Could’nt justify a flat bed plotter, so made my own.

[Denise Goodfellow]

forgive my ignorance, but what would you cut on a flat bed cutter that you couldn`t on the "normal" cutter

[Robert Lambie]

I am intregued mate! :lol1:

when you say stiff materials, are we talking diamond grade type?

does this work?

i wouldnt have thought the knife pressure would be high enough here?

would have to cut in tangental mode too eh?

also, tsurely there would be a drag on the weight of the media because on the flatbeds its the gantry that moves rather than vice versa?

[Peter Normington]

quote Denise Goodfellow:

forgive my ignorance, but what would you cut on a flat bed cutter that you couldn`t on the “normal” cutter

as Chris said, stiff stuff, Polycarb springs to mind for one example. and other materials that are more rigid than the roll material.

if a normal cutter could do the job, there would be no need for flatbeds Denise.

Chris, good example of adapting what you have, to enhance your abilities

Peter

[David Rowland]

maybe business cards… birthday cards cutting etc

[Chris Wool]

mainly for motoX stuff but i do a fair amount of special machine stickers which are quite thick.
problem was that as the material bent over the bed then it would tend to buckle and the knife tip scratch it, also it was not helping the tracking.
initial test are favorable.
the rollers don’t roll not enough friction to worry about the material just slides.
some cuts are over 400 grms and tangential emulation is used.
tried just about every blade combination which has been a pain.

[Denise Goodfellow]

At the moment we get a pvc stamped out in a certain shape, then we screen print them, its about .8mm thick ( sorry cannot remember the name) would this way be any option?

Doing it this way would enable us to do it in house and lead to different shapes ( as at the moment each shape needs a cutter tool made @ £80 a time)

[Peter Normington]

Denise
Correct me if I am wrong, but do you not have a mimaki?
is it a possibility to print and die cut? never tried it with pvc (banner?) but cant think why it cant be done with a bit of trial and error?
Peter

[Robert Lambie]

10/10 for Chris’s modification, and hats off to him for now being able to do work he couldn’t before.

but that aside and to be honest, i think the machine components will die so much quicker if not blow something completely, sooner.
my point in the weight of the board being pulled back and forward at speed, for instance is one thing. the strain that will put over the motor will increase significantly.
next come accuracy, more so "over time". we all know the old issue that comes into play with vinyl cut letters not "closing" properly after being cut.
by that i mean stopping bang on its origin point. things like this can come about because the head that holds the blade comes loose over time due to constant use. chuck in heavy weight materials that the machines parts were not made to deal with and you could well slowly kill the machine. if not, like i said, blow something!

flatbed cutters arent cheap in comparison to best brand large vinyl cutters out there. there WILL be reasons for this we probably havent even considered. but one thing for sure, i think if it was as simple as setting up some feed rollers at the front and back of a regular vinyl cutter. graphtec, Roland and all others would be selling these parts as standard or that extra selling point of their machines.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

Denise
Correct me if I am wrong, but do you not have a mimaki?
is it a possibility to print and die cut? never tried it with pvc (banner?) but cant think why it cant be done with a bit of trial and error?
Peter

Hi Peter
Yes we have a mimaki.

I might have miss led you, calling the material pvc, its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.

We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

Chris`s invention looked just the answer, if the blade could have managed to cut the sheets. I did wonder about the pressure required, as the press used goes up to something like 5 tons….. which might be abit more than the cutter does LOL

[Chris Wool]

ah Rob you have hit on one of my pet subjects mechanical sympathy.

i try never run any machine flat out.
the graphtec was pushed in to service because the roland max cutting pressure is 300g and was being run flat out and not quite cutting it,

the graphtec max pressure is 600 g. its built to do that
the speed is kept down and use around 400g but admit that its going to wear quicker, than normal cutting.
my other graphtec must be 12 years old and still cuts as it should.

the graphtec flat beds FC2250 has a 1000g max pressure and uses the same blade holder and blade.

the sheet that will be cut is about 700×1300 and slides over the white sheets nice and easy, so in all i think its well within the plotters capabilities.

[Robert Lambie]

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

[Mike Grant]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

I think it is Pentawhite you are referring to!

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

thats the stuff 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Mike Grant:

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

I think it is Pentawhite you are referring to!

Oh, now you are confusing me, can I phone a friend? LOL……

[Chris Wool]

well please with my self used it today on a production run and all went very well not a scratch from the knife across the media and nice reliable accurate cut.

so £50 well spent and it took 90sec to return the cutter to normal use.
probably about 3-4 mins to put it all back on.

next trick will be to cut it normally then second pass to perf cut we will see.

[Harry Cleary]

We gonna get a tutorial Chris? 😀

[Moey Indhera]

wow!! thats so innovative!!! What would have happened should you not have used the extra rollers which you made?? would it just off track?? also which plotter is that?? is it a gerber??

[Chris Wool]

quote Harry Cleary:

We gonna get a tutorial Chris? 😀

no as i can’t explain myself with written words 😉

the tubes don’t roll just create the bed and keep it all together.

[David Hammond]

I printed directly onto 440mic Stauffen PVC, and cut that on my Graphtec FC8000.

Was a lot of trial and error, but managed to produce 300 display boards quite easily.

Took about 4 passes on the cut outs, and just scored the outer perimeter, and tore them out of the roll.

Bit of pain and a big learning curve with lots of trial and error, but made some a reasonable amount of profit, and the client was impressed with the superior print quality.