally get odd ball jobs from customers that need to be 560mm in width by whatever length they specify.

Hopefully you understand..

sounds like your margin isn't high enough to account for nominal  waste . . . 

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1 minute ago, Dakotagrafx said:

sounds like your margin isn't high enough to account for nominal  waste . . . 

The material is expensive and the market doesn't support high margins, just the way it is.

Honestly, the prefeed would function perfectly if there were more than two options. If it didn't have that ramp up acceleration it wouldn't trigger an error. I don't see why I can't set the pre feed speed in cm/s.

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1 minute ago, klcjr said:

The material is expensive and the market doesn't support high margins, just the way it is.

Honestly, the prefeed would function perfectly if there were more than two options. If it didn't have that ramp up acceleration it wouldn't trigger an error. I don't see why I can't set the pre feed speed in cm/s.

I don't see why you would need pre feed with sheets. 

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