Trouble cutting Electrocut film

[Jeizzavelle]

I am tearing my hair out trying to cut 17" of sign on 18" of electrocut material. I realize that if I set the rollers out far enough to get the 17 I am risking losing track of my material. What I need to know is how to, perfaps widen the material for cutting purposes. Revamping the design is NOT an option. These are specs from an engineer.

I have a graphtec plotter and Gerber/Omega software.

[VinylCraft]

Thanks Jeizzavelle,

I two am having the same issues.

I don't know much about Graphtecs are they friction or sprocket fed? I too am having issues with tracking and am using a friction fed 24" lynx.

[Jeizzavelle]

Uh, ok there are rubber "guide rollers" on top and on the bottom a metal like gripper roller that actually moves the material back and forth. My rpoblem is that I am not able to set the rubber rollers on the material far enough. The small amount of travel I am getting (the sign is 114x18) is knocking the material out from under the guide rollers. Bosss won't let me use 24" film cause it creates 'waste'. Jerk.

[flexiezine]

What model of Graphtec is it? The new FC7000 series has a margin that will allow you to cut outside of the pinch rollers by X amount.

[VinylCraft]

Interesting. I guess i would have one of them try it if they think its that easy.

[Jeizzavelle]

It is an FC5 100-75

Try it? are you kidding? He might get dirty. I make $5.60/hr guys. We are a SMALL company. OSHA would have a field day in here. I need to get around it the cheap way.

I appreciate the advice. I am just frustrated.

[Fred Weiss]

Have you considered ordering in 20" material to give yourself the space you need? What happens when you do have enough space? For example, what happens if you size down to 16" and cut just one? Does it feed correctly then?

[Jeizzavelle]

If I could size it down it would work. I begged for 20" material but boss said they didn't make it????? It seems wrong to me but I have no clue. Normally we just cut the bottom and sides and hand cut top line and top radius corners. Total pain. There was one job with over 30 signs. We just fiured out to roll on 3m clear tape instead of masking type application tape by hand.

[VinylCraft]

Wow must be a hell of a budget they are woking with.. Theres only so much you can do with the amount of material you are given its not your fault.

[Jeizzavelle]

Yeah, I know. I was hoping you veterans had a trick up you rsleeve.

[Howard Keiper]

Put the cutter in PAUSE (MENU) mode; push NEXT until you get to AREA PARAMETERS, and select it; choose EXPAND; use the up/dn arrowa to expand the plot width to .4. ENTER.
Make sure your pinch rollers are set just inside the edges of the material. This will allow you to cut from edge to edge. It is a permanent adjustment (until you change it) so be very careful.

[Retneprac]

Could the problem have to do with the vinyl not being unrolled before cutting? I always unroll enough material to make it through my cut so that the cutter doesn't actually have to unroll the roll and possibly unalign the vinyl. Could this solve the problem if one sign is cut at a time?

Wasn't there another post about vinyl rolls falling off of the rollers while cutting and unaligning the vinyl?

Hope this helps.


David

[Jeizzavelle]

Thanks guys. I tried messing with the area but wasn't sure. Will try again on .4 like you said. I am drawing on paper to try so will not hurt anything.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Howard Keiper knows what he's talking about- trust him, seriously!

[Jeizzavelle]

I plan on trying his trick asap. I have to find my desk and get some bs out of the way first. Will let you guys know. I REALLY appreciate all the help.

[Jeizzavelle]

OMG!!! Thank you!! It worked! I knew there had to be an easier way than hand cutting one whole side! Thank you!

[Schultz Designs]

I'm glad you found a good fix for your situation. I don't know how many times I've had problems solved in here without even asking a question. A little bit of back reading (ok... alot) and suffice it to say, this place constantly amazes me.