What would the maximum width design on 24inch (610mm) vinyl

[dvddvd 14]

Trying to size the design to be as big as poss, If im using 610mm vinyl what size would the max be, leaving some room either side? Or can i nearly cut the full 610mm ? thanks

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

Maybe it depends on your cutter. I can cut with in a fraction edge to edge and not hurt the design. My software is at .2 on edge side. But I could also make it .1     But I have a 30 inch cutter.   The MH cutter may not be so accurate.   I also have application tape, wider than 24". 

[slice&dice 2,450]

My rule-of-thumb for designs is as follows:

24" vinyl -- 22" workspace  (1" margins)

30" vinyl -- 28" workspace

I align the vinyl as perfectly as possible and avoid drift/stray on the full run.
If you're not going to cut a longer length, then you can reduce the margins all the way to a fraction of an inch (or mm's as you guys figure) and should be OK.

[dvddvd 14]

Any tips on aligning the vinyl before you start to cut? How do you avoid drift? Thanks

[haumana 1,220]

You might get an idea of the degree of drift if you pre-jog the vinyl, and watch the level of drift compared to the ruler, or some kind of fixed mark. Correct drift as much as possible. I you cannot, then you can see if your design can be broken up into shorter pieces.

The value machines will have more drift than the more higher end machines.

[dvddvd 14]

Hi what do you mean by pre jog ? Thanks 

[darcshadow 1,626]

Load the vinyl then manually advance it the length you will need.

[dvddvd 14]

Ok yes good idea so use the directional buttons to move it to the end of the piece.

I remembered when I was looking at software I tried a few different free trial copies and one of them had lots choices of different ways how it cut I can not see anything on vinylmaster? Thanks

[dvddvd 14]

Do people usually cut a piece of vinyl a little longer than their logo etc, or leave full roll on rollers and pull some out so it's free from the roll and cut at end?

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

All of my rolls are 150 ft and I just prefeed the vinyl and leave it on the roll. 

[Wildgoose 4,200]

7 hours ago, dvddvd said:

Any tips on aligning the vinyl before you start to cut? How do you avoid drift? Thanks

As mentioned above, your cutter may have more dificulty on drift than a higher end machine. I would definitly pre-feed (pre-jog) any work you do and you will have better luck. You should also take a look in Vinyl Mster in the Vinyl Spooler menu in Cut Options tab there is a box you can check called Cut In Strips (at least there is in the Pro version). I have not used this but I beleive it is a user defined amount of length that gets cut and then moves on to the next zone as it goes down the length of a project. I use a different cutting utility that has similar. It may help you on longer projects to overcome the inherent drift (called off-tracking) that happens on the budget machines. I used to have a budget cutter and occasionally battled this with my cutting program (SignCut Pro) which calls this feature "step-by-step cutting". My experience was that it really helped in long but simple jobs, but if the design was complicated (like with a bunch of text) the cutter didn't have the accuracy to cut parts of a bunch of letters and then try to come back and finish the other parts of the letters when in the next zone. But on long large graphics the slight misalignment at the step points was not so bad that it caused issues and I was able to cut some fairly large sign elements. 

This is one of the benefits of the higher end cutters. IF you find yourself doing enough to justify an upgrade it saves a lot of stress and mistakes. I have cut designs as long as 22 ft without problem with my new cutter. I have shifted to HTV on shirts moslty now but still benefit by being able to cut hundreds of copies of a logo without a tracking problem or static or memory space. 

[dvddvd 14]

It's the Liyu DF 631 cutter I have with servo motor thanks

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

Ok, well in a previous thread, last week, you posted under MH cutter. So what's a person to think? 

 

[dvddvd 14]

Hi sorry there dont seem to be a Liyu brand in the list?

Just had a play around with it and i ran a long piece through, it was ok but the biggest problem seems to be getting it in square with the machine? 1mm out of square and by the time it gets to the other end its drifted quite a bit. So i squared it up the other way and it was a lot better.

Ive stuck a piece of tape between the edge of the machine and the vinyl so im not trying to square up a 2 inch gap with the tape its 1/2 gap now?

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

The SC series is the Liyu brand, as well as Laserpointer 2 and 3. 

[dvddvd 14]

Ok thanks

[darcshadow 1,626]

What I do, is with the roll sitting on the stand rollers I put the end of the vinyl in the machine then hold it with one hand and roll the roll with the other taking out the slack. This usually squares it up pretty good, then just put the clamps down, unroll what will be needed for the cut and hit go.

[dvddvd 14]

many thanks