VR15 Weeder does anyone have one?

[Hugh Potter]

hm, I’m sceptical.. how many times do you cut vinyl that doesn’t weed as cleanly as you’d like? (for whatever reason). holding down edges so it doesn’t lift the letters off, etc. I’m not sure how this will overcome those day to day issues we kind of take for granted and change tact to deal with.

[Robert Lambie]

I can see pros and cons with this machine, but i cant see how general short run sign cutting work would benefit. only long runs.
I think to make it work, you would need to stack cut everything you do and also turn the weed border off.
i think stacking work does help save vinyl, but when you have multiple jobs stacked, its very easy to get parts of each job mixed in with the next. so where you may save on weeding time you would kill that time trying to separate the mixed jobs cut all at one time to make the weeder work for you. OR… like i say if you have lots of weeding in long runs of cuts for the same job/customer. hope that makes sense…

for the record, i have not used one of these. this is purely observation from my view..

[Aidan Pinsent]

I was looking into one of those with the intention of making my own…in theory it works really well but it’s a bit risky when you’ve got flaps on the excess that don’t go in the right direction (it can easily get caught, screwed up …sticks to other bits of vinyl on the roll and generally gives you a massive headache). It works for really basic shapes but anything complicated is going to be problematic. The cheap way to test it out is to use a poster tube held above the sheet on two strips of wood to the left and right and just roll it along with the excess taped on.

In the end I got a cheap manual cold press laminator off ebay (mostly just to apply the transfer tape). I’ve been using it for everything now. If you set it without pressure (so it’s only the weight of the roller) it allows you to push and pull a sheet forwards or back with one hand (or one finger!) and keeps it firmly in place if you need to pause or change hands. I’m limited on space so it allows me to keep the sheet draped in front and behind the laminator instead of having to have it laid out flat on a large table. It’s even better for weeding the insides of letters etc – you can having the picking tool in one hand, use the other hand to collect the excess and just use the palms of your hands to pull the sheet forwards or back instead of moving your whole body. Once you’ve got your light set at the right angle weeding is so much easier. It’s a little less flashy but extremely practical 🙂

[John Thomson]

I seem to remember John Childs had a "weeder" and swore by it?

I tried the one at Sign UK last year…..seemed to work but they accepted that your cut pressure has to be pretty near perfect for it to work.

john

[Robert Lambie]

quote John Thomson:

I seem to remember John Childs had a “weeder” and swore by it?

I tried the one at Sign UK last year…..seemed to work but they accepted that your cut pressure has to be pretty near perfect for it to work.

john

Yes your John Child’s did swear by his which i think was an older style one bought from the states.
I would imagine these new ones would be improved on.

Personally, I do get it and i think wide, long runs of cut text it would work well on. But day to day general use I just cant see it. There is just too much chopping and changing of colours which would end with it being more time consuming using the weeder. I could be wrong of course and this is just my opinion. But i did watch them being demo’d at Sign & Digital and the tedious starting up procedure was obvious before it began working nicely. However, you still had to revert to centres of the letters to do by hand.

Its the same with the Galileo, you need volume of this type of thing to make it worthwhile.
https://www.uksignboards.com/topic64213.html

[Martin Gray]

Been a couple of years since the last post and was just wondering if has a different view on this?

I’ve got the weeder and sheeter that was from the states and I wouldnt been here without them. Problem is it only takes 630mm rolls and was wondering if I should get a larger one for 1220mm rolls

Thanks

Martin