Drift issue, first cutter and it shows

[rgcornhole 0]

SC2 and been great for smaller things, but I’ve just wasted 12 feet of vinyl and hope to stop the bleeding.  I have searched, and know to pre-feed, and get tension rollers equally spaced.  I even marked the adjustments to set tension from scratch as calibrated as possible.  I put a 3” strip on the cutters origin side to ensure it’s straight to start.
when I feed and retract it seems to be going straight, but it’s as though drift increases when cutting.  Is that possible?  The design is a 46” x 22” rectangle, then a smaller one only 1/4” inside of that, then another….  Doesn’t have to be off much to be very noticeable.  
Im thinking that maybe if it cut the long ones in order the drift would still keep spacing uniform??? I found the checkbox to cut in strips and set it to 46.5”, and hope to confirm whether that’s a good or bad idea before wasting another 4 feet of vinyl, or if something else to try.  I’m cutting Oracle 631 if that matters.  I have speed at 200, pressure 42.  
The plan was to save myself a lot of time measuring and taping.  Since I’m cutting anyway I added a pinstripe to the circle but otherwise the end result should be same. 
 

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

  No mention how you set your blade depth. If your blade is not set correctly, it also can cause this.  Too much blade exposed will cause a drag on the vinyl. Also, too much speed. Too many people still see instructions that say set with a credit card or post it notes.  This is incorrect and way too much blade exposed out of the blade holder. You should barely even see or feel the blade tip out of the blade holder.  When you think the blade is so far in the blade holder that your wouldn't even think it would cut, that is probably correct.  You use the force of the machine to cut with. Also, make sure your blade is not dull.   Check for scratches and gouges in your teflon cutting strip.  Catching there can make your vinyl skew . 

To start with, you should set your blade depth correctly, by taking the blade holder out of the machine, and firmly cut across a piece of scrap vinyl, you will be cutting. You should only be cutting the vinyl and barely a mark on wax paper backing, Adjust blade to get there, Then put the blade holder back in machine, and use the force of the machine to get there, same results, only cutting the vinyl and barely a mark in wax paper backing. You should barely see and feel the blade out of the blade holder. Regular sign vinyl is only 2-3 mil thick. You only cut with the very tip of the blade. 

 

[haumana 1,220]

start with the blade depth. check your cutting strip to make sure it's okay. maybe slow the cut speed.

[rgcornhole 0]

I did set blade with post it notes initially and it was too far out compared to your method, but that didn’t fix the issue.  I went back and forth several times and it was fine, but by the end of the cut it was way off.  
it’s not just doing the rectangles, cuts 8 circles and initial first. I unchecked the Cut in Strips box as not positive what it does.  
 

[haumana 1,220]

So your video only shows us that the vinyl is fed slightly askew. The cutter will not know whether the vinyl is askew or not, the concern is when it cuts, how much drift occurring during the cut. The SC is considered a budget cutter, so there might be some drift that occurs when the vinyl jogs back and forth. I've done 6-foot run on my LaserPoint, and even with the correct blade depth, a good speed, and plenty of slack, I was anticipating some drift to occur.

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

I hope you are measuring the pinch rollers to the edge of they vinyl and they are correct..Equal distance on both sides. I put mine about 1.5 inches from vinyl edge.  The marks from the grit rollers won't hurt anything.  The marks go away when  applying. Have you pre fed the whole distance of vinyl that you are cutting.?  You should.   There  was a tutorial in UScutter for this, in their support section.   This is called tracking. 

[darcshadow 1,626]

Getting 3 parallel lines 46" long from a budget cutter is going to be tuff. Honestly the easiest option would be to make those cuts with a knife and straight edge. The stripe feature of the cutting software might work, I have not played around with that option but I believe you are thinking of the stripe in the wrong direction when you set it to 46.5". I don't believe that will cut your design in stripes. You want to change that number to something like 10" or 12". That should make it cut 10" or 12" inches of the design at a time which should minimize the apparent drift between the parallel lines.

[rgcornhole 0]

I have set the rollers evenly and I did pre-feed the entire length.  One thing I just noticed is that in the back the excess vinyl I had from pre feed was lined up with the roll, and it’s now off by about 1/2 inch.  I guess that may be a given since it’s tracking crooked, but which one causes which? 
 

If I only cut 6 vertical lines with spacing 1/4, 1/4, 2”, 1/4, 1/4, I could manually cut to length and place the horizontal sections.  Would that keep the spacing better? 
 

tough to see how off they get, but if you zoom in you can see how the first ones on the left were fine but by the time it cut the inside it had gotten off somehow   That’s what I don’t get - how it’s happening during the cut  

[rgcornhole 0]

Hope this works

 

[darcshadow 1,626]

The vinyl being off after feeding through 46" as you noted in the back is can simply be a sign that you didn't have the vinyl perfectly square to the cutter when you loaded it. This is not necessarily a problem with the cutter, just a matter of not having it perfectly square to the cutter when you loaded it.

Have you messed with the tension on the roller clamps? If you have that could be causing issues. Adjusting the roller pressure is a trial and error process and can be very tedious to get the pressures equal across the rollers.

cutting stripes like that might be slightly better, but you'll still have drift, but it might not be noticeable after placing the stripe on and lining things up manually.

Try turning on the cut in Strips option and set it to like 8". I can't find any documentation, but I believe they way that works is it will cut the design feeding through only 8" of vinyl. So in the above screen shot, it would cut each of those stripes only 8" long, then it would advance the vinyl and continue the cut of the strip for another 8". The idea behind this is even if the vinyl is drifting, in that 8" the drive should me minimal enough that the cuts will all still line up.

[rgcornhole 0]

I charged forward before seeing the last post, and it went fine   I need to add transfer paper and then cut them into 6 individual strips.  Putting them on the boards will be 4 strips rather than one full piece, but still a lot faster than it went using frog tape and straight edge