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Middle roller scrunching up the vinyl

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Hello, 

I'm new to the group and very new to vinyl cutting - (I know nothing).   I purchased a MH-871 and I'm in the process of setting it up.  My cutter is sitting on a table even though I did buy the stand.  I've had a lot of ah ha moments but can't figure this one out.  I cut off a large piece of vinyl for testing from the starter kit that was provided, adjusted and locked the pinch rollers according to the manual, loaded the cutter blade, and tried a test run.  The middle roller seems to be scrunching up the vinyl.  Am I loading the vinyl correctly.  If you are not using the stand how are others positioning their vinyl rolls for proper feeding into the cutter.  The cutting speed and cut press is what shows up after I hit the test button.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and reply.

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I do not see any marks from any of the pressure rollers - did you mess with the pressure roller adjustments?  how did you set your blade exposure

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Also, start with the slowest speed possible then ramp it up as needed. I typically run my only a step or two above the slowest setting.

As Dakota said, did you mess with the tension? If so, that's a problem and getting things adjusted back to correct settings is going to be alot of trial and error.

If you did not, does the roller spin freely with your finger when you have it in the up position?

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another thought - do you have pinch rollers about 1" or less from the outside edge of your vinyl?

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Does this machine have specific locations the rollers need to be in, or does the grit roller pretty much run the length?

I wish my Graphtec let me put the roller where I see fit, like my LaserPoint. :rolleyes:

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haumana, the SC and MH have long rollers, like your LaserPoint. The pinch rollers can go anywhere (EXCEPT at the mark in the center, where the lower grit roller is affixed to the axle).

At first I thought the middle pinch roller was located at that spot (which results in crinkled/scrunched vinyl), but the images show otherwise.

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gunny that we are all here discussing it and OP hasn't been back on since posting this . . .

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Sorry I didn't get back to my post.  I thought I had it set up that when someone answered it would come to my email but I guess I didn't have it set correctly so I thought no one had answered.  Sorry for my confusion.  I did get it solved by watching some USCutter videos.  I do have roller marks but I'm trying to adjust them now.  Thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time to read and/or answer.  

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Check your junk email.   Value cutters do have roller marks. They come out of the vinyl when you apply the decal.  You go messing with that pinch roller tension, you can create more problems. 

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I watched a video that said adjust the cutspeed to 300mms and cutpress to 100.  After i did that and ran a test all was good. 

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your cut pressure should be determined by the quality of the depth of the cut on your vinyl - you just want it to cut through the vinyl and the adhesive. if you've properly set the depth of your blade, then the backing of the vinyl will have a slight scoring, but not actually an actual slice into the backing. If there are slices, then either the blade is too far out, and/or the cut pressure is too much.

different vinyl's sometimes take different pressure, even if it's the same vinyl manufacturer and type (ie. Oracal 651, I have to dial up the pressure a little cut white, and dial down the pressure to cut black, etc.); the type of vinyl (cast, calendared, HTV, reflective, etc.); age of vinyl (if you don't regularly have a turnover of colors); and blade manufacturer. I'm sure I'm missing other things that can possibly require changes to pressure. 

speed of cuts sometimes require adjusting depending on size of the design, the intricacy or detail of the design, size of the text, and/or type of blade you're using (60* vs. 45*)

when you find a sweet spot for your cutter - speed, pressure, blade type, etc. write it down. I have a mirror very close to my machine that I use like a dry erase board - I have written the settings for cutting 651, 631, 751, different brands of reflective, color exceptions, etc.

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300 is pretty fast and you'll want to slow that down for higher detailed designs. I run mine at 60 for everything.

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