cutting laminated prints

[Gary Birch]

Neil
I use one cut but with increased pressure. Depends on blade but anywhere between 130 & 160.

Cheers

Gary

[Peter Dee]

I use Hexis media on my Versacamm, 70 grams vinyl only or 185 grams with laminate.

[Dan Osterbery]

i normally cut vinyl at 105, printed vinyl at 120, and print and laminate at 205!

cheers

Dan

[Richard Urquhart]

newish blade
MD5 @55
MD5 with lam 120-170 depending on heater settings
Rich

[Steve McAdie]

I cut vinyl at 50 grams, laminated vinyl at 120.

Steve

[Neil Speirs]

Thanks for the replies guy’s!

I’m guessing most only do a single cut then, I’ll play around with the preassure rather than trying the repeat cuts option.

Rich, can u explain what u mean by the heater settings?

cheers neil

[Peter Normington]

As a rule of thumb,
double the pressure for double the material. Only one cut is needed.
I use a mimaki, but to cut md5 with a "bedded" in blade is 65, md5 + Lam
120-130 is good, you also need to make sure your blade is protruding enough, otherwise extra pressure will not work

Peter

[Richard Urquhart]

Neil by heater setting I mean if you have a bit of heat say 30 the vinyl and lam is softer and makes cutting a bit easier some say not to use heat when cutting, but I do and or a 3meter print and cut run I only allow a 2mm bleed in art work and its never out at all. Just to add never need to cut twice, for small laminated text say 20mm I do slow the cut down to 10 up speed

[OwenTaylor]

Yep my settings are pretty much the same;

MD5 or standard vinyl about 70
MD5 w/ MG700 about 130

If I have added a printed bleed I find the blade sometimes cuts too deep and scores the backing paper so I reduce the cut pressure by 5. I think the inks may soften the vinyl slightly.

Heater settings do make a difference, not too much with MD5 or regular vinyl but especially with thicker materials like motocross vinyl. I have found that adding 5 degrees of heat means you can reduce the pressure by up to 40g. You have to be careful of overheating the vinyl though as it loses some of its dimensional stability which can throw the cuts off – slowing the cut speed helps.

[George Elsmore]

Neil, when you lam there is usually enough room to do test cuts adjusting the pressure on the machine panel until you get it perfect then when happy set your rip cut pressure to match …if you know what i mean

G

[Neil Speirs]

quote George Elsmore:

Neil, when you lam there is usually enough room to do test cuts adjusting the pressure on the machine panel until you get it perfect then when happy set your rip cut pressure to match …if you know what i mean

G

wasn’t to sure about the repeat cut setting George, normally I just bang up the blade force on my other cutters but was a bit wary of doing it on the versacamm

[Mark Nihotte]

Hi Neil

We have a Versacamm and had heaps of trouble cutting laminates until we bought a second blade holder…we now have one with a 45 deg blade set for 75f for unlaminated and a second holder with a 60 deg blade set for 140f for laminated.

[Matt Boyd]

best bet is to have a second blade holder with a 60 degree blade in for cutting laminate and the thicker material like reflective etc. a new blade for just cutting should be around 50-55 of force, a not so new blade approx 65-75 of force, these are for a 45 degree blade not cutting laminate. to cut laminate with a new blade we do it at around 70-75 of force, when its alittle worn approx 110 of force. your best bet is this>> print the job, laminate it and where you have some space where you won’t knacker the print up, do a test cut, and play around with the force, that way you can see what force you need to cut into the print with laminate without having to do 2-3 cuts!!

[Neil Speirs]

140 done the job but also had to drop the blade slightly as Peter said. Think I’ll order in a 60d blade with second holder to make life easier as suggested.

[Matt Boyd]

we always use a 60 degree blade when cutting laminates etc, so much easier. we have it set up in a spare holder just swap it around and if your using versaworks set it too 0.5 rather than 0.250.