NitroRustlerDriver

I've got an MH871 running Flexi 8.1. Started have a strange problem I can't seem to fix. The plotter seems to loose steps or something as it is cutting, so the design gets shifted and stretched in one direction (with the rollers). It doesn't do it everywhere, only in some spots and always in the same spots (if I cut the same design more then once). It does it on several different designs and files. What is going on here? Here is a picture showing what is happening: Note that the tips of the forks are angled and the middle section of the fork is not aligned straight across. The knife came out fine, but you can also see the corners of the box on the right side is wavy and not right, yet the left side is fine. Does this with both a knife and a pen, in vinyl or on paper. I've checked all my settings, nothing has changed. Unplugged the machine and restarted it, restarted the computer. Nothing seems to change anything. All of this just started happening suddenly for no reason.

The bottom is a piece of 3/4" plywood covered in an ironing board cover. I mounted it on adjustable pedestals at each corner so I could evenly adjust the amount of pressure the hot plate put on it. The entire frame is made of steel actually, no aluminum other then the griddle itself. It is heavy enough to not move around while using it, but light enough to carry easily. I will say that the bungee strap idea didn't work out so well. It just doesn't provide enough pressure. The press still works fine however, I just lean on the handle a little bit when pressing. It seems you can't really apply too much pressure, but you can have not enough.

I don't even remember anymore. Just one that was on sale at the time. Shouldn't matter which one you get if you plan on building one.

Thought I would bump this with pictures of the finished press. Works great for what I use it for. The base sits on 4 adjustable screws so I can adjust the height on all 4 corners. I use a piece of bungy cord and an S-hook to apply pressure and cut down an ironing board cover to fit the base. I've made ~ a dozen shirts so far. Took a little bit to get the temp just right and the time to press just right, but other then that, it works great. I use a touchless laser thermometer to check the temp of the plate and the temperature differnece between coldest to the hottest areas is only 15

I'm building a heat press and had one question. Those of you that have built one, what did you use for the pad on the bottom? I know commercial presses use silicone foam, but sadly, that stuff is pretty expensive. Are there any alternatives?

Everything mechanically is fine. Like I said before, it doesn't do it if I set the blade offset to 0. But then I get incomplete cuts. The same file works fine cutting using SignBlazer, so it must be some setting in Flexi. I'm new to the program and don't really know my way around it.

Here is the file. Fish.eps Fish.eps

Sorry, forgot to mention that. I'm using a USCutter MH871. Here is a blurry picture of what is happening. I circled some of the jagged parts I am talking about. I tried to get a clearer picture, but my camera won't take a better picture. Also, I've never had this problem before using SignBlazer or SignCut. It only started when I went to Flexi.

Having a bit of an issue that I think must be a setting somewhere. I'm running FlexiSign-Pro 8.1v1. This is a bit hard to explain, but when cutting, the knife retracts the distance I have the blade offset set to for every individual line in the file. My blade offset is set to 0.020". When I disable the blade offset, the lines cut fine and as one smooth continuous line, just the ends are open because there is no offset. I've tried welding the lines and it doesn't help. Any ideas?