Weeding & Blade advice needed?

[Carrie Brown]

You could always try back weeding……..

Not for every job, but for those tiny vinyl ones it’s ideal.

Apply some application tape over the whole text, peel it completely off the backing paper, then weed in reverse. Once this is done place it back onto the backing paper for safe keeping!

😀

Stephen

[Carrie Brown]

missed your second Q

when it’s really worn it will snag through the vinyl instead of cut.

[Bill Dewison]

quote Carrie:

You could always try back weeding……..

Not for every job, but for those tiny vinyl ones it’s ideal.

Apply some application tape over the whole text, peel it completely off the backing paper, then weed in reverse. Once this is done place it back onto the backing paper for safe keeping!

😀

Stephen

Excellent tip, I’ll try that tomorrow! 😀 Nice one Stephen, thank you 😀

Cheers, Dewi

[Carrie Brown]

Always glad to help Dewi !!! 😀

Now you won’t get the bleeding dots of the i’s stuck to your forehead while trying to weed!!! or like Carrie stuck to her sleeves and then trying to convince me the cutter is faulty!!!! ???? 😆 😆 😆

Stephen

[Liam Caulfield]

Excellent tip that, and like the best ones so obvious once someone tells you! Thanks!

[Carrie Brown]

Im sure we actually picked up this tip while on here??? Cant remember though but Im sure we did? 😀 But its good to pass on usefull tips and info ….. now we know how Rob feels …… for a miniscule moment at least 😉

Carrie & Stephen ………… (fighting over who is going to type on here next) 😆 Please be patient with us we both like to get on here …. Im in charge at the moment (carrie) sent steve to make bacon sarnies & grab another breezer 😀 😛 😆

[Bill Dewison]

Maybe a little strange, but I actually like sticking the vinyl to myself when I’m weeding 😀 Its a tad embaressing when a customer comes into the shop and I go out there looking like I’ve had a fight with a plastic bag and a glue gun 😳 😳 😳

The tips you pick up here are amazing, from applying vinyl, weeding it, painting, you name it… I should come here more often 😉 😉 😉

Cheers, Dewi

[Nigel Fraser]

Sally,

Normally you notice the blade is getting worn by the fact that you have to keep increasing the force. You might also have problems because of the off-set not being correct, this can mean that circles dont join up properly and can lead to weeding probs.
Also what do you class as small text ? I had to weed some 4mm high really thin text yesterday and it was surprisingly easy when I used a cast vinyl and my Gerber en-vision plotter. I think I would have just had a bit of a mush of vinyl if I had run 5-7yr vinyl through my big plotter though 🙄 You could also have some wear and tear in the plotter belt/bearings I guess if it’s quite old which might cause those problems too. What vinyl are you using – I have terrible problems with Mactac and would avoid it like the plague for small text.

Nigel

[Mike Fear]

I’ve been doing a bit of this recently on some really intricate graphics, some of the parts I’ve had to weed out have been about 1mm square, and some channels that are about 1mm by 3mm. ( plus its on chrome vinyl which is thick as well ! ).

I got hold of some tweezers that come to a rounded needle point and these seem to work well as you can stab the small bits – some come off straight away, but if they are stubborn ( or you drop them onto the face of the vinyl like I keep doing ) you can use the tweezers to get them off.

When I was peeling off the main part of the waste, if any dots came away with it I found I could put the vinyl back down, press the edge of the tweezers onto the dot, and then when I peeled the vinyl they held the dot in place on the backing so it seperated from the main piece.

Will have to try the back weeding technique though as that may be easier.

Also – is it just me being weird, or does anyone else find weeding really relaxing ??? something about seeing the design appear out of the vinyl sheet turns my crank ( and no, this isnt an invitation for everyone to send me their awkward weeding jobs 😀 )

[James kelly]

If you find that the corners or serifs on small leters are lifting, it is probably the blade.

A couple of years back I was having a lot of this problem even after fitting new blades. I tried all sort of offset settings but to no avail. I was going to send my plotter off for a service and new head etc, but first I thought I’d try a different make of blade as I suspected the ones I was buying were imports.

I phoned up Edward Mathias & Co (http://www.blades.uk.com) and they posted me out a new blade to try. The blade comes already fitted to a holder. and can be sent back for an exchange.

Problems solved!!! Tiny letters cut perfectly and no more lifting serifs, even on thin chrome foil.

Their blades aren’t the longest lasting I’ve used but the cutting quality is superb as is the service from the company.

[Mike Fear]

I might try a new blade – I have the max cutting force set on my Roland and it seems to cut most of it fine, its only the very very tiny individual bits it sometimes doesnt seem to go through completely in a corner.

It only happens on the thick chrome and gold I’ve been using though, the normal thickness vinyl is fine when used on 100g force, so it may just be the material is a bit of a pain !

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I’ve gone thru a new blade in one day cutting Reflective.
I always add the cost of a new blade onto any Reflective estimate I do.
I hate to weed. With a passion.
But I usually take an X-Acto & cut between the lines of copy,
so I’m doing a strip at a time. Seems if I turn the sheet of vinyl upside-down (NOT face down) and apply a bit of tension with my left hand as I pull the vinyl with my right, it works better. And I start from the top of the sheet so I’m not dragging my boobs & elbows through weeded vinyl & lifting up serifs.
I stick the centers of letters onto my hand as I go, so I must be like Dewi.
But I’d rather be painting.
Love…Jill

[F. Skierk]

:wow: Great tips, help and advice! :love:
i will go over this again and come back with more questions. 😳 :thumbsup:

[Darryl Seager]

I do a variation on Steve and Carries reverse weed….

If possible i put the app tape on, apply to the substrate as usual and remove app tape and weed the unwanted sections out from there, leaving all the little bits stuck…or i’ll cheat and print on the gerber!!
Darryl

[Mike Rogers]

I find the font can make a difference on small text. I hate weeding small Times Roman in fact I hate weeding.

Wheres the strange place on your body you have found bits of vinyl?

Mike