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Selecting the correct blade?
I am very new to this game and am having trouble with selecting the correct type of blade for cutting my vinyl. Sometimes it appears the blade has slightly ripped (or pinched the vinyl), this mostly happens on small lettering. It has ben suggested that I may be using the wrong angle of blade!!. I have 3 blades, one with a blue cover, one red cover, and a black cover. Im cutting with a machine called a Dingtec which is basically a Secabo but rebranded to the Dingtec name. Is there any rule of thumb as to which blade is best for different size fonts/ tasks. Im sorry if this seems a simple obvious question to you but it is causing me some grief. Many thanks in anticipation, Glen.
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6 Replies
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Hi
Do you have the instruction manual?
It will state the correct angle and offset, possibly multiple values for different materials.
If you use a 45% blade when a 30% blade should be used then this will give poor cutting – ie. circles won’t join, or square corners become rounded.
Your settings will be specific for your particular brand and model, ie. I use a Mimaki which requires 30% and 0.3mm offset.
Are you using Smartknives from Edward Mathias in Liverpool (might have the spelling incorrect). I think their blade holder colours correspond to specific blade settings? Alternatively give them a call and tell them which machine you have and they’ll send you a blade holder containing a blade preset for your machine and intended application. (although the offset value in your plotter settings must still be correct).
Cheers
Macky D -
Thanks for the reply believe me it is appreciated. It has thrown up some horrors though!! my instructions are very basic and there is no mention of offsets (whatever they are). I guess this is one of the drawbacks of going in blind really, I am presuming this is a cheap cutter and therefore am going to have a lot of grief with it. It will do for making signs for friends or nothing too important, but as for actually making a profit I think that will be a long way off. As I said your help is appreciated and I will do all I can to try and source some info on what an offset is etc etc (I thought I was lucky guessing the blade height about right), but obviously I was silly to think anything could be so simple as “type in what you want”-” give it a size”-” and cut”. Oh well lesson learnt and a lot more learning to do obviously, Good Luck with whatever you do and thanks once again. Regards Glen. javascript:emoticon(‘:roll:’)
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Offset?
simple to explain I think.The plotter is set to use the centre of the blade holder as the middle.
most blades are ground so that the point is at one side, for several reasons, the main one being so it acts like a castor, and turns when it goes round a corner. so the plotter has to compensate for this, the offset is just the difference from the point of the blade to the shaft centre, if that makes sense.
Peter -
without going into whats already been mentioned, are you sure the blade is sharp? if it is sharp, check that your nylon cutting strip that runs under the vinyl “width” of the machine has not been damaged with too much force on the blade. it can happen the length or just parts of the strip, causing it to only happen, sometimes.
if none of the above, take the blade out the holder “if you can” give it a little wipe (try not touching the tip) and then put a spot of wd40 in the blade holder or run it down the shaft of the blade. pop it back into holder and give it a go. sometimes if the holder is dirty the blade cant spin freely causing the the dragging/ripping effect as the blade tries to cut side ways. if that makes sense? -
Have just knocked up some quick illustrations to help show what the offset is etc. Will post them in the gallery forum as this is the only place I can attach images – someone will have to kindly move the post to demos/hints. Give me 5 and I’ll post them
Macky D
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Cheers Robert,Peter and Macky D. It seems a little less daunting when put in simple terms. This could me more interesting rather than frustrating, trying to get to grips with it all than I first thought. I do have a couple of light scratches on the platic runner primarily under the start point of the blade so I will sort that out. I will also try to get to the demos/hints bit to check ut what you have sent but Im not sue I have access to that part (we shall see). In any case the info has been much appreciated, and I would like to thank you all for sparing the time to help. Good Luck and I hope to not bother you all again with what now seem to be rather obvious problems (but please dont hold me to that javascript:emoticon(‘:lol1:’) Regards Glen.
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