sluggo2u

That's a very impressive result for the amount of time it took you! Many would consider that a done deal. Looking forward to the cleaned up version.

Anyone have a clue what brand of cutter this is? Could have sworn I posted this the other day but can't find it.

Goose and Krow, You guys obviously know Illustrator better than I do. I'm a self taught hard head. I'm not where I can jump in Illy and put these methods to practice so I'm going from memory here. If you don't mind, I'll describe how I'd do it and maybe you can tell me if I'm working too hard. I would start with the green, outline it, move the outline to the outside edge then outline stroke. Once that is done I would direct select the inner path of the outline and delete it, filling the outline with whatever color it was stroked. Finally, I would send it to the back, group them so they don't move and consider it done. The end product is that the outline is completely filled behind the green and the green just gets registered over top of back layer. Both layer have maximum adhesion as well. I do know this about Illy, If you have things grouped and try to do -front, -back type operations it will drive you mad.

What you did for him is perfectly fine. If he is in fact having it screen printed he should let the printer separate it and black it out as necessary. I hope you did not think I was trying to indicate your work was inferior in any way.

Ooops

I think what he means is he needs to change each color to be printed to black. Screen printing is a different animal. When exposing the screens, only black is removed from the screen and is what is actually printed. So, what is white now needs to be full black, what is green needs to be full black and they need to be separate images with common registration marks because each color will be it's own screen. Think of it like layering vinyl and cutting the layers by color in scalp. It does not matter what color vinyl is in the cutter, scalp cuts what color you tell it to. The difference is when exposing screens for screen print, the only color that exposes is black.

Agreed. Sounds like it's advancing to do the cutoff then rewinding when you go to cut. Set your origin point on the cutter each time you cut a new piece.

Have you decided yet what vinyl you will use for the stencils? I'm using Oracal 810 and am quite happy with it.

Yes. You also have choose origin point in scalp.

In scal you simply put your cutting head where you want it to start the cut and and choose origin point in the cutting dialog box (comes up when you click cut icon) Be sure your vinyl is set up in such a way that you can move the pinch rollers to keep the vinyl on track. If you use two rollers on the outer edges of your 24 inch roll it will be a problem where the cut off material is since there is nothing to feed.

Howdy from Sugar Land, Tx. Welcome. I'm using my cutter for stencils as well.

My work may be interested in some of this. It would need to stand up to heavy floor traffic and being driven on occasionally. Anyone know of such a product?

A couple I did for my hobby room. Chow Hound is 32hx44w 4 color 6 layers. Tiger is 23hx44w 6 color 6 layers.

Goose, I just bought one of these a couple months back. I only need letter sized. I have zero complaints with it. works well and is dirt cheap. Has pretty strong reviews also. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VQR1UC/ref=oh_details_o07_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You see them too? Do yours speak? The other advantage to rounding the corners is the decal is less likely to start peeling up at one of those sharp points either while cutting or after installation. Especially when installed on glass or a vehicle that requires frequent cleaning. Don't take much handling to lift a real sharp point while cleaning.

I don't know Corel, but in Illustrator you simply make a path where you want the artwork split then use the divide below command. There are several other methods too. Tiling seems to be a quite efficient way to get it done.

The Copam is most certainly more accurate and for the moment is filling my needs. It will likely remain my go to machine for large stuff. Although it's quieter then the MH, it's still quite loud. The noise reduction is what I look forward to most in my next machine.

Definitely better than the MH. I have a Mh-871 and a Copam CP-4500. Seems to be quite reliable and better built. That said, it's still a stepper motor machine. Keep an eye on the Titan2 review going on. Seems to be a pretty good machine. Knowing what I know now I'd put my money in a Graphtec.

I'm diggin' what you're sayin' Dakota. Sorry it took a while to get back. The tiny stuff won't be a huge portion of my work but I do need that capability. I'll still be doing big stuff too. You're undoubtedly right and I will hold out for a Graphtec or a Summa, I was thinking an FC if I go Graphtec. I was thinking about selling the Copam to buy a new rig but I think what I'll do is get a 24 or 30 inch high end machine and keep the Copam for big stuff. I should have tossed a few more hundred at it and got the Graphtec when I bought the Copam but I had to have the 54incher which amazingly sits here with a 24 inch roll on it. As a matter of fact, it's had 48 on it once in 18 months. Thanks

Would you mind terribly if I was request you to cut the file I mentioned in this post and report the results? http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/43662-cutting-small-files/

I thinking a belt tension issue would affect both directions of travel. It's more than likely where the belt and carriage interface or something that allows the carriage to slightly pivot one direction and not the other. My guess is the latter.

This one is the best of the bunch. I would lose the whole bottom line and ditch the first letter in each word keeping the oversized caps.

I was thinking about upgrading to a graphtec or a summa in the near future. Thinkin' I'll keep an eye on this rig.

I noticed this last night on my copam cutting white 751C. I'm actually running a Roland blade holder in mine. I had a hell of a time getting it to cut this vinyl properly. I removed the blade holder to swap the blade from a 60 to a 45 to see if it helped. In the process of changing blades I decided to clean and oil the holder. As I was cleaning I felt what could only be described as a burr on the tip of the blade holder. I used a four way nail polisher to remove the the burr and polish up the tip, oiled the tip, bearing and blade tip. Upon reassembly I test cut one piece of the 38 I was trying to cut and it cut much better. It was late so I did not try the full cut. I recalled seeing this post and decided to look at it this morning to see if there was a solution to the chatter. Looks like I may have solved it inadvertently. Think about it, it makes perfect sense. The cutting head is driven by a belt. Being so, the motor should be pulling the head no matter which direction it travels. This leads me to wonder if there is not an adjustment that can be made to the carriage allowing some of the slack to be taken out of the carriage. It seems like maybe the head may tilt a bit when changing direction and has more resistance traveling one direction than the other. It makes more and more sense as I type. This probably explains why the machine seems to have spots where it does not cut and repeats it on every copy unless the vinyl is changed and re-registered. (which really only relocates the trouble spot) The other thing I noticed while trying to weed this crap was that it was nearly impossible to pull it back against itself while trying to weed cursive lettering. It tended to stick to itself like cling vinyl does. I assume that's because of the gloss finish. So when I get home this afternoon I'm going to pull the blade holder out and polish the poo out of the tip, re-oil it and manually manipulate the carriage to see if there is any play in it. If so I will look for an adjustment. If not, hopefully polishing the tip and putting a bit of oil on it will get me by until I'm done with this project. Fortunately, I do not cut a bunch of glossy stuff.