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PM-Performance

Tips for successful HTV cutting with no mat

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So I still struggle sometimes with HTV cutting with no mat and wanted to get some input from people with more experience. 

Since moving to my new machine and having more pinch roller area, I feel I have more adjustability, but depending on the size of HTV I run and how big the cut is, I still am ending up with misscuts from the vinyl pulling up when the machine is moving the head from the outside in it seems. 

Some things I have learned are:

  1. Spread the pinch rollers out as far as I can and keep the cuts within them
  2. 15" HTV seems to fit the rollers best if I put it to the far left of my machine and I just just barely get the pinchrollers on the very outside of the vinyl
  3. 12" HTV seems to fit the right most rollers the best. Again I can just barely get them to the outsides of the vinyl. 
  4. Unroll enough for my job so that I am not pulling from the roll directly. 

Doing these steps makes life easier, but I still feel like I am having occasional problems. I am not sure if it is dependant on the cut, or just workable area. I would like to figure out what I am doing wrong as this just wastes material and it sucks stressing about finishing a job due to wasted material

I do not prefer using the cutting mat most of the time just because I can just run a bunch of cuts in a row if needed without having to worry about setting the mat up for every cut (assuming all goes well). Another reason is because I need to pull my machine out another foot from the wall to run the mat and that can get annoying as well.

Any suggestions for the pros on more efficient working with HTV when you do not have a machine with vacuum built in to suck it down?

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45 minutes ago, PM-Performance said:

So I still struggle sometimes with HTV cutting with no mat and wanted to get some input from people with more experience. 

Since moving to my new machine and having more pinch roller area, I feel I have more adjustability, but depending on the size of HTV I run and how big the cut is, I still am ending up with misscuts from the vinyl pulling up when the machine is moving the head from the outside in it seems. 

Some things I have learned are:

  1. Spread the pinch rollers out as far as I can and keep the cuts within them
  2. 15" HTV seems to fit the rollers best if I put it to the far left of my machine and I just just barely get the pinchrollers on the very outside of the vinyl
  3. 12" HTV seems to fit the right most rollers the best. Again I can just barely get them to the outsides of the vinyl. 
  4. Unroll enough for my job so that I am not pulling from the roll directly. 

Doing these steps makes life easier, but I still feel like I am having occasional problems. I am not sure if it is dependant on the cut, or just workable area. I would like to figure out what I am doing wrong as this just wastes material and it sucks stressing about finishing a job due to wasted material

I do not prefer using the cutting mat most of the time just because I can just run a bunch of cuts in a row if needed without having to worry about setting the mat up for every cut (assuming all goes well). Another reason is because I need to pull my machine out another foot from the wall to run the mat and that can get annoying as well.

Any suggestions for the pros on more efficient working with HTV when you do not have a machine with vacuum built in to suck it down?

Have you tried out a premium blade? They cut with less force and therefore less likely to bunch vinyl ahead of the blade. Also when doing your blade set-up which consists of the tips Skeeter posts, some misunderstand so be sure that there is still a tiny amount of free space between the blade holder and the vinyl. With regular sign vinyl some people let the blade holder actually drag on the vinyl, this is not the best and it will cause problems with HTV due to the soft carrier. There should be just a sliver of light between the holder and the material when it's cutting. 

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2 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:

Have you tried out a premium blade? They cut with less force and therefore less likely to bunch vinyl ahead of the blade. Also when doing your blade set-up which consists of the tips Skeeter posts, some misunderstand so be sure that there is still a tiny amount of free space between the blade holder and the vinyl. With regular sign vinyl some people let the blade holder actually drag on the vinyl, this is not the best and it will cause problems with HTV due to the soft carrier. There should be just a sliver of light between the holder and the material when it's cutting. 

This is still with the standard blade that came with my cutter. I had the same issues with my old cutter as well, so i am sure it is something I am doing incorrectly. 

I find if I change the force up too much, it will not cut the vinyl properly. I can try a couple ticks at a shot though to see if the force thing helps, and check into another blade. 

