out of alignment

[aamotox 0]

I've asked this question many times, but have never gotten an answer.  My cutter will pause in the middle of cutting.  When it does it makes a noise that I would say sounds like grinding.  When this happens it gets out of alignment.  Text cut after that doesnt line up and if letter were not complete like an "O" the inside cut is off.  Job has to be recut.  Waste of time and money.  Should I have spent more and just bought a decent cutter?  I'm very frustrated with this thing.

[hairyconiption 0]

Hi, I am new to the cutter world and my cutter was doing almost the exact same thing today. I realized that somehow the carriage had come off track. There is a top and bottom v groove that the white wheels travel in. Make sure that your is in track, If it isn't just push up and in on the carriage. It shouldn't take a lot of pressure and it will go right back into track. I was about to throw this thing out the door until I realized that, it has been cutting like a champ since then.

Hope that helps

[aamotox 0]

I've checked that and the wheels are in the groove.  This only happens when it pauses in the middle of cutting, usually on large jobs so that I can waste more material.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I've been doing this for a long time and I never cut large jobs in one pass. I cut one panel at a time. The potential for it getting out of line is too high. Unless you have the vinyl perfectly straight,you will get some side-to-side drift and it will not line up when it goes back to the beginning.

As for yours pausing,I have no idea what that's about.On occasion,with a heavy roll of vinyl, when it gets tight to the roll,mine will jerk,and get out of alignment. I try to roll off enough vinyl to do the job but sometimes I get busy and forget.Maybe sending too much info to the plotter at once,is causing the pause. I had a printer that did that.The grinding sound doesn't sound good,though.

I suggest emailing Ken directly. If anyone would know,he would.

[aamotox 0]

This is definitely not a tracking issue.  The last time this happened I was cutting 1.5" lettering that was about 18" x 36".  That's not that large.  In the middle of the word "Residential" it happened and "tial" was cut about 1/4" lower than "Residen".

[hairyconiption 0]

One more suggestion is to double check that you are on the right cutter model ( I am assuming you are using signcut, if not disregard what I say) if you are on the wrong model, it will still cut, but it won't have all of the alignment right.

[TaterNuts 3]

10 bucks says that aamotox is using the parellel connection...

I think that it pauses as it buffers for information...

My advice, use USB or Serial.

[marcuso 15]

aamotox,

What connection method are you using?  If you are using USB, what settings are you using?

[aamotox 0]

windows xp

parellel connection

I didn't have any luck the last time I tried the serial connection, and since the usb was more complicated and the other methods seem to be the prefered, thats what I've been using.

I remember the old pen plotters use to pause in the middle of plotting all the time and never had these issues.  The noise the cutter makes, leads me to believe its some kind of hardware issue.

[TaterNuts 3]

I would personally re-try the serial connection before its ruled out as a hardware issue...

If you need some assistance in setting it up, I can walk you thru it.

[rrc62 0]

I would use serial.  I cut a job today that took just over ten minutes of solid plotter run time with no pausing.  That's on a serial connection.  It was a very detailed graphic.  It took two hours to weed it.

Ross