speleopower 46 Posted January 5, 2013 A friend gave me this vinyl cutter today. He has had it for quite a while but he said it never seemed to work correctly so he put it up on a shelf in the garage. My friend produces wooden model airplane kits using a laser cutter. He only needs a few pieces of vinyl and instead of keeping and learning a vinyl cutter he has just had a local sign shop cut the decals he needs. Long story short is he is moving out of the state and was cleaning his garage and found the cutter. Instead of trying to sell it he just gave it to me figuring I could get it working....maybe. I have a couple questions. 1)What model cutter is it? 2)Are spare parts still available? 2)It has two pinch rollers and only one slides across the back. I'm wondering it the other is stuck or is it a fixed in placed roller. I have not started taking the cutter apart yet. The cool thing is there is an original copy of Sign Blazer Elements. There is a bag of parts including some blades, unopened serial and parallel cables and a pen stylus. I dusted it off and plugged it in. It turned on and I pressed the test button and it seemed to run through a test pattern. I then tried to get it up and running on the USB cable but no luck. I then grabbed my cable with a USB Keyspan adaptor plugged it in and sent a test cut through Sure Cuts A Lot and yup it ran through the cut. Unfortunately I did not have any material in the machine to see if it actually plotted correctly but it did seem to run through the cut like it should. -Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MZ SKEETER 4,709 Posted January 5, 2013 Looks like a Refine MH.... There are parts at UScutter. They are more prone to static, and will fry a ZChip, if not grounded good. Also less memory, http://www.uscutter.com/USCutter-MH-Series-Vinyl-Cutter-w-Sure-Cuts-A-Lot-Pro-Design-Cut-Software Parts http://www.uscutter.com/Parts#product_listing=%3Fcurrent_page%3D1%26results_per_page%3D16%26order_by%3Dcategory_product_position%26search_params%3DCategory_DELIMITER_id%3A70%3A%3AProduct_DELIMITER_manufacturer_id%3A110 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ravenwind / One Off Grafx 187 Posted January 5, 2013 Looks like a MH 12 or a refine. As for the pinch rollers i have no idea. Us cutter should have parts. you can use the pen stylus with paper to try some cuts, well plotts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xpaperman 719 Posted January 5, 2013 Great find.... how come I never come across stuff like this? I guess I need better friends. I bet if you just clean it up, hook it up.... you might find it works just fine. There was probably never anything wrong with it in the first place is my gut feeling.... user error I bet. Good luck!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slice&dice 2,451 Posted January 5, 2013 Oooooooohhh, that's so CUTE! !!! A little bitsy brother to my 34" MH unit. When I was running that machine (I've since switched to the SC) I ran it with a RedSail driver. The reason being when I loaded the UK version of SBE and applied the patch, those USCUTTER MH drivers vanished. I was told that RedSail is the Chinese manufacturer and their drivers would work, which turned out to be right. The unit uses regular ROLAND blades. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speleopower 46 Posted January 5, 2013 Yes I think it was user error. The serial cable bag was never opened which leads me to believe he tried to use the USB cable and the little baggie with the grounding wire is unopened as well plus there is 6 new Roland blades 3x45 degree and 3x60 degree. Oh the cutting strip on the front is trashed. Looks like blade depth was about 1" deeper than it should have been....LOL. He put a piece of masking tape across the cutting strip which was cut all the way through. I hooked it up with my serial cable and Keyspan and it plotted out some letters no problem using Sure Cuts A Lot. Yes a good find indeed and yes I"m very greatful for all of my very generous friends!! -Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted January 5, 2013 http://www.uscutter.com/Cutting-Strip-for-MH-Series-Cutter-Plotter-Various-Sizes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted January 5, 2013 That is a nice cutter. The older ones like it are better than the current ones. Nice and portable too. I think I might have the roller thing that you could put behind it for the vinyl. If I can find it, I'll give it to you if you pay the shipping. I'll let you know Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speleopower 46 Posted January 7, 2013 I hurt my neck/back this morning and have done nothing much but lay on the floor with ice bags and heat pads. But I did get up enough energy to clean up the cutter a good bit. I took a lot of dust and grime off of it and got the 2nd pinch roller to move. It was stuck on the screw stopper. I did a quick test cut of my name and it seemed to work fine then I did a second cut and it was all over the place like the blade offset was way out of whack. Not going to mess with it again tonight. Going to lay down again. Bannerjohn if I can get this working yes I would like the vinyl roller if you can find it and yeah shipping is no problem. I already have a plan to take it to a couple of model airplane events to quickly cut numbers/letters for people if they want. -Scott 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted January 7, 2013 man I feel your pain. I was down for 4 weeks in November with a pinched nerve. 