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Zag300zx

Cut start and stop not at the same spot

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Hey guys. I am new to vinyl cutting, picked up a Titan 2 to primarily cut some 12 mil vinyl. My longer cut lengths, say around 5" or more, the end of the cut is around .050-.100" off from where it is supposed to stop. I'm thinking the material is moving or shifting during the cut. I've checked the offset and it appears correct. I put the pen plotter in with some paper and the ends line up perfectly. Blade depth is set perfectly, no scoring on the backing.

My gut tells me either my force is too high or the speed is too high. I'm cutting at 300in/min and 300g. Perhaps the roller pressure needs adjusting?

Just want some guidance before I go wasting a bunch of material. Thanks!

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people just get in trouble messing with pressure of the rollers - 

slow it way down - 

always pre feed and enver make the cutter pull off a roll

 

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4 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

people just get in trouble messing with pressure of the rollers - 

slow it way down - 

always pre feed and enver make the cutter pull off a roll

 

I agree DO NOT TOUCH THE ROLLER PRESSURE you will regret it

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You say it's getting off on a 5 inch cut? Did you mean 5 foot? When you say it's not meeting does it look like it would have but came up short or that it is out of alignment and missed the mark? 

 

Something you might try just for kicks is a couple lighter passes at 110g or something like that to see if it will change anything for you. If it does change then you are assured you are dealing with it getting pulled out of alignment. 12mil is reasonably thick vinyl and you may be at the limit of a standard 45 deg blade and fighting that too, a 60 deg might be a good idea. Don't know what blades you are using but you might try a Clean Cut blade. Much higher quality than most of the cheaper ones and will definitely decrease the cutting force. 

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Nope, off on a 5" cut. So I slowed the cut speed down to 150, and that seemed to do the trick. Thanks all for the advice!

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I'm having the same issue with the start and stop not perfectly lining up. I've had my Titan 2 a cpl years now, and usually can figure out any cutting issues I encounter. This one has me so frustrated! I figured it was an old blade, but never thought about the roller pressure. I have tightened it in the past... how tight should it be? Could it be possible I tightened it too much?

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Start and stop not lining up many times is traced to too much blade,exposure or making the plotter pull the vinyl off of the roll causing slippage.   With 2 year experience though I would think we could rule that out pretty quickly.   Not sure why people mess with roller pressure :/        We have seen this issue with a couple of versions of scalp that went away with newer versions or changing software.   Look for anywhere you can find slop in the system from wear

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I've tightened the roller pressure before because on my old machine the screws (or whatever the correct term is) would come loose from cutting dozens of items daily. And I cut on a cutting mat bc all of my designs are small, so it couldn't be slippage. Could be too much blade exposed. I know that is a rookie mistake (I am certainly no expert) but I've been cutting on oracal 951 metallic vinyl and it is the thinnest material I've ever worked with. I tried adjusting everything in every different combo you could think of to get it to cut well and what worked the best was exposing a little more blade and adjusting the pressure pretty low. Do not post the blade adjusting directions that you guys always re post when someone has blade issues, lol!! The not meeting up only happens oddly in a few random places and bc the design is pretty small and intricate I can make it work. I use a Roland 60 degree blade.. I've always used  60 degree for cutting vinyl. It is only this super thin vinyl that I can't figure out the best blade settings for.. which is why I was assuming it was a dull blade. 

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Dakotagrafx- You said you have seen this issue with a cpl versions of SCALP.. do you remember which versions? I use scalp 3 and am wondering if maybe my cut issues are due to the program and not my machine. 

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I don't remember the versions as I just read it on these forums.   I am currently going on vacation so can't search as easy . . . For years I have read almost every post on the forum so I can't remember the specifics

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No biggie! Can you recommend an alternative to scalp I should try? I do all of my work in illustrator and send it to scalp just to cut. 

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I would just get a copy of flexi starter if all you are doing is sending the artwork to the plotter created in illy.    It is the most stable and proven, just doesn't have the design features like bigger versions.   For those that design and cut in one software vinyl master is good but illy is much better fore designing in and the reason I recommend the cheapest flexi to cut from

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2 hours ago, Ashleywpotter said:

No biggie! Can you recommend an alternative to scalp I should try? I do all of my work in illustrator and send it to scalp just to cut. 

You work on a mac or PC? If you are like me and on a mac then you'll want SignCut Pro. The lifetime dongle is $270 on the USCutter website and it works great with Illustrator. 

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Thanks Dakotagrafx and Wildgoose! I downloaded a free trial of SignCut Pro to try out, but it doesn't look like it works with Titan 2. Going to look into flexi starter now. 

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1 hour ago, Ashleywpotter said:

Thanks Dakotagrafx and Wildgoose! I downloaded a free trial of SignCut Pro to try out, but it doesn't look like it works with Titan 2. Going to look into flexi starter now. 

They have free live tech support. You might give them a call and see if they have a driver that works for it. A lot of the budget cutters are similar and may run off something with a different name. 

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