robert6715

Small text help needed

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Greetings, I am trying to cut 3mm text on my p20. The text comes out of the cutter half weeded & torn up. I am using Oracal 651 vinyl. I am trying to make electro engraving stencils that will be reverse weeded (removing the text & leaving the surrounding vinyl) Any help is much appreciated.

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You must make sure your blade depth is set correctly.  Do not use a credit card thickness or a post it note. Set the blade depth to the vinyl your going to cut and cut slow.  

This is correct way to set your blade depth.

To start with, you should set your blade depth correctly, by taking the blade holder out of the machine, and in your hand, 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. You should just barely see and feel your blade tip out of the blade holder.

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That's pretty small text and even with everything set perfect your cutter may still have a hard time. Just so you know.

Getting the blade depth correctly will go a long way though to getting the cut to come out clean.

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tiny anything, especially text - slow the speed of the cutter, and get yourself a 60* blade if you're not using one right now.

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This cutter has absolutely no problem cutting text that small with insane detail. I unfortunately very regularly cut lettering soo small, that I need to weed it with a pin and takes me longer to weed that tiny area than anything else. I even cut it at 400 speed with the stock junk chinese 45* blade!

Deff check your blade angle and depth. 

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Hello All, 

I purposely bought a Prismcut machine for the advertised ability to cut 2mm text.

Thanks for the replies & suggestions. I have had success cutting my 3mm text with a few adjustments as follows.

1. Set the blade depth so low that I didn't think it would cut. It won't cut my finger & I can barely even feel it.

2. Slowed the speed way down to 50 compared to the factory setting of 400

3. Set the force at 15 vs the factory setting of 50

4. Last but especially not least & probably the most important thing I changed was the font. This has A LOT more to do with weeding than cutting, but, made all the difference in the world. Changing the font to a "stencil" like font is HUGE. Try weeding a perfectly cut 3mm capital A & leaving behind the little triangle. Remember that I am reverse weeding these 3mm letters for use as a stencil, so I am removing the actual letter & leaving the surrounding vinyl. How do you keep from accidentally weeding the little triangle in the capital A or the center of a capital O? You leave it attached to the remaining background like a stencil. 

 

I weed these tiny letters with a dental pick, a 3X optical visor, & it's NOT easy.

 

@PM-Performance what are you doing differently than myself to cut that small at a speed of 400?

 

Thanks again

Rob

 

 

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Using 651 is not helping you. That is a great vinyl but it a Calendared process and it is a but stiff to cut. If you are going to the extremes in size I recommend going to the extreme in vinyl. Get your self a fresh piece of 951 at the top of the food chain. I would also recommend a 60deg Clean Cut Blade and run through all the proper setup procedures again with the new blade. (going to this blade you will want to lower your cut force by about half and ease back into it or you will push right through the carrier into the cutting strip and may break a tip off. The high end blades are really sharp but the tips can be a little more brittle. I don't know your experience level but getting the depth set correctly (search blade depth on the forum) is the single most often mistake by people, some who have been cutting for years with too much sticking out of the blade holder. There are several notes that say 1/2 of a credit card that are WRONG WRONG WRONG. In order to cut that small you will need to have your machine dialed in absolutely perfect.

Another tip that may help you is to apply design partially weeded, leaving in all the trouble parts and weed them after you get it on whatever you're putting it on. This bypasses the whole issue of whether the vinyl has enough sticky to hold to the carrier sheet and lets the adhesive get hold of a solid object and you can still pluck the events out after the fact. 

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On 9/4/2020 at 10:05 PM, robert6715 said:

Hello All, 

I purposely bought a Prismcut machine for the advertised ability to cut 2mm text.

Thanks for the replies & suggestions. I have had success cutting my 3mm text with a few adjustments as follows.

