cutting those pesky little "a" ‘s

[Harry Cleary]

sounds like you have too much blade showing Mark….I’ve never had to clean the blade. What cutter are you running?

[Martin Pearson]

What sort of size lettering are you trying to plot and what plotter have you got.
You may find that trying to set the blade up again will help, and also have you got the right blade fitted in the machine?

[Peter Normington]

What size is the text you are cutting Mark, it must be very small if the plotter is weeding it for you!
I never needed to clean goo from my blade though, so not quite sure how i can help there.
How far is your blade protruding from the holder?

Peter

[Mark Moore]

Thanks for the replys guys

My machine is a seiki T series Cutter Plotter
I am using the blades that came with it and the documentation (which was written by an oriental man whose English skills were questionable) says it uses roland blades. The ones I am using are 45 degree blades.
I have the blade protruding from the tip of the holder maybe 1 / 32 . I set it by scratching the vinyl with it until I got the desired depth.
I am cutting small graphics and the letters in question are about 1/4 inch high it seems to happen mostly in areas that end in a sharp point like the top of the "A" in the center.
I think the goo is coming from the back side of the little pieces it is weeding.
Again thanks so much!! :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Peter Normington]

Mark you are really asking a lot of your plotter to cut letters that small.
even the more expensive makes would be on the limit, and even then everything would need to be adjusted and set just right.
I do not usualy cut letters less than 1/2" simply because of the difficulty, and time needed to weed.

I think that you need to look at other methods for small lettering, say print or lazer?

Peter

[Hugh Potter]

HI Mark,

I’d agree with pete, i woldn’t even entertain the idea of 1/4" lettering. the reason it’s weeding for you is that it’s such a tiny hole to cut, that the blade is virtually going around on itself, i’ve had it happen on 10mm (3/8) letters, though the vinyl usually ended up sticking to another part of the letter, or to the side of the blade until is felt like falling off at the most inconvenient spot!

i would say "water slide" decals would be best. a pal of mine makes fishing rods, from heavy surf casters to the lightest fly rods, he uses waterslide decals for that, i couldn’t tell you much about it though!

HUgh

[Mark Moore]

Thank You again for your responses. I didnt realize that I was pushing the limits of the machines capability. I use the vinyl for fine detailed glass etching. And so far I havent found another product that will work.
I thought about rubbing a little wax on the end of my pen holder just to see if it would help. Guess I will have to develope an ancient chinese secret. 🙂 🙂
Thanks Mark Moore

[Hugh Potter]

are you creating a mask, rather than individual lettering then ? waterslide won’t work for that!

[Martin Pearson]

I think I need to see a doctor, I find myself agreeing with Peter again :lol1:

Mark, it is possible to cut text that small but I doubt you will be able to do it on the machine you have because the cheaper plotters don’t have the same functions as some of the higher end machines.

To cut text that small you would need a machine with a Tangential cutting mode and even then as Peter has said it would need to be set up correctly as well and after you had cut the text it would still be difficult to weed properly.

Couple of things you could try though are: Try setting the blade up again in the holder as I think it is still far to far out of the holder, try slowing your machine down to as slow a speed as you can, be like watching paint dry but will help. Try to get some samples of other vinyls as you may find these cut better on your machine or don’t leave any go behind. I would also try a different series of vinyl like a high end calendered like 551 or a cast like 751c as well as other makes of vinyl.
Don’t know if roland do a 30 deg blade that would fit your plotter but even that might help a bit as there would be less of the blade in contact with the vinyl.

[Steve Underhill]

I amazed the Roland technician the other day, I cut him a sentence out of times new roman with the weight of the letters about 1mm and the serifs half of that.
He hadn’t seen it done that small before, I’m just used to it I suppose, I have to cut a logo to print on some ties where the hole in the a and o etc is about 1mm square maybe less, so it can be done maybe slow the cuting speed would help.
Mines set at 20cm a sec

[Peter Normington]

Steve, yes it can be done, both my mimaki and graphtec can cut 3mm letters, but as I said not usually worth the labour to weed, and set up.
its not rocket science, but the better the machine the easier it is, but I was just giving advice to mark, and his plotter may not be up to it,

Peter

[Steve Holden]

Hi Mark, I agree with all the other guys on this one, especially Martin recommending you try different types of vinyl. If I really have to cut letters that small I will try a soft banner vinyl or a cast, you generally find that the more you pay for the vinyl the better it weeds. If you really have to do this type of work on a regular basis and you’ve got the time and the inclination, try adjusting the blade offset and store the settings on another user setup. This will definitely help with the small sharp acute angles within the lettering. Hope this helps in some way, please keep us posted.