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Hello, Sorry for the long post. Just trying to give as much info as possible up front to minimize any followup questions. Summary: I'm new to the forum and this is my first experience with a vinyl cutter. I'm having issues cutting small circles consistently and would love some help and suggestions for tuning the equipment and settings to get the best possible cuts. Background: I purchased a new Graphtec CE6000-40 and I'm cutting using Adobe Illustrator and Cutting Master 3 software/plugin. I'm cutting Oracal 951 vinyl. Attempting to cut small circles, 5mm in diameter. The circles are set up in groups of 3, spaced about .5" apart. The issue I'm having is that the third circle in each set is showing what I would call a blade mark, or what others have described as a "hangnail" or in complete circle. For whatever reason, this is ONLY happening on the third circle in the set. The first one is fine, the second is slightly worse, and the third is unusable. What's also interesting is that the problem gets progressively worse on the right side of the sheet vs. the left. In other words, the third circle in each set is the worst, but the third circles on the right of the sheet are worse than the third circles on the left of the sheet. I watched the movement of the blade and the third circle is the last circle it cuts in the sequence before it moves to the next tile. It's almost as if the machine is "rushing at the end" to move to the next tile and that's why it's imperfect. (Although I know that's probably not really what's happening.) It may seem minor or that I'm being too picky, but the fact that the first circle is perfect leads me to believe that they can ALL be perfect. I'm viewing the circles under a loupe, and also under a 10X macro lens. That said, the issue is still visible to the naked eye upon close inspection. I've read a lot of info on the forums here and I think I have my blade height set correctly. I've also experimented with various speeds and levels of force. I checked the file - it's nice and clean. It's just a simple circle drawn in Adobe Illustrator. There are only 4 nodes on the circle. I've attached some macro shots to show the issue, along with the EPS file that I'm cutting from. Details: Here's are the details of my equipment and settings: Graphtec CE6000-40 Cutter Blade: Graphtec CB09U-K60 (60º, 0.9mm) Condition: Blade: Graphtec CB09U-K60 (60º, 0.9mm) Offset: 0 Speed: 1 cm/s Acceleration: 0 Cut Force: 10 Passes: 1 Tangential Mode: Off Tool Setting: Step Pass: 0 Offset Force: 2 Offset Angle: 0 Initial Blade Position: 2mm Below When Tool is Up: Speed: Auto Advanced: Move Step: 0.1mm Step Size: 0.010mm -------- Any help or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. small-circles.eps

I recently (within the last 6 months) acquired a friend's small cutting business as he was changing careers and would no longer have time to fill orders. I have figured out the odds and ins of the actual plotter and even the software I initially started with (VinylMasterCut v4) and have started figuring out my more recent purchase of Sir Cuts a Lot (bought only due to the fact that a lot of his previous files were used with this program and my upgraded cutter came with VMCv4). One problem I still have is when I compare his decals (red decal picture) to mine (purple decal picture), I see that my letters are not as neatly cut as his and there are even times when the letters are uneven (the letter T for example, the two side of the top line will not be the same width). Also, his decal in the picture was smaller than mine and had better quality cut. Any suggestions or recommendations on how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance for any advice

I have noticed several threads which approach the topic of "how small" a detail can the value cutters produce. The fact of the matter is the MH cutter can cut VERY VERY small (I cut some text today that had a dot over the letter 'i' which was only 1mm in diameter). However, the real issue is not the miniature dimensions of the cuts -- the actual issue is weeding and how well the finished item will adhere to a surface. The vinyl we use is pressure-sensitive and when the surface area of the material is so fine, there isn't really enough adhesive exposed to create a good bond. This is an example of text which the MH can handle, even at extremely miniature scale (say, 1/2") However, the weeding of those closed loops (in the 'a' 'g' 'w' 'p' and 'u' for instance) would turn me crosseyed, trying to pick them out.