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how do i line up vinyl correctly on plotter please?
Once upon a time I was young with 20:20 vision and lining up on the Graphtec or Mimaki for a long run cut was easy 😀 …now I’m not and the eyes are not what they used to be 😕 … I find myself ‘talking’ to my cutters (hot) more and more each day – particularly the Mimaki. I have tried a few different methods to try and make lining up easier…does anyone out there have any secrets they use to help us visually impaired (?)
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23 Replies
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glasses 😮
:rofl:
sorry, couldn’t resist.
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Beer goggles (?) *drink*
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:lol1:
seriously now….. if the front edge of the vinyl is straight (90degrees) that should line up with an edge in front of the machine, as long as you have it positioned correctly left to right under the pinch rollers than this straight edge should line up the vinyl straight. I don’t see why you would have a problem if it was on a roll as the roll naturally holds it straight.
hope that helps (as well as the glasses comment 😉 )
cheers
Warren
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i always use the tension method oooeerrr
make sure your roll of vinyl is rolled tight and the edges are uniform
place on the rear rollers and feed through
line up with your pinch rollers
and hold the front leading edge firmly. reach under and roll the vinyl back till you have light tension then without moving the front edge lower the pinch rollers and vinyl should run truehope this makes sense
derek
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Thanks Warren – tried that but rarely does the roll have a 90 degree front edge – we have to rely on lining up with the vertical lines on the face of the machine
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Hi Mark
not sure about your machine but mine has a groove on the front where you can run a slitter through it, this ensures it is always a straight edge, but if the vinyl is on the roll then Derek’s description is spot on.
cheers
Warren
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Yeah Warren, my Mimaki does, but the Graphtec doesnt. The Mimaki has a cut off knife too…but it don’t cut off straight when it wasn’t straight to begin with 😳 Wil give Dereks method a go tomorrow – got a few more 4M runs to do 🙂
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I do the same as Derek on both my Mimaki and Graftec
No I dont, I mis read😳
I pull the vinyl from the roll over through the rollers, then I feed the vinyl in a loop under the bed and line up the two at the front.
I will post a pic in off topic
easy to do but ward to explain
Peter
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Cheers Peter – I understand 😀 that makes sense to me…looks like I’ll be doing a few test runs tomorrow
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On my Roland
I use the vertical ridges that are spaced every 10mm for the sole purpose of lining vinyl up :lol1:
Nice little feature that is. -
Derek/Warren, are you saying you allow the machine to pull the vinyl off the roll? I normally roll off what I need to cut and then line up. It never worked for me allowing the machine to do the unwinding, always seemed to be labouring and would run off dramatically. I use a Graphtec, am I doing something wrong?
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no Harry I always wind it out first as well 😀
Lynn
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Hi harry
i just set it up as described and then once the pinch rollers are down i un roll enough for the job out the back of the roll so the motor is only pulling through loose vinyl for the job.
I have in capital letters in fluoro orange on the front of the cutter
ROLL OUT VINYL
kept forgetting and with a large roll it cannot be good for the motor so un roll every job now.
you can feed it through just to make sure but up till now my method works fineDerek
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Yeh same here Derek, I thought there was a setting or something that I missed. The fluorescent letters are a good idea, been there done that! 😮 😮
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NO 😮 I put the roll on to the cutter, pull the end of the roll under the pinch rollers and pull tightly so it lies straight, then lower the pinch rollers and the cutter pulls it through to test (about 1-2 foot) and then re-stes itself ready to cut. I never unroll any material by hand, the machine does it for me and I have never had a problem and I run it at 700 speed.
🙄
Warren
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what cutter are you using Warren?
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Most good plotters have an auto feed, which unrolls the vinyl in predetermined lengths as they cut, I however like to make sure the vinyl is running true, especially when doing a long piece, and I find it quicker than the plotter slowing down every metre to unroll more material,
Peter
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I have a Summa, I haven’t tried it but I’m fairly sure even if I unwound it first the cutter still pre-loads the material in segments throughout the job,I will try it on my next long job.
cheers
Warren
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Peter, at work now and three times in a row your method worked 😀 TVM…so I won’t need to go out and get new specs!!!
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The Summa cutters (don’t know about other makes) will role off so much before they cut and during cutting. You can turn the facility off but the machines motors will burn out due to pulling a heavy role and cutting at the same time. It will also skip and produce a crap job.
When I line the vinyl up I just pull the vinyl from the centre a foot or so and this 9 time out of 10 does the trick. on longer jobs I use the flanges then tracking isn’t really and issue. -
For long runs I pull a couple of metres off the roll and through my Roland and line it up as best as possible before releasing the rollers. Then hit the feed button to pull the vinyl back through the rollers to the beginning of the roll. While the vinyl is feeding back you can gently apply pressure to either side of the vinyl with your finger tips (keep fingers well away from the rollers) and ‘steer’ the vinyl feed until it’s running absolutely true.
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I have a Summa too,
roll on the back, pull through, hold tight, drop rollers,
alternatively, for small pieces, i line up a square edge with the cutting guide on the front of the machine, i also use the little markers to be sure the vinyl is feeding straight.
as Warren and Karl say, when you drop the rollers on a Summa, it will automatically feed about 600mm through while it finds out the width of the roll, if you then send a file that’s longer than this, it will only ever cut ‘slack’ material, when it reached the end of the slack material, it will spool more vinyl from the roll and continue.
the only weird thing i’ve found with the summa, is that if you don’t tell it (via corel > winplot>) that there’s x amount on a new roll, it will spool off several metres before beginning to cut, very frustrating to begin with!
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I line up my vinyl the same way as Peter and it does it perfect everytime on my old Summa. On my Roland I line up using the vertical lines which isn’t as accurate but does the job. The Summa tracking is said to be the best in the business. I also let the Summa pull the vinyl off the roll itself. It always pulls the vinyl off then cuts, done this for 8 years now without any problems and the signmaker who owned it before me also did it this way.
Steve
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