1. Set the blade depth so low that I didn't think it would cut. It won't cut my finger & I can barely even feel it.

2. Slowed the speed way down to 50 compared to the factory setting of 400

3. Set the force at 15 vs the factory setting of 50

4. Last but especially not least & probably the most important thing I changed was the font. This has A LOT more to do with weeding than cutting, but, made all the difference in the world. Changing the font to a "stencil" like font is HUGE. Try weeding a perfectly cut 3mm capital A & leaving behind the little triangle. Remember that I am reverse weeding these 3mm letters for use as a stencil, so I am removing the actual letter & leaving the surrounding vinyl. How do you keep from accidentally weeding the little triangle in the capital A or the center of a capital O? You leave it attached to the remaining background like a stencil. 

 

I weed these tiny letters with a dental pick, a 3X optical visor, & it's NOT easy.

 

@PM-Performance what are you doing differently than myself to cut that small at a speed of 400?

 

Thanks again

Rob

I have been cutting at force 70 and speed 400 this whole time. I am using 651. For stencils, that should be a cake walk. That is essentially what I have been doing. Now the trick with keeping the insides of A's and O's is the tricky part. Usually I can get them fine, but LOTS of patients and steady hand with a pin. I use like sewing pins with the ball tops and very fine hand to get those. When I am unlucky, the centers come out and stuck on the pin. I just peel them off the pin tip and stick them back down. How they hold later on I have no clue but I have not had a customer complain yet about them. 

I really hate selling tiny detail stuff like that and anything with sharp cuts because I cannot garuntee how they will stay

 

 

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On 9/5/2020 at 10:03 AM, Wildgoose said:

Using 651 is not helping you. That is a great vinyl but it a Calendared process and it is a but stiff to cut. If you are going to the extremes in size I recommend going to the extreme in vinyl. Get your self a fresh piece of 951 at the top of the food chain. I would also recommend a 60deg Clean Cut Blade and run through all the proper setup procedures again with the new blade. (going to this blade you will want to lower your cut force by about half and ease back into it or you will push right through the carrier into the cutting strip and may break a tip off. The high end blades are really sharp but the tips can be a little more brittle. I don't know your experience level but getting the depth set correctly (search blade depth on the forum) is the single most often mistake by people, some who have been cutting for years with too much sticking out of the blade holder. There are several notes that say 1/2 of a credit card that are WRONG WRONG WRONG. In order to cut that small you will need to have your machine dialed in absolutely perfect.

Another tip that may help you is to apply design partially weeded, leaving in all the trouble parts and weed them after you get it on whatever you're putting it on. This bypasses the whole issue of whether the vinyl has enough sticky to hold to the carrier sheet and lets the adhesive get hold of a solid object and you can still pluck the events out after the fact. 

So I have never tried 951, but the 751 I have tried I can say I do not like and I prefer the stiffer 651. I feel like the 751 is a little too thin/flimsy if that makes sense? Is the 951 similar to that?

On 9/5/2020 at 6:46 PM, MZ SKEETER said:

Also, using the weed lines feature in your cutting software can help with very small text.  

So for bigger stuff I will agree, but I have fought with the advanced/auto weed feature in Vinyl Master. Some stuff it works great, but some stuff it ruins my cut. I think at this point, I will only use it for text at a decent size .5" or more. I think it works pretty great for that. 

For other stuff I do, it has created some headaches for me and lost product. 

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15 minutes ago, PM-Performance said:

 

So for bigger stuff I will agree, but I have fought with the advanced/auto weed feature in Vinyl Master. Some stuff it works great, but some stuff it ruins my cut. I think at this point, I will only use it for text at a decent size .5" or more. I think it works pretty great for that. 

For other stuff I do, it has created some headaches for me and lost product. 

Could be differences between cutters and software.   Graphtec and Flexi software here. 

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1 hour ago, PM-Performance said:

So I have never tried 951, but the 751 I have tried I can say I do not like and I prefer the stiffer 651. I feel like the 751 is a little too thin/flimsy if that makes sense? Is the 951 similar to that?

That's kind of the selling point of the 751 and 951. They conform to curves better. If you're new to the vinyl world the 651 can feel like it's easier/safer to work with but as you go and refine your skills you'll find the higher end stuff can be a real pleasure to work with.

A little like a high performance car. Scary as hell the first time you drive one but as you learn it's capability it becomes a lot of fun.

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If the budget would allow, I'd cut most things in 751. Too bad it's way to cost prohibited where I'm at :(

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