Cutting small lettering?

[adamck]

I have been having alot of requests for doing small lettering for motorcycle rims.
Should i buy a craft robo for this? im limited on ££ and only doing this as a small side line at the moment and my 32" cutter is a little too clumsy with small text.
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[Cheryl Tissington]

Hi,
most cutters should cut tiny lettering.

It might help to slow the speed down a little bit. Cutting slowly can be better for really small text.

Cheryl

[adamck]

Im running at 10mm/s (slowest setting) and ive been playing with the blade settings for 3 days now.
I can get it to cut the test shape kind of accurate but its still messy when it comes to text (doesn’t cut all of the shape or makes a complete mess of it)
Lettering for wheel rims would be about 1cm height at most so would need to be a very accurate cut.

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[Ian Johnston]

the reason why your small text won’t cut properly is probably due to the amount of bounce on the vinyl . i.e 610 held using 2 pinch rollers. at the leading edge of the vinyl there is no rigidity, but move vinyl forward 300mm and there is loads.
simple cure is to cut your vinyl down into say 200mm wide strip and move your rollers in, slow the cutting speed a little and you can cut extremely small text.

[adamck]

Thanks ill try that.
Is it better to cut the text horizontally (following the blade) or vertically (following the rollers)
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[adamck]

After a not great message from the guy who sold me the cutter….

quote :

Hi

The cutter is not designed for small text, this size cutter is for shop signs and transit vans etc, Im sure the exact size it will go down to, if you are tring to do sizes like a 1-2 inch it, youve bought the wrong plotter

To cut small text you need a 240mm desktop cutter,

These are the questions you should have been asking before you won the item. i could have advised you which model to buy.

We can take the cutter back, if its no use to you, Our terms and conditions are on the advert ,pleaase read these if you agree feel free to send it back .

Wel… that told me, he was very quick to sell me it and "it cuts everything in perfect quality" has soon changed.
I dont want to send it back as ill still use it for large graphics but im now looking at this.

Is this any good? or shall i spend the extra ££ and get a craft robo?
All i need this for is tiny text and web addresses for forums etc..
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[Barbara Eden]

To be honest,I can’t see why you’re having a problem 😕
Your supplier telling you your plotter is too big is just rubbish IMHO.
I use my 24" plotter for making my logo’s. The Capital letters are 1cm,lower case.5cm.
been doing this for about 6.years with no problem!

Not being funny-but could it be more to the fact that you ‘ won’ it-and that it’s the plotter that’s just not up to the job,do you think ?

Or,maybe your letters need ‘cleaning up’ a bit.

Hope you get it sorted….
Barbara

[adamck]

I am contacting him via eBay as he doesn’t seem to reply to my messages via email.
I didn’t "win" the item as it wasn’t bought via ebay.
It was purchased from his shop for full price.
its not the most expensive plotter out there but still £££’s for a 22 year old trying to start a small sideline/weekend business with his own savings id hope to get something to produce half decent vinyl cuts for my money.
I simply cant afford a £700+ cutter.
Maybe i still need to tweak it abit… or the software I’m using is crap lol.
Is it worth trying a different angle blade (the current one is 45degree and new) or try one of these magic blades?
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[adamck]

YAYYYY!!!!!!!
Finally fixed it!
The seller finally contacted me with something a little more useful!
It seems the plotter was sent with the carriage off the rail, which makes sense to why the quality was awful and i couldn’t get it to cut nice lol.
Popped it back on and its working a charm!
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