tracking issues

[sunsationaltintandgraphic 0]

hi all im having some ridicoulus tracking issues with my p cut it seems to track off about 1 inch or so every 40 inches so you can about imagine the anger when i was cutting a set of 70 inch racing stripes . anyway i have it loaded straight dont have the roller in the middle area there . have tried to slow it down . the only thing i can think is that one of the pinch rollers is slipping but this thing is only like 2 months old any help would be sweet

[sunsationaltintandgraphic 0]

wonderful so no one has any idea's on what i should do ? might as well just throw this thing in the garbage then or what ?

[bk2design 1]

You could throw it in the garbage or you could send a PM to kenimes or tykite

[coloradokev 0]

I had some tracking issues for a while with a job running multiple runs of a 60" long graphic.  I finally realized that I MUST have the vinyl fed dead-on straight into the cutter.  It's easy to get it feeding at a slight angle, and that's where the travel comes from for me.. 

When I get it right, with the rollers about 1.5 inches from the edges of the material, it works like a charm.

[firemalt 10]

Are you feeding the cutter off of a roll of vinyl, or just a precut piece? What's the width and length of the roll, if being used?

[sunsationaltintandgraphic 0]

well the first shot i tried it on a roll 24xabout 20 yards left or so. Then after that screwed up i tried cutting it a bit over length so it did not have the roll to pull and it still way off .. i dunno maybe i need new pinch rollers but i just got this thing ..

[Guest sciondrgn]

What I do is line it up as straight as possible first and place the pinch rollers about 1 inch in from the edge, then with the cutter offline I roll out what I need and back to see tracking.. If the vinyl starts to drift I roll it back to start and slightly adjust one side and normally within 1 or 2 adjustments i can get it dead on.

its kind of hard to explain, If its drifting to the left I will push in slightly on the vinyl on the right side and then release that pinch roller to allow the vinyl to scoot back some.. Normally this fixes my drifting issues.

The longest run ive done was 47"

[firemalt 10]

Ditto what sciondrgn said... I do the same thing on anything over 24 inches.

[imarcnut 0]

What I do is line it up as straight as possible first and place the pinch rollers about 1 inch in from the edge, then with the cutter offline I roll out what I need and back to see tracking.. If the vinyl starts to drift I roll it back to start and slightly adjust one side and normally within 1 or 2 adjustments i can get it dead on.

its kind of hard to explain, If its drifting to the left I will push in slightly on the vinyl on the right side and then release that pinch roller to allow the vinyl to scoot back some.. Normally this fixes my drifting issues.

The longest run ive done was 47"

Ditto what sciondrgn said... I do the same thing on anything over 24 inches.

I have a piece of masking tape running as straight as possible on the right ( as you are looking at the cutter) side of the "out feed" portion I use this as a guide

and then do what firemalt and scion do. A very small adjustment can make a huge difference over a long run.

I have 50" cuts only be out 1/4 inch at the end, took a few trys but can be done.

I have seen rolands with guides on them for the vinyl, has anyone thought of putting these on ours?

[rgaskins 0]

Just a suggestion, when I was using my Pcut Ct1200 it wouldn't track on long runs...I slowed down the cut speed and that fixed my problem...Can't remember what speed I used but it fixed my problem for good...My not work for you but thought I would mention it...

Rick

[imarcnut 0]

Another thing that helps. Sign blazer has an option in the cutting setup to " minimize vinyl movment" , this stops a lot of the fwd bkwd movment of the vinyl which decreases the distance the vinyl travels. A 24" run can travel 72" if it goes back and forth 3 times giving more room for movement. I also use 4 pinch rollers- this may help. Since my last post here I cut app. 20ft in a row and it only moved about 3/16". ( I think I got lucky).  long runs can be had   

[kenimes 42]

Also make sure you are not placing one of the pinch rollers in the very middle of the cutter on the 24" models, and make sure the pinch rollers are placed over the feed rollers on the 36" and 48" models. The 24" has a gap between the two feed rollers, and if a pinch roller is placed in this area, you will get unwanted vinyl drift. Same with the larger format cutters: If the pinch roller is not on top of a feed roller......drift.