iam1ofhis

Newbie in Cleveland - Need help with rhinestone templates

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Hi all! I am a beginner and jumped into this head first....have no idea what I'm doing! I received my SC cutter yesterday and am anxious to get started making rhinestone templates. Here's my dilemma...made a couple of templates to no avail. But now, I think I have it. Only issue, when peeling away the template, the majority of the dots are not pulling away (I think it's called weeding). Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong? I'm using Specialty Graphics Supply Rhinestone Template Sheets. My speed is 500 and force is 250. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

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Slow it way down and check your blade adjustment. See the posts from Mz Skeeter!!

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You must do test cuts first.. You must make sure the blade depth is correct,  Then you know what force to use.  I don't do templates or rhinestones.  But I know from reading on here that 500 speed is too fast.

 

To start with, you should set your blade depth correctly, by taking the blade holder out of the machine, and firmly cut across a piece of scrap vinyl, you will be cutting. You should only be cutting the vinyl and barely a mark on wax paper backing, Adjust blade to get there, Then put the blade holder back in machine, and use the force of the machine to get there, same results, only cutting the vinyl and barely a mark in wax paper backing.

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OK. Please bear with me. Until my cutter arrived yesterday, I had NEVER laid eyes upon one so I'm one step below a novice. LOL My blade is good. Since my original post, I've been able to make one template but had to do ALOT of weeding. You mentioned slowing down my speed....what should it be, approximately? And I have my force set at 200. Thanks!

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Start slow,  It is not going to hurt anything to run slow.  Better than running the crap out of it at high speed..  I don't own your cutter.  Until you learn your machine, run slow.. Running fast like that, on regular vinyl will lift the vinyl up.. That is all I cut, regular vinyl.

 

Check out youtube.com  for tutorials...There may be some there.  Or search the internet.

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I'm wondering what you mean when you say you had to do a lot of weeding? Everything you cut will need to be weeded. Weeding refers to removing the parts you don't want just like in your garden. Once you get your blade depth set just like Skeeter showed then you will have to do a few test cuts to determine the actual pressure you need. This will be different for different types of product and often needs fine tuning thought the life of your blade and when switching vinyls even when they are the same type and thickness. Your template material is probably pretty thick so your blade depth will be excessive compared to regular cutting. I do not cut rhinestones either so we are just giving basic info which should be all you need. Your cutter might have a test option that will cut a little text square of some sort. If not then make a file that has a square about 1" and an X in the middle and cut it. You should be able to pull the square out easily and see very light scratch marks in the carrier where the X was in the middle. You want to cut all the way through your material but just kiss the liner. You should not be able to feel the cut mark from the back side. 

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Wildgoose,

 

I had to remove the majority of the dots from the template. Some pulled away when I pulled the template off the carrier sheet. I was under the impression all the dots would pull away like I've seen in the YouTube tutorials. If having to remove some of them manually is the norm, then that relieves my mind. I thought I may have been doing something wrong. I adjusted my blade as suggested in the tutorial but do you think I may need to have a little bit more of it exposed? I played around with the pressure already and that's how I was ultimately able to make some type of headway. Let me know your thoughts....Thanks!

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When you have your cutter adjusted right then you should be able to pull the sticky flock up and have all of the little round dots stay. I use almost 300 grams of pressure on my copam to make sure i have no troubles, it works great every time.

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Wildgoose,

 

I had to remove the majority of the dots from the template. Some pulled away when I pulled the template off the carrier sheet. I was under the impression all the dots would pull away like I've seen in the YouTube tutorials. If having to remove some of them manually is the norm, then that relieves my mind. I thought I may have been doing something wrong. I adjusted my blade as suggested in the tutorial but do you think I may need to have a little bit more of it exposed? I played around with the pressure already and that's how I was ultimately able to make some type of headway. Let me know your thoughts....Thanks!

I like to get down at eye level with the blade holder and watch it during a cut and you should just barely see some light between the holder and your material. Sounds like you are getting close. Once you first get used to how things work then it becomes easier. I know how you feel being in the dark on things, I was there about 4-1/2yrs ago. 

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iam1ofhis,

Sorry I can't help you, but if you're a step below a novice, then I may be 3 more steps under you. I'm in the same predicament as you, but I don't even learned ANY of the software that we need to do this !!!!

But, I've been blessed to come across this forum and the people that have helped me (so far ;) ) didn't make me feel like a dummy like a lot of other forums do. They were right when I warned them that

I was a Newbie level -4, and said they had the tolerance for it.....THEY WERE RIGHT :) !!!!!

 

FH

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