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Hints on peeling off / weeding vinyl, anyone?
Having finally got to grips with my P-Cut 630 (first I had problems with the blades, then I found out my vinyl was absolute crap), I am now making progress and have cut a few designs for t-shirts.
I am using Xpres Super Flex which (although I am a novice) seems to be excellent quality material, although because some of my lettering is small and intricate, it is taking me ages to weed.
Can anyone offer this total beginner any hints on how to peel off excess vinyl without these tiny letters peeling off with it? Is it all to do with the speed you peel? Or is it the speed you set the cutter at, prior to cutting the image?
Lastly, can anyone recommend a good weeding tool? I see that Xpres sell one but it seems a bit pricey at £7.99 + postage…
Thanks in advance,
Nick
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8 Replies
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Hello there, I normally slow the cutting speed down when cutting small letters etc, if its a 20mm letter slow the cutter down to 20, 30mm letter speed 30 and so on, I never cut anything above speed 60. as for weeding the small stuff I normally weed most of the letters leaving the very small bits in place then apply the application tape,turn over and remove the backing paper, now you can weed out the small bits and replace the backing paper. be carfull not to lean on it while working and be aware of dust . there are several sign tool kits available on ebay and reasonable price inculdes scalpel, weeding tool, sqeegies etc. for the very small stuff I use a sharp scalpel, and patience. Mark
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It’s a pain isn’t it?
The only hint I can offer is to employ a school leaver to do it for you.
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And don’t weed while wearing a long-sleeved fuzzy sweater.
Love….jill -
Hi Nick
the Xpres Super Flex is one of the best for t shirts IMO.
The weeding is a pain, but I have found that some other vinyls can be a bit easier to weed, but also the letters more readily come away from the backing whilst weeding.
The bottom line, is for vinyl on t shirts, keep the writing as big/bold as you can.
Cheers
Martin
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Thanks guys. Yeah, Martin I agree that Super Flex is great quality. It’s only these tiny little apostrophes that are giving me grief so I guess I just need to make them a little bigger. At the moment they are not much bigger than the eyes on these yella fellas – (chat.)
Have you tried Xpres Easy Cut? The name suggests it might be better for such small details, but is that one of the vinyls where the letters peel off as you describe?
I’ll hang fire for your reply before I place an order….
AS for the static shock problem, I haven’t encountered this yet but I am hoping that my laminate floors prevent me from any issues. My hair is big enough as it is to have to contend with further problems in that department.
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Must admit I haven’t tried Xpres Easy Cut. I have tried some of their other vinyls though, and it does seem that the easier to weed versions, need you to be using them for larger letters/numbers.
On a recent set of pocket designs I made for someone, I used the Superflex for some small-ish lettering, and Extraflex for larger stuff(due to the colours I needed). Extraflex would be no good for small lettering – it weeds very easily, but is also too easy to accidently pull of the backing sheet.
Martin
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When I do pull a letter off accidentally (iron-on stuff) I have found that a tiny blob of wallpaper repair adhesive keeps the letter in place until pressed onto the garment. Just make sure you don’t have a load of excess.
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When I do pull a letter off accidentally when weeding/ heat pressing garment film
I have found that a tiny blob of pritt stik adhesive keeps the letters in place until pressed onto the garment.
from freddy at E.C.P.
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