10 visits to my Chropractor and I am A-OK now. I'll look for the rollers tomorrow. Not even sure if I still have them...but I almost never throw anything away. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ravenwind / One Off Grafx 187 Posted January 7, 2013 the second cut might be that it is not grounded. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slice&dice 2,451 Posted January 7, 2013 According to what you noted, that Cutting strip needs replacing, no question about it. In the meantime, try this, peel it off, and turn it around 180* so those gouges are now on the left side and the clean side is on the right. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speleopower 46 Posted January 8, 2013 Not sure what happened last night. But all the cuts and drawing I did a little while ago seemed to work just fine. I will order a new cutting strip very shortly. My upperback is much better today. I had heart surgery 10 years ago and still have lingering muscle issues in my back/neck from being split open. So if I move odd sometimes I get a spasm in my traps/rhomboid muscles take a couple days to go away fully. -Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted January 8, 2013 Not sure what happened last night. But all the cuts and drawing I did a little while ago seemed to work just fine. I will order a new cutting strip very shortly.My upperback is much better today. I had heart surgery 10 years ago and still have lingering muscle issues in my back/neck from being split open. So if I move odd sometimes I get a spasm in my traps/rhomboid muscles take a couple days to go away fully. -Scott I have the same thing! It will be 4 years Wednesday since my surgery. I'm glad to know it's not just me. When you get the cramp/spasm...is there anything you can do to help it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speleopower 46 Posted January 8, 2013 BannerJohn-So sorry you had to go through the nightmare of surgery. Anyway, yes there is some relief for me with targeted massage therapy specifically trigger point therapy. Plus immediate ice and heat combos. I would speak with your chiro about getting a massage therapist I sent you a PM as well. Here is me at 12 days after surgery :-) Lookin good with a split.... The little cutter seems to cut ok so far. I think it was user error on the previous owners part. -Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bigmax 166 Posted January 16, 2013 sounds like possible grounding issue. I had same problem with bigger model. Grounded and problem solved Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rodger 527 Posted January 16, 2013 BannerJohn-So sorry you had to go through the nightmare of surgery. Anyway, yes there is some relief for me with targeted massage therapy specifically trigger point therapy. Plus immediate ice and heat combos. I would speak with your chiro about getting a massage therapist I sent you a PM as well. Here is me at 12 days after surgery :-) Lookin good with a split.... -Scott I am also a member of the " Zipper " club . Mine is more diaginal than your's . I had a triple almost 3 years ago . I have never had anything burn near as much as when they pulled those 2 tubes out ... 1rst 1 was bad but the 2nd was worse because I knew what was coming . They could not get the 2 wires to pull loose , so they took the slop out & cut them off at skin level . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted January 16, 2013 Yeah..pulling those wires....THAT was an experience! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speleopower 46 Posted January 17, 2013 Hahahaha I screamed and then passed right out when they pulled the tubes. Worst day of my life! On to happier subjects. The little cutter seems to cut well but I for sure prefer my SC machine. -Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
arty-rc 719 Posted January 17, 2013 I bought the same cutter (MH-365) for my first try at cutting vinyl. After a year I upgraded to a used MH-721 and then to a Graphtec CE-5000-24. I still use the smaller cutter as a portable unit in my van and with an aircraft battery and a power inverter. I cut graphics almost every week at the local RC flying field. Once you have it dialed in you can get very good small graphics. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
