Small Text

[Popeye 0]

I'd like to be able to make placards with text as small as .125". So far I haven't had much luck... I'm using a Pcut, 30deg blade .15 offset and have tried a different speeds and pressure...

Anyone had any luck with small text?

Thanks in advance

[dgreenh 9]

Good question.  I have hell with anything below about 1/2".  It would be nice to be able to cut tiny letters sometimes.  I have worked on getting the offset, overcut, pressure, blade depth and speed dialed in but the small stuff still doesn't seem to cut properly or the blade peels up the vinyl in some areas so I still don't have something right.

[Popeye 0]

The biggest problem I'm having is the blade lifting up the letters or edges... cuts look good for the most part

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I've gone as small as 1/4 inch and I decided that getting it weeded 'p' 'o',etc was more trouble than it was worth. One thing I did determine. If you pull out the blade and CLEAN it real good,then apply a TINY bit of wd-40,sewing machine oil,etc...to the TIP of the blade, it helps. I've pulled the blade out many times and there was a TINY bit of vinyl stuck to it,and this will sure pull up the edges on small letters.

[Popeye 0]

Thanks for the tip... I'll give it a try 

[JoeCamaro 11]

Ive seen some decal that I say " How could they do that?" Because they are really small or intrincate and I dont think I could do that with my refine. I think that with the proper settings it can be done. It would be nice if somebody would reveal the magic formula.

Joe

[dgreenh 9]

So go ahead and spill the beans on how you did the lettering on that diecast car.  They look like some pretty small cuts to me. 

[Popeye 0]

Well, I made sure the blade was new and clean.. I couldn't get past the idea of putting oil on the tip of the blade so I sprayed the vinyl with app fluid (banners brew) and figured that would work as a lubricant.

It helped but still not totally satisfying. I noticed that when the letters are taken down to 0.12" they get shorter but not really narrower... that made some of the legs on the letters way small and out of proportion. Played around with the compression setting and that helps the proportions. I'm using SB

Maybe I'll try some oil tomorrow

[JoeCamaro 11]

So go ahead and spill the beans on how you did the lettering on that diecast car.  They look like some pretty small cuts to me. 

Thats true I almost forgot that.

I measured them and the side letters are 1/8" with a dot (.) being 1/16", the number 5 in the back is 3/16".

What I did was put it to the lowest speed and little force maybe 60 (in my refine).

Now that I remember, the letters on the side, I tried 3 different fonts before getting it right, so besides pressure and speed, font also matters.

Anyways, those letters and numbers werent too intrincate. I might try something more difficult soon. What I have notice when going that small is that cuts arent to clean. Is that normal?

[dgreenh 9]

Well we don't know about the clean cuts.  You seem to be the only one having any kind of success.  So I guess it is normal. 

[JoeCamaro 11]

I also do decals for cell phones, the longest side is .75" and I sell them for $1.00 sometimes more, Those turn out pretty neat.

[gogetemgraphix 1]

a lady did some 1/2" lettering on some decals one time and i asked her how she managed to get those weeded, she said she put them in the freezer and they were a breeze. just adding my two cents  lol

lue anne

[dgreenh 9]

My cutter does 1/2" just fine, weeding isn't even that bad unless there is a lot of text.  Anything smaller I have problems with just the cutting, the weeding is a whole different story.