 

I did the adjustment from Skeeter on the blade, but I did not see anything reference to the blade holder itself. I thought the blade holder only fits into the head one way? I believe there is quite a gap when it is at rest position as I can hear the holder tap quite frequently as it picks up and moves to the next area to cut. Now when it is actively cutting, I will need to watch and see if it drags the carrier across. I am not sure how I would adjust that though. 

Another thing I found this weekend is some slight oil residue coming somewhere out of the pinch rollers all the sudden leaving some streaks on my HTV. I have been wiping off with a damp cloth before pressing, but not sure why that all the sudden started. 

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You are not understanding my comment. To set your blade properly regardless of cutting force/ pressure applied is to remove it from the machine and drag it with some force (not excessive) across a scrap piece of sign vinyl. The idea is to set it so that the blade can cut all the way through the vinyl but not all the way through the paper carrier too. Once you have this set then you re-install the blade holder back into the cutter and begin adjusting your cutting force from a light setting working into the cut until it cuts all the way through and leaves a light scratch on the paper carrier. It is fine to see a scratch on the carrier but you should not be able to feel it from the back side. When you get your blade set and cutting like this you should still be able to see some clear space between the blade holder and the actual surface of the vinyl. In other words when you are cutting (after having done the proper set up) your blade holder should still be slightly above the vinyl while the blade cuts. You will have to bend down and look at the job as it's cutting and perhaps shine a light from behind or something so you can see if there is a tiny bit of clear space. It will be less than a piece of paper wide but visible by the eye.  

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1 minute ago, Wildgoose said:

You are not understanding my comment. To set your blade properly regardless of cutting force/ pressure applied is to remove it from the machine and drag it with some force (not excessive) across a scrap piece of sign vinyl. The idea is to set it so that the blade can cut all the way through the vinyl but not all the way through the paper carrier too. Once you have this set then you re-install the blade holder back into the cutter and begin adjusting your cutting force from a light setting working into the cut until it cuts all the way through and leaves a light scratch on the paper carrier. It is fine to see a scratch on the carrier but you should not be able to feel it from the back side. When you get your blade set and cutting like this you should still be able to see some clear space between the blade holder and the actual surface of the vinyl. In other words when you are cutting (after having done the proper set up) your blade holder should still be slightly above the vinyl while the blade cuts. You will have to bend down and look at the job as it's cutting and perhaps shine a light from behind or something so you can see if there is a tiny bit of clear space. It will be less than a piece of paper wide but visible by the eye.  

Gotcha, so the carrier isn't the issue, just the blade depth. Sorry I missunderstood 

I think the blade depth currently is fine. I may try going back on force again to see if that helps and then maybe a better blade. 

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4 hours ago, PM-Performance said:

Gotcha, so the carrier isn't the issue, just the blade depth. Sorry I missunderstood 

I think the blade depth currently is fine. I may try going back on force again to see if that helps and then maybe a better blade. 

I think you'll be surprised at a Clean Cut Premium blade. When I bought my first one for my old P-Cut it was almost half the cutting force vs the cheap $5 blades I had been using. With the higher end cutters there is less difference. My Summa blades are only 36deg and cut like a hot knife through butter and are a little tougher than the CC blades (because of the lower cutting angle) so I stick with the factory blades for this machine but the Clean Cut are fantastic and a nice upgrade for the budget cutters. Your machine is sort of middle ground as far as budget but might have lower quality blades.

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29 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:

I think you'll be surprised at a Clean Cut Premium blade. When I bought my first one for my old P-Cut it was almost half the cutting force vs the cheap $5 blades I had been using. With the higher end cutters there is less difference. My Summa blades are only 36deg and cut like a hot knife through butter and are a little tougher than the CC blades (because of the lower cutting angle) so I stick with the factory blades for this machine but the Clean Cut are fantastic and a nice upgrade for the budget cutters. Your machine is sort of middle ground as far as budget but might have lower quality blades.

Thanks, I will check that out. 

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