Which type of blade should i use to cut reflective vinyl?

[Ian Muir]

Hi Liam

A lot of engineering grade will cut with a normal blade even at same pressure.

Some needs pressure increasing and I believe a 60 degree blade is best.

Bizarrely I used to use old blades saved for this and cutting of reflectives sharpened the old blade up again to re-use for cutting normal vinyl….

Ian :lol1:

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I have always used a 60° blade for reflective.
But I have an ancient Gerber 4E.
Love….Jill
PS
Make sure to do a few test cuts to avoid wasting expensive material.

[Martin Pearson]

I’ve never used anything other than the standard blade for cutting reflective. Never owned a 60 deg blade and haven’t thought about buying one either.
I haven’t cut anything other than engineering grade on my plotter (graphtec) so maybe with other types of reflective a 60 deg blade is more important.
I do use a separate blade for reflective though, don’t use the blade I normally use for vinyl.
I get my blades from Harry and because they are already set up in a holder it’s not a problem to just change over when required.

[Liam Pattison]

Hi,
thanks all for your advice, after reading this, i think i am going to try a normal blade first, and if that doesn’t work i will go for the more expensive one.

Thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Martin,
i just ordered from Harry, really great service, so thanks again.

Liam

[Hugh Potter]

Harry knows his stuff!

I cut a lot of reflective and the pressures vary on my machine from 130-180gram of pressure, weeding is the only problem on occasion and weed it right away when cut as the adhesive seems to bind together somewhat if left for a period of time,

always keep a seperate blade for reflective and, if possible, if you cut more than one brand, have a seperate blade for each brand! Harry thought i’d been cutting stone with one i returned earlier this year, simple fact was that it cut lots of reflective and different types!

Hugh

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Hugh,
thanks for that, i weeded a lot of reflective when i worked in a sign shop and i remember it being very brittle and easy to rip when weeding if i wasn’t careful. Probably best i didn’t know the cost of it at the time!

I didn’t realise about the importance of weeding it soon after cutting though, so thanks.

How comes you use so much reflective Hugh?

Cheers

Liam

[Hugh Potter]

i have a fleet customer who is always buying and selling recovery trucks and, I also specialise in reflective products for specialised purposes (won’t say too much about that publicly though!).

hugh

[Liam Pattison]

quote Hugh Potter:

(won’t say too much about that publicly though!).

hugh

I understand! I only asked as i just did part of a customers logo text in reflective (for sides only). So i wondered if you was in the habit of doing a similar thing and that’s why you were a fiend for reflective.

Liam

[Hugh Potter]

lol, I do use reflective in customer designs from time to time but, more often than not they don’t like to pay for it!!

Hugh

[Martin Pearson]

Liam not sure if you have tried the nikolite engineering grade that europoint do but it seems to be a bit less brittle than some other brands. If the area that you are weeding in is warmish rather than cold then that will help as well.

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Martin,
Are you familiar with mactac 5700 engineering grade reflective? If so, how is that for weeding, as that’s what i’ve ordered. I was also hoping to heat it into some recesses (if that’s the correct spelling).

It is called ‘Flexible reflective film’, so i’m hoping it will be OK.

If it’s not i will just get some of the nikolite you recommended.

Thanks

Liam

[Lynn Normington]

I don’t think europoint do nikolite any more they have introduced a new one called oralite reflective 5400 it seems good to work with and reasonably conformable.

Lynn

[Matt Boyd]

hey liam, you’ll need to run a 60 degree blade mate, and most reflexives(well the ones we have used and currently use) are not to bad for weeding. we use some reflective now thats very pliable, and it is alttle soft so you need to be carefull when weeding.

[Martin Pearson]

Matt, not saying you are wrong and I am sure you are suppose to use a 60 deg blade for reflective but I have never used one for cutting engineering grade which is obviously different from the honeycombed type of reflectives.

I haven’t used the mactac 5700 that Liam has ordered so can’t really comment on that but have cut quite a lot of reflective including text and graphics as well as chevrons without any problem with a standard blade.

[Matt Boyd]

hi martin, yes i totally agree with you, you can cut non "honey comb" with a standard 45 degree blade and we have done this in the past. however, we have has much better results with a 60 degree blade on all types of reflective to be honest, seems to work alittle better on this type of material, thats why i thought i’d suggest that option as i use this method myself most days, but yes your right martin a standard 45 degree blade with the right force wetting will be ok.

[Liam Pattison]

Yes i’ll do some practice cuts first until i get the correct setting, it’s expensive material to practice on though! You seem to get good support with Harry the blade man, he said if i couldn’t work it out, just give him a ring.

So i’ll probably be ringing him 😳

I will report back how this material cuts with the standard blade, how it weeds and how flexible it was on the vehicle body in case anybody is interested.

Thanks

Liam

[Martin Pearson]

Yer Harry is great, it’s just that you need some spare time and make yourself a flask of coffee before you phone :lol1:

Liam do the graphtec plotters still have the standard test cut built in ? If they do then you shouldn’t use to much vinyl setting it up to cut, well mine doesn’t anyway but it’s an older machine.

[Liam Pattison]

Harry asked me, ”did the person who recommended me moan that i talked too much?”

Yes the current Graphtecs have the test cut feature, i’ll use that and maybe do some other small shapes to test, i have done concentric circles and squares before to get a better idea.

Thanks

Liam

[Matt Boyd]

martin has a good point liam, do a test cut first, my roland has this and thats the first thing i do on any material i’m unsure about. good catch martin!

[Liam Pattison]

Just to update-
this reflective cut quite easily with the standard blade i got from Harry. Just increased the pressure on test cuts until it was easy enough to weed.

Thanks for all your advice, and thanks again to Martin for the recommendation, saved me quite a bit of money there and set me up with a good supplier for the future.

Liam